The Malian side of the border was somehow exactly the opposite to the Guinean one. The people seemed very relaxed and friendly. Everybody was smiling at me and the necessary stamps and the laissez passer was done in no time. The road to Bamako was very quite, only in the outskirts of Bamako the traffic was getting dense. If I would not have known there had been a coup d'etat in Mali I would not have noticed. Everything looked absolutly normal. At around 6pm I arrived at the sleeping camel, a lodge at the south side of the river in Bamako. It was nice to arrive somewhere nice after this horrible day. As soon as I entered the lodge I met Kati and Tobi a German couple travelling with two motor-bikes. The lodge was rather busy and I learned they had a curfew in Bamako over the last 6 days and the people were all waiting for the airport, which was shot, to reopen.
As well I learned there had been some heavy shooting during the last days. All the shops and the markets were closed and the only traffic were military vehicles. I arrived at the first day the situation went more or less back to normal. Even though I was totally exhausted and hungry, the first thing I did was getting a large icecold beer. Yes, a beer never tasted better. A group of Portuguese people was just about to leave to the airport. A french couple tried as well to get a ticket for a flight but they came back. I heard people at the airport were fighting over tickets. Everybody was eager to leave the country as soon as possible. For me it was not that simple, first I had to get a visa for Mauretania and then I still had to go to immigration to get my Mali-visa. The next morning I went with Kati and Tobi to the Mauretanian embassy, they needed a visa as well. In the afternoon the visa was done and we could pick it up. The first step was done. Later I found out, we were the last persons who got a visa for Mauretania in Bamako. The rest of the afternoon I used to check over the car. Surprisingly there was not really anything to repair, at least nothing urgent. Ok, there was some oil dripping out of the rear brake drums, which meant the seal in the axle was broken again, and the steering had too much play, but it was nothing I had to fix right now. Immigration was where I was going the next day which was a Thursday. Normally it is kind of busy in there but this time there were only two more people waiting. But still they didn't do the visa the same day. I was been told to come back the next day in the afternoon. Being on the north side of the river already I went to the market to do some shopping. Back in the lodge I heard the first news about the Tuareg who took over large cities like Kidal, Gao and even Timbuctu. But this was not the only problem, news were getting worse. Larissa who was working at the German embassy as a consul which was just next door came over and kept us updated with the latest news. Sitting there enjoying some German beer, an unexpected gift from the German embassy stock, we heard the borders to Mali were closed again. This time because the surrounding countries united in the ECOVAS did not accept the new Malian leader. When I heard the news I jumped into the car and went to the next fuel station and filled both fuel tanks and all the jerry cans with diesel, you never know I thought. One hour later we heard there was a 72hours countdown before the embargo would kick in. It gave us some time to think eveything over. For sure, for me the most important matter was to get my passport back which was still at immigrations. Staying with us in the lodge was Georg, an Austrian fellow who was travelling by bicycle. He was coming down from London and was planning to move on to Burkina Faso where he had a visa for already. He was trapped by the time frame. I offered him a lift out of the country. Yet the bad news kept on coming in. Larissa told us one of the heads of the Al-quaida in Mauretania was asking for 50 dead white bodies. I wanted to leave the country via Kayes Selibabi, in fact the same route I came in. But according to Larissa this route was an absolutly no-go. I never've got any proof about this but there are times and situations where a proof is not really necessary. Kati and Tobi were planning to leave Mali in the very South to Senegal. This was the route I was taking last year. After a while I decided to do the same and to join them. The next morning Kati and Tobi left very early with their bikes. We were planning to meet again at the lodge De Mako in Senegal the next afternoon. Georg had thought his situation over and he had decided to take my offer. We were putting his bike on top of the car. I felt a little bit sorry for him. He was a very tall guy and the passenger seat in the Landrover was not really built for tall people like him. So I guess he was not very comfortable. There was another problem; to pass through Senegal I needed a laissez passer for the car. At 9am the next morning I was already waiting at the Senegalese embassy which was luckily very close to the Sleeping Camel. It didn't seem to be any trouble at all. But I noticed they were very busy in there. Many people tried to get a visa for Senegal in the last minute. I saw some huge amount of money changing their owners. Luckily German citizens like me didn't need a visa. I payed 5000CFA and came back 2 hours later to pick up my laissez passer. Back in the lodge I said a farewell to the owners. They were not sure what to do. The power supply was already cut off. They said when we leave the place it will be looted, so I reckon they had to sit it out. We, Georg and me, left around 2pm. First I had to go to get my passport and fortunatly it was there waiting for me. Bamako seemed very quite, not much traffic at all. We had to pass through Kati, the resident of the coup leader. At the outskirts of Bamako was notable little traffic, the shops and petrol station were deserted and outside Kati they had put tanks and heavy weapons along side the road. Before the checkpoint soldiers with automatic rifles lined the road. A lorry queue started which seemed to be kilometers long. It felt all very wierd but we just drove through, nobody stopped us. By late afternoon we were deep in the savannah, well away from all the activities in Bamako.