Greetings from Mali

All good here - hard to believe I've actually arrived! My flights seemed to (i.e. did) go on forever. I had the smoothest landing EVER on the flight into Dubai, we didn’t feel anything, just glided into the city of sand as the sun was rising. Nothing much to report at Charles De Gaulle except that the air cons were off and the place is a construction site and I got a taste of Malian heat in the transit lounge – paid 5.30 Euros for two drinks! An OJ and a bottle of water – outrageous!

The flight to Bamako was memorable because one woman went nuts before departure and was upsetting all of the other passengers – the other Malians were completely embarrassed by her behaviour. I slept fitfully in that delirious state travellers experience after too much time in the air, and was met on arrival by Olivier in Bamako. Getting out of the airport was hilarious – there were people everywhere trying to get to bags and handling trolleys and crushing each other in their haste to get them onto the x-ray conveyor belt – chaos…

I was driven to the Bamako office and it reminded me of arriving in Havana – people and vehicles and bikes everywhere and tumbledown looking buildings on the side of every street, the night heavy with that blend of aromas you only find in hot tropical places. I was so shattered after 35 hours straight travelling that when we arrived at the Bamako office AND guest house at 10pm I just went straight to bed.

We headed out to site on Tues morning at 6:30am for Syama – via the bureau de change which didn't open til 7am so I sat on a deck chair in the middle of Bamako, waiting for my man, and being greeted "Bonjour Madame, ça va?" by all the passers-by. Those city streets are fantastic! So many crazy sights to be seen - I'm going to put some photos up with my next post.

The sealed road from Bamako to Sikasso (a 4 hour trip) seems to have improved after reports I'd had from other visitors to this remote corner of west Africa, and my driver was really good (as I was expecting terrible things), but the last two hours on the red dirt track wasn't quite so relaxing. Once we headed further out we could have been anywhere in outback Australia except for all the mud huts with straw roofs and the Africans everywhere, just like Janey said.

You'll all be pleased to hear that the first thing to greet me on arrival at site was a LARGE black scorpion - yes, that's right 10cm at least - just as my boot landed on the soil, but it was thankfully no longer alive ... close shave, eh?

And now I know just how rusty my French really is – one of the weirdest things I’ve seen so far are the Malian donkeys which are about 1/3 the size of a regular donkey that you’d find at home. When I explained this in French to my driver and other passenger, they were astounded, not just because of the size difference but because of the way I had to try and explain it – it’s difficult when you can’t remember the words. Although today I was complimented on my accent by the security guys at the main office - and on my way on to site the guy at the gate was impressed b/c none of the other Aussies usually give it a go, or have any skills whatsoever. I think he chuckled though when I threw in a spanish phrase by accident.

So that's it so far - I'll have more reports soon, once I'm passed my jet-lag and I get myself a little more organised.

A bientôt, (M)Ali