All that's true.
We were there 1 month ago, 3 cars. My 6 y.o LR and 1 y.o Toyota did it for 5 000 CFA. Unfortunately 15 y.o Iveco of my friend did it for 100 EUR, after long time discuss.
On yhe southern border of Senegal everything was good and with normal 2 500 CFA per car.


I have a huge appeal to you.
Don't teach such criminals simple earnings. Don't give so easily them money. Try always to fight corruption and if you must already give as the smallest amounts.
He cannot this way be so that the idea of travelling is destroyed by corrupted border clerks.

safe trips

Fun stuff. I'll be at the northern border in a week or so. No chance I'm paying 200 euro..

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I ended up crossing at Daima which was pretty painless and "fees" on both sides of the border ended up costing about 40 euro.

They stamped my carnet, but I think it was only because the customs official saw it sitting on my passenger seat and was then keen to use it for whatever reason.

Only one checkpoint asked to see it afterwards. The rest of the checkpoints were a mix of waving me through, wanting to have a chat or trying to give me completely bogus tickets which I laughed at and just patiently waited until they gave me back my license.

Which reminds me that everyone coming to Africa should bring a stack of fake licenses so that you have nothing to lose at these stupid checkpoints. I'm going to start giving a photocopy to them until I can have fake ID's shipped to me.

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1. Coming into Senegal from Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mali, and Gambia (I've crossed all of these in past few years and most of them in past few weeks) you do not have to pay ANYTHING. No need for a laissez passez UNLESS you do not have a CDP. if you need a laissez passez for Senegal the official price is 2,500CFA.

2. If driving in Senegal, you must have 2 x warning triangles, 2 hi visibility vests, a fire extinguisher, all ready to hand in the cab. Apparently this is a legal requirement, so don't give the bastards a chance to fine you have them in your vehicle. Do not leave the border without insurance, they will catch you on the road and give you hell.

3. The money scam is at Rosso, and to a lesser extent at Diama (ie Mauritania/Senegal crossing).

Here is a rehash from another post I just made:

Hey guys,

Hope all well. Just passed Diama again, and noticed the amounts they are asking for are getting more and more each time.

Rosso are a bunch of crooks, going through there is a lesson in damage limitation, but Diama has suddenly got alot worse.

1. Passports. Asked to pay 10eur today on both sides. No need to. Wait it out. If there is no receipt you don't need to pay.

2. Insurance: That's all written on company paper (the prices).....depends upon size of your vehicle. Mauritania has its own policy, and won't accept the CEDEAO/ECOWAS/CARTE BRUN which will cover you for Senegal all the way to Cameroon.

3. Customs. You do not have to pay anything. Both sides asking for 10 EUR. I've always got them to stamp the CDP without paying. But they've gotten in on the scam that if your CDP doesnt not have Mauri listed on the back then you need a laissez passez. Not true. I have passed Diama a number of times before and Mauri has never been on the back of my carnet yet they've always stamped it.

In the end I gave up arguing and got the laissez passez. Asked for 4000 Ougiya for it I ended up paying 1000 Ougiya.....I do not know the official price for a laissez passez for Mauritania? Anybody help? Coming in from Western Sahara near Nouadibou last September they also insisted I get the laissez passez....after 3 hours waiting and arguing they gave it to me for free. So I guess it could be free?

BTW, the official price for Senegalese Laissez Passez is 2,500CFA should you need it.

4. Commune tax: 1000 Ougiya. This is receipted.

5. Last checkpoint: miltary? Asking for 10,000CFA....for what? No need to pay them anything.

6. Crossing the dam: Locals told me it's 4000CFA for a car and I saw some handing that amount over, so presume this is correct. We paid 6000CFA for our 17 ton Merc truck. What's other peoples prices been for Diama?

As for the road....was impassable last september had to turn back. Today was a joy they've been working hard, good graded piste ready for the tar to be laid for much of it. The tricky bit is from the checkpoint for the national park, for approx 30kms until you reach the junction at a police checkpoint where you turn for the new piste to pop out on the tar between NKT and Rosso.

I crossed the Diama border a few days ago with two friends, all on motorcycle and all without carnet. We had some trouble at the police checkpoint leaving Rosso, since they insisted we had to buy a Senegalese insurance from some guy. This was of course bullshit, so we waited a bit, until some other guy in uniform asked us if there was a problem and then told us we didn't need the insurance and let us go. The track was easy enough on big motorcycles, really dry and no soft sand too speak of. Near the border you have to pay 2000 ouguiya for the park, it says so on a big official looking sign, so it seems legit.
It was already pretty late (we left from Nouakchott and lost quite a bit of time and the police checkpoint and by trying a shortcut which would save 70km, but was too difficult for our bikes), so we had no time to wait it out. So we paid 2 times 10 euro at the Mauritanian side, 4000cfa for the bridge (of course we didn't have cfa's yet, so we wanted to pay in euros. They first asked 25 euro for the three of us, but using the exact exchange rate we calculated it should be around 18 euro, so suddenly the price was 6000cfa each. In the end we payed the normal price), 10 euro at the police office on the Senegal side, 50 euro for a 5 day laissez passez (the ticket says 2500 cfa) and 20 for a 5 day insurance. Quite expensive, but if you have the time it should be a lot cheaper. And the 50 euro for the laissez passez is still a lot cheaper than a carnet.
If you want to stay longer and they'll charge you more for it you could just go to Gambia and back, since that border is a lot better.

Do we need to stamp the carnet one more time in Dakar harbour if it is already stamped at the border? Has anyone the waypoint from the gate 8 in Dakar harbour?

So, is at the Gate 8 in Dakar harbour where you get your carnet stamped? I hope they don't ask for money again...

We just entered in Senegal through Diama on two old 250 cc motorbikes. It seems Diama got much worse nowadays. We had to pay 6,500 CFA per person at the bloody policeman. We spent a couple of hours there but he kept our documents and we had no other choice than paying at the end.

The custom officer was nicer but he told us the only place where they are able to stamp the carnet nowadays is the Dakar harbour. So, they gave us a passe-avant for 72 hours and we had to extend it for 24 hours in Saint-Louis, paying 5,000 CFA every time. At the border we got formal receipts, but not in Saint-Louis. I was arguing with the cruel official for a long time but he was insisting we had to pay again 5,000 CFA per bike.

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Asia, 27 months, 73,000 km. - Africa, 3 years, 96,000 km. - Honda XR 250 - http://madnomad.gr

It's all a scam.

About 4 weeks ago we got the carnet stamped at Rosso. No laissez passez issued. But in order to do this, he asked for 2,500 CFA. This is the official price of a laissez passez for Senegal (as far as i know). It's a small amount to pay to stop all this faffing at Dakar port.

Even if they insist on getting a Laissez passez for 48 hours, and then getting the carnet stamped in Dakar at the port, the LP costs 2,500 CFA, no more, and there is no charge to stamp the carnet at the port.

OK, we finally completed the process at the Dakar port! If you ride around the port, you will see a huge sign writing "Douane" (customs). You must start from the second floor, at the door with the sign "SecrétariatduChefdeBureau". It took us a couple of hours running from office to office, but we didn't have to pay, as everybody indicates. Now we are free to travel around Senegal for 6 months!

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Asia, 27 months, 73,000 km. - Africa, 3 years, 96,000 km. - Honda XR 250 - http://madnomad.gr

We got our carnet stamped and signed at Rosso but they insisted that we get a passavant anyway. It was issued for 2 days and for some money "under the table" they would have given us 5 days.
As they didn't keep the entry form of the carnet we ended up just throwing it away and had no issues with douane controls or exiting the country where we got stamped out and they kept the exit form but didn't fill anything out. It likely ended up in the rubbish bin as well.
For an extra 2500CFA and with some sweet talk you can also extend the passavant in St. Louis. We got another 10 days before we decided to just throw it away as well.

Cheers Fabian

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Traveling in an old 40s Land Cruiser around Africa
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Wanted to share a positive story for crossing at Diamma with visa obtained in Nouakchott! The Start of the Piste is now being tarred, but it's not tarred all the way. I skipped off at one point and rode on the old piste(for 500m) before getting back onto the prepared gravel road that was still un tarred.

Mauritania:
2000UM for the park entrance (receipt with 2000 printed on it)
500UM for the communal tax (hand written receipt)
Gendarme asked kindly for a "cadeau", but nothing further. The young Douane officer asked for 10€, refused to stamp. I asked to speak to the boss, who just waved me through, no issues. Police, no issues, very nice!

Bridge across the river, 4000CFA official receipt, hand written. No hustlers.

Senegal:
Police hassled for a few minutes for 10€, but gave up quite quickly
Douane guy was really nice, didn't ask for a bribe and even stamped my Carnet! No passevant required. (My friend who crossed just before me suspected that the more troublesome officer had just left on his arrival)

Douane and Gendarme stopped us on the way to St. Louis, checked the Carnet and a bit of paperwork. No issues, just a nice chat about Senegalese football players and a quick introduction to wolof
Policeman south of St Louis just waved us by: no "violations for wrongly indicating!"

All in all, a great day. Lady luck was on our side today?