This year I have extended the popular pinasse river boat trip so that you can do the majority of your journey to or from Timbuktu by river Niger.

I offer various itineraries all converging on the Festival. Your trip can include all or some of the following:

Segou

Site of the capital of the 15th century Malian empire, Segou is a pleasant, clam town on the banks of the Niger.

Pinasse river boat Segou to Djenne - 3 days. The best way to see Mali. Lazy days on one of the most beautiful and serene rivers in the world. A traditional wooden boat chugs lazily through the flood plains of the inland river Niger delta.

The Niger, the third largest river in Africa after the Nile and the Congo, is the life-line of the region and the source of the wealth of the various empires that have risen and fallen over the millennia. Its source is only 200 kms from the sea in Guinea, but it makes a 3000 km in-road into the centre of the continent towards the Sahara.

At Timbuktu it sees its mistake and begins a slow bend south and west to head through Niger and Nigeria before spilling out another 2000 kms later in the Niger Delta.

Watery horizons broken by spits of land supporting nomadic cattle herders and Bozo fishing villages. We stop off each day to pick up supplies in the markets of the towns and villages, see how pinasse boats are made, check out the mud mosques. We camp at night on the banks of the river.

Djenné

A World Heritage city situated on an island in the Bani river, built entirely in mud and home to the biggest mud building in the world - The Grand Mosque.

Dogon Country Treking

3 days of trekking down and along the Dogon Escarpment, through the villages of this fascinating animist tribe. Landscape and culture mix to give you an unforgettable experience of one of Africa’s most intriguing and mysterious regions.

We cover about 8 km a day, 4km in the morning and the same in the late afternoon, with a long lazy lunch/rest out of the midday heat. At night we sleep on the roofs of village hotels, beneath the brilliant canopy of stars so important to the Dogon belief systems.

After the Dogon country you return back to the river for Mopti to Timbuktu by pinasse through the inland River Niger delta, 3-4 days.

On this part of the river we head across Lake Debo and into the Inland River Niger Delta, stopping off at Bozo and Peul villages and the towns of Niafunke, inspiration to Ali Farka Toure - the Godfather of Malian music - and Dire to catch the weekly market.

Relax and take in the tranquil pace of life and the serene beauty of the river, so evocatively described in Ali Farka Toure’s music.

Timbuktu

Historically and geographically where the two worlds of Mali, the Sahara and sub-Saharan Africa meet.

Timbuktu should not be described, like Mohammed should not be depicted. It is enough for the journey to have been made.

From Timbuktu we travel out to the Festival In The Desert.