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.
