Dust and duct tape.

Bamako, Mali. 5220 miles from home.

Heat.
Habits learned in north Europe cause you to wait for the water to heat up before you step in.
Then you remember this is Africa and although hot water is unlikely, you really wish the water will stay cold.
It feels like the water has soap already mixed but it's actually the perfect film of sweat covering you.
This is 9am. If you left it any later to get out of the tent, the heat inside would start to drain whatever energy you have.

Bamako
Bamako is pure Africa. The city heaves in the heat as thousands of mopeds, laden with over-sized boxes buzz around while the crowds mill in the markets. Everything and everyone seems to be moving but the speed of the vehicles is offset by the deliberate, slow pace of the pedestrians. A slow pace to conserve energy in the sweltering temperature.

We're camped by the Niger. It's wide with many little islands and for me it's difficult to reconcile how easy it was for us to travel here with the many Europeans explorers who died trying to find this river 200 hundred years ago.

The other paradox is that while in many ways, this is a modern city, 60 miles from here people are eking out an existence on arid dusty land.

Driving
When we were planning this trip, we looked at maps of the continent with roads marked as being passable only in the dry season.
I wondered how the bike would hold up and I wondered how I would hold it up on the sand and gravel.
I have to say that our overall feeling has been one of surprise at how easy it has been.
That's not boastful - it's simply that the road conditions range between ok and perfect!
We've ridden over 5220 miles. In total, approximately 60 miles of that have been piste (dirt track). The rest has been asphalt with much of it billiard table smooth.

The bits that challenge can be grouped like this.
Non main roads into villages. These are usually dirt and dust but the surface is consistent and easy.
No Mans Land or either side of a border crossing. These are the worst roads as neither government wants to spend money for the other to benefit.
Road works where the traffic is diverted off the main road onto piste.
Towns! The lesser streets in most towns are dust, dirt and sand. Junctions are the worst where the sand is twice as deep.

I'm happy driving on the dirt and dust but the deep sand is horrible.
When we were planning how to load the bike we tried to keep the weight as even as possible between the wheels, but the natural and easiest place to put stuff is towards the rear.
So, especially when the fuel is low in the petrol tank, the bike is weighted toward the rear.
On most surfaces it's no problem whatsoever but in sand the rear wheel digs down and the front wheel lifts out and starts acting like a rudder.
At these moments, poor Linda has to hop off and walk past the difficult section. I stand on the pegs, leaning forward, let the clutch out quickly and power forward at 20kph with a spray of sand behind.

Dangers on the road? No.
We'd heard horror stories about the driving standards in Africa. This is our fourth contry and so far it's been grand.
Taxi drivers don't use the rules of the road but what's new there?
The main thing we've been watching for are livestock wandering on the road.
Cows, camels and pigs are easy to deal with as they lumber slowly across.
Goats scamper as soon as they hear the bike or the beep of the horn.
Donkeys are the most troublesome. They move quickly and usually at inappropriate moments.
Our nearest miss was a trio of suicidal donkeys who threw themselves in front of An Capall as if they were part of a Donkey Suffragette Movement.

The heat is the biggest factor for us to deal with. Our thermometer was reading 43 degrees yesterday and that's with the wind blowing over it.
Actually the wind is hot. When I open the visor of my helmet, I feel like I'm checking to see if a roast chicken is cooked.
We changed Linda's helmet to open-face which has cooled her down.
However, with the thick dust and the sweat and sunblock on her face, when she takes off the helmet she looks like a 1950's racing driver. As if I don't find her attractive already!

An Capall Mor
The bike is holding up the finest.
Three of the four indicators are held on with duct tape and the neutral light sometimes appears in 1st gear but that's the sum total of problems.
The off-road tyres are wearing but not significantly.
We've cleaned the air filter but haven't needed to change it. That surprised us as the dust is so thick.
Duct tape has been a major part of the journey.
It's held on bits of helmets, blocked holes in tubes of glue and in mosquito nets, holds on the intercom leads to our helmets, sealed the sides of the toolbox, stuck sunglasses together, and hold bits that we are finished with, but need to keep under the boxes.

Washing
The dust gets everywhere.
We ran out of clean(ish) clothes yesterday and so spent 4 hours hand scrubbing today.
And I mean scrubbing!

Hello
Finally, but certainly not leastly, a special hello has to go Baby Molly and Baby Jack who made their appearances in the last few weeks.
Welcome to this cool world and we look forward to having a chat with you when we get back!