Lifetime goal checklist: visit Ouagadougou. Done.

So after a 27 hour bus journey next to the most odious man I've possibly ever met, whose favourite topics of conversation included; why have you got so many spots?; that bread you gave me was awful; and, what presents are you going to give me to remember you by? I  landed in Ouaga. Under the watchful eye of two lovely young Algerians who kept trying to speak English I made it safely to the clean, cheap, quiet and friendly hostel attached to the nunnery at the cathedral. Where they served amazing food, all the time!

On the way into Burkina I was enamoured by the sahelian landscape, dustry, dry, the odd tree marking the way between the round compunds of mud and thatch huts, interspersed with chickens, donkeys, cows and old men with bicycles sat under trees. And after we ran out of petrol for the second time (you would think you'd learn first time round to keep some in the bus) and eventually arrived in Ouaga at night, something about its bright lights, tall buildings and wide roads reminded me of Berlin.

Then Thursday struck, and with it daylight, and the realisation that there isn't much to do in the dusty town. So I set about getting visas. At the Malian embassy I got my visa in 20 minutes, the fastest I have ever seen anything (including making a sandwhich) done in Africa. He called it the 'Elizabeth Special'.

But after a few days of milling around I got on an incredibly comfy bus to Bobo-Dioulasso, the second town. The bus departed one minute late, which ironically seemed to distress the driver, and even arrived early. I found it somewhat disconcerting.

I have discovered that Mali is going to be a bit of a no go area due to Al-quayeda threats so that knocks some time off my trip, and I'm now hoping to be back in England in January. And then hoping to leave again for sunny climes pretty quickly!