19th November - Goodbye Africa

Bye text, 2pm

Bad night's sleep on the roof, as there was a very high wind all night.

Up for 6.30 breakfast then hurried goodbyes as Jonny, Diana, Rosie and I had a short sharp climb up the falaise (cliff), while the others, all going to Timbuktu, were whisked away in 4x4s. To meet Matt at Bongo we walked just over a mile horizontally, with nearly half a mile of vertical.

At the truck, more hurried goodbyes as my bag was tied on the back of a motorbike.
Then, as I wondered whether my coccyx would ever recover, my driver, Dai, expertly covered the 25 miles of very rough concrete and dirt track to Bandiagara to meet my next ride. This was Sauri who, with me, his brother and his Australian wife Chris, were to make the 400 mile journey back to Bamako to get me to my flight this evening. Looking good as we've covered 150 miles in the the first two and a half hours.