4x4tripping
Adventurer
Day 11 Tuesday 20 November
Bushcamp (Kiffa) – Bushcamp (Mali) 150km
Today, we were awakened by noises. On the other side of the river a big hord of cows arrives - for drinking. And also on our side of the river a herd of goats followed also by cows starts to surround us.
A beautiful place!
We don't see any people, and enjoy a rich breakfast.
We always have 2 jam, honey, ham, salami, cheese and liverwurst on offer, and later even Nutella. For the tome we cant get fresh bread locally we have packaged pumpernickel bread, which is "fresh" for several months.
Then we try to hit the track again, and hold us in the viewing distance to the river. After a while the river ends - or - went to the other side - and we navigate again just in the direction of mali.
After an hour of driving through an sandy subsoil - mixed with bushes and trees we seems to have found "the track":
Unfortunately everything is here "the track" and after a short while following some traces - we are "lost" again. Sometimes the sand was deeper - but nothing we can't handle. The power of the V8 saved us several times. Still the necessary modicum of power in reserve. We enjoyed it to drive offroad, even though we would prefer that to a subsequent, less sensitive region.
The scenery was still varied and gorgeous. We drove straight through small villages - all smiling faces and friendly wave.
We drove across country and try to follow the singletracks we found. We got lost several times miserably and had to go back longer passages. We switched to the satellite view "Bing hybrid" on our iPad - and try to hold in direction of Mali. Our problem is - we don't have an idea - where there is a border crossing in the middle of nowhere - where we can enter Mali in a legal way.
After a while we found a village with was a bit bigger, and we ask after the correct way. They "think" smaller - and lead us to tracks who was more for bikes than for us - again we had to go back. Again we ask - and he show us the way who has a dead end (for cars). Now we ignore him and try to follow the borderline on the navigation system - and found a track who was really a track.
In the next Village we ask "Mali" and they point us to a house with a small flag. We have found the Mauritian-Border! Compared to our GPS we are miles away. It was easy, we got our stamps and could leave. We ask for the direction, and the border crew told us, that a bike will lead us the way.
After some minutes a guy arrives with his bike, and try to lead us the way. We had to go back several times, because he wants to drive ways where the trees or environment don't had the space for a car. After a funny 5min trip the guy stopped and ask for money. We have used up the the local currency - and decide to try it without his help.
Again it starts to get a little nightmare - because we follow single-tracks who ends in some villages - and had to go back. The locals couldn't help us really, they show us the direction they would walk - not a way who is possible to drive. But they are very friendly - and a bit shy. They live in small straw huts - the villages has mostly only 3-4 of them - they are really small. Here we see a part of africa - who the locals don't have phones, energy, water.. In the bigger villages before - they had solar-modules - and some of the locals walk with earphones around.
Later one of the traces gets better - and in a village we ask again for the direction to mali, and the guy told us, that we had to do our "formalities". Glad that we ask for the way, and not just passed by ;-)
The guy just could talk french, but he was able to show us, that we have to wait. After 15 minutes a guy on a motorbike arrives with civilian clothing. He ask for the papers and we do the paperwork in a small shack.
I want to avoid the use of the carnet in mali, because of safety issues - and so we dont show it. The border crew sold us a temporary import paper. They want CFA - what we dont have. We offer them USD, they ask for Euro :think:
Normally we had to pay 8 Euro - but we just had a 5 Euro note and some coins. The coins they dont want - and they sell us the Paper for 5 Euro. We hope the don't have problems with that afterwards.After a short view inside of the car we could pass.
Unfortunately it was evening in the meantime - mosquito-time- and while they had looked into the car, a lot of Mosquitos was able to enter the car. Unbelievable how many was inside of the car, we killed over 20 of them. Bad timing with our Border crossing, we loosed to much time during the day
After the border crossing the "good track" dont lead in the direction we want - and again we follow some better traces. It get dark quickly - and we don't have a place to camp, and we loose the traces several times. The good stuff was - because we drive with light - the mosquito heads to the windshield - and was easy to kill.
Now in the dark, we see many open fires - it appears that we drive in a much more crowded area - we decide to go back, follow our own trace - and to look for a place to camp. Because we don't see much, we park just 20m away from the track. As we get out the mosquitos dont gives us a relaxed time - and we eat inside - and go sleeping. Again we kills a high number of mosquitos - we search them with our flashlight - every night.
We have to setup our camp earlier in the day in the feature! Lesson learned?
------------
Proud to had found an track
Loose again any traces
One of the bigger Villages
Termites
Bushcamp (Kiffa) – Bushcamp (Mali) 150km
Today, we were awakened by noises. On the other side of the river a big hord of cows arrives - for drinking. And also on our side of the river a herd of goats followed also by cows starts to surround us.
A beautiful place!
We don't see any people, and enjoy a rich breakfast.
We always have 2 jam, honey, ham, salami, cheese and liverwurst on offer, and later even Nutella. For the tome we cant get fresh bread locally we have packaged pumpernickel bread, which is "fresh" for several months.
Then we try to hit the track again, and hold us in the viewing distance to the river. After a while the river ends - or - went to the other side - and we navigate again just in the direction of mali.
After an hour of driving through an sandy subsoil - mixed with bushes and trees we seems to have found "the track":
Unfortunately everything is here "the track" and after a short while following some traces - we are "lost" again. Sometimes the sand was deeper - but nothing we can't handle. The power of the V8 saved us several times. Still the necessary modicum of power in reserve. We enjoyed it to drive offroad, even though we would prefer that to a subsequent, less sensitive region.
The scenery was still varied and gorgeous. We drove straight through small villages - all smiling faces and friendly wave.
We drove across country and try to follow the singletracks we found. We got lost several times miserably and had to go back longer passages. We switched to the satellite view "Bing hybrid" on our iPad - and try to hold in direction of Mali. Our problem is - we don't have an idea - where there is a border crossing in the middle of nowhere - where we can enter Mali in a legal way.
After a while we found a village with was a bit bigger, and we ask after the correct way. They "think" smaller - and lead us to tracks who was more for bikes than for us - again we had to go back. Again we ask - and he show us the way who has a dead end (for cars). Now we ignore him and try to follow the borderline on the navigation system - and found a track who was really a track.
In the next Village we ask "Mali" and they point us to a house with a small flag. We have found the Mauritian-Border! Compared to our GPS we are miles away. It was easy, we got our stamps and could leave. We ask for the direction, and the border crew told us, that a bike will lead us the way.
After some minutes a guy arrives with his bike, and try to lead us the way. We had to go back several times, because he wants to drive ways where the trees or environment don't had the space for a car. After a funny 5min trip the guy stopped and ask for money. We have used up the the local currency - and decide to try it without his help.
Again it starts to get a little nightmare - because we follow single-tracks who ends in some villages - and had to go back. The locals couldn't help us really, they show us the direction they would walk - not a way who is possible to drive. But they are very friendly - and a bit shy. They live in small straw huts - the villages has mostly only 3-4 of them - they are really small. Here we see a part of africa - who the locals don't have phones, energy, water.. In the bigger villages before - they had solar-modules - and some of the locals walk with earphones around.
Later one of the traces gets better - and in a village we ask again for the direction to mali, and the guy told us, that we had to do our "formalities". Glad that we ask for the way, and not just passed by ;-)
The guy just could talk french, but he was able to show us, that we have to wait. After 15 minutes a guy on a motorbike arrives with civilian clothing. He ask for the papers and we do the paperwork in a small shack.
I want to avoid the use of the carnet in mali, because of safety issues - and so we dont show it. The border crew sold us a temporary import paper. They want CFA - what we dont have. We offer them USD, they ask for Euro :think:
Normally we had to pay 8 Euro - but we just had a 5 Euro note and some coins. The coins they dont want - and they sell us the Paper for 5 Euro. We hope the don't have problems with that afterwards.After a short view inside of the car we could pass.
Unfortunately it was evening in the meantime - mosquito-time- and while they had looked into the car, a lot of Mosquitos was able to enter the car. Unbelievable how many was inside of the car, we killed over 20 of them. Bad timing with our Border crossing, we loosed to much time during the day
After the border crossing the "good track" dont lead in the direction we want - and again we follow some better traces. It get dark quickly - and we don't have a place to camp, and we loose the traces several times. The good stuff was - because we drive with light - the mosquito heads to the windshield - and was easy to kill.
Now in the dark, we see many open fires - it appears that we drive in a much more crowded area - we decide to go back, follow our own trace - and to look for a place to camp. Because we don't see much, we park just 20m away from the track. As we get out the mosquitos dont gives us a relaxed time - and we eat inside - and go sleeping. Again we kills a high number of mosquitos - we search them with our flashlight - every night.
We have to setup our camp earlier in the day in the feature! Lesson learned?
------------
Proud to had found an track
Loose again any traces
One of the bigger Villages
Termites
