As I mentioned a couple months ago, I'm preparing to traverse West Africa to do a photo-documentary on Fulani culture.

Well we're about to depart, and we ran into some troubles with the Nigerian embassy. I won't get into details here, but we've put the story on our website:

PULAKU | the fulani photo-documentary project

In any case, I'm soliciting advice about the remaining countries in our itinerary: Burkina, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Mali, Guinea, Senegal, Gambia, and Mauritania.

I've done my research on all the countries, but I'm mostly interested in finding out if you know of any recent experiences and unexpected surprises.

As for Ivory Coast, we're only planning on touching the north of the country, far far away from potential conflict areas.

I've heard it's difficult getting a vehicle into senegal. Does the same apply for motorcycles? What can we expect?

Also, we plan on selling our 2 Yamaha Serows in Senegal in April. Should we anticipate a beurocratic mess, or should it be somewhat straightforward?

We don't have carnets because I've been led to believe all these countries allow you to pay the laissez-passer at the border. Am I mistaken?

I have the 5-country visa for Benin/Togo/Burkina/Niger/Ivory Coast. I'm planning on getting visas for Ghana, Mali, Guinea, Senegal, Gambia, and Mauritania at the borders or in neighboring capitals.

Thanks for your advice! Please follow along as we hit the road!

Christoph

I'm making my assumption based on this information:

Anybody have recent experiences with getting a bike into Senegal?

Carnet de Passage - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thanks!

Hi, dunno about the bike
but we were sneaking into Guinea and CIV last year without visas, just to have a look-see.
Sneaked out again same day, no problem. I thought visas were expensive, Guinea was 48000 CFA iirc. So we stayed in Mali-Burkina.
But what I wonder is how/where did you get your 5-country (visa d'entente) and how much did it cost?
Will be interesting to see if it works, but it should. I only heard that Niger didn't take it.

We got our 5-country Visa D'Entente in Cotonou - 24 hours easy process.

In light of the safety situation in Niger, we're skipping that, but hopefully using the visa for Togo, BF, and CI.

cheers,

Christoph

Last year I got the l'Entente visa from the Benin embassy in Pretoria. Before leaving Algeria I got confirmation from the Niger Embassy in Tamanrasset that Niger does accept the visa. Did hear about other border crossings where it was not accepted so I downloaded and printed the articles of the l'Entente agreement (edit: in French and English)and gave it to the border officials at Assamakka - that worked fine.

Entering Cote d'Ivoire at Tioboulounao (south of Kampti south of Gaoua in Burkina Faso) they had no Customs stamps and told me to ask at the next village. And then at the next and the next and so on until I finally got both entry and exit stamps when I left for Ghana. At Bouna (Cote d'Ivoire), still in the far northeast, a member of the unified peace force (probably disbanded now?) was instructed by his boss to sleep right outside my door because they thought the area still to be unsafe. I had no trouble though and did not even notice anyone looking at me strangely. Could be different now though due to the current political trouble.

Good luck!
Kobus
One Ball One Continent page on Facebook

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"The fates lead him who will; him who won't they drag." - Anon

Kobus! The rider who made it both in and out of Niger.
We came into CIV in February at the same border passage. The whole north was like a free zone with no government control (perhaps that's why they had no stamps).
If there had been unrest we didn't see any, only smiling people.
But we turned around and went back to Burkina before dark.
We paid 10000 CFA for Burkina visa but I heard they are now 40000.
If you're going through a number of countries with a full car it gets expensive.

So how much did the visa d'entente cost?

And can we find out where it can be bought? Anyone found it in Bamako? When you're in Burkina or Cotonou you have already paid for one or two visas.

Cheers

I can't comment on Ghana, but we have recently got bikes (without a carnet) into Namibia, Senegal and we'll find out about South Africa in a week.

We got Nigerian visas in Bamako, Mali and Anoglan visas (transit) in Abuja, Nigeria without any problems. And also encountered no problems at all in Nigeria... aside from the general standard of drivers. I'm sure there are some horror stories, but don't get too scared by it all.

Good luck with the trip
Ben

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Vladivostok - Denmark 2008... Finished.
Denmark - South Africa 2010-2011... Finished.

I also made Europe-Capetown without a Carnet. A bit tired of pointing this out , but a carnet is not required. CAN be used , but is not compulsory.

Only country bit picky abt this is Senegal -but there are lots of ways to circunvent this-.
Also at Namibia/SouthAfrica you need to buy a temporary import permit (was 80US?) for a bike

Rest of countries of the west coast route don't know , don't care abt carnets. Indeed It will cost you money to persuade them to stamp it.


*Recently -last November -drove a LR Discovery in Cameroon . (from London , via Lake chad) , also without carnet . Plan to resume my trip to SA , and then all the way to Tanzania without carnet . As lots of other people have done.*

Hi guys. I'm heading very soon on a west African adventure on my xt 600 z from Ireland. First time trip on a bike.

I'm a reasonably seasoned traveler, but trying to wade through all the conflicting stories of carnet de passage is a bit of a nightmare! But to me it seems that like this( please correct me if this seems untrue!)

1. It totally possible to make through the majority of Africa without he carnet but more patience and time is needed .

2. You have to pay a small amount on all borders to get the bike in and out.

3. Some borders are fine and others more difficult but local knowledge and fellow travellers will steer you right.

My final question is, if you are paying 20-50 euros here and there at each border, would it not work much cheaper just to bit the bullet and get the carnet if the total amount when added up is more than the carnet itself?!

Hope that makes sense guys, look forward to hearing your wise words!

Dave

Entered Senegal some month ago with my 125cc classic vespa at Diama border for 25 Euro laisser passez.

Ghana didn´t want nothing, entered at Hamile border in the north-west. They asked for carnet, I played stupid about not even knowing what that in the name of god could be, so they let me through without even paying for a laisser passez. No problems so far, crossed all ghana and nobody wanted to see any document. Brilliant country, been long time ago I used normal toilets regularly !!!

cheers and greetings from Ho,

chris

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Just to update, we made it into South Africa without a carnet (never mentioned, asked for or anything). However MAKE SURE you get a temporary import form on the South African border (several people I know have had to insist to get one). It is impossible (ok, annoyingly time consuming) to ship your bike out without this.

Just to re-itterate Javier Carrion's line: A carnet is not needed in West Africa.

We were rarely asked for it at borders and not having one was only ever an issue entering Senegal. The countries we passed through were:
Morocco, Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, Congo, DRC, Angola, Namibia and South Africa.

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Vladivostok - Denmark 2008... Finished.
Denmark - South Africa 2010-2011... Finished.