Just before we left Canada we had read through a poll that had ranked the worst travellers and the top of the list was dominated by Continental Europeans with the so-called 'Ugly American' dropping well down. We had seen some evidence to support this, but a French tour group waiting in the Timbuktu ferry queue with us was about to put on a show like none we had seen before. All road vehicles have to cross the Niger by ferry as they head south and the ferry dock a...

Given the encroaching desert, the Niger doesn’t quite make it to Timbuktu anymore (although there is an effort underway to re-establish that link). As a result we had to catch a shuttle to the town itself- the driver was only too happy to inform us that we were now officially in the middle of nowhere- we were also able to get the needed picture in front of the sign pointing to Timbuktu. We had to struggle to find a suitable sign and in this respect, Timbukt...