Africa 2006

After just over two weeks in dusty but lovely Mali, I’ve arrived in Burkina Faso. Posts to follow; in the meantime, enjoy the top 10 for Mali (in no particular order):

1. Breaking the fast with a local store owner and friends on the street in a Bamako neighbourhood. “We’ll always remember this evening because you stopped and were friendly,” they said - but I will not forget it either.
2. The malaria scare. Odds I had it: I had textbook symptoms and the treatment worked immediately. Odds I didn’t: I had hardly been in Africa and was taking precautions. I’ll never know, but if it was malaria, it was the mildest form I’ve ever heard of.
3. Hanging out with other travellers I met: Jumana and all the locals in Ségou; Brenna and David in Mopti and Timbuktu; Chris and Les for the trip back from Hotel California; the American exchange students I met and played cards with in Dogon Country.
4. Relaxing at the friendly auberge in Ségou, and taking a pinasse trip on the river there.
5. Speaking Icelandic for an evening at Mac’s Refuge in Sevaré and enjoying a huge brunch there the next morning.
6. Pays Dogon - Lots of time to reflect while walking and the concert of waking up on the rooftops of villages.
7. The road to Timbuktu - Eating sardines on a sandy spit in the dark while waiting for the ferry across the Niger.
8. Timbuktu - All the people in dressy clothes for the end of Ramadan festival and negotiating over souvenirs with Tuareg nomads.
9. Finally leaving Hotel California, as I re-named Timbuktu - and in retrospect secretly enjoying all the protracted negotiations on how we could escape (only in retrospect though!)
10. Friendly people everywhere, despite some touristy areas.