Merry Christmas from Manatali in pretty hot Mali. We are all loving Mali so far. The border crossing was relatively easy and we had a few hours drive before bush camping on the first night. The next day we had a very scenic drive to Manatali where we would spend Christmas, providing the campsite was OK. The scenery has gone from flat scrubby land to mountains, rivers, baobab trees and mud hut villages.
Our Christmas camp was right on the edge of Lake Manatali created by the huge dam nearby. It was great as the water was very clean so we were able to do lots of swimming and clothes washing. We went into town to pick up the Christmas supplies (meat, beer and veggies), and had a very adventurous walk home trying to find the river track. Problem was that there were many tracks but none leading where we wanted to go. Eventually we found our way back in time for lunch and a swim!
Most of the group decided on Christmas morning to go for an early morning walk up a nearby hill. I passed on the idea favouring a sleep in. We had a pancake breakfast and then a present giving time. We had all bought a secret Santa present to the value of 5 Euros for someone after names were picked out of a hat in Fes. I received a bracelet, a wicker pot and some lolly pops off Paisley which was lovely.
Dave, having previously worked as a chef did a great job of cooking a roast dinner on the fire. Despite our limited choice in the market we had beef, sweet potatoes, aubergine, cheesy cabbage and Yorkshire pudding. Much to my delight the cheese that was bought in Spain and was not allowed to be opened, made an appearance and so did a Christmas pudding which other than Steve and myself nobody likes! A great lazy Christmas in the sun.
Boxing day had a late start as we headed towards Bamako, bush camping enroute.
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