Bamako

Bamako is a fascinating if rather scary capital city. It seems to offer just about everything you could ask for including one very smart, if anodyne, hotel and a plethora of other quite decent places. We ended up spending ten relaxing days at Hotel Mandé on the river some way out of the centre, surprisingly mosquito-free even though the restaurant was perched over the river itself. Not our normal choice of holiday, but having sold our lovely Landcruiser I felt wary of venturing too far with over €7000 in my pockets. So apart from brief forays to the fetish market it was just days of lounging around by the pool interspersed with cold beer and rather good food, although by the end of it we had eaten our way through the entire hotel menu. Main downside? The constant stench of rubbish burning wherever you are in the city. At least they burn it, rather than just leaving it on the ground to disperse in the wind as they seem to do in Nouakchott. Return to Sahara Itinerary 2005► Return to Sahara Itinerary 2008►