We left bustling Bamako early on Sunday morning and headed north-east towards the Niger Inland Delta. Our aim was to get to get to Djenne , a world heritage site, in time for their infamous Monday Market! Djenne sits on an island in the Bani river and like Timbuktu used to be a an important commercial trading centre from as early as the 13th century! Gold, slaves and kola nuts came from the south and were exchanged for Saharan salt. Although this large-scale trading has come to an end, the town still boasts one of the busiest markets in West Africa. Every Monday, the town’s population roughly triples as people come from surrounding villages and even as far as Bamako to come sell their merchandise. The most special aspect of the market was not so much in the wares of the stalls but more in the setting as the grand mud mosque provides a backdrop to this lively market! The Djenne mosque is the largest mud structure in the world. Each year before the rainy season, volunteers from the town help resurface the mosque with a new layer of mud by hand! It was definitely worth the visit (although at some stages, I thought I might pass out from the heat and smell of fish!!) Also worth doing is taking a walk around the labyrinthine streets away from the market. There is hardly a modern building in sight and most of the houses are made of mud-brick and are over a storey high! One downside to the visit was the very persistent guides wanting to show you around the town. Some took no for an answer, while others followed you around and became quite a nuisance.
We left Djenne and headed to Sevare to find a place to camp for a few nights. We found a great spot a few km’s north of Sevare called Mon P’tit Repos, where we were able to camp! The campement is fairly new and consisted of a few thatched bungalows in a well-kept garden. We unfortunately had to camp on a sandy patch of ground and it got bit dusty as the Harmatan wind decided to rear its ugly head and nothing was going to stop it!! We spent the next day catching up on e-mails (they had WIFI!), exploring nearby Mopti and most importantly organising a guide for our Dogon hike. Mopti was quite an experience- as one of West Africa’s largest river ports it was incredibly busy and intense to say the least!!! We luckily could seek refuge (or so we thought!) at Restaurant Bar Bazo which overlooks the Mouth of Mopti harbour! It was quite incredible to watch a port running as if we were back in the 19th century! The boats were old pinasses and men were wading in and out of the water loading and offloading blocks of salt and other wares. Interestingly, Mopti is at the confluence of the rivers Niger and Bani and boats go from here to Timbuktu. Again, the city swarms with guides and hawkers and as much as you want to be friendly to people greeting you, it seems that every conversation has an ulterior motive! We were constantly interupted at lunch with people trying to sell us goods! I was relieved to return to the dust storm back at the camp!!!
