Hotel Flandre Mopti

... again<br>4- having 10 kids hold my hand at once with huge smiles<br>5- kids sneaking out of the village to find brian aft** his live guitar p**formance with flashlights in the middle of the night<br>6- p**spective regained<br>7- OBAMA finally travelling and being from am**ica gives us street cred<br>8- bottled wat**<br>9- the way people just get it done and dont complain ...

... a LOT of jewellery...) earlier stopped me and told me I should go to the station of the Somatra bus company instead. Ok.. off we go... fine. Yes, there's a bus. Negotiations occur in Bamana. 3500 F to Djenne. Including baggage. To Djenne? Yes, to Djenne. Ok. Cool. Buy a ticket. <br><br>The next morning, 7 am... on the way to the station, met by Coolboy who's wandering with me. I tell him where I'm going. He explains that actually, no, that bus only goes as far as the junction ...

... s strange. We passed lots of little villages made of mud bricks though, they're cute! It was definitely made worse by the fact that they kept trying to play some very broken DVD which, when it wasn't skipping, was basically two people screaming at each other in Bamana (the other official language)!<br><br>Destination of that awful journey = Mopti. I'm here but now I'm not sure where I'm going next. It's a nice little town, and it happens to have the nicest ...

... of sleep before the heat drove us out of the tent. Bamako was fun, the Malinese people w**e incredibly friendly and while in some ways we w**e not keen to leave the pool, it was the right time to move and we had Tombouktou and the Dogon to look forward to. Anoth** couple of driving days and we are now in Mopti, and off to the fabled city tomorrow. A 4-5 day trek, with two days on the ***** riv**, two days at Tombouctou, and one hell of a bumpy ride in 4 wheel drives back. We are ...

... the bright sunlight and the dust blowing in through the open windows. The hotel is a Moorish-style building with thick walls and myst**ious dark stairways and we are greeted by an impeccably polite young Frenchman called Felix, while Pascalle waits around to see if he can guide us around the town. We really need to change some money into the local currency CFA francs, but the banks are closed, so Pascalle off**s to walk us into ...

So, we returned from our campment to Mopti bright and early, and my body was feeling slightly bett** (at least I was upright this time). I was due to catch a bus from Mopti back to Bamako at 10 am and I was quite looking forward to the bus ride because I'd probably be amongst the Africans and not surrounded by whiteys and their guides. Unfortunately the bus was full and the next one was not until 2 pm. I was a bit annoyed as this ...

During our last night in the Pays Dogon, Monsieur Limp, our guide, managed to hook us up with anoth** guide, who was organising a trip on a pinasse on the riv** *****, travelling from Mopti to Tombouctou ov** 3 days and 2 nights (camping on the bank of the riv**). We decidsed to go for it, and woke up bright and early on 15th, bought our 12 bottles of wat**, baguette and vache qui rit (laughing cow, the only cheese you ...

... when it decided to go cross country through ploughed fields I ended up half running whilst still riding the bloody thing. Sarah fell off hers... twice I think. Suze being a top notch horse rider kept kicking hers to no avail. They obviously don't abide by the same rules as horses. Kristy got the quickest one trotting off ahead of us. Best 1,500CFA I've spent in the a long time. Next on our list of things to ride are cows (we saw locals doing it) and ...

... the chopp** tache from hell, and Muzza the quiet achiev**, succumbed to their inn** weakness and shaved away 14 days of hard work. Sam had a small reprieve when he em**ged momentarily with a Hitl** mo, Muzza simply said "Sorry bru. Sorry". That's now three down as Jim was the first to relent a few days ago. It was a free day so ev**yone did as they wished. Some went into Mopti to check out the f**ry oth**s went to Aub**ge Canari - a hotel ...

... Bozzo est prêt à vous étriper, mais finalement le batelier s'excuse le pêcheur pardonne et l'Afrique est belle....) quelques rencontres avec les hippos, nous arrivons de nuit pour monter nos tentes on ne sait où.... Merveille le matin nous sommes dans le bras asseche du fleuve, lever de soleil, pirogues de pêcheurs, enfants,nous repartons, arrêt ...