Djenne is situated about 500 km north of Mali's capital Bamako. The road is surfaced all the way. To get to Djenne, you can take the bus at Sogoniko, the bus station outside of Bamako, and buy a ticket to Mopti. Buses leave several times a day.
About 140 km before Mopti, you get off at the intersection ('le carrefour de Djenne'), the turn off to Djenne. From here, transport is very irregular and you may have to wait for several hours for a bush taxi. Just before the town, a ferry crosses the Bani river, and from the other bank it is another 3 kms to town. A tourist tax of 1000 CFA will be levied starting later in 2000.
If you leave Bamako early in the morning, you will certainly make it to Djenne. The trip to the turn off takes about 6 hours. You can also stop midway at Segou (3 hours by bus) and spend the night there.
A bus ticket to Segou costs 2000 CFA, to Mopti about 5000 CFA.
You can also rent a car in Bamako, the typical rate for a car with driver is CFA 50,000 per day, plus the petrol for a return trip to wherever you want to go. It's not a cheap option! Car rental can be arranged by most hotels in Bamako.
ATTENTION!
It can be hard to get out of Djenne.There are not always taxi's in the mornings. Make sure you enquire the day before, or you might miss your connection to Bamako or Mopti. Typically the taxi's run to the intersection with the main road only (at the intersection you may have to wait for several hours for onward transport), and only on certain weekdays do they continue to Mopti or San (direction Bamako). There you have to change to another bus or bushtaxi.
There are 3 hotels in Djenne. Chez Baba has a large, very 'African' courtyard and 5 basic rooms. The rooms can be rented privately at CFA 10,000 a night, or shared at CFA 2500. The restaurant is excellent and the atmosphere very relaxed. This is the favorite place for individual travellers. You can also camp in the courtyard or on the roof (great views).
Le Campement is more upmarket, aircon rooms are CFA 20,000 and the food is also more expensive. Here you'll see more organised tours and groups.
These two places are the only ones in Djenne where you can get a beer!
The third hotel is Hotel Kita Koro, where you can only stay in a dorm. Good food here.
All three are right in the centre of town and you can't miss them, one of the guides who meet you at the bus station will take you there.
Entry of the Djenne mosque
There a a lot of guides in Djenne, some good and some not so good. The best ones are all members of DENTAL, the Djenne Association of Guides (see their message elsewhere on this site). Quite a few speak reasonable English.You can go for a simple tour of Djenne, or visit a few of the beautiful neighbouring villages like Senousa and Sirimou, on foot or by donkey cart. There are no fixed rates, all is subject to negotiation; that's Africa for you.
The president of the guides is called Kola Ba, his nickname is Chirac.
The town is famous for its architecture, its koranic schools and the Monday market.
You can visit the stupendous mosque, but you can't go inside after an incident with some Italian photographers who let their models poses a little too scantily dressed in the mosque.
All over town there are fascinating houses in the Sudanese style, and you can wander around through the narrow alleys all day. For more on the buildings, see elsewhere on this site. For more about the architecture, see 'Holy Mud' elsewhere on this site.
You can also visit one of the outlying villages. On foot, it's half an hour to Linde Soro, where the famous Amadou Sekou preached. A little further are Senousa and Sirimou, both with a beautiful mosque, and lovely examples of large villages where traditional life survives intact. You can go there by donkey cart or you can rent a moped for about CFA 10,000 a day. Note that between June and December you can only get there by small boat (pirogue) because then the whole plain around Djenne is flooded. A pirogue with an outboard engine will cost you CFA 50,000 but one that is poled will be much cheaper.
Village of Sirimou
Djenne is famous all over West Africa for its many koranic schools and teachers, the marabouts (see 'Marabouts' elsewhere on this site). You can go to see a marabout, ask him for advice, even get him to make you a holy charm. Ask one of the guides to take you to one, for instance Modi Sidibe, the muezzin (the man who chants the call to prayer from the mosque).
The famous Monday market attracts a lot of visitors, they come from Bamako, San, Mopti, and all the surrounding villages. It's a great event. The evening before has its own magic, with a lot of market goers camping in the main square in eager anticipation, their wares and cattle all around them.
The best time to go is between November and March. The plain around Djenne is flooded from June to December. In March it's dry. April and May are dry but very hot (over 40 C every day).
June, July and August are very hot, and it rains a lot, the streets are full of mud and there are lots of mosquitoes. September and October are still hot but less so, at this time the mosquitoes begin to ease off.
The very best months for visiting are December, January and February, when the rain is gone, the mosquitoes are not so bad, the temperature is great (up to 30 C in the day, cool at night), the river is still high but the plains begin to dry up.
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