Hello!

We are a young couple travelling around west africa on a motorbike. We are now in Mopti, leaving to Dogon country for 7-9 days, and planing to do the river trip to Timbuktu after that... So if you are interested to join in we could make the trip (considerably) cheaper.
As you probably know the trip takes 3-4 days and there is two ways of doing it:
One is going with a cargo/passenger pinasse, which is too crowded and uncomfortable, and does not stop anywhere, but cheaper... That is 20 - 30 000 CFA per person. Those pinasses are even more crowded now because the river is low, transport is scarce and demand is still big...
Another is getting the whole small pinasse for yourself, (tourist only) going at the pace you want, stopping when you want, but that is pretty expensive. Pinasse can comfortably take 12 people, and the trip would cost between 350 and 500 000. That's alot, but it is shared between people... More people there is cheaper it gets...
We found another option, and that is hiring a small boat that can take 6 people for 200 000.
Even if we find anybody else for the trip, we will take that option... So you can pretty much count on it...

So here is the deal:
Departing date is wendesday 6th April in the morning.
Everybody interested for the trip can come to the rooftop restaurant of the YaPasDeProblem hotel in Mopti on the 5th April evening. We will have a dinner and drink there (excellent food) - so we can just arrange everything on the spot... And leave next morning...
If we find up to 4 other people, we can take a small boat, if we find more people, we can take a pinasse...
You can reply here or send me a private mail through my webpage Davor Rostuhar | web site, though i wont have any access to internet before 5th April...

See you there!

Cheers!

Davor


ps. it's safe to leave the bike in that same hotel. We do it, same as did some other travellers we met...

I hope you manage to find a few other travellers, however if not, you can also do this trip by joining a commercial pinasse. I have done this trip in the other direction (from Timbuktu to Mopti) and have a couple of recommendations for you.

Although they say it will only take 3-4 days, be prepared for a 7 day trip if you take a smaller pinasse - mine took twice as long as I expected.

If you want to take the bike, a smaller commercial pinasse (ie able to carry either cargo or 10-20 people) is generally happy to carry the bike. The easiest way is to strap it into a separate pirogue and have this pirogue towed by the main pinasse. I was able to arrange this the day prior to travel without too much fuss.