We have arrived Bamako, Hotel Tamana in Hippodrome District, after three very long days on the road.

Leaving Freetown in the rains, and did it rain all the way to Kambia. The road from Port Loko to the border is bad.

Border crossing has it's usual amount of nonsense, we now have Mineral Ressources and an extra customs post asking for money. Just to match it Guinea had included an extra customs check - 90 minutes total and a little dash. I truely beleive these people live on this money. Guinea Franc is now 9000 Francs for 5000 Leones - poor Guinea.

Smooth sailing through Coyah until 20 km before Kindia our target. A huge mess blocked the road. One 18-wheeler jacknifed having dropper about 5 tons of scrap iron on the road. Another truck had gotten stuck trying to bypass. A small bus stuck trying to bypass through the bush.

Arriving Hotel Masabi, nice place, cold beer, good food and clean rooms in the dark.

Leaving Kindia in the morning after buying supplies and getting more Francs. Re-visiting Voile de Mariee was a true pleasure. A lot of water came over top, totally different from the dry season.

The checkpoint by the road was a pain though. The customs guy wanted to take us back to Kindia, after a lot of talk I said that was fine, but he had to sit up top on the spare tyre (it was raining). He gave up.

The road to Mamou is very beatiful, snaking in and out and up and down on the edge of the Fouta Jalon mountains. Mamou itself is not worth a stop, dirty no diesel (again) no tomatoes!. Luckily we had enough in the tank for Dabola. Road take a lot of concentration. Fill up the tank on to Kouroussa, hotel Sogona, a sad place just before town, road good. The trip is beatiful, everything green and very long visibility as the rain has just stopped. We prepaid the rooms (Kebba got one too) so there could be money for the generator. No food, but we brought our own. Local disco strating at 10Pm - showed not to be a problem.

After breakfast, through Kankan, Siguiri to the border at Kouremale. This part of Guinea is pretty. The villages look like African villages, small round mudhuts with straw roofs. There is no garbage lying around. Joni has seen monkey, bush pig out the window. Wasted plenty time and dash the border. The worst was a Malian Customs claim that our Laissez-passes was not enough/valid - this was correct - you need a Laissez-passes de Tourism, which we could buy at the border for CFA 9940, receipt given. The gendarmes and Immigration wanted too - not surprisingly. What can you do but be patient and pay - extra costs here $50.

After the border we gave a lift to a young gendarme with a little english. Kebba was squished in the back, but he showed us through to this hotel. Bamako is a lot like Dakar, and the first time it is nice to be shown where things are. The trip is beatiful, and I wish we find time to explore on the way bank from the Dogons. We passed some very interesting rock formations, waterfalls, neat villages, nice camp sites and so on. We think we are 1236km from Freetown.