IMPORTANT : RHD vehicles BANNED in Gambia !!

[javierCarrion]

That's serious and This is for real !!
since las June .. all RHD vehicles have been banned from driving in The Gambia.

This , unfortunately include foreign vehicles which are turn-down at the border.
No ammount of bartering/bribing could make your way in .

I was driving a RHD mondeo (my commuting car whilst in UK) , and was stopped at the border. A convoy of 4 more british vehicles was aswell blocked at the very same border. Apparently both borders (barra and Farafeni ) follow the same rules.

In my case , and knowing a lot *I mean a lot !* of people in Gambian police/douannes could help me , but It took me 4 days bribbing the hell out of all gambian police/douanne to get a exceptional Customs clearing for RHD vehicle (at a cost!) . A lot of cash , and the hassle of leaving the car in the Douanne , taking the ferry south , sort out the papers , ferry north 4 days later , and then again ferry south with the car . a ****ing nightmare .

Obviously this has screwd up a lot of the UK overlanding tourisme (Camping Sukuta was absolutely empty , no-one was there , was kind of spooky) .

Unlike the 5 years-old rule in Senegal which seems easy to overcome by less than 50 Euros , this seems serious !!! . I even offered up to 250 Euros and even that I couldnt get in .

Even inside the country I couldnt barely drive 5 minutes without being pulld over/ stopped about the RHD thing on my car.

Incredibly , there is a business in the border which specializes in Swapping the steering wheel from right to left to allow entry in the Gambia . Dont want to think about how can they do that . Apparently they can do it , for as low as 5000-10000 Dalasis.

Have a nice day
Javier