Travel advice northbound through Mauritania, is it safe?

[TheAfricaSchoolRun]

Hi we need to get our landie back to the Uk, it's currently in The Gambia where we built a school.

We were planning on driving (quickly!) back along the Tarmac road through Senegal, Mauritania, Western Sahara, Morocco ..... but Mauritania is of obvious concern right now.
Foreign offices of UK USA ans OZ all advise against any inessential travel. especially the Western Sahara border.

French troops are today ousting the rebels in Mali and so they are fleeing into the surrounding desert.... Yikes!

The area is obviously not ideal to travel through , but we need to get the car back and shipping seems problematic. (Or can anybody help here?)

We are a youngish couple travelling alone and although sensible in our approach its conceivable we could leave the car in The Gambia and fly back if over landing is a bad idea. We drove down last year in convoy and so felt inherently safer.

Any advice is most welcome.
James and Amy
( Hi Chris Scott if you read this, we stalked you last year and you were kind enough to sign our book (the excellent overlanders guide) and reply to our emails)
James and Amy
The African School Run.org

[Chris Scott]

Hi James and Amy, as things stand now I can see no problem returning up the Atlantic Route, although you may feel safer joining other cars up through Mauritania as you did on the way down.
Current events in Mali are 1000 miles east.

See this post: http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...r-2012-a-68332

Ch

I was back at the show yesterday; they had better security this year... ;-)

[cruiser guy]

I'll be going through Mauritania quickly (in and out in one day if possible) in a week or so if you want to convoy and our schedules match up. I'll be taking my time through Western Sahara/Morocco though.
PM me if interested with an e-mail or phone. We'll be getting a Senegalese SIM tomorrow.

[andrasz]

While Chris & others have assessed Mori along the Alantic to be safe at present, I would urge everyone not to post precise travel plans with dates on a public forum. That is what private messages are for. Better safe than sorry.

[Richard Washington]

That is good advice from Andrasz. I'm fairly certain that the kidnapping of the Spanish aid volunteers along the coast road in Mauritania in November 2009 was planned on the basis of information about their location and plans gained from the internet.

[TheAfricaSchoolRun]

Originally Posted by Chris Scott

Hi James and Amy, as things stand now I can see no problem returning up the Atlantic Route, although you may feel safer joining other cars up through Mauritania as you did on the way down.
Current events in Mali are 1000 miles east.

See this post: http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...r-2012-a-68332

Ch

I was back at the show yesterday; they had better security this year... ;-)

Thanks Chris this is a great link. We have been doing plenty of research and seems ok to me as long as we are sensible. I wonder if the Mali situation will help stabilise Mori or destabilise??
We hope to be in Senegal in around 2 weeks (deliberately vague) and could meet anyone going North around then to nip through Mori.
Have pm'd the guys who posted thanks so much.
J and A

[Henn]

I've just returned from riding Intercontinental Rally. We crossed into Mauritania from West Sahara, cut out to Akjoujt through the dunes, then back to Nouakchott and into Senegal.

In all three nights in Mauritania with a group of a couple of hundred westerners once all the competitors, service crews and organisers are included. At night we had approx 20 soldiers based around the camp, but I think that was mainly due to the organisers and government being very nervous about an incident.

Riding alone during the days I never saw anything suspicious or felt at all threatened. If I were in your position I wouldn't be concerned about driving Senegal to WS by the coastal route.

[chrisue]

Hello

Passed through Mauri Sat/Sun no concerns at all, everone was ultra friendly & helpful, stayed in auberge manata in nouakchott with a swedish groupe on their way back from S A they had no concerns at all, the whole route is overrun by rallies of one discription or another.
Got held up outside Tambacouda with a very large French army convoy heading for Kidara, Mali

[priffe]

So maybe the Paris-Dakar can someday ahead really become Paris-Dakar again.

[nayladog]

I also just got back from the Intercontinental Rally. We drove back to Spain with one other car. No problems whatsoever.

[cruiser guy]

Passed through Mauritania on Saturday/Sunday and entered Morocco on Monday. No problems anywhere. Had a good time. Even had lunch in one of the small places along the way north of Nouakshott.
Coastal route needs about 20 fiche.

[TheAfricaSchoolRun]

Hi we are in Gambia preparing for our return journey northbound, if anyone has any more upto date info on anything at all would be most welcome

[TheAfricaSchoolRun]

Originally Posted by cruiser guy

Passed through Mauritania on Saturday/Sunday and entered Morocco on Monday. No problems anywhere. Had a good time. Even had lunch in one of the small places along the way north of Nouakshott.
Coastal route needs about 20 fiche.

Did you need a carnet?