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North Africa Topics specific to North Africa and the Sahara down to the 17th parallel (excludes Morocco)
Photo by Daniel Rintz, Himba children, Namibia

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Photo by Daniel Rintz,
Himba children, Namibia



Trans Sahara Routes.

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  #1  
Old 4 Dec 2003
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Mauretania - Mali

Hi,

I am planning on crossing from Mauretania to Mali with a Mercedes 200D (normal car, no 4x4) in February. Is this attempt feasible (haven´t done it yet). Is Nema - Nara the best piste or what would you suggest? Thanks for any information,

erna
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  #2  
Old 4 Dec 2003
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Hé,

There are plenty of 2WD's heading into Mali these days (some of them because they can't enter Senegal, and prices are better in Mali then in Mauri)

Nema - Nara is probalbly the best piste. We saw three peugot 406-es in Nara a week ago, and they took this piste.

We took the the Timbedra - Nara piste (can provide way points if you wish) with a LR Disco. The piste itself was deaply rutted, but most of the time you can drive on the side.

good luck,

Rob
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Old 5 Dec 2003
ydv ydv is offline
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Quote:
Originally posted by Robbert:
(...) We took the the Timbedra - Nara piste (...) The piste itself was deaply rutted (...).
Rob
I've took this route in Sep. 2003. Although it was public transport (Toyota LC pckup), it didn't get through to the destination. After the rains some stretches of the road were flooded and very muddy, definitely not passable for 2wds. Finally somewhere in Mali we were stucked in a little lake. The last 40 km I've covered on feet, sometimes strolling knee-level water.
In a dry season it can be completely different anyway.

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Old 5 Dec 2003
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I'd have to agree with Janusz. When we took this route in october 2003 there was still a lot of mud in some places, and where there wasn't, it was heavy going in the sandy tracks. Outside the tracks, the most of the surface was definatly not solid enough for a 2wd.
I've heard that the Nema-Nara road is relativly good, and ok for 2wd.

Erik D.

www.dunia.no


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Old 7 Dec 2003
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The mud dried up by now. I'm pretty confident it's doable in 2WD though Nema - Nara is the default choise for 2WD. We had no probs what so ever. It was dusty though.
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Old 29 Dec 2003
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Hi, am thinking of taking the route from Mauritania to Mali in the first days of february (to avoid the carnet needed in Senagal). Does anyone know about the security in eastern Mauritania and northern Mali? And the condition of the road from Nouakchott to Nema and from Nema to Nara?
/Stefan
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Old 16 Jan 2004
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According to the Dutch and German foreign ministries' websites there is a risk of kidnapping in the border region between Mauritania and Mali. Does anyone have any comforting advice re security along the Nouakchott - Nema - Bamako road?

Not sure that I want to go through the aggravation of driving an old Merc through Senegal to get to Mali...

cheers,
Camiel


[This message has been edited by camiel (edited 16 January 2004).]
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