Not much funIn noouakchott at the Mali embassy we met Georgie a canadian lawyer and very expreience africa biker we agreed to travel as 3 to Bamako Mali
It was on paper going to be an easy first day 163 miles to Aleg Mauritania across the souhern sahara It was until Aleg what a shit hole the two lane highway became one in the town due to rubbish we decided to press on We filled up wth petrol
At about 50 miles on we decided to top up our tanks The Twat at the pump put deseal in all three tanks i had the most we decided as a third of the tanks was petrol although they would run rough we would be ok The Sukuki and Bm cleared
after we were able to top up with our spare fuel, Mine didnt and i had a max speed of 50 miles an hour for two days until i changed the spark plugs
THings got worse in one small town we found the whole valley was flooded and we would have to cross the piste desert track for15 miles to get round it.
Early on i quickly came off in powder sand and didnt quite now how i was going to ride the next half mile Ben quickly came to the rescue offerd to ride my bike and walked back to his in 40 d heat what a gem hes on my xmas card list After the worst part of the piste i started to get the hang off it Thank god
By the way we did two river crossing also that day and ended up riding the last hour to Kiffa and a campsite in the dark not to be recommended in the third world
What a Feckin day
Oh well we were now fully payed up overlanders now Not bad for 65 By the way theres no petrol really after Aleg to Kiffa 214 miles carry spare
The next day was straight forward to Ayouin other than my stuttering engine
Before leaving Ayoun for Mali border the next day we decided to change my plugs
the campsite owner sat looking on, in the midle of the work i heard a dove cooing in the tree above me i looked up , the owner must have thought it was annoying me; he got up opened the boot of his car got out a rifle and shot the poor dove, smiling at me he quietly put the gun back in the boot.
The Border with Mali was bliss easy friendly on hearing my proffession was retired the police man laughed heartily and said "at last you have the best job in the world"mabe hes just hit it on the nail
The road to Bamako
What a change excellant tarmac no constant police roadblocks and empty roads until that is BAMAKO thousands of chinesse mopeds to a posh hotel at last The Relais; aircon, showers good food and even a Patisserie next door bliss im in seagou now in north mali on the side of the mighty Niger river lovin it the journey people everything you soon forget the bastard hard times
Very important fact ATMs are in nearly every town up to now making access to money a lot easier
Well im in Segou now going to move on to Dogon County, Mali. Bukini Faso and then on to Ghana tomorrow will fill you in on my next blog Bamako to Ghana in about 3 weeks time