On the river Senegal near Kayes

With the dust washed off the car, we drove about 15km downriver from Kayes to the Chutes du Félou, a broad set of waterfalls, and found a good place to park for the night near a small hydro station. The rocks are worn smooth from the high water and at sunset bats emerged from crevices and hoovered up any insects - so far I have seen hardly a mosquito on this trip. 

We had a visit from the local kids for half an hour, and after that it was very peaceful. We washed off our own dust in the river, then Jason teased the fish with a variety of lures for a while without success. A fisherman took pity and came with a cup of sand and worms, but the fish didn't go for that either. The locals fish with nets from pirogues.

More Car Stuff

This post will probably be of limited interest so you may avert your eyes.

Generally the Land Rover has managed the rough sections very well for a vehicle with such a poor build reputation. I expect that most of the bad parts have already fallen off and been replaced. Plenty of stuff has been shaken loose; and a hard landing does something to the alarm system that activates the hazard lights, and we drove around with the lights flashing for a few hours before figuring out how to reset it.

The dust does funny things, causing window switches and doors to seize, and is probably responsible for the demise of the 12V inverter. We have spent a lot of time fiddling with tyre pressures, and initially found it difficult to deflate the tyres. Jason figured out that this is caused by the bead lockers, which may have been incorrectly fitted. We must deflate the bead lock valve a little first. We found that 32psi is pretty good for normal off road with some sand.

We may have lost some balance weight on a wheel in the heavy sand, as we were getting bad vibrations. We decided to change the culprit wheel, and we (well, Jason) found out just how heavy the vehicle is with full tanks of water and diesel. We managed to bend the hi-lift jack, and it needed the intervention of a hammer before we could lower the car. Since the jack is rated to 12 tonnes, he thinks the cause is the extension that goes into a slot in the rock slider; it gives a secure jacking point but puts too much leverage on the jack.