Africa.......and not planned too well!
 

Well I have finally done it. I actualy left nearly a month ago. Now I am in Dakhla waiting for the date on my visa to allow me into Mauritania.

I have a plan, a rough one. So far it is to get to Dakar. Hmmmm that,s it! After that I don.t know. I need to do some reading and come up with something. Ah well no rush.

The hardest part is over...which is actually leaving! :clap:

Safe travels and keep us posted! :thumbup1:

Cheers,
RN

Agreed, hardest part done! No need for more planning, you are THERE!

In Mauritania, your plan should focus on having plenty of reserve of petrol as it is not available everywhere.:smartass:

Ok, thanks. Point noted about the petrol. I am on a big KTM with an extra tank. I can go about 320km then I have to use the extra tank. I am using Tracks 4 Africa so I will keep an eye on the fuel. I have already had the no fuel at the garage senario in Morocco. I tend to try and fill up at half range but that is not always possible.

Fortunately I am in no rush. At the moment I just go day by day. As I move along I hope to experience and learn. For the moment just being here and doing it is fantastic.

Any hints or experiences are most welcome.

Just enjoy...then enjoy some more. I'm liking your relaxed attitude.

Dakhla
 

Hi, I'm heading down to Dakar in October and planned to stop at Dakhla. What's it like? Are you camping or do you have a recommendation on where to stay?

Keep the updates coming as your trip and approach sounds interesting.

I`m too jealous! Would like to start NOW too again :rain:

No rush, no pressure - sound relaxing jeiger

Wish you safe travels, enjoy your trip!

Surfy

Hi all,

Just to put your minds at rest, Dakhla is a really nice place. People will not pester you and the town is nice and clean. Camping ground is on the left as you are entering the town or you can wild camp. If you fancy "splashing the cash" you can stay at the Sahara Regency 4* in the center of town and I can recommend the Samarkand restaurant for good food and nice views of the lagoon (and nice and clean).

Nice beach on the northwest side of town past the lighthouse

Enjoy the trip.

Bob.

Ok here again.

Dakhla was very nice. As bobn says very relaxed, no pressure at all. I found the further south you went and very noticeable from Ouarzazate onwards, people were less pushy. The south is good, very good.
I camped at Musserif?, on the left just passed the checkpoint. Again very relaxed. I was the only one there though. I stayed four days in the end. The town erupts into life in the evening. Full of life and colour!

So now I have moved on. I passed through the border into Mauritania. I already had a visa form Rabat. The border was easy, no hassle at all. A lot of paperwork but very enjoyable. If only they could all be that easy! Some advice. Get some Mauritanian money before you go over, I changed some in the border post itself. Plenty of guys changing cash and the rates were good. In Mauritania you do customs before your passport is stamped. The bike was 4800 ogs, and I was given the receipt by the chief of customs personally. Hell the book he wrote the details in must be the biggest one yet! Insurance for the bike is straight after the border post. The border guys insisted I get it straight away. 10 days insurance for the KTM was about 4200 ogs.

Oh and get lots of fiche. I am now in Nouachott. I must have gone through 20 checkpoints between Nouibdou and here!

I would recommend Atlas Residence in Nouadhibou, and Pleine Lune Restaurant also in Nouadhibou.
A nice place to stay in is Auberge Sahara in Nouakchott.

I feel I'm piggy-backing on Zeds' s thread but thanks for the info guys, will be useful for my October trip. I'm only going down to Dakar and looping back, taking about 5 weeks but it sounds like Dakhla is worth more time an overnight stay. I'll have a tent but mostly plan to use hotels although sometimes the campsites are where you meet the fellow travellers/bikers and as I'll be on my own...

Keep the updates coming Zedsdead, good to see you've made progress.

Hello everyone, update time. I have moved on a bit, it seems sometimes the travel runs away with itself. I have a long piece to put up so please bear with my indulgence. When I was researching and planning this trip there were two things that kept coming up. One was that everybody says Senegal is one of the best African countries to visit and the other was that border is the worst to get through. Now this kind of played on my mind a lot during the build up. There were lots of I got through, I survived sort of stories but no real information. So in the hope that it helps someone who like me was a little concerned here is how I crossed the border. I am taking this straight from my journal, as it was written on the night my feelings about things are in there, so not an edited later version.

Friday 8th. What a day! The big news is that I am Zebra Bar in Senegal! I did not mean to get here today but it seems that with this travelling thing sometimes stuff just happens. I was going to rough it somewhere but I sort of bumbled over the border. I managed to cross what is supposed to be one of the most corrupt borders in Africa in about 2 hours and with no Senegalese CFA in my wallet. In fact I still don't have any. Yet again I will have to go to the bank in the morning.
This morning I packed up slowly and sent some emails. David the hustler came round and was appalling at trying to fleece me for money. It was fun but weary in the way that money stuff is for me. I left Nouakchott. I read the map wrong so I thought Diama was a place to the east of Rosso and written on the map as Dagana. Because of this I rode to Rosso and checked out the border. The internet stuff seems to be right. People were at me as soon as they saw me and the gates were shut, at about 4pm, with I think army in front of them. Not a good sign! So as I was getting fuel I asked the way to Diama and people pointed in what I thought was the wrong direction. A guy jumps in a car and says he will show me the way, I say thank you but no money. As I went out of town another car stops but I don't speak French so they left. Then a third car stops, The guy talks to me in English. We talk and he insists he will show me the way, I don't trust him as he tries to drive back into town. Now whilst all this is going on I put a new Senegal border post into the satnav. It says about 50km away in the direction he says. So what the hell I follow him through the shacks, we stop at the edge of town to a rather shocked civil police post. A dirt road ahead of me. The guy tries for money, I say no and just ride off. The dirt road is good solid piste. I eventually stop and get the map out. I am heading for the border post of Diama.
I ride through the National Park, something I have read about on the HUBB. At the end a checkpoint and an army looking chap collects the park tax. 5000 ogs, shame the receipt only reads 2000. So the chap had me for about £6 hahaha, the start of the corruption. Now I should of stopped and camped as it was nearly six and I believed that was when the border closed. Nowhere I could easily hide cropped up and I ended up riding the 10km to the border post. I think I will camp there (As I did at the Morocco-Mauritanian border) but as this is a little out post not like Rosso I am called up to the customs box.
The guy and I have a little chat. He wants me to pay to get the bike released through the border. I tell him I already paid the tax on the way in and make it quite plain that I think he is ripping me off! He says it is 4000 ogs, about £8 to stamp the bike out and refuses to do anything until I pay. He has the same big book as the chap on the way in. So I make him write it all in there and give me its receipt, not the photocopied one he wants to use. He writes the bikes exit in the passport, stamps it and I pay. I still think he ripped me off and I now know the guy on the way in took me for 800 ogs.
Ok, as I leave an old fella with a dodgy receipt book want 500 ogs for tax to the community of D'iago. Hahahaha, what ever. At lest his receipt is right, £1 handed over. The only part where I don't mind being fleeced, good luck to him.
Right, into the Police office. Nice chap, does the paperwork and stamps the passport. Then asks for 10 euros. I say no, he asks again. I tell him I never pay the police anything. He smiles, shakes my hand and tells me to go. As I leave I expect the guy at the barrier to try it, but no he just opens it and I head into no mans land.
So out of Mauritania for 9500 ogs about £19 pounds, £4 of which I think is legit.
I hide up and put $50 into my sleeve, I think I may need them. Right across the bridge to the barrier and guess what a toll! 6500 ogs or 16 euros. I get my phone out to check the conversion, much to the crowds amusement. I try to play dumb and give the chap 65, but no way is he having that. I have 6200 in my wallet, so I show him that and say now what? Hahahaha , what a surprise, he says ok and the barrier is lifted. A con of course, but they know I have no choice.
Up to the border police with a chap who just doesn't believe I have no money. The guy stamps the passport and asks for 10 euros. I say again that I never pay the police and he backs down. There is no ATM here and only a few people. But most noticeable only one fixer-hustler. I have the carnet, but as expected the border guard says he can do nothing with it. I have to get the Passavant from him and take it to Dakar in 2 days. He wants 5000 ogs for it. I say no it should be free due to the carnet or at the very least only 2500 ogs. We basically have a row, he gets quite worked up and I leave. I talk with the fixer outside about it and the assurance. I don't know what to do about it and that they are hot on it for Senegal. I want to wait and get it later in St Louis. But it is getting late and starting to get dark. Hmmm, not too good. So of course the fixer can help me. At his argued about bad exchange rate ($1 for 200cfa not 280 as the phone says), $80 dollars, about £50 will get the Passavant and the fixer will escort me to St Louis and get me the months insurance for Senegal and the Gambia. I have no idea how much he is over charging me but what the hell it gets me away from the border, into town and gets the insurance sorted. There is also a Mauritanian chap with the car for whom he is doing the same thing.
So we all drive together. True to his word we get to the assurance office which is closed, he is straight on the phone and a chap turns up. The paperwork is sorted in minutes! The fixer tries to get more money out of me but I say no. So about £60 to get into Senegal, I have no idea how much of it is legit. About £80 spent crossing the border and getting the months insurance. Hmmm The police wanted but didn't get the 20 euros, so at least that is a bonus.

Ok, so there it is. I have heard stories of 200 and 300 euros. Now I know everybody is different and every one has a right to approach things in their own way. I am not trying to say look at me is this good, I just hope it helps someone else make an informed decision.

Well done , great post , I am leaving for Africa in October still undecided which route to take so this helps a lot . Enjoy the Zebrabar.

Gareth

Thanks for sharing this extremely detailed experience!! bier