Mauritania Closed to Overland Travellers?
 

My brother and I are planning a trip by motorbike to the Festival au Desert in January and the route from Europe will take us through Mauritania. I have just been told that it is closed to overland travel and that we should ship to Gambia instead.

We have a lot of planning still to do and are planning a significant charity concert in London in October so would welcome any information/views before we trip ourselves up.

many thanks

just back from Dakar, Mauri was open 4 weeks ago, no visas issued in europe so Rabat is the best bet, fridays gets the visa on the same day, ensure if your coming back through Mauri you get a multiple entry and check it says so in your visa in the passport i didnt and had a 500 km 2 day round trip in Senegal to buy more visa in Dakar, try not to use Rosso its getting stupid verging on dangerous wading through corrupt officials and greedy fixers,Diama is a safer bet just a bad road to get to it

So they are not issuing Mauritanian visas in Europe anymore?
Since when?

It is very important to have accurate information about if Mauritania is open to overlanders, because nowadays this is the only road crossing the Sahara which can be done without being robbed/kidnapped in 99,9% of the cases.

Somebody who has just crossed, please inform us.

Dai Bach,

Maybe the confusion comes from the fact that the visa was issued at the border Morocco-Mauritania in the past, but not anymore nowadays?

It would be nice to have feedback from someone that has actually crossed recently.

Regards,
CaBRita

heading north , via mali , mauritania - 13 sep 2010, currently in ougadougou
 

post on the hubb the recently regarding overland visas for mauritania. not being issued in morroco and mauritania is currently a no go country on the overland route.

Not heard anything to this nature. will bugger up our trip north if it's true.

we will as planned get mauritania visa in bamako to take the normal route in mauritania expecting no issues aside from the usual hassle on the groumnd there.

any new to the contrary please get in touch

we will be up that way, end of september, early october

checking out the northen regions of Burkina in the mean time. All seem safe from people we have spoken to. heading overland into mopti from there via dogon country

al

amiller1974@gmail.com

Africaoverland

I just got double-entry (for 60 days) Maurithanian visa in Rabat in one day with any problem.

We got visas no probs about 6 weeks ago in Rabat.
Regarding Rosso, its OK but expect to pay around 50 euros for a 24hour pass avant that needs to be extended in Dakar, it is a real pain in the arse to sort.

Sorry, expect to pay 50 euros for the " Formalities" regarding your passport an crossing over to Senegal and the "assistence" that you will get on the other side. The actual pass avant cost only 2500 cfa.

mauritnaia late september/2010
 

some recent news on coming from mali into mauritnania. I guess most people will be coming from marocco heading to either mali or sengal.

we crossed into from mali to mauritnaia on the 27/09/2010 at nioro (mali, border 60km north of nioro) to gogui (mauritania)

very easy crossing. little hassle aside from us having to go back ot nioro to get a carnet stamp. that added an hour to our journey. we hadn't read about this, so anyone coming from the south, heading north into mauritnaia this way, get a stamp at the bureau of finances on the edge of town, coming from nioro centre, the office if just where you start heading to the border at the edge of town/or turn right to the tarmac to bamako (you will have come from this direction)

stashed last of s african red wine in roof tent for fear of being searched for alcohol

we made it to ayoun el atrous that day. stayed the night there with two french trucks. they went on ahead. we found them after a while , when we got into town. we followed them and camped in the middle of town

we got moved on by the police at 8 30 pm, they said it wasn't safe to camp, so we followed them in convoy to a police checkpoint at the edge of town. last check point as you leave town before you head to kiffa

Anyone staying in ayoun will have to do the same. we were intending to get to kiffa that day, but got delayed.

maybe more police points than normal, so take many fiche copies (details of your passports/registration number/chassis number to give to the police when you stop

it's our first time in mauritania, so not sure if this situation has changed because of the security. you feel like your being monitored for progress, so a good thing

felt safe anyway, and now in Nouakchott at auberge menata in the centre of town

more shade here than the auberge de sahara, 5 minutes drive away. well needed this time of year

heading to atar in next few days.

got mauritnaian visa in 20 minuted in bamako. embassy is near the chinese embassy or the dutch embassy in hippodrome area. easy to find.