Mali - Day Final
It is 06h15 at yet another African airport. This time Nairobi! Whoever believes that travel is a blast should do these overnighters with connecting flights. I have not slept since yesterday morning and even that was only 5 hours.
We had a mini drinking session on Friday night which involved cocktails aptly entitled “Timbuktu” and “Sikaso” There was a lot of philosophical discussion which is possible when one is well lubricated. We also confirmed that French Wine is kak.
I do believe we finally took the lift to our respective rooms at around 2am.
Now Celia had done research on Mali – as her job demands – and part of the research entailed photocopies of the Lonely Planet which – in theory – states what we can do in Mali from a Tourist perspective. Timbuktu and Doha was out the window as soon as I was delayed on my trip up and we had to drive to site due to no planes being available to charter. Apparently there was a presidential election on Sunday. I can honestly say with our driving around it was not that apparent.
So we toddled off to a place called “Sidi” which was listed as being 50km from Bamako and had a rock arch, natural spring and all this accessed after a 75 minute walk.
We found Sidi on the map, in our pidgin English directed Musa our driver in that direction and complained bitterly about our respective hangovers.
What Lonely Planet failed to mention was the road was not tarred. The vehicle we had hired had some African suspension. Take that and a cocktail induced hangover and you know there are issues happening that lonely planet never anticipated. We did however find Sidi, looked at it, nodded sagely when the 75 minute walk was turned down and I took pictures of “Small Rock on Big Rock” and Donkey Carts.
We turned around after 15 minutes and drove back to Town. Musa must have been thinking – in French – how looney these people from South Africa are. We then decided to find “Point G” which is a viewsite overlooking Bamako.
The jokes on how we would never find a G spot abounded.
Needless to say we did not find the actual G Spot, but got our now very confused driver to park on a Dirt Track at the top of the hill while we walked to the edge to take some pics. I have omitted to take my long lens and the haze was quite bad. The pictures prove it.
Back to the hotel, swim to rehydrate, lunch and a meeting with the local lawyers on the way forward.
Back to the rooms, pack and off to the airport.
We were due to take off at 19h30, and ended up at the airport at 17h00. Once again a standard African airport, coffee at $3.00 a cup and hard seats.
The classic was we were busy chatting, drinking coffee and running through some of my old blogs when the Waiter pointed out to us that our flight was boarding.
We ran for the flight and were the last to board. Missing a flight home is never an option, but when you arrive at the airport more than 2 hours before boarding and still manage to miss it, you will be the subject of much ridicule.
Uneventful flight – land at airport – have coffee with Celia who has an 18 hour layover before her flight to Mauritius and once again rush when the announcement is made requesting her to please meet the driver from the Holiday Inn as he had been waiting ½ and hour. No doubt she will get a good sleep in. Lucky Wench!!
Appears our flight is on time, so let me see if I can post the final Mali blog.
I foresee an interesting contract over the next 8 months.
*** Update
I arrived home at 11:40am. I slept from 12:30 to 5pm
Is traveling not just fun?
We had a mini drinking session on Friday night which involved cocktails aptly entitled “Timbuktu” and “Sikaso” There was a lot of philosophical discussion which is possible when one is well lubricated. We also confirmed that French Wine is kak.
I do believe we finally took the lift to our respective rooms at around 2am.
Now Celia had done research on Mali – as her job demands – and part of the research entailed photocopies of the Lonely Planet which – in theory – states what we can do in Mali from a Tourist perspective. Timbuktu and Doha was out the window as soon as I was delayed on my trip up and we had to drive to site due to no planes being available to charter. Apparently there was a presidential election on Sunday. I can honestly say with our driving around it was not that apparent.
So we toddled off to a place called “Sidi” which was listed as being 50km from Bamako and had a rock arch, natural spring and all this accessed after a 75 minute walk.
We found Sidi on the map, in our pidgin English directed Musa our driver in that direction and complained bitterly about our respective hangovers.
What Lonely Planet failed to mention was the road was not tarred. The vehicle we had hired had some African suspension. Take that and a cocktail induced hangover and you know there are issues happening that lonely planet never anticipated. We did however find Sidi, looked at it, nodded sagely when the 75 minute walk was turned down and I took pictures of “Small Rock on Big Rock” and Donkey Carts.
We turned around after 15 minutes and drove back to Town. Musa must have been thinking – in French – how looney these people from South Africa are. We then decided to find “Point G” which is a viewsite overlooking Bamako.
The jokes on how we would never find a G spot abounded.
Needless to say we did not find the actual G Spot, but got our now very confused driver to park on a Dirt Track at the top of the hill while we walked to the edge to take some pics. I have omitted to take my long lens and the haze was quite bad. The pictures prove it.
Back to the hotel, swim to rehydrate, lunch and a meeting with the local lawyers on the way forward.
Back to the rooms, pack and off to the airport.
We were due to take off at 19h30, and ended up at the airport at 17h00. Once again a standard African airport, coffee at $3.00 a cup and hard seats.
The classic was we were busy chatting, drinking coffee and running through some of my old blogs when the Waiter pointed out to us that our flight was boarding.
We ran for the flight and were the last to board. Missing a flight home is never an option, but when you arrive at the airport more than 2 hours before boarding and still manage to miss it, you will be the subject of much ridicule.
Uneventful flight – land at airport – have coffee with Celia who has an 18 hour layover before her flight to Mauritius and once again rush when the announcement is made requesting her to please meet the driver from the Holiday Inn as he had been waiting ½ and hour. No doubt she will get a good sleep in. Lucky Wench!!
Appears our flight is on time, so let me see if I can post the final Mali blog.
I foresee an interesting contract over the next 8 months.
*** Update
I arrived home at 11:40am. I slept from 12:30 to 5pm
Is traveling not just fun?
1 Comments:
Gotto love travelling, not so much. At least if you do it often enough, all the stop overs, you learn to sleep in those hard chairs.
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