| From here to Timbuktu is a well worn saying, I | | | | out that Timbuktu is located in Mali in West Africa, |
| have heard it so many times, in so many | | | | I was delighted because I was beginning to dread |
| different places. Indeed, I recall it as one of the | | | | that the whole thing was simply a myth. |
| first exotic words that my tongue ever found it's | | | | But what made it capture the imagination of so |
| way around, on a wintry morning in a cold national | | | | many people as being the final frontier, the |
| school classroom in the depths of the bitter | | | | furthest flung corner of our planet, the last place |
| midlands of Ireland. | | | | on earth? Well, let's go right back to the start and |
| Timbuktu - it rings of something otherworldly, | | | | find out why. Timbuktu was originally established |
| before I ever discovered where it was, it evoked | | | | by the nomadic Tuareg in the tenth century as a |
| images of deserts and palm trees and camels and | | | | base for their supplies when they were travelling |
| men in headdresses and witchdoctors and snake | | | | further north. Local lore tells the story that a |
| charmers and boys riding elephants and just | | | | woman named Buktu dwelt there and it was to |
| heaven! A million light years from the snow | | | | her that the Tuareg trusted their belongings. |
| covered fields of Westmeath, Ireland. It would | | | | However a more academic explanation outlines |
| take years before I really found out where | | | | that in the Berber language buqt means faraway, |
| Timbuktu actually was. Although I heard the word | | | | as it was located at the furthest end of the |
| bandied out over and over again, finally I found | | | | Sahara. |