Mali, Mauri, Burkina Infomation
 

Hello hello,

Back in 2006/2007 I overlanded around West Africa a bit in an old 2cv, and had a jolly nice time of it.

Later on this year I'm likely to find myself in Morocco with friends and a car nobody wants to take back to the UK. My immediate thought was that I could run down to Mali or Burkina and sell it off.

A little bit of research on here has shown, however, that today's West Africa is somewhat different to the one I remember of 6 or 7 years ago.

The forum archives appear to show that the Road of Hope in Mauri is now considered dangerous and best avoided, and that people heading towards Mali take the south road via Kadei instead.

The archives also appear to indicate that Mali itself is a hassle by any route as much of that top left corner of the country is considered unsafe, that one ends up paying to have a solider in the car, and so on.

Have a summarised correctly?

I've also found a few posts from a few years ago saying that Mali imposed all sorts of crazy customs rules on cars (bonds paid at one border and released at that other) that were driving everyone nuts. Later posts appear to show these have been abandoned, but I can't actually find notice that this is the case. Any word?

Anyway, although I would have loved to have toured the area and revisited some happy memories of old, the principle aim is to get rid of this car. I'm not intending to make a profit, I just don't want it any more, and it would be nice to cover some of the costs of getting it to wherever it gets to. The car is a Pug 306 Diesel LHD.

With this in mind, may I ask what you would do? Try to sell in:
1. Nouadhibou/No-mans-land? I guessing this will fetch the worst price, but that's fine because I won't have had to drive very far. If it earns a few hundred quid that pays for the diesel down and the boat to Morocco, so happy days.
2. Nouakchott? People certainly tried to by my car last time I was there. Does that still happen? Do all the new checkpoints I've read about make that tricky?
3. Go for Bamako? Is the faff of personal guards and potential jihad worth it?
4. Burkina? If one has to pay for escorts right the way across Mali (as some posts seem to suggest) is it worth it to get down to Ouaga and sell there vs selling in Mauri?

I must stress that I'm not trying to turn a profit, I just fancy as much of a road-trip as I can justify on the value of the car at it's destination :)

Many, many thanks for taking the time to read this post, and for dispensing whatever wisdom you may be about to dispense. If any of my questions have already been answered of late on here, please do feel free to curtly push me in that direction.

Cheers,
Matt

The Mali situation is not that bad that it sounds like, as far you stay outside of the nord-east.

I try to maintain a list of all travellers on a transafrica over the west route, who write a blog or have a website:

Trans-Africa over the west: A list of blogging travellers from 2011 upwards...

There you will find recent travel experiences about mali.

About selling your vehicle - I cant help.

Surfy

Selling a car in Mauri will be a problem as they stamp your passport with the cars details. When you go to leave they will get you. I had mine sold there for charity and the local Round Table gave me a letter all stamped up to ensure i wouldn't have a problem. The customs guys had a good look at this.

Mali has a computerised system now that will register your laisser passer. Going the road of hope will cost your 60 euro for an escort to Bamako and be sure to keep your receipt that your get from the embassy when you pay for your visa, it's the latest scam, and they will ask for it at the border. That being said, last time I still saw some car (and bus) sellers driving down, so it's still possible (if you know how).

There are several border crossings between Mauri & Mali, where the computerised system doesn't exist and where they charge you only 5.000 or 10.000 fcfa (depending which one you choose) for a "laissez-passer" to enter Mali.

But those border crossings would be offroad. Which could add to the adventure.

Which are the passable border crossings Mauri-Mali?
Selibaby-Melgue
Kankossa-? (I went straight to Kayes)
Ayoun el Atrous - Nioro
haven't tried further east - is there a goudron to Nara?

You can sell at the Mauri border, or in Nouakchott if you are willing to pay a little bribe to mr customs man.

no tarmac to Nara, nor after Nara
they are building a tarmac road between Nema and Amourj, and between Kiffa and Kankossa
it may take a few years more to complete :)

Hello hello,

Thanks everyone for taking the time time reply with your thoughts. I'm setting off to Dover and beyond this Monday!

Regarding selling in Mauri, I had my car stamped into my passport last time down (2006) but there were plenty of sellers and buyers around.

Hello Burden, this is very interesting indeed. Do you know if the Selibaby-Melgue crossing still of the old-fashioned un-computerised sort? Does anyone have any opinions on the safety of this little corner of Mali lately?

Always looking for an excuse for a bit of off-road!

Much obliged once again,
Matt

Melgue doesn't have electrickity, and certainly no computers.
Safety is no problem whatsoever. Lovely drive through baobab forests and quaint villages.
There is a military post in Melgue where they sometimes demand you take an escort.
On the Mauri side there is now both customs and gendarmes, so you can do all formalities here. Mali side, only customs, you get the laisser-passer and insurance if you need it, in Kayes.

Melgue is presently super un-computerised :), event though of course there are computers in Melgue and quite soon G3-internet connection too.
In my experience the Mali gendarmes always insists on escorting you (since the day the french guy got kidnapped in Diema). It is not much, if negotiated properly - a per diem in Mali is 4.000 fcfa per day, you get two gendarmes so it makes 8.000, roughly 12.5 euros. They might want you to pay they return too, but then insist on not paying full per diems, as the trip only takes 2 - 4 hours. The more you keep to the left, the nicer the landscape and the easier the piste which is easy anyway, only quite dusty sometimes.
There is another option - skipping Melgue and the gendarmes issue: from Selibaby to Baediam and on to Aourour and then right to Kayes.
This year has seen some extraordinary rainfall in the region: we had to wait 3 full days end of july for the border "river" (usually not more than a trickle) to subside, and even then it was solid 60 cm of water. Lesson learned - the said river is drainage for the entire Kiffa basin. When it rains there it will take 48 hours before the river swells, even if there's been no rain in the immediate vicinity.
However, by now the rains should be practically over.
Voila, enjoy

Baediam is north of Melgue. Last trip with the new Mauri border post (gendarmes and customs) in Melgue, they wouldn't let us do the formalities in Selibaby and asked us to go to Melgue.

When was your last trip? On my last trip end of july, we did customs formalities in Selibaby (with the usual attempt to squeeze 10 euros out of us for leaving the country :). The douanes guy in Melgue on the other hand didn't seem to be very interested in work.
In any case Baediam - Aourou is a legit and very possible option ... in my experience at least.

Last trip was in January. Gendarmes asked us to go to Melgue, and they called the border post to let them know we were coming.
Once out of Selibaby, there is otherwise a multitude of tracks going to Mali. I would like to take some time going south another trip, closer to river Senegal.

Gendarmes? So you didn't even go to Selibaby douane?

I went there, but like the gendarmes they told me to go straight to Melgue.
Not what I wanted, since this is in interesting piece of land to discover, many remote toucoleur and bambara villages all the way to Kayes, and I would like to feel free to roam.

Btw, just heard they had the first case of ebola in Mali in Kayes.