Mali, EPISODE ONE

Now that we are settled at the Auberge Sleeping Camel for a couple of days at least, I can concentrate on catching up with our news. When we arrived yesterday late afternoon, the place was completely full and they were turning travellers away. We were happy to park out outside the gates, with the gardner as night watchman, and today they have made space for us to park inside alongside our Austro-Italian and Swedish friends. The temperature is rising: 32C+ and also hot at night, combined with a bad night woken by roosters in Diema, I was not at my best after the day’s drive and have given incorrect information to some of you in individual emails.

After our last online news in Tamba on New Year’s Eve, we did not travel much further that day as the Enterprise decided it had had enough struggling with the old dirty fuel pump. We found a quiet track off the main road, where Chris spent a few hours replacing and cleaning fuel filters and fitting the new pump (at last, David!).  Since then the engine has started like a dream and no more worries about air in the fuel system. We are getting about 1,000 km to a tank full.  We had hot showers, a nice meal and a quiet evening on our own under the stars, intending to wake at midnight and see in the new year with Christmas cake and a glass of brandy, but slept right through til morning.

The border crossing Kenieba-Diboli went very smoothly but took some time as we had to negotiate queues of lorries to visit the police and customs in town and then back to cross the bridge. As it was a holiday, we were charged 3x the normal cost for our 30 day tourist transit for the vehicle, but it was worth it in the end as we do not have to visit the Douane office here in Bamako. We drove as far as Kayes (pronounced Kai) and spent the rest of the afternoon driving around looking for the road to the airport, which we could see in the distance. They had a flight due in that evening and then no air traffic for the next few days, so we drove out into the bush north of the airport for the night, parked amongst the baobab trees.  These are very strange trees, some look as if they have been uprooted and turned on their heads. Their furry fruit hang from strings like baubles.

The following morning we visited the airport tower and talked to the Director, a very nice man who was excited about the prospect of us making a balloon flight, but was unable to give us permission himself and asked us to write a letter to the Civil Aviation Authority in Bamako! There were a lot of thorn trees within the airport perimeter, better in the surrounding area, but without permission we decided to set off on the next stage of the journey. Through the toll onto the autoroute, the road quickly deteriorated into broken tar, and we took 5 hours trecking through the 2-dimensional asteroid belt and swerving to avoid the deep potholes.  The roadsides were strewn with smashed lorries, some had been sitting there for several days and made camp. We stopped for lunch in the hills in a picturesque spot, watching weaver birds building nests. The hornbills which I was so taken with at the start in Senegal are now an annoyance with their stupid call, and they are everywhere. The Abyssinian Rollers are much more attractive and a variety of brightly plumaged birds which I am identifying with the aid of my ‘Birds of West Africa’ book. On leaving our lunch spot, we picked up a big stone between 2 of the rear tyres and Chris judged the best way to remove it was to take off the outer wheel. A loaded car transporter stopped to help and the driver and his mate did all the heavy dirty work. We have found everyone in Mali friendly and helpful.

Our aim that day had been to stop in daylight and find somewhere quiet for the night, but there was no-where convenient before Diema and we reached the truck stopping place just after dark. There was a roundabout and barrier at the crossroads and lots of little food stalls, so we had a walk around and asked if that was the centre of town. A gendarme directed us 2 km to the south, but the tarmac came to an abrupt halt and in the dark we could not see if there were low wires across the dirt streets so we turned around intending to park the night on the filling station forecourt. We were accosted by a white woman in a British reg Toyota, who asked us in a Derbyshire accent if we were OK. She had been on the way to buy bread and seen us passing ‘her place’, so we were invited back to stay.  Pam’s place looked very romantic in the dark, with its fairy lights strung about and solar lanterns on the round thatched buildings. The other ‘guests’ were Emilie from Hungary (who’s son had taken part in last year’s Budapest to Bamako Rally) and Mike from Santa Monica, who had a radio station in LA.  Mike was just about to interview and record 2 local musicians – a traditionally dressed flute player and female singer to play on his station and Pam was helping him in Diema. It was a bit surreal, sitting in the dark, drinking wine and listening to the music, which was interrupted by the singer’s mobile phone ringing! We provided a big tin of tuna fish to accompany the bread, tomato salad, crackers and Manchego cheese meal. Pam also lives in Fuenguerola, Spain so stocks up on supplies when she is back there.  Erika from Hungary was a lovely person. She is staying with Pam for 3 weeks to help with a project amongst other things and we were lucky to have her company. We were joined the following day by Julia, a PhD anthropology student from Harvard, doing research on the Malian people for her thesis.