Day 66 – Saturday 5 Dec - 6910 km, Medina, 20km short of Diema, Mali

Stopping to use a village well in the early morning I was also treated to a massive bowl of steaming hot “boue” (?) – Mali’s equivalent to porridge. Resembling lumpy grey gruel it didn’t taste a whole lot better than it looked but it certainly set me up for the tough day in store. I’m resigning myself to the fact that travelling east through Mali is going to be a painfully long slow process against the prevailing wind. I necked 50p’s worth of oily roadside rice, peanut sauce and dubious bits of goat anatomy and ploughed on through the heat of the day only to blow out and have to resort to rehydration sachets. After some late evening riding however I’ve been invited to use a village hut for the night – perfect for some recovery time though I’m not sure I’ll be sticking around for the morning boue! (Where is Rustenburg?)