Day 62: From here to Timbuctoo
Soutpiel Safari
John & Jenny
Wed 5 Jan 2011 16:21
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Day 62: Wednesday 5 January 2011. Tenere encampement,
near Tomboctu, Mali. N16 24.092 W002 53.952 Distance driven 480 km (including 60
km back-tracking)
It was a cold night in our tent and we regretted
shipping our duvet with the Oasis truck (we had a sort out of all our warm
weather clothes a couple of weeks ago and packed them off to Namibia with Oasis
to give us more room in the Land Rover). Up at 0545 and off on the road at
0700, firstly to Sevare to replenish funds from the ATM and then eastwards to
Douentza. That was about 230 km on pretty good tar roads. In
Douentza we shopped for a few items and filled up with diesel before setting off
northwards to Tomboctu, about 210 km way on a dirt road (piste) which got
steadily worse. At first we easily made 70-80 kph but the rented Toyota
Land Cruisers were faster than us although to overtake they had to plough
through our dust stream.
Whilst Jenny was driving she suddenly lost the brakes
and we found that one of the rear brake pipes had fractured, no doubt though the
excessive vibration driving over the corrugated piste. I managed to blank
off the joint at the failed pipe so that we had 3 working brakes but the system
is full of air so the braking action is very poor and spongy. Nevertheless, the
car will stop eventually! Hopefully we can get it fixed in Tomboctu
tomorrow.
There is a 3 day music festival in the desert starting
tomorrow so there is a lot of traffic over this normally very quiet road.
We ploughed on until we reached the ferry but then got a message that our
friends form the Sleeping Camel had camped 30 km back so we drove back to join
them. This was a lucky move as they had arranged a "meshwi" - a feast of
roast whole lamb stuffed with couscous and lots of salad dishes, followed by a
musical evening around the camp fire with the local villagers. We had a
wonderful evening of entertainment.
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