senegal hassles
 

HI chaps, well we survived our planned trip to the Gambia in two elderley landcruisers, just! one of the big issues before we left was wether we would get in to senegal without carnets, which I was trying to avoid as one vehicle was to be sold in the gambia and carnets are expensive anyway, being a yorkshireman that turns me straight off! We arrived at the barrage at about 22:00 and really had no problems at all. negotiations for a passavant for both vehicles started at 100 E and finished at 80E and a Suzuki jacket given to us by Suzuki GB. On the way back with one vehicle rather bizzarely only cost the equivalent of 3E!. at the barrage though we met a dutch guy who had been stuck there for over a day. he had paid 150E for his passavant, got 15 miniutes down the road and been turned back by the police. so the situation is still far from clear, I think it has as much to do with who you catch on the day and wether he got his leg over last night! we were stopped by the police loads and had no trouble with the passavent, although they tried everything else on us. The police in St Louis especially are fine exponents of the masturbatory arts! They pulled us for going the wrong way up a one way street in St louis, then 100 yrds later for a non working headlight, again for an alleged paperwork infringment and on the way back for having tape over our back windows! money was only extracted for the one way street incident. the copper was properly nasty and had all the attributes of a man who enjoys violence. A lot depends on how prepared you are to tough it out and call their bluff. For the one way incident he was going to arrest us and leave the vehicles in the street (late at night). myself and the other guy were both prepared to do it, but we were concerned about the wellfare of the vehicles and the two girls in the group, who are both young and haven't travelled before. would have been funny to see what his reaction wold have been to find he had 4 members of the British army in his cells though!

They were also having a blitz on wether people were carrying a warning triangle and fire extinguisher
I got pulled for a faulty brakelight but managed to fool him by switching on my taillights when he asked me to test it for him.

hope that helps, just ask if you have any questions about any bit of the trip and I'll see what I can do to help.
Andy

TLC H60 (now rather battered!)
landy101 ambie/camper
1968 morris minor traveller
www.plymouth-dakar.com

>>>> he had paid 150E for his passavant, got 15 miniutes down the road and >>>> been turned back by the police

Well . This happens from time to time.

On top of the passavant , the law sez that you should have your vehicles´ details written down on your passport -to avoid illegally selling or chopping it in Senegal-

so It may be possible ,and happens from time to time , that even having a Passavant (which costs you 100 EUR in the North , and 5 EUR in the west) you have your car impounded/stopped . you should insist on having your car´s details written down on your passport , unless you know perfectly what are you doing by not having them written.



4 years ago ... before that stupid law of 5year old cars..was exactly the same . The passavant was barely 10EUR , and by paying an extra 10EUR you could choose in Diama weather the officer write down )(or not) your vehicles details. That was made to assist you if you wanted to sell your car illegally.

but from time to time police officerss used to check if you had your vehicle´s details on your passport , and if not... then car impounding/heavy fines , etc... applied.


Have a nice day

Javier