Finally on the road with the Hilux

Day: 26
Location: Segou, Mali
Weather: Scorcher during the day, but monsoon clouds and breeze made it cool and comfortable by early evening.
Kilometers: 250
Hours: 6
Health: great!
Accomodation: Toyota Hilux
Price, room: 0K CFA
Price, petrol: 504 CFA / lt
Price, water: 400 CFA
Shower: no
Morale: 9
Total spend: 43K CFA
Song of the day: "Shutup I'm dreaming of places where lovers have wings", Sunset Rubdown

AW: So Mahamadou was the winner. He put new tires on the back wheels, replaced the halogen lamps, oil change, and removed a funky canopy from the back, and we were ready to go by 7PM.

I just want to make sure everyone is aware that we chose to spend a LOT more money over the course of the next 13 days in order to reduce the chance of further mishaps. Prudent? That's flattering, thank you. Now we all wait for something to break.

We spent the morning making final calls and last offers, searching frantically for cash, and buying ice cream and mango juice for Guillaume to keep him slaked. OK, I had a little ice cream too. Due to some details around an interbank transfer, I had run flat out of cash in my etrade account, and no additional funds would be available for 3 days. My etrade card is our only visa debit, and we struggled to find any MasterCard options in Bamako, so we thought we would have to resort to Western Union, Swift transfer, or cash advance (probably insufficient).

Quite a cash crunch because we needed to pay up front for the car ($600 is half!), and have enough cash to make it all the way to Ouagadougou, including potential flights to and from Timbuktu ($400), and all petrol, accommodation, food, and admissions, not to mention a cushion. We had been seeing MasterCard sign s in several banks around the city, but they all said they got excited and put up the signs even though they didn't actual take MasterCard yet. Then, we heard there was one HQ branch outside of the city, and they had started there. We took and taxi and were in luck - the first MasterCard ATM in Mali had opened last week.

We were so sleepy for some reason that we let the chauffeur drive to Segou. It was supposed to be about 2.5 hours away but he drove slowly so it took us 6. When we arrived, at 2AM, we parked by the Niger River and slept in the car until 6AM. During the night, someone rifled through the personal effects of our chauffeur, Modibo. He looked very sheepish, but they only took his cell charger. We would store his bag inside the cab going forward.

GB: We had it: the much desired and simultaneously much dreaded second 4x4 of this trip. I have no doubt we will spend the next 13 days with our ears attentive to the faintest uncommon sound, or our eyes riveted to the heat gauge, as we hope to diagnose any potential problem before it escalates. This one is the stuff though. As mentioned above, we once again had a shady option in the form of a baker/used 4x4 importer, who after initially agreeing to a price almost half of this one (25K CFA), raised his demands to 35. We hope to have learned from our mistakes and took a financial hit to ensure safety and success. Not that this should prevent us from pushing this car to its limits.

Brief yet typical misunderstanding as we met our chauffeur, Modibo. Dude shows up, and suddenly as I confirm that he is all included, we discover that his living expenses were not. He is paid 5K by Mahamadou, and we are to cover his living expenses to the amount of 3.5K per day. In a pure consultant reflex, we quickly calculated and proceeded to argue that this would imply a 135% operating margin in the chauffeur business. Highly improbable given observed supply... After bitter negotiations, we came out unscathed financially (3.5 went down to 1, which Mahamadou very grudgingly agreed to pay after we stonewalled), and in pure African fashion we were all suddenly related (Adam became Mahamadou's "petit fils", and I became the chauffeur's). We set off at 9PM for Segou, many hopes and fears tangled into a tight knot of expectations.