Sorry for the delay here folks, had some technical difficulties...

After three extremely hot, wild and wacky days of 4 wheel transport I FINALLY made it to the live music capital of the world Bamako, Mali! I had to huff it out here to pick up some camera and bike parts that could unfortunately only be delivered to the capital of Mali.

After 5 great days of riding in Niger with so many sweet souls I hit the end of the road and all that was left were dusty, sandy, barren terrain all the way to Gao in Mali. I decided to take a lift with a Land Rover and it turned out to have no brakes, horrible tires that blew out twice, a dead gear box and flat battery that died when the lights came on. It took us 33 hours to go about 250 kilometers. Somehow I kept my cool—perhaps over a year in Africa has helped me cope with lunacy like this.

Then it was a connecting bus from Gao to Bamako for another 19 hours of hot, stinky, loud and wild bussin it to Bamako! Needless to say, I was a mess upon arrival.

I’m happy to report that I was welcomed by a great Danish chap Joachim for my first night and am now being hosted for 3 days and two nights of five star luxury by the Kempinski Hotel right on the Niger River to clean up, charge up, regroup and prepare for the Mali adventure.

I’ve already got several great contacts for live music to record for you guys (and me, of courseJ) and have a sweet route of some epic Mali adventures planned for next week. Below are some of the Niger adventure—I’ll get an update sooner than you normal too!

Over and out from Mali!

Jamie