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North Africa Topics specific to North Africa and the Sahara down to the 17th parallel (excludes Morocco)
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Trans Sahara Routes.

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  #1  
Old 30 Mar 2003
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Availability of paraffin
Can anyone tell me the availabilty of paraffin in Morocco, Mauritania and Mali? Going to Timbuctoo in November and I want to use this as cooking fuel instead of Gas. I know it is commonly available in India and a lot of Africa but it will be a bit late to find out when I arrive in Morocco.
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Old 31 Mar 2003
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We didn't see much in the way of parafin on the way down. There also wasn't european style gas. We ended up cooking on a combination of charcoal and large gas canisters. If you can afford to get one then a multi fuel stove is by far the best solutions. Although larger gas canisters are available (type used to connect to gas stoves, ie quite large) throughout africa, you need a variety of connectors and we kept having to changes throughout.
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Old 2 Apr 2003
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>>[B]Can anyone tell me the availabilty of >>paraffin in Morocco, Mauritania and Mali?

If it runs on paraffin .. It will do on petrol !. Leaded or Unleaded according to personal prefferences.

Cheers.....
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  #4  
Old 2 Apr 2003
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Use the word "kerosene" if you are asking for paraffin abroad in my experience it is more widely understood.

Importantly in France (and by default -Francophone Africa) Petrole means Parafin. Essence means petrol.

As a previous post mentioned if you have not bought your stove yet, then I would go for a multi fuel type. These have different sized jets according to which fuel type you intend using. I have used the Primus - Himalaya and MSR - XGK II both of which functioned well. I found unleaded pertol gave a cleaner burn than leaded petrol.

I would be wary about putting petrol in a paraffin stove as the burn properties are different - perhaps check with your manufacturer. You would be better off with a kerosene based aviation or tractor fuel if you cant find domestic paraffin. Having said that soucing either of those would probably involve some serious time and effort!

Good luck.


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Old 2 Apr 2003
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Hi !! . I realize that it is really risky giving this kind of advice ,especially with flamable/explosive liquids ... but..

I think that the "magic" about liquid fuelled stoves ... is that they run on the same that our vehicles , and that automotive fuel -ovbiously- should be available aplenty. .. . If I had to carry a can of "Coleman Fuel ", or "Primus Parafine" then ... I'd go for the cheaper , cleaner , and safer "disposable gas cartridge" stoves

IMHO , for all practical purposes.... kerosene seems to have the same burning , handling , flashpoint that automotive diesel.

and parafine (petroleum) ... seems to be the same as gasoline , (petrol/Essence) ..for all density , viscosity , flashpoint and boiling point . Therefore .. I think It will be "fairly" safe to burn petrol in a parafine stove.I would do it -however- with some precautions .. and while at home (dont try if it works in the middle of Africa !) .

Cheers.
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Old 3 Apr 2003
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Thanks guys - but I am no further forward. My experience of dual fuel stoves is that they aren't! We used a Coleman and a Hunter on a previous world trip and found that the vapouriser tubes coked up and were very difficult to clean. Might be better with unleaded, but can you get unleaded in the depths of the Sahara? There is no way I would use petrol in a paraffin stove the result would be a huge flare up. Paraffin (or kerosine) is very different from petrol, has a low flashpoint and is much safer to handle. I use a paraffin stove regularly in U.K. so I want to use one in North Africa if possible. Back to my original question - can anyone tel me if you can get paraffin (kerosine) in Morocco, Mali and Mauritania?
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