Saturday, November 17, 2007

Nothing easy, but safely in Bamako; Looking to Dakar

Well, here I am in the Malian capital of Bamako, and getting here was a bit of a challenge.
We took the bus from Segou which left at about 10am. Almost immediately the bus had to stop and they needed to tinker with the engine. This had me only mildly worried. On we went and the trip had taken nearly four hours and we were perhaps thirty kilometres out of Bamako. Then the bus just died. The engine stopped, and they couldnt get it going again. We were all left to our own devices to solve the problem, the bus company had nothing to say on the matter. So, Paul and myself hitched our way in on a green van carrying bags of coal. A unique experience to say the least. I accidently disconnected the drivers speaker and hqd to reconnect it.
Once inside Bamako We were put on local transport, supposedly to our hotel. No sir, we got to the centre; and then a nice policeman found us a taxi who knew where to go, so at about 3.30pm we found our hotel. Quite a day, but that`s African travel for you.
Tonight I fly out, inshallah, to Dakar. Yes that final goal is well within sight; although anything can happen yet... The airport is definately open though, so that`s a good start.

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