Mopti was the first proper town we arrived at. I was lucky to still be in the group of four that had done the Dogon trek together, so we found our way to a cheap guest house. I can't remember the details or name of the place, but it was probably around ten dollars a night. I shared a dorm room with my friend, and we were fortunate to have it to ourselves.
Changing money was a bit of a hassle I remember. I didn't need to but friend did and it took quite a while at the bank. I had used traveler's cheques at times. Cash was much easier to change in West Africa, however you usually needed a passport to change any money at all and often receipts for traveler's cheques.
Mopti is situated on the confluence of two rivers, the Bani and the Niger. It's a great base for branching out to the famous and recently infamous Timbuctu, sometimes by boat, sometimes by car. It's not particularly close and depending on the river levels can take 3 days to a week I think. I wasn't headed that way, but many in Mopti were. They were organising all the details for their trips there, quite a few foreigners were staying in Mopti.
The best thing to do as a tourist there, as Mopti itself doesn't contain a plethora of tourist attractions, was to take a boat on the rivers. I spent a few hours floating around, visiting some islands, watching river life in Mali. It was great. The people living on the islands see quite a few tourists naturally, and are always asking for cadeaux (gifts = money) but that doesn't spoil it if you have a cheerful attitude to it.
Watching boats move people and cargo around is great, and I saw some interesting things being ferried - including a small boat full of coffins.
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| Coffins on the river. |
Aside from Dogon Country, Mali's greatest attraction is the Mosque at Djenne, which we did in a longish day trip from Mopti. We had to hire a taxi, but with four people that was very affordable. We took it south, and at one point had to get out as the car made it across a river and up the embankment on the other side. The recent rains had taken out several bridges in the area.
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| Over the rooftops of Djenne the Mosque stands tall. |
A ferry took us across the river to Djenne, it's on a sort of island of its own. The taxi left us outside the mosque, pretty much the centre of Djenne. It was the biggest mud-brick mosque and probably building I have ever seen. A large square surround it - I think there is an amazing market there once or twice a week. You can't go inside sadly, apparently some westerners shot an advertisement there many years ago now which featured scantily-clad women and people were so shocked the mosque became closed to all foreign visitors.
However the whole town is mud-brick, an amazing maze of streets and life. Many people had official cards as guides and desperately wanted to guide us, but we found a nice bloke who showed us the way when we needed help so we employed him instead! It was a highlight of Mali, Djenne, no two ways about it. A must see and a very special place on Earth.
From there it was back to Mopti and another 5am bus the next day. My friend and I said goodbye to the two we'd been travelling with as they headed north to Timbuctu. We would head south to Segou....
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| The Mosque at Djenne. |
And that's where today's post ends. Last part on Mali in the next week, maybe sooner. Right now I can't recommend travel to Mali, however, if the troops in there get the job done as they seem to be doing, it could be a safe tourist destination sooner rather than later again.
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