Hi there,

I'm planning a pretty long trip for the next august/september.

I'll be driving a Defender 90 Td5 (one car, one driver), taking a ferry from Genoa to Tanger. From there, I'll drive to West Sahara and get to RIM. Route in Mauri should be Nouadibhou-Atar-Tidjika-Tichit-Nema on track (if possible) or mixing roads and tracks if too hard for a single vehicle.

From Nema I'll drive to Bamako in Mali and then towards Gao. Along the route, I plan to visit Mopti, Bandiagara and the Dogon region and get to Tombouctou.

Then I'll drive the Gao-Niamey road and cross the Niger. Route will be Niamey-Tahoua-Agadez-Arlit-Assamaka.

I'll finally enter Algeria where, according to what is left of time and money (and myself :-) ), I 'll try to reach Djanet and enter Tunisia in Nefta.

A ferry in Tunis will carry me back to Italy.

I really would appreciate any info/suggestion on the planned route considering that:

1. I'll drive a "factory default" car, in good conditions but with no particular raid-wise preparation. I'll bring some obvious spare parts (suggestions ???) but I'm not going to stuff another unmounted Defender in the back.

2. I'll bring some 20l jerry cans and should have no problem doing almost 1000 kms if the track is not 100% soft sand (in which case I'll probably won't do the track anyway).

3. The whole trip duration should not be too far from 5 weeks.

Finally, if someone is going to be there around (or just would like to) in the same period, I would enjoy sharing some road/tea/chat or simply the cost of a guide where needed.

Thanks in advance for any reply.

Ciao,
Mario

Hi Mario,
perhaps we could travel together from Atar to Tidjika (and perhaps to Kiffa). We are heading for Bamako too, but we will take a track down south earlier - either in Kiffa or Ayoun.
We (one car, two drivers(?)) will be in Mauritania in August. But first we want to go to NKC because of visa- and insurance-things and because we don't want to miss the way along the beach... After that we might head to Atar (if the heat doesn't make us feel too bad)
Good luck, Marc

Ciao Mario,
When do you think to be in Mauritanie?
Maybe a tea cup on the sand, together...

Any news from RIM about fuel? Is all as normally known?

Ciao

I think you should carry tons of water! In that time of year you will need it badly...

__________________
Regards,

NCR
Lisboa, Portugal
http://ncr2006.blogspot.com/

stoertebecker: so, you're heading to Mali in a single car ... there's a good chance we could be mutually useful while crossing RIM ;-) What about the period ? I 'm going to travel RIM in 10/13 days starting around August 5th.

ag: a tea would be great ;-) Same questions as above: your period (more or less) ? As for the fuel, I got no particular warning. Will be talking to RIM embassy people in the next few days for all the latest news. Keep you updated.

Cheers,
Mario

period... from 2nd week of august I guess!
Concerning news, thanks for sharing... any info I'll have I'll post here ;-)

Ciao
it's strange write in english for 2 italian :-)))

Well, we planned to leave around July 25th. We will drive all the way across France and Spain, too. In Morocco we will have to spent a day or two for visa-affairs in Casablanca and Rabat. Perhaps we'll have a trip to Morocco's desert "parts" too - depending again on how we're getting along with the temperatures. After that we'll head straight south. So, we might be there at the same time. Does your ferry leave on the 5th or do you plan to be in Mauritania already at that time?
Bye for now, Marc

stoertebecker: I think I'll leave from Genoa around August 1st. This means I'll get to Morocco on Aug 3rd and be in Mauritania about 4 days later, which means Aug 7th, more or less your same timings. Sharing some road would be nice, hope we eventually make it.

Cheers,
Mario

Yep, that would be nice. I'll write again, when we're in Morocco and know if we can make it that early.
Bye, Marc

Hi Mario,
I wanted to write a PN, but it's not yet possible. However, I hope you had a good start. We had some delay due to organizing things and will now start next friday. So, we'll arrive in Mauritania about two weeks later and won't probably catch up. Nevertheless, I will write again here, because you never know...
Have a nice trip! Marc

Standard Defender will have no problem with this route.

5 weeks is not enough time to enjoy what you are doing. You'll be racing around against the clock. It's 6 days just UK-Nouadhibou driving 18 hrs a day on tarmac. If you only have 5 weeks, you are better off doing a Libya-Niger-Algeria route (if open) - and even that will involve a lot of road time.

Make your calculations km/day for the route - you'll see what I mean.

Sam.

Your route is approx 8000kms, in 4 African weeks (28 days) you have 285kms to do every single day - no pauses, no visits. That's not fun...

Sam.

enjoy your trip , and wish you success.
aghbalou ramlia