I've waited a few days before posting to see what others would come up with regarding this route as I'm hoping to be in the Nema area, en route to Tombouctou (and maybe the Festival au Desert), around the new year. I've not been in the area before so it's questions rather than answers.

I'm solo on a bike so my safety margins are pretty small and it's therefore unlikely that I'll attempt it without latching on to others. If there is a security problem a small convoy may well attract more attention than a few solo travellers and we could find ourselves just swapping the usual safety hazzards for a security ones.

Concerning the route from Nema, this is what I kept from a previous post by Jose Britto from a trip about three years ago.

Km N E Description
0 16 36.667 -7 16.763 Exit of Nema. Leave paved road to a fast piste heading south over a reg alternated with sandy areas
21 16 26.800 -7 19.800 Pre-paved road over floodplain
27 16 24.100 -7 20.500 Piste turns E/SE
76 16 16.500 -6 59.100 Bangou village. Piste is now sandier and heads SE
96 16 9.300 -6 52.100 Exit of small village and Kir wells
112 16 4.000 -6 45.700 Exit of Kataouane village
130 16 2.100 -6 36.700 Gneiba el Mazroufa village at right but keep E
143 16 2.400 -6 30.600 Piste progressively harder turns SE. Police checkpoint within 1km
157 15 58.800 -6 24.600 Hard piste
171 15 54.200 -6 18.500 Top of hill. Keep E/SE in sandy piste
194 15 53.700 -6 6.200 Top of hill. Piste still sandy
216 15 51.100 -5 55.400 Exit of Bassikounou. Turn right to firm sandy piste heading SE
237 15 43.300 -5 47.200 Piste sandy but firm heading SE
252 15 37.300 -5 44.200 Exit of Koussana village
266 15 30.700 -5 35.000 Exit of Medala village
284 15 33.100 -5 31.300 Fassale village. If exit formalities from Mauritania were not fulfilled in Nema, there are police and douane checkpoints in the village
296 15 31.360 -5 29.650 Exit of Douamkara village. Piste heads NE over floodplain
305 15 33.030 -5 24.410 Mali border post after Faita village
322 15 35.700 -5 17.300 Alfess well at left
337 15 39.200 -5 10.400 Exit of Boundoubadi village. Hard and fast piste
360 15 43.600 -4 59.000 Small village. Well at left
309 15 42.600 -4 54.600 Lere. Douane and police checkpoint
427 15 44.600 -4 32.200 Passage through dam wall
443 15 46.950 -4 25.320 Passage through dam wall
450 15 48.230 -4 21.980 Passage through dam wall
461 15 50.940 -4 17.530 Passage through dam wall
482 15 54.360 -4 8.380 Passage through dam wall
498 15 55.500 -4 0.000 Exit of Niafunke. Fast piste
509 15 57.700 -3 55.430 Passage through dam wall
543 16 8.000 -3 45.200 After crossing the river turn left at Douane checkpoint and follow pre-paved road
667 16 46.520 -3 0.730 Tombouctou


The above coordinates are as follows:

1st column: km
2nd column: latitude degrees
3rd column: latitude minutes
4th column: longitude degress
5th column: longitude minutes
6th column: description of waypoint

If anyone else has further / similar info or took a different route it would be much appreciated.