To cut a long story short, my friends helped the BBC team reach Mopti.
From there, the boats sailed four days south to the first town under government control, Mopti.
The cars headed for Bamako, via Mopti, the last government-controlled town in Mali during the Islamist occupation of the North.
After confidently setting off the next morning, the BBC crew was stopped half way to Mopti at a military roadblock.
If the Islamists took Mopti in central Mali, then in a few days they would have taken the capital Bamako.
But it is salt - carried by camel to Timbuktu from the mines in the deep Sahara, then by dug-out canoe to Mopti.
Residents in Mopti, just south of Konna, told the BBC they had seen French troops helping Malian forces prepare for a counter-offensive against the Islamists.
BBC: French troops continue operation against Mali Islamists
Diabaly, 195 kilometers (120 miles) west of Mopti, was retaken Monday after Islamist fighters who had seized it a week earlier fled amid French air strikes.
Additionally, a French helicopter pilot died while taking part Friday afternoon in an aerial operation targeting a terrorist group moving on the town of Mopti, near Konna, Le Drian said.
France has sent about 550 troops to the central town of Mopti and to Bamako, and a defence ministry official told Reuters troop numbers would increase to 2, 500 in coming days.
The French pilot died while taking part Friday afternoon in an aerial operation targeting a terrorist group moving on the town of Mopti, near Konna, French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said.
The BBC's Hugh Schofield in Paris says it is not clear what form French intervention might take, but one possibility is the use of air strikes if the rebels advance on Mopti.
BBC: Mali crisis: France ready to stop rebels, says Hollande
The group said it had confirmed that Malian forces have carried out numerous executions in the key conflict area between the north and south, particularly in the towns of Sevare, Mopti and Niono.
Douentza had been held by Islamist rebels for four months and is located 195 kilometers (120 miles) northeast of Mopti, the previous line-of-control held by the Malian military in Mali's narrow central belt.
The town of Douentza had been held by Islamist rebels for four months, located 195 kilometers (120 miles) northeast of Mopti, the previous line-of-control held by the Malian military in Mali's narrow central belt.
French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Tuesday that French troops and warplanes joined the battle last week on the side of Malian government forces, and prevented the Islamists from capturing the city of Mopti.
Down on the bustling banks of the Niger in the port of Mopti - the Venice of Mali as the faded tourist posters call it - I find stacks of square white slabs flecked with grey.
French and Malian forces also took the town of Diabaly, which lies 195 kilometers (120 miles) west of Mopti, on Monday after Islamist fighters who had seized it a week earlier fled amid French air strikes.
But on Thursday, an unnamed senior officer in Mopti - one of the areas where the executions are alleged to have taken place - told the BBC's Mark Doyle that an investigation team was looking into the claims.
Some of the alleged executions were carried out in the Mopti area, a town which is strategically vital because it has a large military airport nearby, one of only a few in Mali capable of taking large transport planes.
French intelligence identified about 200 vehicles and thousands of men, mounting a two-pronged offensive - from Douentza in the east and from Lere in the west, near Mauritania - aimed at seizing the strategic city of Mopti, gateway to the Malian south.
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