The primary entry to The Niger River Basin is by boat from the important crossroads town of Mopti. Upon our arrival in Mopti in Dec 2007 we were fortunate enough to learn that the rains had been good that year and the river level was still high enough that the ferry that travels between Mopti and Gao via Timbuktu had been extended by an extra month and we would be able to catch the last sailing of the season. I assume because of the unusual schedule extension there were not many others on the ferry and we opted for deck class and pitched our tents out on the open upper deck for the 41hr journey to Timbuktu. The bottom deck was full of cargo; watermelons, guavas, drying fish, chickens, a few goats and a huge stack of timber, all making for an interesting smell.

The river is a large delta in this region with a lot of small villages of fishermen on the banks. Often these are no more than a dozen little mud and straw huts that look ready to wash away with the next rains. Our ferry seemed to be mostly used for transporting cargo and made numerous stops along the way. For us it was an unorthodox Christmas but a relaxing one just watching a very simple and traditional way of life play out before our eyes. As much as I think of it as a cultural landscape, the nomination is a natural one and in that regard it did not disappoint either. We saw a truly impressive amount of bird life and 2 hippos as well. We enjoyed the experience enough that we decided to extend our stay in Timbuktu and catch the ferry on its final trip back to Mopti a few days later.