We awoke to our last day in Senegal with the news that Pat
and Wilson had food poisoning and had been up most of the night sick.
Thankfully they were both well enough to hit the road and we pulled out of camp
at around 7:30am. We drove for nearly two hours on a badly potholed road and
then decided to stop and do much needed maintenance on the trucks- something
that was overdue from the day before.
Shane got busy rotating his tires while Mike and Paul changed diff fluid,
added gear oil to everything else and we all lubed the drive trains. One thing we have noted is that all the
vehicles are taking a beating and consuming every kind of fluid at amazing
rates.
We were back underway after about an hour and a half. Thankfully the road became quite good and we
made spectacular time to the Mali border.
By the time we arrived at customs it was around 3pm and the temperature
had soared to 104 degrees F. Once again it was a totally overcast day. If it was sunny God only knows what the
temperatures could have reached.
We spent about two hours clearing the Senegal exit post and
the entry into Mali. Unlike our arrival into Senegal, this crossing was
relatively painless- and cheap
too! Paul and Mike cleared the
paperwork for Mali in a stone hut accompanied by two friendly border guards. We
gave them a few sodas and were on our way.
Wow! Mali is different.
Gone was the nice paved road. Gone were the nice little Senegalese huts;
gone was almost every form of modern civilization. We were met by a dirt track at the border that could barely be
called a road. Our first stop for gas involved the station attendant having to
manually crank the pump to draw the gas from the ground. Wilson remarked, “Gee,
I think they might have lost power or something.” Probably true, although we
are guessing it was lost when the French gave up the colony many years ago.
We made our way out of town and camped beside the road in a
dusty clearing under a few thorn trees.
Less bugs this time and no sign of animals.
-Michael Ladden