mali

Mali

After crossing the border, we drove to Mali's Douane, a white building set back from the road on the righthand side, to get our carnet stamped. As we approached it, we saw a queue of trucks parked bumper to bumper for as far as you could see and no white police douane building anywhere. We drove on and parked next to one of the trucks when we saw the building. We thought we'd have to wait for ages as there were lots of truckers milling around and their 'laissez paisser' books piled high on the tables waiting to be stamped. We were called over by a very friendly and efficient man who took our carnet, stamped it and wished us well on our journey in about 2minutes. We hopped into Duzi2, drove to the barrier and parked at the front of the trucker queue. We went into the small green Police building to get our passports stamped. In less than 2minutes we had that done and we were ready to leave Diboli. This whole process took less than half an hour with no-one asking for a bribe or cadeaux. Fantastic!

We drove on enjoying the good tar road, after we were expecting shocking Malian roads, but we did pay CFA500 toll at Diboli for this.  We were warmly welcolmed to Mali with a handshake and a big smile by the friendly man at the toll. As the sun began to lower, we pulled over behind a mound with some bushes on top, quite far off the road to bush camp for the night. We had a lovely open spot and there was no moon so the stars were amazing. We made a very easy pasta pesto and seed dinner, and enjoyed eating it sitting on Duzi2's bonnet. Off to bed with the mozzie coil burning again in the tent. With them burning, we at least can get a fairly decent nights sleep, because it's hot now.

Monday 10th December 2007:  Bush Camp near Kayes, Mali 

GPS Info: N14° 34' 03.2"   W11° 44' 55.3"

Miles Today: 336                Total Miles: 7506

Up early so we could be on the road early, so we wouldn't be spotted and hassled on the track we were parked near. Some men cycled passed and chatted in French about us and our English car while we were still in the tent. Later on, after we'd had breakfast we were greeted by another man on his bike, cycling with his axe over one shoulder and his brightly painted tea-pot over the other, and a little later by a father and son off to catch a taxi somewhere. None of these people bothered us in any way and were all smiley and friendly and wished us "Bonne Route".

We headed for Kayes, again passing many little round, thatched mud village settlements, ladies and children carrying water and goods on their heads, and men cycling with huge loads of wood and thatch wider than a car width. We also passed many donkey carts and big herds of cattle and goats. Everyone is so smiley and waves back. We were really hoping to be able to drive from Kayes to Bafoulabe, Toukoto and Kita to get to Bamako, to make a change from the dead straight boring roads we've been travelling on for the past few days, and to see a bit more scenery. We filled up Duzi2 and bought some colddrinks at Kayes and were told by the policeman and the two very friendly, smiley and helpful men at the toll gate that the road is not yet complete, even though it's on all our maps. They said we could go from Kayes to Bafoulabe and from Bamako to Kita, but not from Bafoulabe to Kita. After much umming and arring, as T4A also had a track through this section, we decided to play it safe and paid our CFA500 toll at Kayes and headed on for another very long, hot days drive.

The vegetation varied so quickly from flat open Baobab forests to open golden grassy savannah and then to thick green fever trees and other green scrub. We passed a big lake / wetland area with waterlillies, but couldn't find it on the map. There is a lot of water in Mali. The rivers are mostly dry, but there are lots of scattered water holes, so the cattle have lots to drink. The ladies and girls are wearing cotton geometrically patterned wrap skirts and fitted tops with matching cloth wrapped around their heads. They are wearing vibrant, bright, cheerful colours, which is such a change to the colours you see in London.

We stopped in Diema hoping to full up with diesel and to go to the bank to change more money into CFA's, but couldn't do either of these. The fuel station didn't look great and the bank said they didn't change money! Luckily Ross went over to a policeman sitting near the barrier gate and he agreed to make an exception and changed money for us with witnesses as this "is not my business", he kept repeating.

After a very hot days drive and the tar road abruptly running out and turning to earth between Diema and Dioumara, we decided to pull off the road and bundu bash a bit to find a nice well hidden spot to bush camp in. After we'd parked Ross heard noises and thought it was a nearby village only to discover on closer inspection that it was in fact two other overland cars also bush camping about 100metres from us on the other side of some bushes. We went over to say Hi and let them know we were there. They were French and one of the men greeted us and came over later to see Duzi2, but the other couple didn't seem to have the energy to even come over and say 'Hello'.

We went back to Duzi2 and had our first short, but very refreshing bush shower, using the Coleman shower Heidz had brought over from South Africa. The shower uses water really quickly and we used about 4litres each. Next time we bush shower, we'll try the Syme's 2litre coke bottle shower and see how that goes. Both feeling less hot, we got into our long clothes and had a yummy spicy couscous, red pepper, cucumber, carrot and cabbage salad for dinner and gazed through binoculars at the amazing stars. We saw many sattelites and even some shooting stars.

We burnt a mozzie coil and slept with 3 of the sides of the tent open, with just the mozzie netting screens on the windows, so we had a lovely coolness coming in. Wow, this is exactly what we were hoping to be able to do on our trip.

Tuesday 11th December 2007: Bush Camp near Didjeni, Mali 

GPS Info: N14° 09' 10.2"   W08° 02' 55.0"

Miles Today: 127                Total Miles: 7687

Up to watch the sunrise at about 7.15am from our tent bed. So beautiful through the baobab trees. We were aiming to try and get to Bamako as early as possible so we didn't have to drive all day in the heat again. We heard the 'very friendly' overlanders revving just as we were ready to leave, and passed them on the dirt road stretches not too far on. There were lots of workers on the new road. They had wet the sandy stretches where they were working, which became red mud on Duzi2. We stopped at Didjeni to fill up with fuel, fresh bread and a watermelon. We felt very sorry for the three young men working at the fuel station, as they had to take it in turns to pump 112 litres of diesel by hand, into Duzi2 in the heat of the morning.

On the drive this morning we noticed quite clearly the involvement of Christian and world aid in much of this part of Mali. We drove past a World Vision centre too. This must be due to Mali being one of the poorest countries in the world. However one thing that is quite concerning though is that there are a large number of US-Aid and other aid agencies driving around in VERY flash modern vehicles and people being dropped from these vehicles at the poshest hotels in town. Doesn't seem what the donors would expect from their money some how.

It was a very pleasant drive and we arrived in Bamako at about midday. Bamako, the capital city of Mali, is a very busy city and is made up of a haphazard one way road system. We were unable to find the Catholic mission station to camp at, and had read on Rob and Ally's website that it only opened at 5pm. They recommended an Auberge Djamilla (N12 37' 20.7" W07 59'31.7") across the Niger River, away from Bamako's hustle and bustle and open sewer system. We struggled to find this too, and were eventually driven there by the owner who had somehow been told about us being stopped a few streets away, looking for it.

We squeezed Duzi2 under the entrance gate and parked in the shade, popped up the tent to air it and sat down to enjoy a heavenly cold Coke. The Auberge has mozzie netted dorm style beds on the tented roof terrace under ceiling fans, beautifully done double rooms with fans and aircon, and a tented area around the bar, with carpets and cushions on the floor to relax on, in the shade also under ceiling fans. They are trying to make various garden areas to sit in too. It's a really nice place and has 3 big friendly dogs.

We sat in the shade both feeling exhausted and sapped of energy. We had some lunch and more to drink before reading up about all the visas we'll need for the coming countries, where it's best to get them, and which passports are best to use where. We roughly planned our route for the next few days, while the Rastas moved into the bar and blasted their reggae music before moving off in the late afternoon. There is apparently, according to The Lonely Planet Africa, a 'Visa Touristique Entente' which costs CFA 25 000 and is valid for 2 months and covers Burkina Faso, Togo, Benin, Niger and Ivory Coast. This would be ideal for us if we can get it tomorrow as it seems so cheap. We saw a sign to the Togo Embassy on the way through Bamako today, so hope to head there and to the Burkina Faso embassy tomorrow, to find out if we can get this.

We went for a short walk exploring the neighbourhood around us. The mosque callers were calling and people were out on the streets. No one bothered us, but just seemed to let us blend into their world. Such a change to some towns we've been to. We bought more cool drinks and bottled water and headed back to the Auberge to try and get our photo's and updates up to date.

It got dark, the huge mozzies came out in their swarms, but it never cooled down. We sat inside in the lounge area under the fan sorting and adapting our many photo's until eventually the laptop battery ran out. We had a late bread and cheese dinner in the garden fighting off the mozzie swarms. Heidz had a cold shower to cool off and we went to bed with all the sides rolled up with only the tent's mozzie netting around us and a coil burning to protect us.

Wednesday 12th December 2007: Auberge Djamilla, Bamako, Mali 

GPS Info: N12° 37' 20.7"   W07° 59' 31.7"

Miles Today: 0                     Total Miles: 7687

We woke up before sunrise to the garden being watered at about 5am and the floor and garden around us being continuously swept. If the man swept any more, he'd sweep a huge hole! Up early to have a shower and get to the embassies. We decided to walk in as it didn't seem so far according to the guide book maps.

We had a bit of a breakdown in communication as Heidz was reading The Lonely Planet and it said the Burkina Faso (BF) embassy was South West of Bamako centre close to the river, and Ross was reading The Rough Guide to West Africa and it said the BF embassy was to the north east of Bamako centre. We walked to where The Lonely Planet said, Rue du Guinee, and got to a monument of a hand holding the world with Mali highlighted on it and a bird on top, only to be told by a policeman it's not there. With time marching on, we got into a taxi and he drove us through the centre, passed a hippo and an elephant statue, in what seemed like a circle, to the BF embassy. It did look new so it could've recently moved there, but The Lonely Planet was fairly accurate with their position. We went in only to be told the 'Visa Touristique Entente' (VTE) does not exist, it is finished. We could buy a 3 month BF visa for a lot more or get a 1 month visa at the border. We thought there might be a problem with them not knowing about this multi-visa, as it's "still quite new", according to The Lonely Planet.

We walked on to the main road to find we were only a few hundred metres from where we'd caught the taxi! Oh well. We caught another taxi to the Togo Consulate, only to be told the same thing about the Visa Touristique Entente. Well that settled that then. So we'll have to get our visas for Burkina Faso, Togo and Benin at the borders, or we might try to get our Benin one in a country a bit further along. We might keep trying for the VTE in Ouagadougou again as a French traveller at the Auberge told us this evening that he'd met a girl last week who had one which she'd bought in Ougadougou...

We walked back through the busy-ness of Bamako and found a multi-plug extension with the West African plug on it, so we can now charge things like the laptop and batteries etc when we stop at places, rather than only from the car. Crossing over the bridge (Pont des Martyrs) over the Niger River, luckily not too far from the Auberge, Heidz's strops (safari sandals) came apart completely. First both heels came apart from the sole and flapped as they were only joined at the toes, and then the whole shoe came out of it's moulded sole.

Only in Africa, when extra-ordinary things happen do you find extra-ordinary people. A few hundred metres from us on the side of a smaller road was a shoe fixer who knew exactly what to do. He took Heidi's shoes, giving her another pairs of slops (flip flops) to use and told us to come back at 2pm when he'd glued and stitched them back together and even polished them, bless him! How? Who knows, but he did an amazingly neat job and these will now last for ever. He did all this for only CFA 1000. He must have the strongest toughest hands and fingers to have stitched through what he did so neatly!

Our fridge has been draining the second battery within hours and we think it's because it's running through the inverter and drawing a 240V charge instead of a 12V. We're now only running it on refrigerate, no.1, so this shouldn't be happening. Heidz typed the diary updates, while Ross spent the afternoon fixing the extension plug adaptor thing we bought to make it work (it was so brittle and corroded even though it's straight out of its sealed packaging), and he put in a normal cigarette lighter socket in our fridge mounting board to run just the fridge. Now hopefully the fridge will draw the right charge and won't be a problem anymore. He also sealed the cover under the cubby box and above the engine so hopefully the hot air wont come up onto us anymore when we're driving and the engine gets hot. Ross really is MacGyver and a master of all trades, even when it's SO hot!!!

With the daylight fading, the mozzies came out in their swarms and we headed indoors to get the website content up to date, while a hippyish bunch, other residents and a few other wacky backy locals partied into the night to celebrate a regular resident's birthday.

Tomorrow we pIan to leave early, via Segou, and head towards Djenne, which has a huge mud mosque. Over the next few days we plan to be around Mopti and Sevare investigating the Dogon country, where the Dogon people have built their homes and live in the Bandiagara escarpment. We then plan to head towards Hombori where we might see the ellusive ghost elephants, before we head south via Koro and Tiou to Burkina Faso. Our plan is still to be in Ghana for Christmas and we should still get there, even if it is only on the 24th.

We send Happy Birthday wishes to Caron, for the 17th December, and Landz, for the 18th December. We hope you are both spoilt on your special days and have time to do the things you most enjoy. We're wishing you now as we're not sure what our internet access will be like around these dates. We're also thinking of you everyday, Claire and Duane as you eagerly await the arrival of your precious little baby girl!

Thursday 13th December 2007: Auberge Djamilla, Bamako, Mali 

GPS Info: N12° 37' 20.7" W07° 59' 31.7"

Miles Today: 29      Total Miles: 7716

We woke up early to the sound of plants being watered and the floor being swept AGAIN. We  bought some fresh bread for breakfast, from the little stall outside the Auberge. After breakfast we sat under the ceiling fans in the lounge to upload, resize and choose photos from both cameras up until this morning to put onto the Facebook albums. This took ages, but we both felt so good about the website finally having photos of Africa and about it being as up to date as it could be. We met Antoine, a French backpacker who's travelling around the world for a year and is on his way to Tanzania for a month next weekend. With everything saved on a memory stick, we walked to the internet cafe nearby to upload everything to the website.

After 2 hours of very frustrating file transfer attempts and a computer that kept bombing out, we eventually left the internet cafe with our diary updates done, but only two new photo albums of Africa added, and the "Volubilis" one didn't even have any info about it. The computers were from the ark and SOOOOO frustrating.

Even though it was very late afternoon, neither of us wanted to stay another night at the mozzi invested Auberge, especially after all the dealing, involving huge money quantities, we saw last night. So we packed up the tent and drove out of Bamako as far as we could while it was still light, pulling off to bush camp in a forested area near Baguineda / Santiguila. We had such a beautiful spot and could hear someone chopping wood far in the distance. We had a bread dinner before going to sleep, enjoying the privacy and quiet of our spot.

Friday 14th December 2007: Bush Camp near Baguineda / Santiguila, Mali 

GPS Info: N12° 37' 04.0"   W07° 36' 32.4"

Miles Today: 206                 Total Miles: 7922

We woke up after a wonderful nights sleep. We'd both fallen fast asleep fully dressed while lying in the tent looking at the stars and only woke up hours later to climb under the duvet. Just shows how tired we were. We had breakfast and sat reading updates we'd downloaded from other peoples websites at the internet cafe yesterday, to find out more about upcoming countries and places to get visas. We set off to try and get to Sevare via Segou, San and Djenne.

We drove past more aid organisations, World Vision being in many places. Today was a hot day's drive with there not being much new or different to see. As sunset approached, we were still far from Sevare so we pulled off to bush camp in a perfect spot surrounded by bushes and well hidden from the road. We were so well hidden in fact that when cattle were herded past us we weren't even noticed.

We tested the concept of a 2litre coke bottle shower, which Hugh and Sandy Syme had told Ross about. They always use this when they're in the bush, and we were very impressed. It works so well and you only use 2 litres of water. It's just a 2l coke bottle with small holes drilled in the cap which you pour over yourself. Such a simple, water-efficient but very effective method of showering.

We sat admiring the stars and were spoilt enough to see lots of bright shooting stars with long tails, all in the same part of the sky. We think it must have been a meteor shower. We rolled back the tent fly-sheet near our heads to watch the stars, while we had our heads on our pillows.

All through the night there was a cow somewhere nearby that sounded like it was trying to speak donkey (like in Finding Nemo). 

Saturday 15th December 2007: Bush Camp near San, Mali 

GPS Info: N13° 06' 33.3"    W05° 12' 03.6"

Miles Today:  210                 Total Miles: 8132

Woke up just as the sun was rising through the trees in front of us after another very good nights sleep. We're both becoming bush camp fans as you can choose your own spot, have privacy and can enjoy nature around you. We made an effort to be on the road early today to try not to have such a hot day's drive.

Today's drive was more scenic with lots of water around. We past more cultivated farm lands, growing crops, and other marshy water-logged areas. We drove off the road and stopped on the river bank near some cattle, on what we thought was the Niger river, but it was in fact the Bani river instead, which flows past Djenne and joins the Niger river at Mopti.

We passed many fully loaded, brightly painted horse/donkey carts carrying smartly dressed people and their goods to a market. It must have been market day in one of the small villages we drove through as it was teeming with people, cattle, fresh produce and wares, while all the other villages around were deserted.

We got to the small ferry crossing 4km from Djenne only to be swamped by 'guides' and jewellery sellers. They told us the ferry would only cross over to our side when it had 3 cars on it, currently only having 1, but that for a CFA30 000, including guiding around Djenne,  they could arrange a quicker crossing. After a few minutes of this hassling and being ready to give Djenne a miss as we couldn't wait for 3 cars at each crossing, the ferry engine started and it headed towards our side of the river. Ross spoke to the ferry driver and got the truth from him, by which time the 'guides' had vanished. Duzi2 squeezed on, with a taxi and lots of foot passengers and we were off on the short crossing costing us just CFA3000 return. Duzi2 got her/his first taste of the Bani river as we had to drive through a tiny channel in the river after leaving the ferry, to get to the dyke road to Djenne, which is an island for most of the year. The land on both side of the dyke road was well watered and on the right hand side people were fishing using simple upside down basket nets to catch fish amongst the long grass and water-lillies. Some animals were lucky enough to graze in the water while their owners were fishing or working in the grassy reeds, which looked like rice paddies.

We drove into Djenne with the intention to see the famous mosque, and pretty much leave fairly soon thereafter, so we didn't need a guide.

Djenne's mud-built Grande Mosque ("the largest mud-built structure in the world" according to The Lonely Planet) is impressive with rounded smooth tops and is made of mud with wooden poles sticking out of it. Each year the rains wash away the building's smooth outer layer so the towns' people work in the dry season to restore it. Every visitor pays a CFA1000 tourist tax to visit it and this goes towards its repair. The main towers of the mosque stand 11metres tall and have ostrich eggs mounted on top. Non-Muslims are not allowed into the mosque or on to its rooftop, due to a previous problem with an insensitive American movie shoot a few years ago.

Djenne is known for its Monday market when traders from throughout the region come to sell their wares. It's recommended to visit on a Monday, but it must be chaos driving then, because the streets are so narrow. We had a quiet village and perfect non-tourist filled opportunities to take photos.

We left Djenne and drove through the water-logged vegetation to Mopti, a very busy port on the banks of the Bani and Niger rivers. You can catch pirogues and other boats to various places along these rivers, including Timbuktu, from here. We had a fleeting visit and then drove 12km on to the quieter, sprawled town of Sevare. We searched for the recommended Mac's Refuge and eventually found it after much directing. It's a small place with a small round swimming pool and is VERY expensive, CFA4500 per person to camp, but includes breakfast. Due to it's exhorbitant cost we decided to look around for other camping options. We looked at Hotel Via Via, CFA3000 per person per night without breakfast, which seemed nice but the single ablutions looked like they were open to truckers and taxi drivers too. We looked at two other places, but both had framed entrance gates, which Duzi2 couldn't fit under.

Very reluctantly we went back to Mac's Refuge, which was now full of people. After putting up the tent we met another Heidi, a Swiss lady who's living in Kayes and showing off Mali to her family out on holiday. We also met a lovely French couple, who later gave us some wine for our dinner. Later on we got chatting to Peter, a very friendly, well travelled Canadian who's travelling around West Africa and had just arrived from Burkina Faso. Whilst we were chatting we prepared and cooked a rice dinner only to be shouted at by Mac (the round American/ Malian owner) for cooking. In his words: "You're not cooking are you? That is not allowed in this place! We have a perfectly good kitchen which serves meals (at CFS5000 each for a Mexican tacos themed meal)". Every night there is a set themed meal and everyone eats together around a long boarding school type table with him at the head. We told him no one had told us we weren't allowed to cook, and one of his staff had been sitting watching us prepare and cook up till that time. Thankfully he allowed us to finish cooking our food, but was not impressed. We ate next to the pool and felt very unwelcome.

One of Heidi's family asked us a very intersting question, "Is there anything you wish you had brought along with you?", which neither of us had an answer for. We had a very interesting chat to Peter until quite late, discussing all sorts of things around the world, from politics to media to the environment to cultures, etc. We have noticed a lot of plastic litter lying around the various countries we had passed through and this led to a discussion about something Peter had heard of through National Geographic, he thinks. There is apparently an island of plastic somewhere in the sea at the centre of the various ocean currents in the world, which have gradually collected together over time, much as leaves would collect in the middle of a swimming pool if you had to have a current going around it constantly. Scott and Chris (NAO) maybe you could do your normal magic with internet searching and find out where or what this actually is. Plastic island or "island of plastic" should give some hits I'm sure, but I'll bow to your superior searching skills.

Sunday 16th December 2007: Mac's Refuge, Sevare, Mali 

GPS Info: N14° 30' 49.0" W04° 05' 59.2"

Miles Today:  115    Total Miles: 8247

Up early as the included breakfast is served from 7am until 8am and everyone was planning to be off early to go to the Dogon country on various guided tours. Breakfast was amazing; fruit salad, homemade yoghurt, cereals, pancakes, eggy French bread and a wide variety of syrups and spreads. Together with tea, coffee and hot chocolate. A treat for us, but not worth CFA4500.

We paid our money, after big Mac tried to charge us CFA12000 instead of CFA9000 for staying on his rooftop, fully knowing we were the only rooftop tent. He then changed it and charged us a further CFA240 stamp tax??? We felt he was a real shark who is milking the tourists and posing behind the fact that his parents were the McKinney missionaries who came to Mali in the 1930's. We wouldn't recommend staying here as it's very over priced, has one grotty loo and shower combined, is unfriendly and in the morning you are constantly hassled by Dogon guides and other people selling various things. Unfortunately the Mopti - Sevare area seems to be very expensive as it's the way into the Dogon country.

We have since been told about a lovely German-run B&B called Toguna, 3km outside Bandiagara on the road from Sevare.

We set off early to explore the Dogon country. We drove out to Sanga, on the High Bandiagara Plateau, where there was a special mask ceremony on the go. They had set up a communal area surrounded by a screen, where people were dancing in costumes and had various masks on. We didn't stop here as we wanted to see the old cliff-based Dogon dwellings. We drove on through Sanga to the edge of the escarpment where we looked down on to Banani with it's dwellings fascinatingly built in the cliff face and carved into cliff caves. We made friends with two young local boys walking past carrying wood bundles on their heads and chatted to them for a while. It's really amazing to imagine how the Dogon's build and access their dwellings. We felt like we were standing in The Lion King movie on the rock ledge that Simba is raised up from to introduce him to all the animals in the kingdom. We could see for miles from the plateau.

We read up about the structure of Dogon villages with special areas demarcated for the elders (men), little stilted grain huts for the men and women to keep grain safe from vermin and to store their precious possessions in, low thatch roof structures built to diffuse arguments and an enclosed area for menstruating women to stay in. The low roof structures were very cleverly designed with the roof so low that it is difficult for someone to get aggressive or violent without hitting their head on the very low roof above. We drove down a steep, rocky 4x4 track into Banani below and then back up and out towards Sanga again.

You can tell tourism has had a rather negative effect on the children in the Dogon villages as they all run up to the car shouting 'cadeau', 'Bic', 'bonbon' and some even asked for 'l'argent' (cash) after throwing sand on the road to cover up some pot holes, but they didn't stop when we went passed and there weren't even any holes there! Ross managed to stop some shouting kids dead in their tracks by shouting 'cadeau' back at them. Heidi thinks that at Dogon schools the children are taught by flashcards with white person meaning 'cadeau / Bic / bonbon'. Some children were trying to sell typical ugly Dogon fetishes, which are meant to ward off bad spirits. The Dogon's are very superstitious and make mud fetishes at the entrance to their villages which they place food sacrifices on to protect the village.

Leaving Sanga, we stopped for a picnic lunch sheltering under the shade of a tree and trying to cool off. We cut open our sweet water melon and were able to share pieces of it with cyclists passing by. You can spend days trekking around the Dogon villages, and now is the best time as it's apparently the cool season...very very hot for us though. We drove back through Bandiagara, hoping for a bank to change money but there were none. We got onto the road to Burkina Faso via Tegourou, Djiguibombo, Teli (Dogon vilages) and Bankass and found an amazing spot to bush camp on the top of the Bandiagara escarpment, with the widest, most beautiful view over the rocky outcrops and sand dunes below. We were parked on rock and perfectly hidden behind rocks with just under half a moon above us, our natural light. On our way to this spot, we passed a purple/blue overland truck parked further up the hill, but we thought it was an overland tour group so carried on to our own perfect spot.

With absolutely no sounds we went to sleep so pleased to be bush camping again.

Monday 17th December 2007: Bush Camp near Teli, Dogon Country, Mali 

GPS Info: N14° 10' 02.8" W03° 35' 24.2"

Miles Today: 221     Total Miles: 8468

Happy birthday Caron. We hope you have a fantastic birthday and will be blessed out of your socks in the year ahead!

We woke up just as the blood red sun was rising to lighten our amazing view from the Falaise de Bandiagara scarpment. Wow. We felt like we were on the top of the world, with silence all around. As daylight spread, we could see three villages below amidst the rock shelves and sand dunes. We headed up to a high rock near us to admire the view. There was a huge cave quite far to the right of us which looked interesting to explore, if it were a bit more accessible.

After a while we heard the big purple truck we'd passed last night start up and head down the road towards us. We both wondered if this was the purple truck, also heading towards South Africa, which we'd been told about by someone before. They drove passed, stopped and then reversed back up the hill and came and parked next to Duzi2. Sabine and Burkhard (www.pistenkuh.de), are a very friendly German couple who've been travelling around the world in their purple, Milka chocolate-bar coloured truck, for 4 years. They are permanent travellers and have many amazing stories to tell. It was so lovely to meet another overland vehicle heading South as we seemed to have left a lot of them behind in Dakar. They were also very happy to see us, sharing the same feeling. We had such a lovely morning chatting, laughing and relaxing together over coffee before we left to head to Ouaga. They moved their pistenkuh truck into Duzi2's spot to stay the night, deciding that 700metres was far enough for them that day, and our spot was so nice. We really hope to meet up with them again in Ouaga or thereafter, before Cameroon.

We had bush camped close to a small Southern Dogon village called Teli, so we popped past quickly to take a few photos before driving on to the frontier to cross out of Mali at Koro and enter into Burkina Faso at Tiou. We had no problems getting our carnet stamped to leave Mali. We then drove to the frontier, 12kms further on, and had our passports stamped out by a very friendly, English-speaking, Malian policeman who had been to England, seen Trafalgar Square etc and said it's "very very cold there, it's much better here (being Mali)".