Nouakchott to Bamako (no Senegal)
 

Posted last week and got some help on this route. Had a couple more questions.

We want to do the Nouakchott, Aleg, Ayoun, Kiffa, Nioro, Bamako road. Our 4x4s are American however and therefore gas and not diesel.

Can anyone talk about the availability of gas along this route, how many gas stations and how far apart they are? We can go about 550km on one tank and will be getting a reserve in Western Sahara of at least another 300km.

Secondly, since we are hitting the end of the rainy season, are there worries of flooding even though the road is now tarred?

We have an extra seat in each car so if anyone is interested in doing the journey with us, that would be great.

Thanks for the help,

Gael

Hi
Went through in Jan this year, petrol no problem at all. We only got 250 miles to a tank so we'd usually fill up between 40 and 60L in jerries as well just to be safe, but we never got even close to running out.
No experience with the rains, but the road is in good nick (bar the usual pot holes here and there) so can't see it troubling a 2wd let alone a 4x4

Have fun
Sam

I too did this route in January, on a bike with a range of about 500km and no problem with petrol. Driving 4x4s, you could succeed where I failed (I turned back after repeatedly falling off in the not very deep sand!) by going south from Kiffa to Kayes on dirt, via Kankossa. You could then go on to Bamako on good tarmac via Diema or more adventurously on dirt, via Chutes de Felou, Chutes de Gouina, Chutes de Billy and Kita. Have fun, John.

We
 

We go part of this way (from Marocco to Diama) in feb 2008 by Renault19. No problem! Road is good, fuel is in any city (Aleg, Kiffa, Ajun-al-Atrus, Nioro)
http://photofile.ru/photo/gd-spb/115.../116284457.jpg
It is in Neoro

Our Range Rover had a range of ca 500km.

I remember once refuelling at a roadside shack with plastic cans - somewhere between Nioro du Sahel and Bamako on the short stretch that was still gravel road. That was end of 2006.

in jan 2007 coming from Tidjikja we had problems getting petrol, so almost ran out in Aleg?, only one fuel station had petrol there.

I would fill up at every petrol station if possible, because this summer (june/july) petrol was NOT always available in Mauretania. All cars and trucks are diesel there, so don't be surprised if a petrol station doesn't have any petrol. Just ask for fuel at every petrol station. There are stretches of hundreds of kilometres without petrol for sale. I had a range of almost 1000 km with my Yamaha xt600 and I still ran out of fuel in the middle of nowhere because I thought I should be able to get fuel within the next 300 km.