Good morrow to you magistrate

Woke to find a crowned crane outside my door. Had breakfast and and were presented with a bill for our rooms. The price had gone up 2000, so we refused to pay, and all moved into 1 room. We were given a quick tour of Djenne by our SMERT apponted guide, including a visit to the 'Legendary Mosque'. Intereseting but no more, and the view from the top was V boring. (We were originally told that it was impossible to see inside the mosque, as it is such a holy place, but for 10 $USD it could be arranged, and it was).

We dispensed with our guide and I went for a walk around the 'beach' as Djenne is an island. Dirty, ratty squalid with lots of people washing, swimming and fishing.

We decided not to wait for the market on Monday and to leave on Sunday morning. However there were further disputes over the bill, so we payed what we had agreed (rather than what they were now asking) and left. We set up shop in 'our corner', by the coke shop on an old motor engine. It wasn't long before we were approached by the local police man, who wanted to know why we hadn't paid our hotel bill. We explained to him the problem, and he was very reasonable about it (seemingly).
"Ah, I see the problem, we have a dispute. Under these circumstances we will let the magistrate decide".
I agreed to this, and requested to go an see the magistrate immediately, only to be told that the magistrate was expected "2 weeks on Thursday"!

After two visits to the police station to discuss this we recognised that we had been done (and to this day I take my hat off to one of the better scams) and we paid in full.

We settled down on our engine to wait for transport out of town, and became the focus of attention for the usual gang of scruffians, some annoying, others not. We were eventually reduced to drawing a large circle in the sand and making a few juju signs, and this did keep them at bay for a while. We then (Eds note - ashamed to say) that we upped the ante by then pointing at 1-2 of them and making the cut throat sign which really freaked them out.

By mid-afternoon it became apparent that there was no transport leaving town that day, leaving us with a dilemma. The only official accommodation in town was the campement, but we refused to go back there, so we found a room in someones back yard to sleep in, not particularly comfy and probably illegal, though cheap.Read more