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Up early and airborne with the sun. The EGT temperatures
were high on my engine, so I stayed at 500 ft and above to give me time to find a survivable spot to land in the event of an engine failure. I looked back at the engine and actually was not surprised that one of the
ignition units was not working with all the dust on it.
It was a great three-hour flight to Mopti where we
were to drop Ines off. For the last hour we flew down the Niger River. What an incredible sight to see the villages and the amazing mud mosques in the centre of each village. Mopti is a large town on the Niger
River. Flying low level over the town and seeing the sampan type boats, an old river steamer, the market places and the building, the colours and the crowds. Amazing, amazing, amazing!
At the airport we had something to eat, refuelled and
headed southwards towards Burkina-Faso. It was quite hazy but we could still see huge stormy cumulonimbus clouds towering above us in our flight path. We diverted to the west for the first one and to the east for
the second. Olivier did not want to continue, suggesting that I continue if I wanted, but he wanted to land. I tried to persuade him that the clouds were nothing to worry about. Anyway, I didn't want to continue on
my own and he was right after all – rather be cautious and alive than bold and dead. I need him to temper my flying sometimes.
I chose a large open pan quite far from the nearest
villages and without circling went straight in for a landing. It only took ten minutes when a horseman and a motorcyclist arrived slightly ahead of about twenty young men on bicycles. They were sweating profusely
from the race to get to the flying machines that they had all seen drop out of the sky. They have such good eyes and know the area and realised that we were landing on the pan.
Within thirty minutes we were surrounded by at least
150 people. The difference with these people, from the famous Dogon tribe, is that they were quiet, shy and respectful. None of them came too close to us, they chatted reasonably quietly to each other and only a few
men ventured forward to talk to us. Also the men kept the children under control, giving them the sharp end of their tongue to keep them back or quiet. I was pleasantly surprised and enjoyed watching them.
The storm seemed to disappear, so we took off again
and headed straight towards Ouagadougou, arriving just as the sun set. It had been an incredible days flying.
The president of the Aeroclub of Ouagadougou happened
to be there at the same time and welcomed us warmly, fed us with beer and arranged hangarage and a guard for the trikes. I took the opportunity to work on my engine in the hangar. After removing the ignition boxes
and refitting them, both ignition units started working again. Bonus Moronus! So, it had just been the excessive dust. "Wash me, nurse" I can hear my trike saying! A taxi took us to Hotel Ricardo, where we had more
beer and a steak.
We have decided to wait in Ouagadougou until we have
the next flight authorisations from BaseOps and also to have another attempt at getting a Nigerian visa.
Slept well.
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