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Third time’s a charm - just managed to get a visas for the third time in London, smoothly enough, and despite multiple DZ port vehicular entry/exit stamps in my pp from previous trips.
I’ve only go two weeks in Feb so won’t make it too far south but still plenty to explore within two long days’ ride of the coast. Far enough to get down from the mountains at this time of the year. Nonetheless looking forward to seeing what I can squeeze in a shorter trip this time. PS Jim - if that northern In Salah CP is right on the town limit, that’s a new one compared to last year. May or may be noteworthy. Ed Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk |
This wont be of use for your trip in Feb and while I wouldn't advise anyone else reading this to avoid check points - it can make life easier!
Especially the one to the South of In Salah which is at the roundabout by the filling station at 27.174844/2.499995. The northern checkpoint is just to the N of the escarpment to the N of In Salah Airport - I did have this waypointed on my DMD but I lost it - taken from Google it's at the junction at 27.418733/2.557607 I left town from the road that finishes at 27.165738/2.481672 (seemingly a cemetery) and cut S. |
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Read into that what you will! Could be just natural rotation of things, particularly given the dodgy nature of the Tademait plateau to the north. Ed |
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We were sat in agency TLCs from Ghardaia onwards and passed a couple of unescorted foreign motos northbound south of In Salah. Don't know whether they also dodged checkpoints but I got the feeling the Gendarmerie find foreign motos too insubstantial to bother with. As suggested, the whole highway escort thing is flakey/arbitrary. I'm surprised no one has mentioned migrants on the southern TSH and Djanet road. I suspect CPs are more concerned with suppressing their progress (plus general population surveillance along main axes) than us tourists. I'd say half the traffic on the southern TSH was twin cab Hiluxs bombing north with 20+ pax barely disguised under a sheet, then dashing back empty for the next batch. They cover the TSH in relays and certainly dodge Arak via the west. Before IS they then take Ain el Hadhadj climb onto the eastern Tademait (a Dakar route from the early 80s, south of the Fort Mirabel / Chebaba. Fyi the 'Mirabel' ID'd on Google alongside the TSH is 200km to the south and mislabelled, unless they've reused the French name). On the Djanet road it's dead easy to dodge Serouenout and BeH all the way to Niger. Walking around BeH I got the impression migrants congregated here for the run north. Saw very few in touristy Djanet. Those who can't afford a Hilux walk the TSH/Fadnoun with a pair of water bottles strapped to their belts. Hundreds of kms of nothing with hopeful waves at passing traffic. As it happens I recall seeing similar just south of Illizi way back in 2002, though had the feeling they'd been just dumped from a car. And same era, others were openly walking with us up to Jabbaren but carrying on to nearby Ghat. These days we were told fortnightly convoys from some point up north ship them all back to In Guezzam where some try again. Maybe cool Jan is high season for walkers, but I've always understood Algeria was a much tougher transit than say Libya, while in Morocco they struggle to get north of Dakhla. I read here that Algeria expelled over 30,000 migrants in 2024. Anyway, the CP north of In Salah that Ngirienroute mentions was a serious one (mother's maiden name, etc) and where green & white gendarmerie escorts started for us, even with agency Ordre de Mission permit. No CP of substance noted IS southside on the TSH. Despite the mapping above, IS is what I've long understood to be the 'Grand Sud' frontier on the TSH and where restrictions can intensify (Tom Shepperd was outraged at being thwarted here way back in the Nougnties - as described in his QFAT book). Tbh on TSH escorts weren't a huge problem for us pax as gendarmerie car swaps in Arak and In Amguel (escort ended) were fairly quick and breaks for us anyway. In your own vehicle will be different. Our agency and drivers were long practised in negotiating their way out of these but knew when it was a lost cause. The gendarmerie seem to overrule wilaya authorisations/assurances. East of Tam via Tahifet (very nice) to Ideles and BeH no CPs bar Serouenout. In Djanet and around I don't recall seeing any green & whites at all – just blue cops who waved us though. But there may have been a fair amount of telephoning with local authorities by our driver to approve our onward passage on the road to Tin Alkoum. As always, on the piste no CPs to be seen, and rejoining the TSH at Moulay Lahcene, not imposed all the way back to IS - but may have been negotiated too. I have updated my Algeria page with prices, plus will do state of full TSH extent of the Djanet road etc over the next few days. Some pix here; more later. If you get in with your own vehicle, my advice in the Grand Sud would be get off the highways and stay off as long as you can (or at known CPs), unless you want to get bogged down like Nata woman. But in Alg that is a serious proposition, especially on a moto and, along with all the other stresses of remote desert travel, the whole cloak and dagger thing might get wearisome. Fyi, one of us was half-arsedly asked for GPS at In Salah airport scanner. Others have mentioned GPS is not allowed though I was told it seems to be limited to hand portables. Perhaps something like a big Garmin 700 clamped to the vehicle may pass? Otherwise best hidden. I discovered the novelty of live offline sat map navigation for the first time with GaiaGPS on a tablet. Handy to weave among outcrops off piste and a great OSM-based topo map, but for reliable/easy/quick recording of tracks/wpts, I'll stick with my Garmin 680, despite small/dull screen. |
Not having your experience down there I now realise that I saw what you saw in Djanet (locals and tourists) and BEH (no tourists and way too many young men for a bled of that size).
On the TSH I counted, very arbitrarily, on one 400KM section 40 walkers = 4 walkers every 10KM so over winter for the 2000km of the TSH = 800 blokes on the move at any one moment. Sometimes getting lifts and sometimes trudging. When I saw their bottles were empty and I had a superflous bottle I would hand it over. |
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A lot migrants also walking in late 2023, just as you described. Chatted to one by the side of the road at the stop north of the RN54/RN1 junction who told me the Gendarmes stop the buses, ask for papers and then just turf people off the buses on the spot if they're not meant to be there, wherever that may be. The Gendarmes also had one or two 'working' for them at the CP at BEH cleaning etc, and there was a huge migrant emcampment just 1km from the piste down to Essendilene. Ed |
Fyi, I calculate it's currently about 94km of dirt between Bordj el Haouas and Ideles.
It was 120km October 2023, so they're not rushing it. There is also at least one diversion from BeH to Djanet, but all manageable in a 2WD (or out on the sands in a 4WD). Bar a few oueds, the Tahifet 'ring road' is all sealed too and a scenic way of reaching Tam from the south. We did not do Ideles to In Amguel but Nov 24 Ngirienroute found; '... In Amguel the first 40 km are.. dirt. After that it’s [sealed] to Idles.' More here: https://sahara-overland.com/2025/02/...o-tamanrasset/ https://saharaoverland.wordpress.com...2/djan-tam.jpg |
Algeria VoA prices whacked up.
Last month we paid 105eu - will now be 185 (with an hour's wait at the apt). That will tell those tourists and tour ops what for! Embassy app remains the same - 90 quid for a month? Massive saving. https://saharaoverland.wordpress.com...02/dzvoa25.jpg |
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Can confirm, I paid this insanity literally last night. Also if you got the visa in just 1 hour, you were lucky. My friend waited nearly 3 hours yesterday, and it took me about 2 hours to get out of the airport. |
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£85 in London. And they only take cash. And they don’t give change. And they won’t accept £90. So you have to take the exactly amount. Good luck trying to find an ATM that gives out fivers anymore!!!! [emoji2357] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk |
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Which airport - Algiers ? |
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yes |
Quick trip report
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Just back from Algeria. Arrived with a group into Mostaganem travelling to Tadrart Rouge. We had a local guide which made some of the checkpoint work easier but we had a Gendarmerie Nationale escort from the port to Illizi. The escorts changed at city/town/department boundaries but these guys drove their g-wagens with lights and sirens on for the most part and got us through towns and busy intersections in fast order. The handover from one escort to the next can take anything from 30 seconds to 30 minutes. Most handovers were pretty efficient however.
Customs entering and leaving Mostaganem is serious. We had our CB radios confiscated (returned at departure) and while the customs staff were friendly, they were very thorough and went through pretty much everything. Took us 6 hours from arrival to getting out of customs. The limit on diesel in jerry's leaving the country seems to be 20L. The security posture in the country seemed heightened at time of arrival as there were certainly fewer checkpoints and no escorts for the journey north (well just one). Plenty of small groups of teenagers and young men from Niger or beyond walking north along the sides of the road from Ghardaia to Djanet. We met one other team of overlanders from Portugal in Djanet but otherewise expect to see very few foreigners. We all had eSIMs but they did not work in any of the sensitive areas, oil and gas production areas or military zones. We could see locals on phones but ours would not connect to any of the DZ carriers. People are super friendly, regardless if they are military, police or civilians. With the regular 'welcome to Algeria' being a regular greeting. No begging or any harassment whatsoever. Diesel is €0.17 a litre but expect issues with Euro 6 engines. Make sure to bring an OBD computer. |
i'm one of the PT we met in djanet !
white Jimny ! We went by Almeria->oran ferry .. 8h to cross the border and also one of the guys with cb radio confiscated. All friendly but very "nervous" with the foreigner women's in some checkpoints . Regards |
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