What I ended up doing

The boat from Mopti to Timbuktu is magical. We travelled on a slow cargo pinasse sleeping on bags of rice for 2 nights. Sitting on this boat, floating down the Niger river watching the landscape change from the wetlands to savanna to desert with Malian blues forming the perfect theme has been one of the highlights of this trip. All the boneshattering bushtaxi rides and travel stress just shrugs off in those early mornings on the boat. The trip to Timbuktu is more about the boat trip there than the destination itself.

The destination itself is no less riveting. The dry heat beating down on your neck make it unbearable to walk even 15 mins outside. The turban helped. The second night was spent at a taureg nomad's camp. A taureg suggested this (for a price of course) and I imagined it to be quite touristy with souvenier stalls etc. To my pleasant surprise all it had was two tents belonging to one family and nothing else. It was a proper hardcore nomadic camp. There was a sandstorm which made the exprience all the more authentic. I felt the pain of not being able to speak french the most here. There was so much I wanted to ask them.

The 4WD trip to Motpi was less exciting though there were some great backdrops. There are no proper roads so it was cross country for a lot of the way. Punishing.

Bamako was excellent. I said goodbye to two brits I met in Mali - Rob and Laura - It was a absolute pleasure travelling with you guys. We enjoyed the metropolitan life - beers, pizza and kebabs and then i braced myself for the bus trip to hell which deserves it's own post.