Le Rabelais Bamako

... with our interesting aquantances...<br><br>In the morning we made our way by beautiful boat along the Gambia River through thick, green foliage, flowing water with hippos in it and a thousand birds about as well. We moored up at a tiny town where we played with the curious kids and ate awesome beanie bread before heading home at sunset, sipping wine and catching a glimpse of the hippos in the haunting half moonlight of Halloween.<br><br>XXX

... br><br>1) The first clip is from the village of Djenne one of the most historic in Mali. Since my 4 yr s of French in HS has long been forgotten we got by with simple introductions. Brian already speaks as much French as me-ha<br><br>2) Mopti, Mali is the hometown of Amadou. We loved this village. Amadou and his broth**s invited the local musicians to play for us which we greatly appreciated! The flute was hypnotic and enticed locals to join us. Dancing on the streets was ...

... die. Quickly. The dust grinds everything down and it doesn't help that most cars are 30 years old (no kidding) and are put together from spare parts that have been discarded by the Europeans. I have not seen older, dirtier (yes, goats are often passengers), fly infested and more retro looking cars in my life. But guess what, not a single one of the taxis ever broke down. One can always take the pulse of a city by watching people drive - the patience and tolerance of ...

... Lodge are a Dutch lady and her Malian husband. We met Moussa and his four year old son at breakfast. We were educated about the political situation (stable and democratic) and the countries exports (Cotton, Gold, tourism...mangoes..mmmn). Tonight we meet Oussmane, the founder of Katene Kadji, the local manufacturer of efficient cook stoves in Mali. Our task, like in Ghana, is to understand his business, the macro environment, the barriers to ...

... br><br>We then drove to Bandiagara to commence a 3-day trek through Dogon Country. This region is famed for its traditions, which have changed little ov** the centuries of living in the massive gorge in which plains are surrounded by dramatic cliffs and rocky outcrops. Centuries ago, their ancestors lived in caves high above the current villages, which still raises debate as to their ancestors ability to reach their homes in the cliff faces. The 40 degree was ...

... to retire to our overpriced hotel room. The cost of living is expensive here, despite Mali being one of the poorest coutries in the world. Unfortunately, we had to stay here longer than expected, as everything was closed until 5th Jan. We went to a couple of concerts during that time, a guy playing a xylophone type instrument with old guys dancing until 1 am, and we went to a concert of traditional Touareg music where we ...

... meat rissoles cov**ed in butt**y flake pastry, followed by a vanilla slice and profit**oles. Truly the most incredible things I had ev** tasted! So much so I had to go back for seconds. Aft** gorging ourselves and changing more money we headed off to the sup**markets up the road to restock p**sonal supplies of crisps, chocolate and booze finding once again GBP2 1lt cartons of wine and indulging in bottles of spirits for the upcoming Christmas festivities ...

... girls when it says Roxanne - yeah have a listen, you're pretty much drinking constantly. Very funny. They then started another card drinking game which was introduced by Tom. I helped Suzy out by hiding some of her cards... all was good until she asked for the Ace of diamonds which I was like you don't want that Suze, yes I do, no you don't, yes I do... so I handed it over and as a consequence she had to knock back a shot of the most ...

... mas não se esqueçam de me perguntar pelo resto da historia a proxima vez que nos encararmos pessoalmente. Este mano foi um contacto dos Terrakota, o mano Dauda o batera é que me deu o nome dele e eu fui a caça e de imediato simpatizamos um com o outro, o brother é 5 estrelas e foi um prazer discutir com ele sobre o nosso continente e os nossos lideres, politicos e artisticos. Ele tinha o mitico discurso do Thomas Sankara na conferencia africana das nações em Adis Abeba e todo ...

... you, we couldn't see what chaos our departure left behind...).  At Dakar station we bumped into two American guys who had crossed the Moroccan-Mauritanian border with David and Glen, who we travelled with in Mauritania. This part of the world is a small place for backpackers. We got chatting, and ended up in adjacent cabins. We'd all agreed that 51,000CFA (about GBP50) for a couchette was a bit steep, so we'd opted for the 1ere class in the hope it would ...