hey guys,

Its robyn this time as nick is refusing to ever put the work in (plus he types at the speed of a hybinating snail). We made it to bamako!! Mali so far has been incredible, expensive, touristy but incredible. We michael palin'd it up in Dogon country which was great but our guide was a complete moron who hadno respect for women and actually said "if you were my wife, i would beat you"...nice, as you can imagine, we didnt really see eye to eye for the remainder of the trip and sadly it rather tainted our experience, especially as by the end Nick was regularly calmly counting to 10 to avoid punching the idiot!!

still we then made it up to timbuktu in record time, had hoped to take the 3 day boat trip up the niger but due to a shoddy rainy season we were told it would take anywhere between 7 and 20 days and would most likely involve some pushing at some point....needless to say, we took the truck instead! (a mere 8 hours!) HAd a fantastic time hanging out with tuaregs, sleeping on rooftops, getting caught in sandstorms and riding camels into the sahara at sunset. We spent Robbie's birthday out in a tuareg village out in the dunes and slept under the stars. I've decided that i prefer camels to horses but still think i may well need a few years before i feel the need to mount either again, i think we have all come away with semi permenant lower body injuries!!!

From timbukkers we headed due south west towards Djienne (home to the largest mud mosque on earth) and then onto the sleepy town of Segou for a spot of souvenir shoppping (as if we havent spent enough) We arrived in Bamako yesterday and the lads went out last night... its midday and they havent emerged so i imagine the night was a great success! We're hanging here for the weekend then embarking on the most hellish journey yet from here to casamanse in senegal.....could be over 30 hours, yipee!!

love to all from us,

Robs x x x x