Djenne Transportation

2 more images

The only real way to get here via a quick ferry ride after about an hour (give or take traffic from Mopti) by car. Ferry is a quick ride once the thing has arrived...they run all day taking supplies to the city. You can drive on or walk on and it is a nice ride accross the river

Read first chapter first...(the mopti transportation tip)if you decide to go by pickup(bear in mind that bamako is around 600kms away)
However there is one direct bus to bamako every thursday at 8sharp and I wasn't sarcastic.
Comparing to pickups this is first class transport, however even though the bus was bigger the amount of people present inside made the trip quite uncomfortable(no snacks or inbus videos.....),and very very long, about 12 hours.

4 more images

Since Djenne is basically on an island, surrounded by wetlands, and well off the main highway between Segou and Mopti, the 15 mile distance from the main highway into town can be challenging, especially at night. We were virtually dropped off the bus at the crossroads at near midnight, and for about 30 minutes spent our time trying to avoid a relative rip-off in terms of taxi transportation as we concerned ourselves with basic in the pitch black darkness. After our eyes adjusted to the blackness, the bigger problem became the roadworthy nature of the vehicle that would transport us to town. After loading the Peugeot pick-up, we had to help push start it. The headlights flickered as we drove, and the brakes appeared to be virtually non-existent. Both sides of the dirt road dropped off into a blackness of boggy water, and so as the driver navigated his way through the dense fog, we held on to each other. We didn't have much luxury even though we sat inside the cab. The seats were worn and rocked a bit, the paneling was absent. Eventually though we did arrive at the ferry and waited out turn to load. The return trip was relatively easy. We arranged in advance the vehicle and left with first day light. We rode with a group of other tourists and our guide. This bachee also took us all the way to Mopti, so we didn't have to wait at the crossroads.

If you want to visit Djenne, the best option from Mopti is the public transport. You'll have to bargain a lot.

It's very important that you'll be early in the morning because the way is long and every van goes only once a day (when the van is full) and the same van will wait for you in Djenne in the afternoon.

If you rent a car you must pay for crossing Niger River (hard bargaining)

For our visit to Djenne we took a pirogue early in the morning. The evening before the owner of the boat came by to ask, if we would take his boat and at waht time we wanted to cross the river.
The early boatride was wunderfull.

There is a possibility to go to Djenne comming from Mopti doirectly by a Taxi Brousse. But the car leaves not many times a week as there are generally not many passengers willing to go to Djenne. But on the market day in Djenne, it is much easier to find a mean of transport, comming from Mopti or Sevaré.
In Djenne itself, the best way to go around is by foot, as there are almost no streets where cars could drive and the city is not as big as it would be necesarry to be motorized.