Horizons Unlimited - The HUBB - Mauritania: Visa + Border

I just did this today, as I saw a lot of conflicting information on the internet, here is exactly what I had to do to cross;

Drove to the Moroccan border, the two gas stations were both out of fuel. when I arrived there were a lot of cars/trucks lined up OUTSIDE the gate to the border facility. I parked behind these and went to a currency exchange on the left to get 120 Euro for the visa. I then got back on the moto and I drove straight to the front of the line, a guard at the gate handed me a Fiche, which I filled in. He looked at it and let me through into the compound. I drove forward 50m and parked in the middle. You give your passport and vehicle registration document to a police officer who goes to the building on the right named "Gendarmerie" or whatever they call it. He looks at it in his room for several minutes then gives it back to you.

Now go to the building directly opposite on the other side of the road (left) which is the passport office, give passport and Fiche that you filled out earlier. He stamps you out of Morocco. Now go back to the moto (whatever vehicle you have), give your TIP to a police officer hanging around the cars, they sign it, then you take it to the next building on the right named "Douane", which is the next building up from "Gendarmerie". Here you go to the first office on the left, they take your passport, TIP and registration document (carte gris). They sign and stamp it. You now go back to your vehicle and give the signed, and stamped TIP to the nearby police officer around your vehicle. They will look at it, then you can go up to the next barrier in your vehicle. At the barrier, you get out/off your vehicle, and go to a tiny white building right next to the barrier where they look at your TIP and write all the stuff in a book, then give it back to you. The police officer at the barrier will then let you past, here you must drive 20m forward, park yet again and go to another pinkish "Gendarmerie" on the right hand side. Go to the window and hand the guy your TIP, passport and registration document. He will write your info in a book and give the documents back to you. Now you can just get in your vehicle and go directly through the big final gate into no mans land.

There were many people driving across when I went, so I just followed a big truck who took the easy route (without sand). This was approximately 2km, easily doable in your own vehicle without a guide, the moto in some of the deep sand was difficult for me hence why I started following the truck after.

On arriving at the Mauritanian border, I was still at the bottom of the hill when a guy was running down the slope to me. I recognised this guy as Cheik from the pictures above. I took off my helmet and said "Cheik", he said "I remember you" which he didn't as this is the first time I've crossed. He said it would cost 20 euro, to which I said 10 euro and he said okay. If you want to do this yourself then read on, I will explain what he did.

He takes your passport and registration document (carte gris) to the first building on the left once through the gate, while you're parking on the right hand side of the gate. There are two guys in army uniform in this office and they look over your documents. No problem.

Next he goes to the next building up on the left hand side, (this building is white, and has a white concrete fence with pattern holes in it), there will be an open door on the right to enter an office. In here there is a long desk opposite, with 2 guys sitting behind the desk, this is where you get your visa. You give your passport over, they look through it for a while and deal with other passports at the same time. Eventually they ask you to take a seat in front of them, you sit there for a while and then you must scan your fingerprints several different ways. Sit there some more, and they will take your photograph with a webcam on the back of the computer. You then get out of the chair and wait around for a long while, then you pay 120 euro to the guy behind the desk and wait some more. Eventually you get your passport.

Now that you have your visa, next you need a TIP. Drive your vehicle about 100m, you will see a walled off compound on the right with a gap in the middle to walk through, park opposite on the left side of the road. walk into this compound and there are several buildings, go to the second building on the left, there are two guys in army rig in here who do the TIP. They wrote it out for me, as I had hired this guy Cheik to help out, maybe you would have to write it out yourself? This TIP gave me 1 week import and cost me 10 euro, I think it should have cost 7.5 but I couldn't be bothered arguing.

After this, you get back in/on your vehicle and drive another 100m up to a building on the left side of the road with a bunch of people crowded around trying to sell sim cards etc. You will know it is the right building as when you enter the door, there will be a door on the left, a door on the right, and if you go straight forward there will be a garden inside on the left. Take the left door first, here is where they will stamp you in to the country, drop your passport on the desk with registration document, eventually the guy will look at your passport and say your country name a few times for no reason. He will stamp you in to the country, and you can walk out. Walk into the door on the right, give your documents and scan your fingers yet again, get your documents back and walk out

Now I got back on the bike and went a further 100m to another building on the left, this has a big ramp up to it where there are a couple of tables and chairs, and a shop. This is where he had already arranged insurance and we waited for the document while I got a bottle of water, but if I was doing this again/alone I would just leave and get insurance in town.

This is where Cheik tried to f#$! me, I had paid 15 euro for insurance. When he brought out the papers it had only 3 days on it. I told him I wanted 10 days for the 15 euro I paid for. He tried to spin some BS about how the prices are changing all the time etc, I said no I want 10 days for the 15 euro simple as that. He got in a bad mood and went off, he came back and tried to kill time, like 30 minutes I waited there for this insurance to come back. Eventually he brought it back with the date just scribbled out and a new date put it, I don't know if this is official or not.

In total I paid:

120euro for visa
10 euro for TIP
15 euro for dodgy insurance
10 euro to Cheik

As I paid the 10 euro for Cheik and the 15 euro for insurance at the same time, I only had a 20 euro note which I gave him, but also 100 dirhams, he gave me back 1200 Oug change, 3 euro. So he dicked me 2 euro in the exchange but thats water under the bridge.

Overall I think I pretty much paid exactly what is required + arguably 12 euro for Cheik the fixer. I know I wanted 10 days insurance rather than 3, but purely out of principal that I'm not going to let him pocket the change if I can help it, in reality I am spending 1 night in Nouakchott and getting out of here. It's boring, its a huge desert, fuel is SUPER expensive, apparently Auberge du Sahara has bed bugs and there is not really much else to do here.