Back home again!

Hallo allemaal! Since friday night I am back again in the low and cold countries. Some of you wondered why I didn't keep my promise of blogging once a week, but I was stuck in the middle of nowhere. After my desert expedition in Mauritania I took the longest and probably also the dirtiest train in the world from Choum to Nouadhibou. Then I continued to lovely St Louis Senegal. At the border before entering Mali I bought a donkey for 40 euro to carry my bag and continue walking the main route to capital Bamako. This was definitely one of the most funniest though not the easiest parts of the whole trip. I had to hit Kiba more than I wanted to get him listen to me, stop stopping or returning home or crossing rivers. But, in the end, the pregnant animal was walking a couple of meters in front of me on the side of the road without any instructions. Then, the first village I passed, I was selected for the local daily football match which costed me the nail of my left big toe. In the next village this toe got infected a little and I went through my back again. In the third village I got a kind of Pfeiffer-attack as well as my right foot got infected. After three weeks of sitting, sweating and waiting in a chair, though enjoying the miracles of Malian hospitality and reading French books, I was mentally finished, start to communicate and listened to all of my family members which wished I came back home again, and decided to return by plane to base camp in Holland. I miss my lovely donkey Kiba which preferred to stay, but still, last 6 months were probably the best part of my life so far and made me an extremely happy man. Besides, I don't regret being back home and am looking forward to see you all. For the moment I am staying at my brothers house in Berghem but I have planned to visit Utrecht later this week for a couple of days. Tot snel, Geert