We left Bamako at about 10.30am in the morning on Friday April 25, via the sortie de Bamako, in around 40 degrees heat. We passed the famous cite des mangues – the name speaks for itself! The road incredibly is tarred all the way to Ségou. We reached the border between Koulikoro region and Segou region about 11.30 or 12pm. I wasn’t studiously monitoring the time, though, as the heat was causing me to drift in and out of sleep.
Ségou is a tranquil place, having been the country's old colonial capital, and Mali’s second largest city. The Auberge where I stayed runs along the River Niger, which isn’t a bad location for watchin theg sunset. Unsuprisingly life in Ségou appears to revolve around the Niger – be it women doing their domestic chores, children playing around in the water, fishermen casting out their nets, and wannabe be tour guides with ‘pirgoues’ waiting to take the few tourists who venture there at this very hot time of the year across to the Island on the other side. arlier, coming into Ségou, we drove past the Office du Niger, which began an irrigation scheme a while ago. However the building didn’t seem to be open to the public, guess Friday is a bit of a lazy day here in Mali. In any casee we'd already seen hundreds of muslim faithfuls stream outside the grand mosque when we arrived in Segou. Tranquil pleasant city. Not much going on though, apart from the River Niger. A worthy stop nonetheless!
Pictures: Sunset over the pirogues by the River Niger, Donkeys on the road to Segou and me at the Musée Nationale, Bamako
Journey time: 3 hours
