Recent experience with Senegal -> Mali border crossing
 

Hi,

I just did this crossing at Moussala (past Niokolo-Kobo national park) and thought I would write down my experience for those that follow.

This was a no-hassle crossing, the people were friendly and one gendamarie even got on his bike to guide me to where the customs post was... all in all I recommend it. The only problem is that on the Mali side things are very much not clear on what you need to do, and the places you need to go are scattered around town.

On the Senegal side, you need to stop and go into the border police station at Kedougou. I don't think they stamp anything but the officer was nice and gave me directions on how to proceed. Then you drive to the Douane (customs) office in Seraya. I had a carnet and the process of getting stamped out was quick and easy... although I didn't understand at first that this was the customs post for the border and had a 50km drive back to get the carnet stamp! The stop is obvious from the road but the building itself is down the side road a bit. Then at Moussala you have the final visa stamp out and on to Mali.

Over the bridge there is a stop where you need to go get a stamp from the border police. Then drive on to Kenieba for everything else. Before Kenieba there is another check, and I think this is where you should get the visa, but I didn't realize that and went on to Kenieba. After entering Kenieba there is a dirt road going off to the right, if you pass a gas station on the right you've gone too far! A few hundred meters down this road you will find the Douane building, then another few hundred meters to the Gendamarie, then a bit further (with a left and a right) to get to the police station where I got my visa. It was at the police station where they seemed confused, so I might have done a few things wrong... I'm not sure. My french isn't 100% so it was hard for me to follow what they were telling me sometimes.

Kenieba Douane: N12 51.447 W11 14.341
Kenieba Gendamarie: N12 50.871 W11 14.176
Kenieba Police: N12 50.705 W11 14.036

The visa cost me 15K CFA (about 22 euros), and everybody was friendly.

All the roads except to the offices in Kenieba all the way from Kedougou to Kita is paved, although at some points there is more pothole than road. Most of the road is in decent shape.

I have put the route (a lot of which was wrong or missing) into OpenStreetMaps as well as POI for the checks.

My Michelin map of Africa and GPS shows no road connecting Kenieba to Bafing, but it's a nice new paved road.

- Andrew

Edit: forgot these details. I had a 15 year old Land Rover with a carnet, a british passport, and no visa.

Thank you much, for sharing your experience!

I had planned to cross the border @ Kenieba. It is good to have a 2nd choice!

Do you have a own blog?

Surfy

I slipped into Mali from Senegal at the Moussala crossing in January.
Very straighforward and easy and no corruption that I could see.

All formalities done for exit and entry on both sides of the bridge.
I learnt that passavant for Mali is 15000 CFA on weekends, only 5000 weekdays. Receipt given.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-l...0/IMG_4395.JPG
The Senegalese had this distance chart on the wall that you may find useful
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-r...2/IMG_4396.JPG
From Moussala there is a very good road all the way to Bamako. For some reason I haven't seen this marked on any map?
There is also a lot of construction going on in the SW corner of Mali.
The road from Bafoulabé to Manantali is now paved. At Bafoulabé there will be a bridge in a few years. Remains 104 kms of piste to pave, and this will be the fastest route from Kayes to Bamako.
If you are in this neck of the woods you don't want to miss a visit to the frendly Casper, just south of the bridge in Manantali, at the appropriately named Cool Camp.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-l...0/IMG_4425.JPG
You can swim and fish in the clear waters of the Bafing
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-Y...0/IMG_4417.JPG

Ahh Cool Camp! A very nice place to chill out for a while. I hope Casper is well and still enjoying life.

I went through that way last year. Easy border and the forest road fro the more adventurous is very good fun. Just watch the weather!

Oh and I got my carnet stamped by the police at the post in the picture. Not strictly formal, but still better than riding back to Kedougou.

Greetings from Cool Camp! Casper is still going strong, though relying on Bananas more than tourists these days. Anyone heading through Mali this way should come and relax here for a couple of days - this is one of the best overland oases I've found, and Casper is a great host. The river is beautiful, it's 40C now so I'm off for a cool swim at the coolest camp in the West ;)

Oh...and the border was easiest ever. The Mali guy even stamped my CDP rather than charging for Laissez passer....we'll see how that works out later!

Hello John, its John here - Bamako. Casper was great fun, stayed a week, everyone needs a Casper experiance!
Exited Mali to Mauritania via northern crossing. All good. (Thanks so much for the book).

So you didn't try the path through the forest then? Probably very wise! ;)

Hello. How much sand in this way? Maybe pass on heavily loaded BMW 1200 GS?

Hi - as I recall, there's not a lot of sand on the route, but in the wet I reckon it could get pretty muddy in places - there are deep ruts in places and washed-out sections. The main obstacle is probably the steep, rocky ascent of the escarpment - thats the part I read about before setting off (there are reports on here somewhere by overland bikes that have gone that way).

My experience is written up here with a coupe of photos (though the worst sections I was too busy driving over to stop and take pics!): https://www.veganwithoutfrontiers.co...ls-of-mangoes/

There's a better impression of the ascent here, but it is a little rougher and steeper than it looks!

I was mainly following OpenStreetMap data on an Android app (Navmii).

The only traffic I met was local bikes - they do the run from Manantali to the mining areas carrying fish to sell.

Its a really nice route, if potentially challenging in places, and well worth it when you get to Cool Camp :)

Have fun!

Thank you. Excellent report and professional photos.

Cheers - just a note to add - the OSM/Navmii option was very useful for finding the way from the tarmac after the border to Manantali - there are so many branching trails, and the mining area has grown and diverted the public track around it. Just don't believe it when it tells you it's a 2 hour trip! I know of at least one couple that didn't find the route up the escarpment and ended up going way North...and never got to Cool Camp! :o

In case it helps...you can zoom in on my track log...but the Delorme map was useless here!
https://www.veganwithoutfrontiers.com/tracking/