Senegal & Gambia - trip report

[thejointmaster]

Well done. But if you go again I would suggest that you cross into The Gambia at Farrafenni. You get the same bullshit but they are not going to take you to Banjul. Just sit on the step and tell them you have no money. Eventually the big boss will turn up and give everyone a bollocking and tell them to issue the passavant. Because they are now pissed off with you they will search your car. Make sure that you are watching closely as things tend to go missing (they nicked my biscuits. ha ha). As you say, no problem getting an extension in Banjul (customs she No2)
Richard

[thelandybus]

Wow what a brilliant story,
we are intending to drive down from the UK in December 2019, supporting a Charity,
driven down twice now and we always cross into the Gambia at Farrafenni so much less hassle,

the bridge at farrafenni how long until it is built?
safe journeys!
thelandybus

[overlandovernight]

if you search for the "transgambia bridge" you will find some information and even some video's showing the progress made since they began building in may 2017. No word on when it will be done however. All i can say about it is that it is long overdue! I'm looking forward to the day when i will be able to cross the river in 2 minutes!

[Chris Scott]

... continuation of this post (Morocco and Mauritania)
The 3 replies above should follow this post.

Entering Senegal:

Leaving Mauritania:
-head for the first office on the left. stamp out your temporary import permit. the cost is 10 euros, ask for a receipt (The rule in general is, No receipt = corruption!).
-Go to the next office on the left. stamp out your passports. they ask for 10 euros. do not pay! ask for a receipt, when they refuse, remind them that a receipt (recu in french) is necessary for government transactions. by doing this i got away without paying.
- A man is guarding a gate there, asking about 2 euro's for a "tax de commune". pay them and continue.

Drive over the dam to the Senegalese side! Many people dread this crossing because of the many stories about corruption here. crossing was quite expensive for me (we did not have a carnet de passage!) so expect to pay a substantial sum. on the plus side, it was very desolated and easy-going and the process did take about 1 hour.

Entering Senegal:
-Pay the gatekeeper +- 5/10 euros to cross. you should get a receipt.
- Go to the police building on the right and get a visa. it should be free for Europeans. The officer attending us was looking very angry (probably acting), saying we were in trouble for not having a carnet and demanding 10 euro's for registering the car (not necessary!) always keep cool and smile. after we got our stamps, we had to go talk to the customs officer.
- Go to the customs office on the left side. The man there was very friendly and helpful. seems we were not able to get the Passavant de circulation (temporary import for senegal) because our car was older than 8 years and did not have a carnet. Instead an Escort was necessary! 250 euro's, paid at the border office (Other recent forum posts also suggest the 250 euro fee for crossing without a carnet). They photgraphed my Passport and Carte grise and send it to another customs official in Saint-Louis. After that, we drove in escort to Saint-louis (20 minutes) to the customs headquarters there. when we got there, the escorter gave us a stack of papers and a mission declaration, all with official stamps. I asked "when do we leave?" to wich he replied "You go ahead, you have 3 days to reach the Gambian border at Karang (paper indeed said 72 hours). I will come afterwards". So we were free to travel by ourselves after all! An escort without an escort. Effectively we got a passavant, although the Karang border officials really did treat us like we were in escort, and police checkpoints just let us pass through quickly after seeing the documents.

Senegal is beautiful. The roads overall were very good, even the road from Kaolack to Karang (you might have read otherwise, but there is a brand new road there!) The road between Mekhe and Bambey is a degraded, bumpy sand piste of about 60km. but, if you have a good 4x4 vehicle, do take this road! i had the time of my life speeding on the narrow sandy donkey-cart roads running parallel to the main Road. if planning on doing so, The Gambian border can be reached easily in a day's time.

Entering The Gambia

Leaving Senegal (at Karang):
Very easy this one.
-In the middle of the road stands a small customs building. stamp out your escort papers (or passavant or carnet or whatever). no fee paid.
-Go to the police on the right hand side of the road. stam out your passports. quickly done, no fee to be paid. continue into The Gambia.

Entering Gambia:

This is were our luck ran out. Everything went extremely smooth up until now. i will be very elaborate on this bit, so that you all may learn a bit from it to be able to adjust your strategy on this border crossing. I suppose the problems encountered by us were due to the fact that The Gambia was the final destination of the car. if you are just passing The Gambia it should be a lot easier

-Go to the police office, second office down the right side of the road. you will be lead into an office where the passports will be checked and you will be asked for your proof of vaccination against yellow fever. i did not have mine, but with a bit of going back-and-forth he let us go. he will send you to the back of the office where you will get your passports stamped. it should be free.
- Almost home, we thought. Being a frequent visitor to the Gambia i certainly did not expect it to go wrong here. but it did. i asked for the temporary import permit. i declared that the car would be imported into The Gambia eventually but i wanted to have some time to do so (effetively the trip was also a mission to bring a 4x4 there for my father, who is also a frequent visistor and who has bought a nice compound there to enjoy the sun). they said they were not able to do so and we had to go in escort to banjul to the customs headquarters where we should go and explain. stood there 1.5 hours arguing and calling in everyone i knew there, but in the end it did not matter. Another overlander with the Gambia as final destination was having the same problems as us. 1500 dalasi's (30 eu) to be paid, without a receipt. we drove in escort to banjul, leaving our carte grise with the escortee. reaching the ferry we were told that when we reached the other side (banjul) the customs office would be closed, and we would have to leave our keys and carte grise with the guards there, to return the next day and work our problems out when te customs (Gambia revenue authority) opened again! Unacceptable of course. Never leave your documents or keys unattended! reaching the customs in banjul about 2 hours later (the ferry's there are just terrible, luckily they are finally building a bridge furhter down the river at farafenni!) The guards and the police there were indeed demanding our keys and registrations. I and the other friendly overlander refused, and the discussion heated up. always stay cool though. We proposed to sleep in our car there so we could keep our keys and registration. sleeping there was ok, keeping keys and registration wasn't. Finally we met this great man, who was the only customs official left, working late. He saw us discussing and immediately called of the guards. "You have no right to take their keys or their documents if they sleep here. They are our guests: let them sleep here". I was smart enough to take this man's name, wich turned out to be our solution after all. We spent a sleepless night camping in front of that building, hanging out with the guards. Next day the building opened and i went inside, already heavily annoyed with the entire situation, and asked for the temporary import. within a minute it became clear that they wanted me to import the car immediately and a temporary import would be impossible. i demanded to speak with the man i met the night before. and so i was lead upstairs. It became clear that the man was having a high position within the organisation, and i explained everything. He went above and beyond to help me, dragging me past 5 other officials, correcting them on the way we have been treated and ordering the guards and police not to mingle in custom's affairs. Finally we met another high official. i explained "the car is in my name, but really it is my father's car. i am just having an adventure. the car will be imported but my father just wants some more time to send some money over, i just want my temporary permit" he replied "does your father have any business here?" "yes, he is a taxpaying homeowner who is currently building another compound". this seemed to give me sufficient leverage. "okay i will call the border officials. they will give you a 2-week permit, wich you can extend here if necessary". I decided to be cheeky and told them about the money i paid for the escort, to wich they replied that they would take care of that too. i was given a businesscard with instructions for the border officials to call back to him if they had given me the permit. so there we went, back on the ferry, taking a taxi to the border. The officials seemed annoyed with me because of the call they received from their bosses over at banjul. but i felt very strong then, backed up by the big bosses. "write me the permit now. call your boss in bajul afterwards" to wich he responded "i don't have his phone number" to wich i laughed "well i do!". he explained it was not his task so i demanded to speak with the highest official there. i ordered him to call his boss after showing him the written instructions on the business card, and asked for my money back. he told me " it is an unwritten rule, everyone has to pay" bullshit. i told him to call his boss, wich he did. during te call his face turned to a very nervous expression, and his voice became very timid. he hung up, i asked with an angry face " give me my money back" to wich he replied "but everyone has to pay, it is an unwritten rule". he saw me becoming very angry, silently getting my phone and dialing the number on the business card. he broke. "Wait wait wait, just wait". 2 minutes later, a man brought 1500 dalasis. i got my money back! that felt great, i did not let myself be fooled by corrupt officials. after that the permit got stamped and i extended it easily in banjul for a month, 12 euro's. i was finally free at my destination!
So that was my story. I hope many future overlanders find this information to be usefull. if planning on doing this trip, i can highly recommend it! It was amazing.

Feel free to send an E-mail if you have any questions. In case your car will stay in the Gambia, i am willing to share the contact information of the officials who helped me out of trouble.

Good luck,
3 Young Dutchmen.