He Says - Mud and grumps

14-15 October
This was a travel day and not much else. We tried to leave Bamako at about 0800h. Our forays in to the city actually made it quite easy to find the road that we wanted. What our walking excursions failed to notice is that the road was one way. The wrong way. Luckily we also knew there was an other bridge. Unfortunately we had no idea how to go from this bridge to the that bridge or from there to road we wanted. 30 odd kilometres and one airport later we found the road as much by luck as anything else. Bamako stretched on for about 15 more miles before we hit countryside. The views improved immediately the land was a green but arid. But there were lots of trees and the bird and animal life improved. We still have not seen anything too cool but at least the birds are getting better. The most impressive being the weaver birds, and there very complex nests, we have also seen at least 3 types of birds of prey, unfortunately getting a good look is incredibly hard as you are roaring down a road on a motorbike. They take flight and are gone before you can stop. The lizard population has also increased dramatically. Both the 3D and 2D species.

We had no idea how far we would get and as we had no idea of the road condition. It turned out that we reached our minimum target by 1130h. We only stoped for lunch in a tin shanty restaurant. It was an incredible meal and cost us a whooping 0.70p. I know I know budget!! We ended up staying the night in a town called San, it was nothing more then a stopping point. There we met a German guy whom was visiting his sponsored child, and bringing lots of money (I saw a 50mm stack of US$50s) and gifts to the organization that arranged the sponsorship. He seemed happy to give away so much money….so I will refrain from any further comment.

We also met an American woman who lives in the British Virgin Islands and sells jewellery that she imports from India and Bali. I had no idea that these types business could be so profitable, she travels at least 5 times a year. I may need to rethink my career options.

From there we headed to Djenne, home of the largest mud mosque in the world. We had met a guy in the hotel the night before that called a head and we were met with. “Hey Welcome Australians”. We had an expensive tourist lunch that was gritty and mediocre at best. Tam wanted to book a guide to get us a little closer to the people, I was unsure but did it. We bargained the cost down from 10,000Cfa to 6000Cfa, with the main organiser (officially recognised or not) for the area. The tour was to start at 1600h. Amazingly our guide arrived at 1601h no Africa time here. The tour was okay but he was not really an enthralling orator, in fact you could tell that he did not want to be there. Taking this all in to consideration I actually really enjoyed myself. I was able to take some good photos, but mostly we were able to walk around the city unperturbed.

Djenne itself is an island that holds the largest mud mosque in the world, which also happens to be the largest mud building. It was interesting seeing the famous Djenne mosque, it has been in so many TV documentary that it was almost unreal. It was smaller then I imagined and unfortunately the market was not on that day. I was able to see spots that played pivotal rolls in M.Palin’s Sahara, and kept expecting to see either him or his guide just walking the streets, alas I saw neither. Later that night we met up with the same main organiser who was putting the hard sell on us to book a long trek with one of his guides. He was a slick dresser in his chino slacks and dress shirt with a little alligator on the front. He made my skin crawl and I really did not want to book anything more with him. It made me very unsure as to whether a trek later on was a good idea or not.

That night mapsource our GPS program went completely bonk. We were unable to open it to see what was wrong. All I knew was I had to get to the net to find out if I was able to fix it. I did not sleep a wink. This was unfortunate, but not surprising for over the last week I had been sleeping less and less every night. I was tired and grumpy and getting down about things that I should not have been. We both started to worry that it may be the Larium (our anti-malaria drugs).It is know to have these kind of side effects. If it was the drugs then I would have to make the decision to find an alternative drug (which there is none that meet our needs ..see above) or risk my health either physical by stopping or mental by continuing.