Carnet

[Alex Rubtsov]

Hello.
I have a questions.
1. For which african countries the carnet is needed?
2. In which countries I can buy a local triptique at the border?

Thanks for your answering.
Alex

[Frank Warner]

Africa is a large place - it may help if you say
East Coast or West coast?

[javierCarrion]

Well , we have written about that here so many times.. that your best move is having a look in Wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnet_de_Passage#Africa_2

This list It is regularly keep up to date. Ghanna is no longer requiring Carnet de Passage .


Have a nice day ...

[Alex Rubtsov]

I`m planing a trip around Africa. And It will be better for me to go without buying a carnet. I whant to plan my route via contries where carnet is not required. But what to do with South Africa?
P.S. I have been in China(Tibet) last summer. 8000km & 15days.
Alex

[javierCarrion]

generally speaking ... you do not need a carnet if you travel via the west Coast .
Some countries in the East (Egypt , Kenya , Tanzania ) still requires the carnet.. so It will be a lot more difficult .

I am driving to SA via the west coast (Motorcycle currently in Niamey ) without any intention to adquire a carnet. As far as I know if you follow the classic

morocco , mauri , mali (Senegal , Gambia , Senegal ) , Burkina , -niger , Chad , Cameroon , Gabon , Congo , Congo , Angola , Namibia , SouthAfrica

you can cross Africa without a carnet.

DISCLAIMER !!! This is what -I believe .. to the point that I am doing it . Things and regulations in Africa can change from one day to the next .Borders may be closed , or new goverments start requiring again the Carnet (althought the whole carnet thing is bein phased out in Africa ) things may change . I know at least 10 -12 people which made it to SouthAfrica without a carnet following this route .

however , there are people which for any reason they tend to fall into all sort of tricks/scams. in most borders in central africa they are going to rip you off , asking for any sort of paper (Carnet , special permit , central-african insurance, etc.. ) Its just a ripoff. If you dont have a carnetdepassage .. you need to pay ... but if you have , then you need to pay for other imaginary permits or rules.

Laws in Africa are not like at home , in which rules are respected , followed and enforce. Laws in Africa (other than Morocco ,and Egypt) are "blurry" , and even that a country states that they require carnet -such as Ghanna- , most people make into it without one.

Crossing borders without the correct papers (carnet , insurance , even vehicle registration ) requires some sort of "face value" -[cant translate this better into english , sorry ]-

some people made it every day into Senegal without a carnet , and some other fellas have their car nearly impounded in Senegal for not having a fire-extinguiser.Some people are ignoring passavants expiry dates with no consecuences , and some other people , are pullover and pay huge fines for not wearing the seat belt .

I can tell you stories of 2 britons , got into mali with a WV polo , nwithout even doing the border stuff ,no passport entry stamp , no visa ,no passavant , no insurance , and maybe even not registration paper or the car , they stayd up to 15 days in mali , got pullover 10 times by the police , and they dint have any trouble at all other than paying small bribes. On the other hand , you will find people which affirm that you enter a country without all the entry stamps , paperwork , visas, etc.. and you probbably end up in the Jail .

well, have a nice day

[Alex Rubtsov]

Ok if I understand right in most african countries I must have a visa and some $$ for bribe if my smiling face do not help me. Now I try to make a list of countries on my route. I whant to ride aroud africa and my back way is runing via East coast. North-SA (West Coast), SA-North (East Coast). I do a first steps in my new big journey now. Many thanks for the helping.
Alex