Its always a refreshing change when you enter a new country and the fact that we are now heading south reenergises our determination and spirits. The scenery is relatively the same but gradually the green trees are replaced by cactus and red DUST, remindng us we are heading back to the desert! We don't anticipate the journey that lies ahead of us & the troubles we're to come across through the desert!

Rob & a little cheeky Malian girlWe rest in Bamako, where it turns out to be a haven for other motorcyclists and hence we now have doubled our convoy. Leopoldo, a spanish on R100GS BMW and Dereck, an Englishman on KTM640 conjure a great team of now 4. Whilst in Bamako, the boys decide to buy new dirt tyres aswell as Rob & I both manageing to get punctures, so it's out with the tyre levers to dedicate the day to tyre changing (I think it was a total of about 15 to 20 with pinched tyres and lifted patches)

trying to find the punctures

After some serious sweat & frustration, Rob realises that one of his prized tyre lever is missing!!!! he's utterly dissappointed and its nowhere to be found, fearing that someone has stolen it - Rob offers an award for its return......but no luck. All Rob wanted for xmas is his tyre lever back.

Cute girls following me around a local mosque

After a few days rest, we leave Bamako but within 5 mins both Leo & Dereck have troubles with their front wheel/steering. We get instant 'side of the road' mechanics to have a look assuming the tyres are not popped out of the bead. After some soap suds & readjusting, we head offroad to Djenne, meanadering through little gorgeous villages towering with the unique Mali mud mosques. Strangely, the KTM falls inferring there is still something wrong with the handlebars or front wheel - we think nothing of it, just telling him jokingly he's a bad rider!

Crossing parts of the Niger river to get to Tombouctou

Next day, its Xmas and it's been 300km offroad since Bamako. The tracks get quite sandy & dusty where we have to ride far apart for relief. We somehow get lost, proving impossible to find our way out as the locals point us in all sorts of directions. These places are obviously not use to foriengers but the children surround happily & we take photos of them. We finally all relieved to hit a red hard surfaced road! As we rest under a shady tree, Leo spots an unusal object sticking out of Derecks front tyre, he then casually sais 'Hey, Rob, I think we found your tyre lever!' and sure enough there was Rob's 300mm tyre lever sticking out on both end through Dereck's front tyre!!!! we can't believe it, Merry bloody Xmas

a 300mm tyre lever embedded into Dereck's KTM

Dereck take this extremely well with his dry english humour, we paid some local to get the tyre fixed in the nearest town with inner rubber linings and we place zip ties to provide extra support.

Tyre fixed by a local Africa

zip ties solution

That night we camp on a white claypan & have German ham for xmas dinner. We swap bikes to test ride on the flat claypan, I'm exhilarated by riding Rob's Africa Twin & Leo's R100GS BMW - blew my hair away!!

one of our camps

When we thought our troubles were over, we didn't realise that the KTM's tyres were just the beginning. We have now discovered water in the engine, producing milky liquid & we're in the middle of nowhere! No idea what the problem is, we drain the water from the radiator & constantly change the oil so the engine doesn't konk itself. As we ride down the road, the bike overheats..... we prevail slowly as we have to get it to the closest town.

Draining milky oil from the KTM

We make it to Douentza, where Dereck leave his bike and awaits spare parts from Germany whilst Rob, Leo & I ride to Tombouctou. 195kms of sandy corrugations & DUST DUST DUST but it's all worth it to get to the Niger river & the infamous Tombouctou!

heading to sandy Tombouctou

Surrounded completely, can you spot me?

Dereck decides to ride his bike slowly to Ouagadougu, Burkina Faso as this is the closest town the parts can sent to. So here we go, the harmattan blows over so its hard to see what lies ahead as we head to the dogon country. We agree that Rob leads, Leo & Dereck in the middle whilst I am tailend charlie as I am the only one who can pick up my own bike! The montainous Dogon country is spectacular but we find it hard to take it in as the roads are difficult to navigate, Dereck falls a few times. I round a corner to see the KTM down, Dereck too - fearing he is caught underneath it & his left pannier bent on an angle. I run up hoping everything is ok, Dereck is swearing obscenities! I now realised that he is okay but the fuel tap has snapped & petrol was spurting everywhere, so now useless to get off the bike, he now has his finger jammed in the fuel tap to stop the flow. We fill the flowing juice into jerry cans & patch up the broken tap. We're all exhausted & tired, trying to find a place to camp. An hour or two later, we very randomly ride into a barrage of tents, which turns out to be a running group from Europe, with an amazing one-legged motorbike mechanic - talk about travellers luck!

Malian

Then Leo discovers a loose drive shaft on his BMW, broken bearings & more troubles. After a day of grease & fending off local kids, we ride slowly to Yougana & spend News Years Eve with the spanish tradition of eating grapes on each gong & sleeping under a straw shed with the wind still blowing. The next day, we are distracted temporaily when we take a hike through the Dogon country & amazing ancient Tellem villages in the mountains.

So refreshed after our hike, we head towards Burkina Faso, Dereck's taking it easy & again I am riding last. 6km from Yougana, we come to a halt after Leo stops suddenly. He is obviously okay but something in his expression tells me its not all okay. He points to his drive shaft revealing a huge crack right through it, again our luck continues! We are going nowhere fast so set up camp for the night whilst Leo doubles up in search of a donkey & cart to take to the nearest village........

Broken swing arm on the BMW drive shaft!

local donkey & cart carrying the injured BMW in the middle of Mali