May 08: Nouakchott - Saint-Louis with border crossing
Loved the road from NOC to Keur Macene, changing very quickly to desert to more green and red earthed , even people and housing is changing fastly.
In Keur macene starts the 40kms tracks to Diama through the Diawling Park, very wet and green with warthogs, cows, birds… There are some tricky parts with “tôle ondulée” and sand . Watch out for animals on the track!
I arrived at Park Guard that asked me to pay for it and even if I read that you don’t have to, it’s not easy when you’re alone and there’s this guy plus a guy from gendarmerie, so after 10 minutes I paid 200 mru (5€)
10 kms later I reached the border, almost nobody else, nobody came to hassle.
Mauritanian side: got my passport and Passavant stamped for free, just had to pay the communal tax: 100mru.
Senegalese side: 10€ for Passavant for 5 days
Then you have to pay for the bridge, its’ 4000 Cfa or 10€ (no coins) or 250 mru, it’s clear you get a paper with price.
Then a little bit more of sand track to reach the road to Saint-Louis, everything changes from Mauritania, more people, more colours , better roads…
The city of Saint-Louis is on an island and you have to pass the Faidherbe bridge to reach it, it’s an old Eiffel type bridge, the crossing is beautiful. Saint-Louis is a quiet and pleasant ancient colonial city, not a lot of traffic, you’ll find restaurants and bars.
Went to Auberge Chez Titi: 1000 cfa shared bathroom with breakfast, bike inside the patio.
I bought a simcard with internet access from Orange and motorbike insurance at Axa for 12.000 cfa
There are more shops on the mainland, there’s a Auchan supermarket with french products, you can even walk there through the market.

























May 10: Saint-Louis – Dakar
I didn’t take the main road to Dakar but a small road passing by Leona and Mboro, it’s a very nice and quiet road until Mboro but after it’s getting very busy closer to Dakar so catch the main road to Tivouane.
Arriving in Dakar after Saint-louis is a shock, it’s a huge city with a bottleneck at the entry so it’s really a fight, and adding to cars and trucks of any age there are little motorcycles and scooters. But once again it's not aggressive, people can stop, turn or do anything anytime anywhere… Sometimes I couldn’t pass between cars with my side cases, blocking other motorcycles but they didn’t shout at me, try that in Paris!
I chose a place in a north part of town in Yoff, near the sea. Auberge Keur Diame 16.000 cfa shared bathroom. Ok but really far from center, with taxi it’s 40min to 1h30 and 3500 to 5000cfa. There’s no place to eat around and it’s hard to get a meal from the Auberge, wouldn’t do it again.
I visit the Hotel Oceanic when I was in Dakar, I was too lazy to change but would go there another time.
Got my passavant extended in the office on the main place of Dakar, didn’t pay anything for that.
Spent two days in Dakar (with a visit to the very touristy Gorée Island) very busy, noisy and polluted city, not unpleasant and really few hassling but after days in open air and desert I couldn’t breathe.
Decide to start the way back to Zebrabar, a camp just before Saint-Louis.