114 days in

back in Bamako

After the mammoth Dogon trek we headed back to the place we departed for Timbuktu from, Mopti, and spent the next six days sitting around a pleasant hotel, eating and watching life go by. It was so nice to finally have a bit of freedom from guides and over-organisation.

By day five I was getting pretty bored of waking up at eight, walking to town for breakfast, walking back to our hotel, ordering lunch, having a siesta, ordering dinner, going to bed at eight and repeating the process all over again the next day.

Fortunately we bumped into an American guy called Glen on our final day and after chatting a while joined him on his bus journey to Segou, about three hours east of the capital Bamako where we fly from in a week.

So we spent two nights back in Segou bumming around, enjoying the relaxed atmosphere before rising at 5am for a non-existent bus heading to Bamako. The bus finally arrived at eight and the insane driver rocketed us on suspensionless wheels along terrifying Malian roads into the capital around midday. By the end of the ordeal I was a nervous wreck.

Rushing by taxi through crowded Bamako streets to make the 1pm check-in deadline at the mission catholique hostel further damaged our already shattered nerves, but we made it in the nick of time.

We unloaded our stuff and were greeted by the first Australian we’ve met in all of Mali. Pete’s been travel for two years throughout South America and Africa on his BMW motorbike. He’s a pretty interesting guy, so hopefully we’ll have some adventures with him and his mates, then catch up with a local contact in Bamako for few days.

After Bamako we head for Paris to spend a couple of weeks being insulted by ignorant Parisians. After that the trip ends. I’m not looking forward to ending the trip, but we’re running low on cash now so haven’t got much choice.