where to begin

firstly sorry about the huge delay.

have just made it to bamako from dakar in a bus journey of 1500km that remarkably took 60 hours. the less said about that the better.

made it thru beautiful, gapingly hot mauritania... sand dunes that look like fluffy melting ice cream - like a dream. people however were all on edge - 2 weeks earlier 13 soldiers were found beheaded in the desert: different rumours, some say al qaeda, others that the army was taking too much of an interest in the illicit desert drug trade. who knows.

hitched for free to the senegal border, which was negotiated somehow without paying the demanded bribes, and into a world of green. cycled from rosso to dakar in about a week - some crazy nights - stayed in a village chief's house - he of 4 wives and 50 children: bizarre. another night on the banks of the senegal river. beautiful.

from dakar, a sprawling, if charming mess hae made it to bamako. going to bike it to burkina faso ... though have been warned that there are alot of "animaux sauvage" en route, so camping might need to be aborted.

hopefully update from WAGA::::