Avez-vous une chambre avec gecko, s'il vous plait?

There has been an unscheduled break for the herd today: Are We There Yet are now the none-too-chuffed owners of a very broken Fiat Panda and will have to travel the rest of the way as passengers of Dynamo Dysart. Still, if you are going to stop, Kiffa is not a bad place to do it. The children of the village have been singing and women have brought their babies to meet the teams, and people are generally treating their white visitors as privileged guests. Mum's schoolgirl command of French is serving her well, as none of the rest of the group have a useable language, more and more words are returning to her as situations demand her to be able to order a room or similar. Facilities are basic to say the least, but they have found somewhere a little nicer to stay tonight than last night - ok so there are geckos in the bedroom and scorpions in the bathroom, but at least they won't be sleeping wrapped in their sleeping bag liners and mosquito nets tonight. Last night they ate camel - the general verdict is 'chewy, very chewy', but that's honestly not a complaint. Everyone has been humbled by the happiness and love in extreme poverty all around them. Mum and Jane wanted to empty the car and give everything away but for the sake of their survival they settled for giving away the football they took with them this afternoon, to some children from outside the village who were so scared of the strangers that they wouldn't accept the gift until it had been left by the road and the car driven away. They have also taken some excellent photos, so they say, so I shall look forward to seeing those!

Tomorrow has been made a little more difficult by today's realisation that the road they had intended to take is just too rough for two wheel drive vehicles (they still have a Fiesta in the convoy). They will have to take the one available black-top route into Mali instead, which adds around a hundred miles to the journey. Still, it should be much easier than crossing the last border. The border between Mauritania and Mali is pretty much imaginary and there certainly aren't the rigorous and frightening passport controls that exist to enter Mauritania from Morocco.