Back Roads to Mali

Somewhere in Mauritania it started getting hot, and now the car vents blow like hair dryers. The evenings and mornings are still very pleasant, and the sleeping bag is required at night. 

We have completed a Sahara crossing by the easiest route, and are firmly in the Sahel. At Kiffa, we decided to take one of the lesser used routes into Mali, and turned South onto a sand road. The Russian 1:500,000 maps and GPS became very useful. We could find villages on the route and set the waypoints and steer for them. The main problem was tracks that branched off to villages, and several times we found ourselves off route. It was well populated and we could get directions. We learned that the women and old men always gave the correct track, young men generally tried to set us wrong. 

I set the border waypoint and by late afternoon we reached it. Some kids waved us onto the correct track through a rocky riverbed, and on the other side we stopped to check with some women drawing water at a well - a cheerful welcome, yes, this was Mali. No border posts of any kind, so a pretty stress-free change of country. 

An hour later we set camp under an old baobab - Jason is enjoying snacking on the fruits.