After six days of riding through the West African desert and Sahel, the GlobeBusters / Motorcycle Outreach Research Expedition has reached Kayes in Mali, a town which is reputed to be Africa's hottest in the summer. Their bike was soon covered in the country’s distinctive red dust.
During two days in the Sahara Desert, crossing Mauritania between Nouadhibou in the north and the Barrage De Diama in the south, BMW R1200GS rider, Craig Carey-Clinch and his wife Barbara Alam, braved sand storms, long dusty tracks and increasing temperatures.
Entering Senegal, the couple rode the Northern route to the road border with Mali, along mixed roads which are off the usual tourist trail. A final day's ride took both across into Mali at the Kidira/Diboli crossing. During this stage the British couple paused to remember the late Simon Milward, who founded the Motorcycle Outreach charity and died in 2005 in a tragic accident on the road between the border and the town of Kayes.
Craig commented; "The 500km stretch between Nouadhibou and Nouakchott saw us beset by a sand storm. It seems that the Harmattan winds are blowing early this year. The bike held out fine, though the left side was blasted as clean as new by the sand. The Touratech headlight protector really came into its own and saved the headlights from the kind of sand damage that we saw on other travelers' cars when we stopped in Nouakchott"
The couple now head west again, crossing back into Senegal and on towards the Gambia and the Atlantic coast route south again.
