Onwards to Mali once more

1/2/3 February

Baguette anyone?

GOOD LUCK

I use my one and only advantage of money to buy 2 seats in today’s sept place. This gives me all of the front seat (read death seat) and a seat belt that works for the proposed 8 hour trip! We wait several hours for petrol again this morning, but by midday we set off for KanKan. Having the whole front seat makes  makes the trip actually ok, although I was assailed by slight twinges of guilt whenever I thought of the poor 9 other folk squashed in behind me. I overnight at the Catholic Mission which doubles as a bar in the evenings!! I’m shouted beers just because I’m the best novelty that has turned up all evening, I’m sure. Too bad the beer isn’t cold as there’s no electricity here even though KanKan is quite a large city centre in the north of Guinea. Final run back across the border to Bamako, Mali the next day on a great road! But alas this sept place that couldn’t travel faster than about 60kph as that would have forced the implosion of its badly ruptured windscreen. I did hold out vague hopes of making the Burkina Faso embassy today, but not to be. Instead I hope to get the visa in the morning, and still travel to Segou’s Festival of the Niger tomorrow.

Traditional CURES?

Find the embassy @ 8am next day but alas the best laid plans still go astray: apparently whoever will sign the visas doesn’t bother coming in of a morning and I’ll have to wait till 3pm to pick up the visa – at an exorbitant cost too! But the woman does remind me that it’s half the price here compared to buying the visa at the border. So a last lazy day in Bamako – shopping and parceling up stuff to send back. BUT after pricing DHL who wanted more than $100 per kg I plump for the post office, but I miss them by ½ an hour after looking for the shop that sells boxes. I’ll try again to post in Segou tomorrow. My last night in Bamako, sleeping soundly when I awake to hostel staff showing someone in to the dorm. My light goes on and off, then the next room’s light goes on and soon there is such a commotion with swearing in english language etc? What the? I peer through my mossie net and watch as 2 hostel staff carry out a hinged wooden thing followed by a tiny dwarf bloke with a couple of minders. This bloke was not short on the abuse, as the staff tried to wrestle the thing open and I really couldn’t believe I was seeing such a thing happen. Eventually the little man was satisfied and everyone headed off out the front carrying the wooden thing away. All @ 1am in the morning! I was sure I must have been dreaming, except that I had seen this wooden thing in the dorm earlier in the day, and next morning it wasn’t there. Another thing I will wonder about forever, I guess.

Fact; Staying at The Sleeping Camel in Bamako, is a wonderful place to land in Bamako for a few days. Run by a pom and an aussie with local staff , it’s comfortable, clean and well set up for overlanders as well as backpackers. And lots of reliable info.