DAY 45. TUES 20/03. Agadez to Arlit. 253 kms. Total 10633 kms. Auberge (?), Arlit. N18 44.350 E7 22.963Said our farewells to Andre, Anton and co. Very sorry to be leaving after such excellent hospitality. Nipped into town for some internet and shopping. Finally even bought some meat from a local street butcher – we must be getting tough or thick-skinned! Hit the road north to Arlit after final payment for peage/toll (1000 CFA Agadez to Arlit) Pretty unevent...

DAY 40. THURS 15/03. Ayorou to Niamey. 197 kms. Total 9367 kms. Camping Touristique N13 32.076 E2 04.706Didn’t have far to go today. Back on the tar road again to Niamey. Just outside Ayorou is the 1st of many stops for Peage/Toll road (N14 43.591 E0 55.410). We paid 7000 CFA all the way through to Agadez. (Just keep your receipts to show at all the other “toll booths”) Arrived at Camping Touristique around lunch time, very hot again and slightl...

DAY 36. SUN 11/03. Douentza to Tombouctou. 216 kms. Total 8456 kms. Hotel Camping Tombouctou. N16 45.409 W3 00.240Up early and left camp 09h30 as we were told drive to Tombouctou takes 6 hours (only 200 + kms). This is route B3 in “Sahara Overland”. Corrugated earth road/track the whole way. 1st 120 kms were ok/do-able on the corrugations but murder on the landy as you have to go fast to keep on top of the corrugations and we were fully loaded with fu...

DAY 32. WED 07/03. Bamako. 0 kms. Total 7301 kms. Camping Le Cactus.Decided to spend another day in Bamako at Camping Le Cactus as it was so relaxing. Our longest stay in one place so far on the trip which says something about the camp site. Did not end up braving the street butcher yesterday (and still haven’t) but did end up back at the bar in the evening for a few more beers. Good news is that Inga has since found the pegs that we searched the entire Lan...

DAY 27. FRI 02/03. Nouakchott to 40 km before Aleg. 223 kms. Total 6044 kms. Bushcamp.Got most of our admin done yesterday, except for the insurance for Mali & Niger. Had another tip off of Darrin (back in Morocco) that the staff at Auberge Sahara in Nouakchott know someone who will sell you “Alliance D’Assurances” – valid for CIMA member countries in West Africa, that we needed for Mali and Niger. Apparently half the price that you wo...