Mali

Organised tickets for the Mopti boat, (we plumped for third class) collected our visas and i popped back to the market and bought a very fine hat for 1200. The market is a large pentagonal building on one level, in the classic Malian style, a la the Mosque at Djenne. Lots of small passages with all sorts, from taps + bolts, general hardware, shoes, jewelry, cloth, artefacts, etc with a large food market outside.

We caught the one train per day to Koulikouro at 18.00, riding in the open wagons to the surprise of the locals. It was fun, for 20 minutes, but got dark. Arrived almost on schedule after a scare when it appeared that the train had broken down, and we found the boat just close to the tracks.

Whatever made me think that the boat might not be full? I am glad we went for 3d class (8 to a cabin and including food) rather than the 4th class the Aussie girls went for, which was a bit of deck space wherever you can find it. The whole vessel was alive with peoplee coming and going, buying and selling, loading, milling about and generally looking busy.

Large amounts of disorganisation and waiting about, some huge Brixton briefcasesbeing loaded. After a lot of fannying about we were shown our cabin to be shared with various policeman, soldeirs and wives, all very friendly and seems secure. Bought some supplies from the milling crowds and scored some points sharing out with our room mates, and received some tea in return.

Aussie girls had some space on the roof and were quite well off. Hoisted our mozzie nets but we were the only people on the boat that did, but on settling down i was pleased i did as I was near the light and although there was no mossies there were hundred of moths and other creepy crawlies.

Pulled away from the dock about on schedule and settled in my bunk, with the best of Rainbow blasting out on a large blaster. Began to doze but semi-registered the boat running into a sand-bank.

Woken in the morning by a 'steward' with a hot sweet coffee and a lump of dry bread. Went up on deck to see that we were still stuck on the sand-bank, and that we could see Kolikouro (where we had started from) in the distance. Eventually it was a case of show and socks off and push, shove, tug, forward, reverse, etc etc until 09.30 when we eventually slid off the sand bank. Seb had joined the large number of pullers and pushers in the river, but i had declined for a number of reasons, such as the cuts on my feet (result of scrathing the dozens of mossie bites).

Developed another streaming cold, not fair. pent most of the 2 days writing cards or writing diary. meals consisted of rice of spaghetti with one lump of meat but hardly any sauce at all.

The was a large party of frogs travelling first class but anyone could use the bar and lounge as long as not in the way of 1st class diners. Although expensive a cold coke was very welcome.

The river itself was very wide and shallow and the vessel was continuously zigzagging between sandbanks. One assumes it had an echo-sounder or something, but then why did it run aground at the start? Very hot during the days, too hot to walk barefoot on deck, but cool in the evnings. The banks were quite steep and the scenery became more desert-like the further west one went.

Large numbers of egrets, waders and kingfishers on the banks and sandbanks, and lots of small villages (of fishermen?) and pirogues of varying sizes. We stopped at some towns and larger villages, who usually all turned out to sell their wares, load some cargo or just to gawk. One village we callled at during the night, the banks were lined with smiley faces and everytime a camera flash went off it raised a huge cheer.Read more