One leg in the air

Bamako Pictures

Can I have gas please?

 Home in the Bush

Ladies with Logs

Sunset over Niger river, Bamako

Still in Banfora

Still in Banfora

It is very pleasant sitting in our courtyard, under the trees at the rear of the hotel. We decided to have a bit of a 'breather' today and remain here a little longer.

After breakfast we walked out to explore the town. They must be used to white faces here as apart from a greeting no-one takes any notice of us. There's a lovely atmosphere to the place and feels much more relaxed. There are shops in abundance and I don't think there's anything we want that we can't buy here, including dried animal parts and other strange objects used in alternative medicines should we wish. There is a strong animist religion in this region, but there is at least one mosque and the call to prayer was quite soothing early this morning. Our first objective was to find gas. There was a small shop with a couple of larger cylinders of butane nearby but they said we could not recharge our tank there. We tried a couple of filling stations but all the tanks were empty so Chris was worried we would not be able to get enough gas for our next flight. He had filled one whole tank and a part tank, very slowly, before leaving Bamako, but we were wanting a reserve and a bit more in our cooking gas tank. We purchased 2 items from one store: a 'draining' spoon for me and a panga or machete for Chris. The shops of course are all open-air and most goods are out on the street. We found a very good vegetable market and stocked up on nice carrots (hard to find since Morocco), aubergine, red onions and a cabbage! The main fruit here are oranges, tiny blackened bananas and pineapple. There are lots of papaya and mango trees, but I think mangoes are out of season. I have had a very ripe papaya from a roadside stall near Bamako.

The people are the main attraction for me, both in dress and looks. Yesterday we saw a very striking man wearing colourful pyjamas, a stripy trilby hat and wellington boots and today, a schoolgirl riding a motor cycle had bright pink high heels with her smart school uniform. Mostly though the women are in traditional dress, either with head scarves tied in a topknot if they have not got a basket or bowl full of something or other on their heads, or they have elaborately braided hair, sometimes with beads woven through. Three young girls trying to sell woven baskets and fans, roasted peanuts in their shells and bags of sweet cakes braved the gardener here and came to see us. They are very cheeky and are giggling behind the entrance gate. We invited them to look inside the Enterprise and I took a photo of them.

We returned from our first shopping excursion to have coffee and mango juice in the hotel garden and to cool off under the trees. There is a beautiful jasmine like tree beside where we are parked that smells delicious. They speak very little English here but my French has improved considerably, either that or the Burkinabe version of the language is easier to understand. I found in Mali that I could understand very little and they appeared not to understand me very well.  I did learn the Mali greeting from Pam which was "Anche". The owner of this hotel is French and comes from Brittany, hence the Crepes Bretonnes on the menu. We haven't met him but the receptionist telephoned him on our arrival to ask his permission for us to park here.

After a rest in the shade we took our almost empty gas tank back to the small shop, where it turned out they had no gas, but the young shopkeeper walked us across town to somewhere that had, so we are now full to the brim in all our tanks, one still full of good British propane and a small one with the dregs from our last flight.

This afternoon I have been catching up with writing and bird identification. While sitting at dusk where we had our barbecue, a fantastic bird flew over, trailing long feathers which I at first took to be  two smaller birds chasing it. I have discovered it was a standard-winged Nightjar.  In the meantime, Chris has been very busy: cleaned the air filter, checked and adjusted the tyre pressures (Ron, your concern over the rear tyres chafing together at lower pressures has been thoroughly tested and all OK), oil and water levels checked and a full investigation of the steelwork supporting the rear box. A bit more welding may be required at a later stage to add more steel, but hopefully that can wait til Ghana where the language will not be a problem.

I missed a wonderful photo opportunity while sitting out eating a late lunch: 2 donkey carts towed by 3 donkeys apiece loaded with ‘hay’ came trundling past the gate.

This evening we will eat in as we have so much food in our store cupboard and fridge. The meal last night was very good, but expensive compared to our stay at the Sleeping Camel, where we had a meal on two occasions (Chicken Yassa, a typical Mali recipe, and a spicy beef dish which I forget the name of), had two loads of laundry done in the washing machine, several bottles of beer, electricity, use of hot showers and three nights parking all for less than the cost of our meal last night.

Tomorrow we will go in search of possible exciting balloon launch sites.

Sugar Cane Hotel, Banfora

We have had a lovely meal: I had capitaine (Nile perch) in a tomato, onion and pepper sauce and Chris had beef in a tasty curry. We are awaiting crepes Bretonne for desert. The restaurant is very busy. We will be sleeping in the Enterprise at the rear of the hotel where they have parking.

this region is much greener. After driving past villages with great mounds of cotton freshly picked from the fields we came out into open countryside with big industrial irrigation sprayers watering the crop, Very open fields so looks good for a possible flight here. We are intending to explore the lake area, waterfalls and nearby Sendou Peaks tomorrow, it's all very exciting.

By the way, we are very pleased to see who have joined as followers. A belated 'hello' to Pat (and James) and welcome to Tim and Kaspars.

Banfora, Burkina Faso

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First short message in case wifi crashes. Sitting in open air restaurant of the Canne du Sucre hotel which is the best place in town to eat. We got very dusty on the way here as we took the dirt road direct rather than going via Bobo Dioulasso. The people are friendly and charming and greet us with Bonne Arrivee (welcome). More to follow.

Bafaga Village

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• Bush barby bird near Bafaga Village with laughing ladies with logs.

Leaving Bamako

A quick update as we have another busy day ahead of us and intend to leave the Sleeping Camel sometime today and get on the road for Burkina Faso, so unlikely to have wifi for quite a few days.

Yesterday morning we drove into town across the Martyrs Bridge over the Niger and located the BK embassy, applied for our visas and were told they would be ready by 3pm, all very easy but at a cost of CFA47,000 each (about £60). We then trundled back across the bridge through the chaotic traffic. There are hundreds of motor cycles and they swarm in all directions around us so you have to be alert for the unexpected. On this side of the river they have special cycle lanes and it's like a race track.  On the first day here we saw a man on horseback galloping along with the motorbikes.

It took us a while to find the Nigerian Embassy following the SatNav as it took us down little dirt roads towards the river between 'fields' of lettuces where the gardeners were busy watering the crops with buckets hauled up from wells. All very picturesque with the colour of their dress and surrounding banks of bougainvillea. The Embassy was closed for lunch when we arrived so we visited the nearby big supermarket which has a huge variety of European, Asian and African foods, and bought some ham and pate for our sandwiches, drove down to the riverbank and had something to eat. Back to the Nigerian Embassy for 2pm to collect the visa application form and met the Oasis Overlanders who were told for the umpteenth time to return tomorrow. They are assured they will get their visas today. We have decided not to hang around here and to wait and think about applying for Nigeria when we get to Ghana.

Back across the bridge to collect our BK visas and to go on a search for gas. Chris was excited when he thought he had found a tank of propane, but it turned out not to be! He spent some time trying to fill from a 26 litre cylinder of butane in the roadside shack where they sold gas, much to the amusement of passers by, but our tanks was too warm after being in the rear box in hot sun all day so we had to give up due to the pressure difference in the tanks. It remains a project for this morning or maybe further en route. I was quite happy sitting in the Enterprise at a crossroads watching life go on around me.

By the time we had revisited the supermarket and stocked up on supplies, including a chicken to barbecue today and some beef to go in the freezer, the day had gone. Most people were surprised to see us return here as they thought we had left. Everyone else has been taking taxis to get around and leaving their vehicles here. We decided to spend our last night by going out to a restaurant for a nice meal. Chris chose Le Campagnard from the Lonely Planet and we got a taxi into town. The driver was not sure where to go and got completely lost in spite of asking directions several times.  It took us an hour to get there - 11 mins back, including a fuel stop. The restaurant and bar in particular had been mentioned in Newsweek as the best place to go in Africa. Unfortunately there was no live music as noted, but the food was good.

We have plenty to do to prepare for departure. Will post via sat phone when we are on our way. Intend not to rush to Ouagadougou but maybe find somewhere good to fly.