9 december Bushcamp, Sikasso, Mali

the last two days we had good tarmac, but also long days. Yesterday we left Bamako, from our comfortable hotel,back on the bike again and 134k in front of us. In the morning or in the eveningwe usally get a briefing which is very detailed and specific, something like: 'well, you leave the hotel to the main road, follow that and ask for Bougouni and Sikasso, once you passed Bougouni you dont ask for Bougouni anymore. Lunch at 70 and camp at 130 or some more or less'. So we cant miss it off course.

We passed serveral villages which all had lots of restaurants, off course you just write 'restaurant' on the wall of your house and you are the proud owner of a traditional Malian restaurant. The villages all look a like now and the road and scenery wasnt very interesting either. The first 70 k were going fast. Also Bamako, a 2 million plp city ends pretty quickly, without any suburbs and the peace and quite returned slowly, away from the cars, busses, trucks, scooters and gasfumes. I now know why all the scooter riders have mouthcaps on. The last 30k were hard although we had enough restdays, but the wind was strong again in the afternoon, so i reached camp, at 134k, at around 15.00h, enough time for washing and some rest. The soup we had after arriving was nice but my stomach didnt agree with that and i got a bit sick. Maybe i should have taken some time before eating the soup and not eat it right away after riding 134k in the sun. The night was cold and although i went to bed at 7 and woke up at 6 i didnt feel very fit. This day would be another 130-140k again. After 50 k i decided not to finish the whole stage as i wasnt feeling very strong, i didnt eat very much at dinner either. I was really slow and the 72k until lunch were very hard so i was happy to be able to get in the van at lunchcamp, so did 2 others.

After arriving in camp the usual spectators appeared again, only this time no kids but young men on scooters and motors. They didnt speak any french and just stared at us. Vey annoying. Didier kept a good eye on them from the top of the truck so he could oversee it all.

We were annoyed by their presence, but off course we were camping on their ground in their land so they had some right to do so, but we didnt know if we could trust them so stayed alert. finally they left, after Didier had given them 'the sign', something like p.. off now.

After dinner we had some belated sinterklaas presents and a competition of putting together Kinderegg surprises which was quite amusing. Looked an episode of CSI in my tent and back to sleep now. hope for a better night and day tomorrow.

10 december, Sikasso, Mali

It was a cold night again, although i had two sweathers on, my trousers and socks it was still cold, thats because i didnt bring any sleepingbag, just two sheets, we are in africa, right !. The firts few weeks this was enough but here its getting colder, or maybe thats because winter has set in here as well. Temperatures during the day are not so hot anymore as well, just 36, Brrrr. Should have brought my gloves. As we left bushcamp this morning the wind started right away which wasnt what we agreed on. And it was strong this time. The strongest wind sofar. After a cokestop at 25 and lunch at 60 we had 50 more k to go. After lunch my energylevels fluctated a lot and i had a difficult time between 70 and 85, after that it was going better, but at some stretches i could barely manage 17k p/h. This was also because of the wind and the hills. We were entering a more hilly surrounding which was also more green, sub-tropic almost. Also the architecture of the houses changed. More square housing with 'european-like' roofs of straw or metal plates and round huts in between. This is the border region of Mali with Ivory coast, Burkina and Ghana, the most southern part of Mali.

Sometimes, especially when i am tired, which is most of the time during riding, i also get tired of waving to all the children and women in the fields and villages, but if you see their big smiles and enthousiasm you just have to, so i keep on waving and 'ca va-ing' to everybody. For me it is the Xth-thousand time, for them the first and they are all very chearfull. Today we also had company of kids on bikes as well, trying to follow us as long as possible. A nice (looking) girl was riding next to me for at least 5k, just smiling and having a good time riding next to a white stranger on a fancy bike. It was nice to have her as company for a while. In some village she turned left, to school. We didnt talk much as here french was terrible, so is mine so we might as well had our conversation in spanish or chinese. Well, at least she had something to tell about at school.

At 100k i entered Sikasso, which it the second largest city of Mali, again a true pleasure to enter a middlesized african town. Activity wherever you look, people carrying stuff, on handcars or donkeycars, complete sofa's, huge piles of wood or hay, making beds, doors, scooters, cars, tires, selling anything you can think off and its all happening outside on the streets, not in fancy shops, offices or factories. In the meanwhile, while cycling through this organized chaos, dont forget to avoid the potholes, which are plenty, trucks, busses scooters, cars, goats, people, women carrying everything on their head, crisscrossing all together. Trucks are loaded with cargo twice as large as the truck itself, and they are BIG !, no wonder there are so many trucks on the road with broken axes, wheels, motors.

Sometimes they have to wait for days for help and camp under their truck, or they try to fix it theirselfs and then complete motorblocks are displayed on the street in hundreds of parts. It takes some more to be a truckdriver here ! After riding for about 10k through this town, (directions were: ask for direction Ivory Coast) i finished at Hotel Kaaky Palace. Off course i booked a room and had a nice shower. I even have a TV in my room, with two channels, which are actually the same. One has a really bad signal but the other one is.................. worse, so i will be enjoying myself tonight watching the speach of the President which is on already for a few hours now. Well at least i have a bed and no tent for this night. If internet was working here it would be perfect., But this is Africa......

12 december 2011, Bafaru, burkina faso

Today is Hildas birthday, happy birthday honey !

In the morning of the 10th we left Kaaky Palace Hotel in Sikasso and rode out of town to the border which was 45k away. We got our exit stamp of Mali and had to ride antother 5k trough nomansland to Burkina and got our entry stamps there. Although it took some waiting it went all very smoothly. Almost right after we entered Burkina Tarmac turned into gravel and sand. The next 65 were all off road to the next bushcamp. I really enjoyed this ride as the countryside looked realle nice, green, palmtrees, little Banana-plantations, even some streams and rivers, true subtropics. Riding went well. We also passed some nice rural villages,which are much nicer than the villages along side the tarmac 'route nationals', no shops just some housing, gardens and cattle.

Not much different from Mali thusfar but the first impression is that Burkina is even less developed than Mali. The people are nice, which they should be because Burkina Faso means Land of the Friendly People, which they are. Camp was in a local village next to the local Mosque. I put up my tent far away so i wouldnt be woken up loudly at 4.30 by the call for prayers. Off course we had lots of visitors again, as we were standing in the middle of their village,but they were al nice. I even got helpfrom some local boys putting up my tent and they left when i told them i was going to have the famous bushcamp shower. Most people are very eager to help you with anything, carrying a bag of with whatever and without asking anything for it. It was liberationday so there was also a party that night in the village. I didnt attent and went to bed pretty early. I apperantly missed some fun but i had a reaonable night of sleep, as far as possible in a tent. Last week i daily suffer from musclepain in the legs which is not easing off so i think i need some rest. Next day 75 off road to Bafaru, was hard, sore muscles , hard wind and riding was shit. Luckily it was aonly 75 today so i was glad to reach town and some Ks further we had camp where renting a hut was possible, no electricity or water, but a bed and a roof. Fine with me. Looking forward to the restday.If tomorrow is the same as today i will get in the van halfway. 6 days of riding 100k avg in a row in these conditions is a bit much. Hope to call Hilda for her birthday tonight.

Dinner is mostly rice or pasta or patatos with some sauce mostly quite nice but i could really do with some huge steak now or a pizza, we eat hardly any decent meat. And it hasnt turned me into a vegetarian yet. After dinner we take turns in doing the dishes., tonight is my night again but mostly more people help, as there isnt anything other to do anyway, and sometimes its fun, joking around. In english as the group language is mostly english,even when we are with all dutch we suddenly notice that there is no need to speak english anymore.

13 december Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina Faso

I decided to go with the truck today all the way to Bobo. I still have pain in the legs and my left hand is numb, i cannot even shift gears. First i thought it were the shifters which were not in the right place or so. Lateron i discovered that i could not stretch my tumb far enough anymore to reach the shifters. Not a real big problem but a nice excuse to have another rest day. We reached the campement were we would stay and had a look at the rooms we could rent. Dark, small, smelly and quite depressing, not the place i would stay on a rest day. On the way into Bobo i already noticed a nice looking hotel so i checked it out and its great. Light, a restaurant, a nice room and a shower which doesnt even fall from the wall once you touch it and even more so important it has wifi. And with the compliments of the staff the room is completed with an Anti-insect spray and the advice to keep the doors closed. Rob and Arvil also stay here.

Tomorrow i will check ou Bobo which is a big city of 500.000 plp and supposed to be the cultural capital of BF. The route to Bobo was not very interesting but it looks like agriculture seems to be organized pretty well, with huge cornfields, rice, and citrus plantations all nicely irrigated. Towns and cities look more basic, without much tarmac roads, even in Bobo but actually its rather clean and tidy. BF is different from Mali but in what way i cannot actually tell yet. Time enough to find out.