Day 79, 8209 km, Burkina Faso frontier

Rather disappointingly the Dogon village Chief was thoroughly underwhelmed by my malt loaf gift, admittedly it wasn’t looking its best after 100km stuffed in my pannier but he didn’t even offer to eat it with me. I can only presume that the excessive consumption of kola beans have gone to his head. I could have done with some extra energy today as well for hiking 10km and pushing Bertha’s substantial bulk through 3km of soft sand which left me sweating as profusely as the yanks must be at the prospect of facing England in the World Cup. Soaring temperatures, corrugated dirt roads and head winds made the progress that followed very slow and I only just made it to the Burkina border by night fall where I have set up camp.