Hi

Craig Carey Clinch (leading the Globebusters/Motorcycle Outreach Charity Expedition to Senegal/Gambia) has contacted me this week to advise of an apparent change to entry formalities for Senegal ..once again !!

The group are currently in southern Morocco & meeting up with travellers heading north who are advising that Senegal are now insisting on a "laissez passer" (temp. import permit) as opposed to acceptance of a carnet. It seems this change became effective earlier in Nov. Fees for a 10 day document are being quoted at between 5 - 50 Euros.

Craig will be arriving at the Senagalese border on Thursday 20 Nov. when he hopes to update me with current situation. In the meantime, has anyone gone through Senegal in either direction in recent weeks & had first hand experience of any changes ??

As HUBB regulars know, situation with Senegal entry is variable to say the least but feedback to this thread greatly appreciated asap !!

Thanks

Paul

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Paul Gowen
Senior Travel Administrator - RAC Carnets
RAC UK

Hi

Craig Carey Clinch has called me this evening to confirm they have arrived in Senegal.

Acceptance of the carnet for entry into Senegal has it seems been "suspended" in favour of a 10 day passavant which costs 2,500 CFA/5 Euros. It can be renewed for a further 15 days & it is believed for a further period.

I have now received word that French & German travellers have reported problems to their respective carnet issuing clubs.

Revised entry guidance is expected from the Alliance Internationale de Tourisme (AIT) in Geneva in the near future.

AIT are seeking confirmation of the border entry requirements from the Touring Club du Senegal & Senegal Embassies in London/Paris, however, this is difficult to obtain !

Will update again as/when.

Paul

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Paul Gowen
Senior Travel Administrator - RAC Carnets
RAC UK

Is this really a change?

I did Senegal earlier this year on a passavant. A carnet wasn't necessary.

Tim

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"For sheer delight there is nothing like altitude; it gives one the thrill of adventure
and enlarges the world in which you live," Irving Mather (1892-1966)

Hi from Richard Toll in Senegal

OK, so here's the latest on the carnet situation.

The Carnet has been compulsory for some years for all those without magic carpets, houdini hypnotic tricks, or a masochistic liking for arguing the toss at the northern border in particular for hours and hours and hours and hours to try and prove a point. I've always preferred to travel instead.

About a fortnight ago, the Carnet requirement was suspended. The grapevine tells me that this is something to do with a pending law suit from some French freight company against the Senegalese Government. It was done with no consultation or warning, so no blame should be levelled at the RAC for not knowing about it

The first that we heard about it (I'm leading a group of 10 bikes here at the moment) was at Boujdour in the Western Sahara when a group of French camper vans coming north told us that they'd been refused entry for not having some bullshit paperwork and then being quoted hundreds of Euro for the ten day pass.

I checked with Dakar who said that the Carnet was still in force and is definitely required for freight export of vehicles.

On arriving at Diama, I was pleased to meet the Man in charge of customs that day, who has excellent English and bitched at me for half an hour about how he's fed up with getting no clear direction re the Carnets for land borders, said (amazingly) that all the confusion damages tourism and then charged us all 5 euro each for the ten day pass and refused a pack of cigarettes for spending ages writing out loads of passes in duplicate for ten bikes and a van.

The pass has a fee of 2500 CFA printed on it, but on reaching Zebrabar heard reports that up to 70 euro is being quoted. So watch out for this attempted scam if you pass though - the helpfull chap is not always going to be on duty at Diama and Rosso remains the nightmare that it's always been.

Senegalese customs expect the Carnet to be reinstated soon and the Gvmt are still saying that carnets are needed. But for the time being it's the ten day pass. This pass can be renewed for 15 days on two occasions, allowing 40 days travel in Senegal.

I'll let you all know how things are at the other borders as we plan to pass in and out of Senegala few times at the western and southern land borders.

Oh, army/police checkpoints in Mauritania are asking to see carnets. Probably an attempted scam.

Regards

Craig

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www.globebusters.com

Carnets were only required for cars and other vehicles more than four years old, see Senegal Passavants.

Plus a quote from my trip write-up in January, "Then it’s over to the customs office. A long wait whilst the guy transcribes our details onto a passavant (a sort of carnet substitute) and we pay the officially receipted CFA 2500."

Tim

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"For sheer delight there is nothing like altitude; it gives one the thrill of adventure
and enlarges the world in which you live," Irving Mather (1892-1966)

Ok a very simple question, Has anyone actually done the west coast of Africa without a Carnet? If yes what countries were visited Please?

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Wikipedia: Carnet de Passage - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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"For sheer delight there is nothing like altitude; it gives one the thrill of adventure
and enlarges the world in which you live," Irving Mather (1892-1966)

Hi All,

Returned to Senegal from The Gambia this morning. I used the north border on the Trans Gambia route which runs north south through the centre of The Gambia (From Kaolack if heading south).

The word here is that the Carnet is back on. Customs wouldn't issue a 10 day Passavant and stamped my Carnet instead (which until the recent suspension has been required for all foreign motor vehicles including motorcycles for some years).

Whether this is the case at all borders is an open question, though when entering Senegal from Mali via Kidira ten days ago, the customs office said that the authorities intend to return to the Carnet as soon as possible (suspect that the Carnet suspension is due to some court case that's going on that was brought by a French freighting company).

Given the state of flux that the system is in, but bearing in mind that the desired Senegalese default is the Carnet, it would be unwise to not have a Carnet for Senegal if you desire easy passage at the border.

On another note, The Gambia is now issuing Passavants. They stamped our carnets to save time on the paperwork, but said that folks do not need the Carnet any more.

Regards

Craig
Kaolack,
Senegal.

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www.globebusters.com

Wikipedia is not quite correct for Senegal. Aside from the recent and seemingly temporary suspension, Carnets are required for all motor vehicles coming from Europe, irrespective of age. I've always travelled in with motorcycles less than five years old and the carnet has always been required.

Vehicles over five years are not supposed to be allowed into Senegal, though with the carnet this should be no problem.

People have travelled into Senegal without one, but judging by the attitude of officials on the many times I've entered the country, this seems a hassle filled process.

The Carnet for Senegal was suspended a few weeks ago, though this suspension may have been lifted in recent days.

Craig

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www.globebusters.com

Thanks for the update Craig... good to have current info from people actually on the road now!

I assume you didn't use your carnet when you returned to Senegal from your Mali trip?

We are hoping to cross back into Senegal in about a week at Maka Goui slightly further east from where you crossed today so will post again with the latest situation there.

For general info:
At Zebrabar we met a group of 6 people of different nationalities travelling in 3 vehicles together who were told that because their vehicles were older than 5 years they needed an army convoy to get them to St Louis and they paid 75 Euros between them! They crossed at Diama only 2 days after us (about 15 November). None of them had carnets so they all bought laissez passers at the correct rate of 2,500 CFA each.

Entering the Gambia we used our carnet and were not charged anything for any of the crossing. The Belgiums who crossed at the same time as us did not have a carnet and bought a laissez passer for their 20 year old car. The customs guy asked if they were selling the car and then went on to tell them how easy it was to sell vehicles in the Gambia and what to do!! All very friendly!

Hope this is helpful.
Kate

p.s. Does anyone actually believe anything they read on Wikipedia?? I find it to be totally misleading and blatantly wrong on facts time and time again... after all it's "the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit"!!

hi kate,

carnet seems to be canned in The Gambia

didn't need it for entry to senegal at kidira (though customs had to check)

Needed it to re enter senegal from The Gambia on the Trans Gambia highway border. Passavants definitely not available there.

Craig. (Thies, senegal)

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www.motorcycleoutreach.org
www.globebusters.com

Hi Craig & Kate

Thanks for continuing to feed back on to this thread & especially that carnet has green light again for Senegal ... depending on entry point !

Back in office Thursday 11 Dec following accommodation move last weekend.

Craig - give me a call when you get back so we can catch up.

Cheers

Paul

PS. Agree Wikipedia is misleading but at least its an info. gateway & serves as an introduction to the carnet...

__________________
Paul Gowen
Senior Travel Administrator - RAC Carnets
RAC UK

Important Addendum:

Re Wikipedia inaccuracies etc - we know - we have a traveller-updated list of countries that really do require carnets here:

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/tri...t-of-countries

Related thread for commentary and updates is here:

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...-douanes-37276

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Grant Johnson
Seek, and ye shall find.
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Inspiring, Informing and Connecting travellers since 1997!
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