Well, at long last here are some Mali photos. I'll add some photos from Mole and from Togo, Benin, and Niger sometime before I leave Ghana...which, sadly, only leaves me 6 days in which to do so! But, fear not - I'll keep updating here straight on until my return to the US in mid-June, and I plan to buy a new camera with some extra dinero I lucked into when I get to Ireland, so the photographic fun and excitement doesn't have to stop! Thanks to Jessee Fleenor, friend and travel companion, for these photos.

1. Sunrise over the Sahel as seen from the top of the roof we slept on during our first night in Dogon country.
2. Moses' village that we stayed in the first day.
3. The ancient cliff dwellings of the Dogon and the pygmies as seen from a modern Dogon village.
4. The view from the cliff dwellings; this nice little cleft was a pleasant, shady hangout for both weary Americans AND goats. And yes, this was THE cliff, if you know what I mean...
5. A close-up of the dwellings; the smaller, cylindrical ones are the pygmie huts, and the larger, boxier ones are Dogon.
6. The view around dusk from another cliff; we had hiked up during the late afternoon to a clifftop Dogon village to spend the night. The view was incredible, and you can see the village's communal garden from the cliff - we had walked through it earlier.
7. Carolyn on the edge of the Dogon world; morning on the cliff where we'd spent the night on a mudhut roof.
8. The village in which we'd stayed; the style of hut and wall construction seen here is typically Dogon and can be seen throughout Dogon country.
9. The road to Timbuktu took us past some pretty impressive rock formations, this being one of them.
10. Three extremely hot, dirty, and tired American backpackers crossing the Niger River to get to Timbuktu.
11. Kevin, the Desert Warrior and Shiek of the Burning Sands. Notice how my facial expression matches that of Pedro, the camel. My gritted teeth show my determination not to get thrown off the camel or get racked again on the camel saddle. I succeeded in the former goal, but not the latter...but so it goes in the Sahara.
12. Mohammed, one of our Touareg hosts, leading us out to his Saharan encampment.
13. Yes, we really made it - TIMBUKTU.