Have a couple of days break chilling out at the Hotel Woloni in Selingué:

It’s less than two hours’ drive from Bamako in a quiet location by the lake. You can play pétanque, go for a stroll, have a swim in the lake or take a boat trip (usually). And if you don’t want to swim in the lake itself, there’s always the nice L-shaped swimming pool on site too:

The hotel’s restaurant serves good food, but it a tad pricey. It is on stilts at the edge of the lake. Well, I say in the lake but it does rather depend on what time of the year you go there. It’s only really from October to December that you’re likely to find the water up that high; other times and the lake is still there, just a few metres walk away! Here it is:

Now, because the restaurant is a little pricey, we tend to take our own food (to which nobody seems to object) and/or eat at the Senegalese Restaurant just the other side of the dam (which does tasty meals from around 1500cfa). You could also try the Campement Yaala over the dam, which also has decent enough accomodation (but is further from the lake and a bit more basic).

The rooms themselves – like so many other tourist resorts in Africa – are made to resemble round huts with straw roofs. Nice and big though, with ensuite loo and shower! There is also air-con if you need it. They have one double bed in, but you can pay a little extra for them to add an extra single. We then take along two camp beds for the rest of our kids and there’s enough space to fit them all into the one hut! Have a butcher’s:

Here’s an arial view of the Hotel Woloni – you can see the restaurant by the lake near the bottom of the picture and the pool near the top:

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And here’s a wider view showing the Selingue dam (the hotel is in the bottom left corner):

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Finally, click here for another anglophone report on the place (short but sweet) and then here and here for a couple of opinions in French.

Now, go and enjoy a relaxing sunset like this one!