Day 51: Saturday 25 December 2010. The Sleeping Camel,
Bamako, Mali. N12 37.525 W007 59.278 Distance driven 0 km
This really is an unusual Christmas! At 0700 I walked in the early
morning cool air to the local patisserie for delicious croissants and
pain chocolat, then got to work on the Land Rover to replace the defective fuel
vent hose that Nene Overland had fitted. Fortunately, Ibrahim the Sleeping
Camel's driver had found a piece of proper fuel hose of the correct size in the
market last night, so all I had to do was fit it. It was a bit of a
thrutch but I managed it without too much trouble.
Then we had present opening around the 500 mm Christmas Tree! The 24 Oasis
overlanders had invited Jenny and I to share their Christmas. Each
person had contributed a "secret present" of maximum value 5 Euros.
These were placed around the tree and the 26 names put in a hat. The system was
that a name was drawn and that person then chose a present and opened it.
The next person then chose a present and had the option of choosing one of the
already opened presents or opening the one he/she had just picked up. If
he/she chose an already opened one, then the one just picked up was opened by
the person from whom the opened present had been taken. And so on. One of
the first presents was a case of beer and this changed hands about 20
times! I ended up with a water pistol type machine gun and Jenny ended up
with a wig - see the photos on Jenny's blog site.
There had been rumours of roast pig but this morning they wheeled in a
young goat that had been alive and kicking yesterday. A few local guys prepared
it, filled the insides with couscous, sewed it up with steel wire, built a
roasting station of concrete building blocks, lit a fire of local wood having
spurned the overlanders supply as being inappropriate and it is now roasting
away smelling very appetising. One of the guys is making sausages from the
goat's intestines - not sure about that one! Much beer is being consumed by
the overland crew waiting in great anticipation. By the time the goat is
ready there are going to be a lot of hungry people.