UK to Dakar
 

I plan on riding to Dakar in the spring taking in as much off road as possible . I was thinking of going Spain,portugal,spain,morocco,western sahara,mauitania,senigal. Any one done this ride got any recomendations for routes to take ? what paper work will i need ? what visas ? can i get them on the road ? i will be on a UK bike and passport.
thanks guys kito

More than one topic = more than one forum
 

This forum may help.
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...552#post358050

yep seen that after posting .thanks. so looks like good visa info. any must see/ do routes anyone???

In Morocco you have all the pistes you could ever dream of, so why not stay there? It seems that the old myth of Dakar is still alive, truth is, Dakar is not a good goal in my opinion, even though I love Senegal.
The pistes in Western Sahara and Mauri are not safe for the moment, I don't think they will let you go far of the main road towards Mauri. Then there is the border with Senegal, which is a PITA. Google 'Rosso border'!
Once you get into Senegal it's a very beautifull country full of nice people, but not for offroading, for that, you need to be in Morocco!

My friend, I beg to differ; the pistes in Western Sahara are safe. Well, they were last month anyway. Has something unpleasant happened in the past couple of weeks? What do you mean when you say they are not safe?

You may be right that Western Sahara is safe, but in Mauritania the police don't like you to go off the main road. My point was not to look too far to the south for nice pistes, the east of Morocco has plenty of pistes.

For WS inland routes, see this:
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...eginners-60348

and this (with maps)
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...p-report-55301
+ the Gandini book as mentioned (in French).

In Mori, I still believe you can get off the NBD-NKT highway early and take the rail piste to Atar (R2) - at least you could a month or so ago. My route description here from 2006.

edit: turns out wild camping on the piste is now haram in Mori. You have to camp in villages.

That could be enough to get it out of your system, but from Atar I'm sure you can still head further inland to Guelb or down to Tidjikja. As for Tij-Nema (R11)? Not sure about that one as things stand in SE Mori.

None of these are routes to ride alone for a first timer out there, IMO, as I'm sure this guy on R2 would agree (don't know the details).

If you want fun off-roading, there's plenty in Mk to satisfy as TB says, but if you want an overland road trip to Dakar, I think the Atlantic Route with no dirt excursions will satisfy, especially if you take it slow. It's common to plan ambitiously and want to do it all until the map on the kitchen table at home becomes sand under your wheels ;-)

See also: Sahara Overland ~ Mauritania visa

And a good trip report of Atlantic Route here.

I'd agree that Dakar, like Timbuktu, will turn out to be more about the journey than the destination, but people like to find that out for themselves.

Ch

hi thanks for the info that is coming . 2009/10 i did RTW trip .on that trip the was quite a lot of road miles but i likes the off road the most. mongolia,baja,amazon ect. so the plan for this trip is to try to get a lot of off road/dirt roads. the other reason for getting to dakar is that gremaldi lines ship to BA south america from here .