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Saved: November 30th 2021
Segou Gare Routiere
When Peter took a photo of the bus, these fellows wanted to be in the picture too.Sorry about the lack of bicycle story from the last blog, we were encountering computer difficulties and in the mad dash to finish before our time ran out, I totally forgot about the cycling adventure.
On our last day in Segou we hired bikes and imagined a full day of exploring the area on bikes - mountain bikes, as the roads are almost all sand. Once again, we forgot we were in Africa. The bikes arrive, and one is not bad at first glance, thick tires, sturdy frame, 21 gears. The second bike - for the girl - is straight out of 1970 - a 5-speed cruiser with narrow tires (flat we discovered) and a seat so low my knees almost hit my chin. After some broken French and sign language, the bike renter goes to fill the tires of the bike. As we start out, Peter discovers that he only has 3 gears to choose from, but at least his brakes work, more than I can say for my bike. On the lovely, tree-lined streets, the cycling is delightful. Then we leave the tree-lined streets and head out on the highway. YIKES!! We have been on the buses that buzz
cyclists, and now we are the cyclists! Peter can ride in the sandy shoulder a lot better than I can, but we manage to not get in the way of any vehicles. Not only that, but is over 40°C and the lovely trees are behind us. We decide to trade bikes, and shortly after we do, Peter finds the rear tire of the old bike is flat. We are about 10 km out of town, near, but not at our destination, and there is not a lot of shade - hence the photo under the tree, we had to walk off the road aways, through a field to stand in some shade. We decide to head back and along the way we try to pump up the tire, but it is punctured, so we ride the flat all the way back. That was the end of our cycling adventure. Maybe we'll try again one day.
The journey to Mopti was supposed to be 6 hours (in a hot, non-airconditioned bus), but it took almost 9 hours. We were on the bus that stopped for everyone and everything along the road. It took us about 45 minutes to clear the
The Road Ahead
Taken from the middle of the road while our bus was being fixed. town limits of Segou, because we stopped every 500 m (at least that's what it felt like!). This bus journey was the first time we sat near the front. Usually we sit near the back to be inconspicuous, but the bus people told us where to sit this time, so we sat in the second row. The best part was the driver had a roll down window so we got a lot of breeze from that, and whenever we stopped, the big door was opened a blast of air would come in. It was as close to air conditioning as we were gonna get! About 3 hours into the trip a back tire blew out. Most of the passengers climbed out to seek some shade, and we climbed out to get air and take photos. The bald flat was replaced with the bald spare - at least it had air in it - and we were on our way again.
Mopti lived up to it's reputation. Two steps off the bus and a large fellow is in my face asking where we are going and can he take us to his hotel. We don't even know where our bags
The Bani River At Mopti
Pinasses of all sizes line the river bank. are yet and this guy won't leave us alone. It gets under my skin very quickly. In the end, he was from the place that we wanted to stay anyway, so we followed him to the hotel. He of course is a guide, and the entire time we spent in Mopti he asked us what our plans were and then he could build a program for us. Although we told him several times we weren't interested, he was relentless. It made our stay a little uncomfortable as we were trying to avoid him as best we could. At this hotel, we ran into an Italian couple who we had seen in Bamako, and they invited us to join their trip to Timbuktu. In the end, their trip was too expensive for us, and the budget option we researched is not possible at this time of the year. Although Timbuktu would have been a great adventure, we have decided to not travel there (sorry Richard!). The budget option we were hoping for was to travel up the river, however, the river is too low for the public transport. The land journey is 12 hours (it can sometimes take upto 24 hours)
in a jam-packed 4WD and in this heat it did not appeal to us at all. It is with a little sadness that I say we are giving Timbuktu a miss, but then again, we need to leave some sights for the next time we are here!
Our first day out in Mopti was a little overwhelming as everyone wants to "help" us out. You'd think we would be used to this by now, but it still bowls us over whenever it is en masse. For the most part we were able to use humour to brush off the entourage, but sometimes only being rude will work, no matter how bad it makes us feel. Mopti is a bustling port town on the Bani and Niger Rivers. It is here that the boats from Timbuktu bring slabs of salt for sale from the salt mines of northern Mali. The river is used for everything - washing clothes, dishes, cars, motorbikes, goats, sheep and horses, oh yes, and humans too! Once we got past the port and the areas that tourists frequent, we found Mopti to be a fairly relaxed small town. The best part was getting back to the
hotel and jumping in the pool to cool off!
Our short stay in Mopti was planned so that we could get transport to Djenné for the Monday Market, reputedly one of the most atmospheric in West Africa. The mosque at Djenné is also one of the largest mud brick mosques in Mali. It was rebuilt in the original 11th century style after the original was destroyed.
We arrived at the Gare Routiere at 7 am so we wouldn't miss the bus, and ended up waiting 3 hours for it to fill. C'est la vie. We are travelling on Africa time and are slowly getting used to it. If we thought Mopti was overwhelming, we were not prepared for Djenné. Everyone is a guide in Djenné and you can't possibly see Djenné without a guide and there are not many tourists left anymore, so the guides outnumber us 10 to 1. We find our tiny hotel and our cell-like room (should have had a picture) and take a breather from all the guides and the others selling souvenirs. The first pictures of the mosque at Djenné are taken on the Sunday evening, before the market is set up in
View of Mopti From The Gare Routiere
This photo was taken at 7 am while we waited for our bus to Djenné. front of the mosque and all through town.
The next morning we brave the crowds with a young boy, Hamsa, leading the way. We didn't ask him to be our guide and he didn't offer, it just sort of happened. In the end it was lovely to have Hamsa show us around, he will be a very good guide in a few short years, as he already has the salespitch for souvenirs down pat. Every place Hamsa took us to he said "this is my family", if we were to believe him then he is related to the whole town! We decided to leave in the afternoon, because we knew we wouldn't get any peace if we stayed the next day to wander around on our own. Even the one hour we spent on our own we had an entourage of small children trailing after us. Once the guides know you have seen town, then they want to take you to the Dogon Country or Timbuktu, the pitch never ends. As we were heading back to the hotel to collect our bags, we met two Dutch fellows living in Djenné. Nordin was at the end of a volunteer stint
where he was helping to teach football to local youths. Willem is a university student working on his thesis for his Tourism major. They invited us to stay the night in their house, and we decided that we try for the bus first, and if for some reason we missed it, then we would take them up on their offer. In the end, we caught the bus for Sévaré (near Mopti).
Djenné is on an island in the Bani River, so we have to take a short ferry to travel back to Sévaré. The river is very low, as you will see by the photo of the horse and cart crossing the river. Once we get to the other side, the river is too shallow to get the ferry right up to the bank, so the vehicles have to drive through a small bit of the river. As Peter and I were at the back of our bus (and it loads mostly from the back), we were the last to get back into the bus when we arrived at the other bank. For some reason they didn't want all the passengers on the bus for the river part so
they told us to cross by foot. The only two people on the whole bus who are wearing socks and shoes of course. My western sensibilities took over and I shouted to Peter to take off his shoes as I was taking off mine. When we reached the other side we had wet pants and sandy feet to put back into our shoes. In the end, the wash would probably have done our shoes good and they would have dried by the time we reached our destination!
Our next stop is the Dogon Country. If you get a chance, look up the Dogon, a very fascinating people in Mali. We will be trekking for 4 days through various Dogon villages. We are really looking forward to this experience.
Lots of love,
Laini and Peter
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Charlene
non-member comment
room for rent
Okay maybe Bahamas wasn't a rip off for accomedations LOL I liked our room a little better than yours here LOL but your still away and I'm NOT dam you win again !!!