Things to Do in Siguiri

Niger River pirogue sunrise

You glide out while the river steams like soup, past sand-spit islands where yellow weaverbirds sew nests from palm strips. Fishermen slap wet fish onto metal pirogue ribs, the smell mixing with diesel as they fire up Chinese outboards. The town's low skyline of tin roofs recedes. Instead you see herons stamped ink-black against an orange you could scoop with your hands.

Kintinian gold pits

From the ridge the holes look like antlion traps: concentric circles hacked into ochre, rope-pulleys creaking as boys haul sacks of pay-dirt. The air tastes of dynamite and sweat. When the shift siren moans the plateau vibrates under your boots. Down in the canyon-like alleys you can buy a vial of mercury for the price of a soft drink - watch the metallic bead roll, heavy as guilt.

Friday cattle crossing

Just upstream from the market bridge, herders whip long-horn Zebu into the current. The river swallows their legs so only backs and horns show, like bronzed driftwood. Kids float alongside on plastic jerry-cans, laughing when cows sneeze spray. The bank smells of wet dung and marijuana from the Fulani watchers' clove cigarettes.

Market dye pits

Behind the cloth stalls women stomp indigo in concrete vcks, thighs purpled to the knee. Foam sloshes the color of deep sea. You feel the slap-suck under your own sandals. A butcher next-door burns plastic to singe goat hides, so the air alternates chemical-sweet and meat-iron, like bloodied blueberry pie.

Siranikro sacred baobab

A 20-minute bike south on the dirt levee brings you to a trunk so wide three adults can't link arms around it. Offer cola nuts to the guardian, who'll tap the hollow belly. The drum-boom answers back like the tree clearing its throat. Bats rustle overhead, raining fruity droppings that tack your hair.

Centre-ville grid near the mosque - balconies over the river, dawn call to prayer echoing off tin roofs

Quartier Minier south of the stadium - bars thump coupé-décalé until 2 am, rooms cheaper because of it

Kintinian riverside - family concessions rent hammocks under mango, frogs louder rival the generator hum

Gare routière strip - grim but convenient if your bus leaves before chickens wake

Sogolon hill - guesthouses built into laterite, cliff paths smell of basil and goat droppings

Niger Beach 'camping' - locals will guard your tent for a cola-note, milky way shockingly clear