Hi, new thread to keep things clear.

From Tamanrasset to In Guezzam Ian and I had to stay w the guide and on the asphalt. Guide carried extra fuel in case there was none at In Guezzam (no villages in between either). Good thing because there was no fuel in town.

Border formalities a breeze but they did search our panniers for alcohol. Later served us Johnny Walker Red, confiscated the previous day! Dinner also with very friendly officials - BBQed goat and fantastic!

Camped outside frontier compound and rode to Assamakka next morning. Easy sandy piste, no hassle.

Assamakka border formalities again easy but had to pay CFA10000 per bike and if you have no carnet you can buy - forgot to ask the price. Soldiers said we had to tak earmy convoy and we waited for 3 hours to hear from chief in Arlit what cost would be. Reply came that NO ARMY CONVOY was necessary, didn't even quote a number.

Arranged private 'guide' to carry luggage because Ian's RS1200 is heavy and I hadn't been through deep sand with the loaded Dakar. GUide got 2 other vehicles to join 'private convoy' - total cost EU150.

20km from Arlit the 3 bandits struck with white Landcruiser and AK47s and hijacked one vehicle and half of our luggage as I passed their well-executed hit. The other half was in the third car. Heard at police in Arlit that shots were indeed fired but not sure at whom - MP3 player's earphones are still good! The desert is large so no action taken.

Armed convoy to 50km from Agadez was a serious affair with three army vehicles with what I think you'd call gattling guns in army slang. Took forever to get to Agadez and then Gendarmerie kept our passports, to be collected from police chief in town at 16h00.

Got new 'pannier' next day and even handmade tyre levers.

THey said there was a convoy for about 270km from Agadez to Niamey, but it was a ruse to get everyone at the Gendarmes' registration point at 06h00. No army company at all. Real bad patch of road for some distance so we rode on the pistes alongside - sandy but much better for the bikes. Ian stayed on the real 'road' for a little too long and damaged front tyre a bit. Sure he also lost some tooth enamel!

More from Burkina under new thread sometime next week.

Safe riding!
Kobus

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"The fates lead him who will; him who won't they drag." - Anon

Hi Kobus,

Could you give more detail about the hijacking? Do you think your guide was part of the scam? Did you see it happening and rode off to safety? Was anyone hurt? The two cars you're saying were in the same convoy - were they locals? Was it their car or the guide's car that was hijacked?

Peter

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https://famous-walker.dreamwidth.org - in Russian but with lots of photos

I sure appreciate you sharing your jounrey in Northern Niger with us, great to hear you got through to Agadez.

Hi Dave,

To tell the truth, we'll probably never know. A few strange things though:

Army chief (Arlit) took very long to come back with an answer about price of convoy and then they never quoted a price. We were just told it was not necessary anymore and we were free to go. Our passports were kept by chief at Assamakka until we got that answer.
We asked for a guide and then 20minutes later there were not one but three vehicles. Strength in numbers?
Until the last ("prayers") stop before gunning it to Arlit all vehicles stayed within sight of each other ("guide vehicle" was always the last vehicle in the convoy) but thereafter I had to run at full tilt to catch up with 2nd vehicle and even then I couldn't see the dust trail of the 1st vehicle.
2nd vehicle was going faster and then slowing down (a number of times), almost seemed like they were looking for something..?
I was about 40m behind them when I saw the flare and they stopped, jumped out immediately w/ hands in the air (seemed as if they'd know exactly what to do even before the bandits got to their vehicle's side), then hiding behind far side (my side) of their vehicle with bandit landcruiser turning around their vehicle.
I slowed down almost to a stop, then saw the bandits weren't wearing army/Gendarmerie uniforms, I accellerated and indicated that I was leaving and one bandit waved me on as if they weren't interested in me.

I suspect that if they harm tourists the army/police has to do something. Police chief in Arlit did not seem surprised at all and blamed us for not taking the (unavailable) army convoy.

Best would probably be to get through border formalities and stay about 2km off the 'piste' until very close to Arlit - which you could only do if you had a waypoint for Arlit. We asked for one and they showed us a long list of waypoints but strangely had none for Arlit, their nearest town?

I think the fewer people who know what you're doing and when, the better.

Guide vehicle arrived at Gendarmerie in Arlit an hour after us but an hour before the vehicle that was so far ahead of us that I could never see it. Could not get a real answer from them about where they'd been until then...

I still have a feeling that it was a set-up. Too many delays before leaving, very odd separation of vehicles close to Arlit, as if they were expecting the hit and "prayers" at the last stop.

Two shots were apparently fired but no-one was injured. The car that was apparently hijacked belonged to an Algerian and we left Arlit the next day with the very real and serious army convoy so we didn't see the tail end of the movie to know how much of it was real. I got the idea that our guide was honest but not sure about the others. The guy at the Carnet office at Assamakka arranged the guide and even gave us his mobile number, which I checked before leaving. Don't think he was in on it.

Other guys from Algeria who'd left Assamakka a few hours before us arrived at the Gendarmerie AFTER us also saying they'd been robbed earlier. The same guys offered at In Guezzam to guide us but I got a strange vibe from him so we declined. May even be that he was behind it and just came to the Gendarmerie to see if they were going to do anything about it - very strange that they 'were robbed' really long before us us, but came in to report so long after we'd arrived there.

Bottom line: we'll never know for sure if it was a setup, but it's probably best to keep your moves secret and to be completely self-reliant.

Kobus

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"The fates lead him who will; him who won't they drag." - Anon

A strange story but glad it didnt end too badly for you. Reads like a set up to me too.

Interesting that they didnt take bite out of the Hungarian banger rally that must have gone through a few days earlier but perhaps they had an escort from Assamaka. Like you suggest, locals (Algerians) may be regarded as acceptable targets; tourists less so.

I think the fewer people who know what you're doing and when, the better.

That's the way it seems to be in the Sahara these days...

Ch

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Morocco Overland 4 pre-order for Xmas • Trans Morocco Trail

Now I wonder what really is going on there at Assamaka-Arlit. When I was refused passage without a paid convoy last December http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...assamaka-47087 (and later someone else had to pay for the private army convoy) it may be that the high authorities found out about this financial enterprise by the border officers and gave them some good spanking. Which effectively deprived them of their income.

In the case with Gottoride 3 months later the border guys must have tried the old scheme with a private convoy but the boss in Arlit gave a no-go. So, they switched to plan B, the "guide and bandits". All it cost them is 2 bullets and a couple of phone calls, so whatever they could gain from a motorcyclist's luggage was good enough. And no one was hurt, so there's no reason for Gottoride to hang about in Arlit to pursue the case.

Just a speculation of course, but there is clearly some sort of set-up going on there. A good reason to think twice before trying it again in the near future. Seems a military convoy is the safest way to do it, even that it costs a small fortune - the problem is that it isn't even available any more. Might have to do with the military coup and a subsequent increase in the level of discipline in the army.

Peter

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https://famous-walker.dreamwidth.org - in Russian but with lots of photos

Hi Chris,

>the Hungarian banger rally that must have gone through a few days earlier

they never made it to Algeria, they did not obtained visa for Algeria. They also applied in Tunis but in vain ( Blog ). It all comes down to a decent organisation and logistics. For instance Globetrotter (French) toured Algeria with about 40 cars with no issues.

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Yves

Sorry, meant the Tahat-draining Globetrotters as mentioned earlier.
I am sure they did it professionally, whatever it cost.

...they never made it to Algeria...
I see. As I predicted somewhere earlier, and not so surprising really.

Ch

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Morocco Overland 4 pre-order for Xmas • Trans Morocco Trail

Kobus, I still find it incredible that you took the Assamaka-Arlit piste without having a waypoint for Arlit.

Happy to hear you're though mate, good luck with your journey!

Peter

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https://famous-walker.dreamwidth.org - in Russian but with lots of photos

Some more information from somebody else who has recently done the Agadez to Tamanrasset run.

niger report - Lonely Planet travel forum

Glad you made it through under the circumstances, Kobus!

Sounds like one should circumvent Assamakka and head straight for Arlit.

"For instance Globetrotter (French) toured Algeria with about 40 cars with no issues."

We met these guys in Tam - they drank Ian's :-). Couldn't believe it: 40 vehicles indeed!

Kobus

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"The fates lead him who will; him who won't they drag." - Anon

Not such great news coming out of Niger in the last week or so - scroll down the whole link. It looks like Kobus got off quite lightly and circumventing Assamaka won't help much - being in a genuine, armed military convoy might.

Yahoo! Groupes

Ch

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Morocco Overland 4 pre-order for Xmas • Trans Morocco Trail

Hey Gotoride,

How is the trip going? Are you still in Niger?

Could I ask, is there currently a convoy between Agadez and Zinder? I have heard conflicting information regarding this stretch of road in the last few months.

Hope you're having a great time wherever you are. Safe travels.

Hi Dave,

I'm currently in Togo waiting for a new piston & barrell set and fighting something that feels like bronchitis...

When in Niger, we were told that there was a convoy for the first +- 80km or so to Zinder. We were told the same about the stretch to Tahoua, but there was no actual military presence.

If you can somehow get in touch with US Peace Corps in Niger they could give you more current info - they have a number of people in villages between Zinder and Agadez. I met a few in Ghana the week before last and they mentioned travelling always by convoy between the two towns. My impression was that only the convoy between Arlit and Agadez was a regular/consistent thing.

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"The fates lead him who will; him who won't they drag." - Anon