Another big driving day ahead of us and we should cross the border to Mali. We want an early start this morning, so we are up at 5:45 AM, have breakfast at 7:10 AM and are off at 8:00 AM. A few of walk ahead of the truck, looking at the birds and the trees. The truck picks us up just before we reach the road.
We get to the border at 8:30 AM. There is a bit of confusion, because the border post is not marked to well and we almost drive by it. The official there sends us into town to go to the immigration office to do the formalities. By 9:15 AM, everything is in order and we cross the border, go over the river and we are on the Mali side. We get to the border post which is in the town on the river. We walk around town and pick up some of the local snacks prior to filling out some forms (which we have to pay CFA 1,000 for). After the very friendly immigration people cleared us, we were on our way towards Bamako at 10:30 AM. But what a difference in the roads - we are now on a dirt road and our speed drops significantly.
After a short lunch break, we arrive in Kayes at 2:45 PM. First we have to get through two checkpoints - the first officials wore green, the second ones wore blue. Even though they sat right next to each other, we still had to do everything separately. Lots of fun!!! In Kayes, the next three cook groups did their shopping. We were not sure when we would be able to buy food, so we needed to stock up. We wondered around the markets. At one point, Jacqui needed to use a toilet, and after a long search we found a public one - costs CFA 25 to use. The markets were quite nice and the people were very friendly. Some helped us find bread.
At 4:45 PM we head on towards Bamako. We drive until 5:25 PM and we stop for the night. It is a great campsite - in the shade of a huge Baobao tree. It is a wonderful spot and we enjoy the evening looking at the sky and the silhouettes of all the trees. We again watch the moon and the stars as we go to sleep in our tent. We are no longer getting dew, so it is no problem to use our tent without the fly.