From Algeria to Niger or Mali
 

Has anyone done one of these routes lately (since september/october 2007)? And which route is the less dangerous now the Touareg-war started again? From Algeria to Niger, or from Algeria to Mali?

Thanks,
Gerbert

Algeria to Niger or to Mali is crossing into the Tuareg triangle...

Read the local reality of it here...

Niger | A radioactive rebellion | Economist.com

Notice the triangle in the map!

Keep an eye on Sahara Overland ~ routes map for crossing the Sahara

FOR UP TO DATE information on the routes through Algeria. The site (and probably the book) is a must if you're thinking of going through Algeria.

There is also up to date information on the situation at the borders with Niger.

It was last updated in November 07.

I know the book, even contributed to it myself. And I know about the current problems. I only would like to hear some reports from people that crossed recently, because I know people stil do it.
Thanks,
Gerbert

Algeria to Niger or Mali
 

Just flew back from Nigeria today, We (6) did Djanet (24/12/07) – Tamanrasset – Bordj Mokhta – Tessalit – Gao (02/01/08) onward to Lagos in two Peugeot 505 and a Jeep Cherokee. In Algeria we had a guide but from Bordj Mokhta we went on to Tessalit (Mali) with out a guide. Not sure if it’s of any importance, but 4 of us are of mixed race, 1 white person and 1 black person and we all grow up in Nigeria apart from the white person.
Tunde

Hello Tunde,

Thanks for your reply. I just confirmed my trip to Algeria. We will arrive at BBM in a Renault master at the end of february. Do you have any recommendations for BBM-Gao? Do's and don'ts?

Greetings,
Gerbert

Hello

I did the route Tam to borj mokhtar to gao last week. The route can be made in a 2WD with some experience and if you have a few GPS coordinates along the route you dont need a guide for navigation. Everything went fine and the border guards in Tessalit told us that around 25 European cars pass this border every month. According to our information the risk of getting the car stolen is much less if you have a guide who is from the region. We used touareg tours and were very happy with our guide El Mehedi. You have to sleep somewhere along the route and we slept in a village with people he knew which felt very safe. The guide is expensive though we paid
400 Euros but if you have a popular car that you want to continue with Id take the guide just to be on the safe side. You can only get gas in Borj if you have a letter from the mayor which is not hard to get given that the mayor is in town, in a good mood etc.... We brought all the diesel we needed from Tam. They were out of diesel for half a day, so fill up upon arrival.

I can post some GPS coordinates if you want, just write me back.

Marcus

Concerning your question about dangers: We did meet a serious looking military convoy with some pick up cruisers with machine guns mounted permanently on the roof as well as some pansar wagons. Dont know if it has any meening, we never felt threathened and the local population said that everything is fine.... If the info with 25 cars per month passing the border is true then you should have a reasonable chance of making it to the other end. We meet some swiss guys in Pinzgauers that were heading for Kidal, which is exactly where you shouldnt go. Dont know if they made it through but they seemed very relaxed about it, but on the other hand, who would steal a Pinzgauer...

I just got back from Algeria yesterday. We wanted to go from regane to bordj el mohktar and at gendarmerie station in regane we were stoped and the only way further was with gerdarmerie convoy.
We changed our plan and we went to tamanraset and from there you can drive to bordj el mohktar without problem (no gendarmerie etc...)

regards,
Tom

Thanks. Did you have a guide from al local agency with you? Or wer you travelling on your own?

We were of course traveling with the guide from the algerian agency - anyway you can't reach regane or any southern town without hiring one of them - I guess you would be stooped on first checkpoint on the way.

The weird thing that you can do the same piste in one direction with the gendarmerie and in the oposite way without it is according to our guide due to the fact that tamanraset and regane gendarmerie don't belong to the same regional commands.

Tom

Hi Gerbert.
just back from Algeria. We were in Tam in mid January, staying at Dassine Camping. Three independent vehicles were heading south in the 3 days we were there. One was going to Agadez and two went down to BM and from there they were planning of course to go on to Mali. Each of the vehicles was travelling alone and each had a guide with them. One of the vehicles (Nissan Patrol) returned to Tam after damaging the sump near BM. They said it was all OK at BM, just that they couldn't get anyone to help with the Patrol there. The guide we we with said the route was open to Agadez though.

Thanks Richard,

We are of in two weeks, doings Algiers, Tam, BBM and on to Mali. It seems quite busy there. I hear in Niger a guide is obligatory in the north. But I think it's too dangerous now there. A real war. Tanout seems occupied by rebels since a couple of days.

What were you doing in Tam? Is camping Dassine the old camping fromthe 90's?

Greetings
Gerbert

GPS coordinates Borj Mokhtar to Gao
 

Okey, here comes some randomly chosen coordinates. They are not necessarily at road splittings and it is the route our guide took us, not necessarily the straightest way.... (We happened to pass by some of his relatives on the way).

Borj: N 21 19.916 E 001 00.479

Small village, no checkpoint: N 21 12.105 E 001 02.220

Tessalit, mali customs (3hours to stamp 7 passports, there was a good program on tv) N 20 12.176 E 001 00.553 From here the route is very clear for the first couple of hours.

At N 19 16.037 E 000 52.871 we turned right.

N 18 56.381 E 000 48.291 The pist goes straight south until N 18 38.300 E 000 49.400 where it bends to southsouthwest.

At N 17 51.139 E 000 19.751 turn west to the village Ergane N 17 47.852 E 000 01.674.

Go south to N 17 35.104 E 000 00.531 and then to the village almostart N 17 21.827 E 000 09.010

Go south to N 16 18.833 E 000 04.455 where you turn west for Gao at N 16 16.609 W 000 03.126

Looking at the numbers (3 cars going south in 3 days) it sounds busy, but these guys were the only independent travellers we saw in 30 days in Algeria. It seemed very quiet compared with any time between 1999 and 2003.

I agree with your view of Niger. It is serious and one would need random luck really to get through OK.

We were in Tam at the end of a nice piste from Djanet (via Mnt Tazat, Amadror, Tefedest and Garet El Djenoun). Went with family (including our 2 children of 4 and 7 who loved the desert and were no trouble at all). Camping Dassine is the original place - still with the desert bus near the entrance.

The high way south of Ain Salah is pretty broken up at the moment, especially around Arak. Its good for about 100 km south of Ain Salah and about 120 km north of Tam. The rest is slow going. It seemed much worse than in 2002. From the border to Ain Salah is mostly good.

On the way back we had to hurry (visa was about to expire) and so I had to drive straight through from Arak to Nefta in Tunisia. Part of this was at night (leaving Ain Salah at midnight). Until now I hadn't realised it was OK to drive at night. But there was lots of other traffic and the road blocks paid much less attention to us at night than during the day. It was cold and they preferred to stay next to the fire - just in case you need to hurry as well.

Finally, Tam is back to long queues for fuel - about 2 hours or more. Luckily we had the range to get fuel further up the road (In Eker or Arak) where there was no problem. Its been like that for a while apparently.

Good route!

Thank you. Sounds as a nice trip. How is camping Dassine? And what about gite Saharien?

Camping Dassine has defintely seen better days. Everyone who stayed there eneded up in the bangalos close to the gate. All the overlanders I saw in Algeria (only 3 cars) were staying there. The guys werea bit lazy to make hot water for the showers, but if you go round the back of the shower block you can find the room with the switches for the electrical water heater.

We wanted to stay at the Gitte and emailed Claudia about it before we left. Its a lovely place and is looking even nicer now. She said we could only stay there if we used her services for guides and invites. Since we had already made a plan for that we couldn't revert to her. But when we got to Tam we did call in at the Gitte to see if she could change her mind - there was no one there apart from the gard at the gate. We tried phoning their number (in Tam I think) but there was no answer. So we went back to Dassine.

Our Algerian guide recommended we did Bordj Mokhta to Tessalit with a guide, the recommended guide was asking for EUR 500 for 2 days, which we thought was way too much, so we did it without a guide. used our map, GPS for orientation (unfortunately we had no way-points), and asked the very few people we meet along the way if we were on the right piste.

31/12/07 arrived Bordj Mokhta (N21°20.070’ E000°57.265’) from Tam, paper work is very slow but hassle free, were able to fill up our tanks (petrol) and only 20L each in jerry cans without a letter from the Mayor’s office. With permission from the Army officer, we camped on the football field/car park in front of the Army barracks.

01/01/08 left Bordj Mokhta at 8am, the Army, Gendarmerie, and Customs all told us it was save and that there is a main piste which should be easy to see, but it was not that obvious for first timers like us, we did get lost a few times in the beginning. There is actually a sign post on the main piste at co-ordinate (N21° 57. 725’ E001° 15. 502’), straight on goes to Timiaouine (a village in Algeria) and to the right to Tessalit / Gao (Mali), I can not say exactly how many km the sign post is from Bordj Mokhta since we got lost in the beginning, but it should be around 35Km, from there on we never got lost again.

We got to Tessalit (N20°12.186’ E001°00.543’) around 2pm, Customs to the right and Police on the hill top to the left, the customs requested no bride, just had to pay CFA 10,000 per car for the laissez-passer. The police requested for a bribe of CFA 30,000. we ended up given them CFA 6,000 and a bottle of perfum, the atmosphere was generally very friendly, even eat with the Police. Before all our paper work was completed it was almost 5pm, since this region is meant to be within the Tuareg triangle, and was not sure what lay ahead in terms of a safe camping spot. We had made good friends with the Customs and Police, both allowed us to park and camp in front of their building, we ended up sleeping inside an empty room in the customs building, after spending all night drinking tea, playing guitar, and chatting with the Customs officers. The customs officer had even refused some local travellers (traders) in their pickup jeep to continue their journey to Gao in the night, so they too joined us in drinking tea.

02/01/08 The next morning after turning down several offers for a guide to Gao, we hit the road at 8am and got to Gao at about 10:00pm, In Gao we camped at hotel Tizi Mizi (N16°15.782’ E000°01.920’). The Police in Tessalit had told us we’ll need to register ourselves with the Police in Gao, the Police officer in Gao turned out to be an a** hole, demanding CFA 2,000 per person and CFA 3,000 per car before stamping and returning our passports, I never knew we had to pay for the cars as well. Later on in the day, after collecting all that bribe, he even had the audacity to try and force a petrol attendant to fill up his motorcycle tank at my expense, I told him off politely.

Tunde
tundeadu@hotmail.com

Interesting special feature on Kidal on the BBC News (Africa) web page:

BBC NEWS | Africa | Malian town under shadow of rebellion

There's something about drugs being transported across the Sahara (5 or 6 paragraphs from the end) which caught my eye. Used to be cigs north and fuel south. But 750 kg of cocaine ups the stakes a bit.....

The coke route north
 

I was told by someone I met in Western Sahara (who seemed extremely well informed on this subject) that the main supply route to Europe from South America was via Guinea Bissau. Certainly the Moroccan's were showing considerable interest on the Mauri border when we crossed with trained dogs put in all trucks and a lot of the poor sods being made to unload every last box etc off their trucks. So I guess it's hardly suprising that the smugglers are taking advantage of the unrest combined with the porous borders to ship via this route. The same source told me that the Senegal Mauri route had been effectively closed down. Another reason to be very careful travelling in this area.

Q