Well i am now back in Mopti alone, without Greg :( Since my last update, we had a really nice time in Timbuktu, we were there for 5 days in total so got to know the town quite well. We met a guide called Kalil who was excellent and knew all about the history of Timbuktu and Mali, which was good cause i had a million questions. He gave us a tour of the town, we visited the 3 main mosques, the oldest one dates back to the 14th century and they are all made of mud. We also visited the houses of the European explorers that visited the town, and the Grand Market where we rested in the shade from the heat and had a cold drink. The town is just so interesting, the only downside is that there is lots of rubbish everywhere.

Kalil arranged for us to ride camels in to the desert and stay with a Tuareg family for a night, that was definitly the highlight of the trip so far for both of us! Riding the camels into the Sahara desert from Timbuktu felt amazing, and that night we slept on a mat under the stars, the sand remained warm through the night which was really nice. They gave us dinner, and we had brought some bread with us for our breakfast but we accidently left it out of Gregs bag during the night, it was sitting right by my head and in the night a dog came and stole it and ate all our breakfast, we could see his tracks in the morning, luckily the Tuareg family had some biscuits we could eat. They also gave us plenty of African tea which is really good!!

The rest of our time in Timbuktu was spent wandering about town for one reason or another, trying to use the incredibly slow internet, or lazing about doing nothing like the locals during the day when its too hot to even move!!! I am not exaggerating when i talk about the heat here! Kalil was wonderful and helped us with everything we needed, the best guide we have met so far!! The hotel we stayed at was a bit dodgy though, they always never had the right change so you ended up with about 5 different people oweing you money, Greg found that very frustrating. The funniest thing was they had a resident barber who, when we first arrived, followed Greg around trying to stroke his beard and hair and convince him to let him give him a shave, of course Greg declined but it was very funny!

This morning i had to get up at 4am to catch a 4x4 to Mopti, Kalil arranged it for me and told me to be ready by 5am, then this morning he knocked on the door at 4am and told me the car was ready to leave and they were waiting for me!! I got ready really quickly and Greg and i had to say a quick goodbye which was really sad, then we were off. Greg had to leave not long after me for his flight to Bamako, then on to London. Im really sad he has gone but im also quite excited about continuing on by myself and not having a date that things have to get done by.

The ride to Mopti took 10 hours, 4 of which were on a very bumpy, dusty, potholed road, the brakes in the 4x4 were questionable too. As we were approaching one large pothole i was wondering why we werent slowing down, then realised the driver was desperatly pumping the brakes and nothing was happening, i was in the middle in the front right next to the driver and beside a really big guy who kept on falling asleep and leaning on me, well he wasnt sleeping as we approached this pothole and put his arm across me so i didnt go flying into the window, then as we went over it we all hit the roof but made it through undamaged and had a laugh about it then carried on, i did notice the driver was a little more careful from then on though!!

The two american girls we met on the Pinasse to Timbuktu were in the car as well so when we got here we all went to Macs Refuge and decided to share a room to make it cheaper. The first thing we did was have showers as we were completely covered in layers of thick dust from the trip!! Tomorrow im going to a town called Djenne to see a very old mosque made of mud and to explore the town for the day, then the following day im off to Burkina Faso! Will update again when i get there! Take care xx