hey, Dougie. we met at the Zebra bar ... 3 loons on XR650Rs: Bertil had just come 35th in the Dakar and was trying to keep up with Tim and me who'd just come up from Cape Town in 6 weeks ... we were impressed that you'd brought that Enfield through from Nouadhibou - nutters also ride Enfields, it appears. I'm also impressed you made it Bamako at all let alone in 13 hours esp at 20kmh on the corrugations

1) fuel and water are much easier to find from Bamako onwards as far as Nguigmi in Niger
2) Niger and Tchad are the worst of 23 African countries that I've been to so rest up in Mali or Burkina Faso - nicer people!
3) lake chad is a tough route. you need 300km of fuel, but, more importantly, to navigate well! we camped out rather than ride at night and I suggest you either break the journey at villages or camp out too. be careful in Nguigmi ... there's a thief called Modo who'll make you really welcome at his house and he was the only person to get past my radar
4) east africa is generally much more pleasant. I like the people! I speak french and get on OK with west africans, but they're hard compared to even the roughest/toughest cops/robbers in east africa.
hope that helps
let me know if you want more info on shipping from Ndjamena to Ethiopia as we had to fly the other way
keep your pecker up
Rich