Ouagadougou is crazy. we spent 3 nights here enjoying ourselves in the campsite behind a truck park. There were beers and a swimming pool,greatly appreciated after the desert. But the best part was going for a beer after dinner, in one of the local bars......most amazing places, not a formal bar,more just oddly built tables and chairs,on the side of roads. With the best african music being played.While you are there sipping your beer, you can buy anything....and I mean anything, from underwear,dinner,veggies, fruit (sliced and cut-up)toilet-paper to shoes.Everything and in all sizes....loads of children involed not only selling but playing while Mum and Dad have their social time. I could not help myself,stopping some of the vendors,just to see what they were selling.Woolies would be out of business if we could go to lunch or ... read more

After 3 days of pleasant sightseeing in Bamako-all the old sights but many new,we moved on. We were luck as well with visas. After 4 hours of searching Annie and I found the Niger Consulate and obtained a visa in less than a day. We followed with a Nigerian visa in 2 days. All in all a successful time. After 1 night bush camping we reached Djenne with its world famous mud mosque. Most towns in Mali have mud mosques but this is the largest mud structure in the worls. I had wanted to see this for 25 years.We now are in Mopti and next is a 3 day canoe trip to Timbuckto.... read more

We got sick of waiting for the visas- Mauritania was most difficult and we left the passports in Rabat while we headed on to Volubilis which is a Roman city inhabited for several hundred years and almost the furtherest from Rome. Some of us went to Casablanca for the day from Rabat and its magnificant King Hassas 11 MosqueThings were getting bloody freezing and only got worse bush camping in the desert and then on to Fez another big city. It was time for the High Atlas and going through the highest pass of 2241 metres it was very very cold with fresh snow on the ground but despite chattering teeth the snow capped Atlas were beautiful. We are now in Marrakech and it has been raining almost full time so still cold. Marrakech which Phil ... read more

Fulfilling a long term ambition and dragging Annie along, We travelled to Melilla , a tiny castle enclave of Spain (still) from the 1500,s in the far East of Morocco. To get to this rarely visited city state we had to fly from Tunis to Barcelona where we slept in the airport with about 100 others and caught the early flight to Malaga and then an 8 hour ferry back to Melilla on the North African coast. It was worth it however because not only is it very interesting and historic, with a beautiful castle , it is very different from Ceuta, the main Spanish enclave and usual route to Africa. Melilla will be our only luxury for a while and we reversed our route to Malaga and travelled down the coast to La Linea de ... read more

We departed Brisbane just before midnight on 26th February and after 2 pleasant flights arrived in Doha. We were 2 of only a handful to stop here and stood out amongst the arabs in their flowing robes and the women with only their eyes visible. Doha is a relaxed introduction to our travels and we have spent 2 lazy days wandering the Corniche ,souk and visiting the excellent museum of Islamic art. This place is much more Islamic than UAE but I think much nicer. On to Tunisia tomorrow.... read more