Illness in Mopti

We left Djennè the next morning in a sept-place (cramped neuf-place), and arrived in Mopti a few hours later. Mopti has taken over from Djennè as the commercial capital of central Mali, probably because it is situated right on the banks of the River Bani, a few hundred metres from where it joins the River Niger north towards Timbuktu. Just down from where we stayed at the Catholic Mission (loving the nuns) there were rows of pinasses, giant wooden canoes, that were unloading salt, food, goats and all sorts of other random things onto the port. Not sure what happened to a lot of it, but hundreds of the goats got bagged up, with only their heads showing, and put onto/into coaches - in the hold and on the roof...

On another point, if we thought hassle in Djennè was bad, Mopti was far worse. Dozens of tour guides for the Dogon Country, pirogue owners who want to do a day trip for extortionate amounts, fake nomad tribesmen selling tat 'from the desert', and all the other usual gumph (gumf? not really sure on that one). Unfortunately for us we all got ill at somepoint in Mopti, but on the plus side did find a wonderdrug called Nurfloxan, or something to that effect. It is in the guide book as something to treat the renowned "traveller's diarreah", but also is amazing at combating cramps, sickness and fevers. A veritable wonder drug.

Anyway, back to the Mission. In our guidebook (Bradt's, which although do pack in a lot of information have stupid maps) the Mission was still being refurbiushed. Little did we know, but we would be the first people to stay there. When the nun showed us the (very cheap) rooms, she had to take the plastic off the bed covers! It was probably one of the nicest places we have, and will be, staying in - toilet and shower en suite, double bed, table, chair, mozzie net, fan, AIR CON! All for just 5000 CFA each (about £8), which was quite good, as we spent most of our time in Mopti in there!

Apart from a few gorgeous sunsets over the river, there's not too much more to tell about Mopti. We had to buy the ticket for the river ferry downstream the Niger to Timbuktu, but were told the next boat was on Thursday (we had arrived on Sunday). So all in all, not the worst place for to all get sick.

We did try and find a place called Ashraf Voyages (in the guide), where we could have rented bikes to go on a bit of an adventure, but neither they or anywhere else had the availability for renting. There was one strange meeting, but I think that warrants a whole blog of its own.