Segou, Djenne, and Mopti

Day: 27
Location: Mopti, Mali
Weather: dry heat
Kilometers: 500
Hours: 6
Health: fine
Accomodation: Ya pas de problem hotel
Price, room: 3.5K for roof x 2 = 7K CFA
Price, petrol: 504 CFA / lt
Price, water: 500 CFA
Shower: yes
Morale: 9
Total spend: 99K CFA
Song of the day: "What goes around comes back around", Justin Timberlake

AW: After we woke up early and saw some very photogenic scenes of morning on the Niger, we backtracked 9KM to Segou Koro, an ancient village upstream. The village chief was quite the extortionist, spinning some yarn about the lack of a maternity in the village that led to 3 infant deaths this year alone. As if that crap would work on us... Actually it did and we gave him 6K CFA. His response: “OK, now you can take photos no problem.”

It was a picturesque village, but we continued on to see something bigger 300km away: the grand mosquee at Djenne. This mud structure had mythical status in my mind ever since we studied old photos of it in college art history. In person, it was impressive despite the tourist atmosphere that has grown up around it. It is the largest mud structure in the world after all.

We grabbed some rice and caught the ferry back to the road and continued to Mopti. We arrived at 7PM and the hotel had a pool! But we couldn't swim because they were chlorinating. There was a nice bar on the terrace, right near the mats and mosquito nets where we would be sleeping.

We met a group of Brits working for Madventurer who had just come from Timbuktu. They claimed to have done it in 9 hours with no problem in an old Land Rover Defender. The flights were feeling expensive and we would have to wait until Saturday anyway, so we made the call to drive the notoriously bad route - to the surprise of the chauffeur the next morning, but whatever. We also met a 22 year old Swede named Sanna who agreed to come with us and split gas round trip to Timbuktu.

We have confirmed that the rains are officially late this year. Could have disastrous consequences for the locals (it sure is hot), but we haven't dealt with many mosquitoes, nor had any road problems, so it is a mixed blessing for us.

GB: Timbuktu it is. After all, so far driving our beast on tarmac has felt like massive overkill. Plus, the dubious looks of the Brits as we explained that our chauffeur was more of a facilitator/mechanic since we did all the driving eliminated any qualms I had before, thinking of Mahamadou potentially having to pick up his car at the scrapyard....

The hotel is really nice. Paradoxically enough, for once we don't even have a room, and yet it feels as if this is the most luxurious place we have slept in. Must be the pool we were refused the right to use...

Other than that, not much to say as we spent most of the day relaying each other behind the wheel, as we raced to Mopti. The driver seems to be finding his new status as a paid passenger to be quite enjoyable, and given the 4 hour nap he took today, he is probably the most rested among us. A good guy though. We had a bit of a moment when, as we got stopped by the police in an obvious bribe extraction attempt, he went to discuss the matter with the policeman, only to come back explaining that we had missed a turn and were headed in the wrong direction completely. Something he had missed due to intensive sleeping. While seemingly unfazed by this discovery, he had a puzzled look which I took to express his lack of familiarity with being driven, and the sudden realization that despite appearances, he was indeed the professional driver in the car. We had a good laugh, and then Adam, me and my "grand-pere" were back on our way - the right one this time.