Hello,

The HUBB’s contribution to adventure travel is enormous. Countless people, myself included, have used the vast archives of this website to plan a significant event of our lives. The resources and people on this website have aided me over the past 3 years as I have traversed North and South America, Vladivostok to Mongolia to the Pamir, and as I have planned my current trip from Morocco to South Africa. The knowledge and experience is past down freely, to encourage others to overcome the potential struggles, and bring about a continuation of these types of adventures.

Throughout my travels, I have always been keen to meet other overlanders and share stories and information, so as to assist them in any way possible. And I am always grateful for the knowledge shared with me on the road. But, when it has come to this forum, I have been decided selfish: taking much and offering little. This is what I hope to change during my current, and final, adventure.


Prep Work
There are 3 of us, including myself (Gino), my brother (Mario), and our cousin (Jamie). We all ride Kawaski KLR 650’s. Last June we shipped them from the USA to Busan, South Korea and then ferried them into Russia to ride west from Vladivostok through Mongolia and the Stans and eventually to Sicily to meet some family…I need to go back and do a big write-up about that trip, but probably not until I’m home in a few months. That being said, the bikes were already prepped for that first trip. In Sicily we performed the standard maintenance; checked the electrics; checked the bearings; and fixed everything that broke, snapped, or rattled loose during the Pamir and Wakhan Corridor. We threw on some fresh tires (Shinko 804/805) and headed towards the ferry port in Palermo.

Route & Visas
All 3 of us have USA Passports.

Morocco > Mauritania > Senegal > Mali > Burkina Faso > Ghana > Togo > Benin > Nigeria > Cameroon > Gabon > R.O. Congo > D.R. Congo > Angola > Namibia > Botswana > South Africa

We are flexible, depending on the visa situation that we encounter. This is particularly the case for Ghana. We would like to go, but if we can’t get the visa, then we will just go directly into Togo from Burkina Faso. Below is a complete listing of our plan for obtaining visas:

Country I'm In > Visa I Want to Obtain Here
Morocco > Mali, Ghana, Nigeria
Western Sahara > None
Mauritania > None
Senegal > Ghana, Cameroon
Mali > Nigeria, Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso > Nigeria, Benin, Togo
Ghana > Benin, Togo, Angola, Nigeria
Togo > Gabon, RO Congo
Benin > DR Congo, Nigeria
Nigeria > Cameroon
Cameroon > None
Gabon > None
RO Congo > Angola
DR Congo > None
Angola > None
Namibia > None
Botswana > None
South Africa > None

Our basic strategy is to try early and often for the more tricky visas like Nigeria (hard to get a firm answer on if/where people are having success with this one) and Ghana.

If anyone has advice / suggestions / recommendations on where to get any of the visas, I’d love to have it. I did my best to gather all of this information from the HUDD and a few other resources, but first-hand experience is always welcomed.

I will keep everyone updated on the visa situation as we find success (or failure) at the various locations.

Currently in: Morocco
There are a number of ferry options into Morocco depending on where you’re launching from. We left from Sicily and used GNV ferries. Their website Grandi Navi Veloci - Traghetti Sardegna, Sicilia, Spagna, Tunisia e Marocco is very straight forward and gives you the option to choose which type of cabin you want and if you want to pay for the meal plan. We had to book two separate itineraries, A: Sicility to Genova, and B: Genova to Tangier Med. The total price per person, including bike, was about 250 Euros.

We arrived in the port of Tangier Med on late Wednesday night. A special note of interest is that the city of Tangier is a solid 45 minutes away from Tangier Med Port. I mention this because if you arrive at 11 PM like we did, then it’s a bit disappointing to spend about an hour and half in customs, and then have to drive to your hotel, only to arrive at about 2 am. Anyways, book wisely!

The immigration process at Tangier Med was both chaotic and relatively painless. None of us speak French, so that makes it a little harder, but everyone was pretty helpful. The immigration process was handled on our boat a day before we arrived. So our passports were stamped before we landed in Morocco. Once you’re off the ship, just keep driving and showing your passport to which ever officials you pass. Eventually you will make it to the customs area. In our case, the asked motorcycles to pull all the way through and park about 25 meters passed the offices. Then find an official and get to work. Just make sure to remember your customs officer. He will have you fill out a form, you then must go show the form and your passport to the police officer, who will then input your information into the computer. The police officer sits in a booth about 50 meters away from the customs area…You passed this booth as you drove towards customs, so you have to walk back to get this taken care of. After the police officer has entered your information, take the form back to your customs agent. He then walks around with it for about 15 minutes, doing nothing, and finally takes it to the customs agent with the computer and everything gets squared away. Then they will tell you’re good to go.

Keep driving for about half a mile maybe and then you will come to a set of small buildings on your left. This is where you can exchange money and buy insurance. We probably bought insurance at about 12:30 or 1:00 AM, so I guess they’re there all night, but I can’t be sure. We each paid 950 Dirhams (about $100 USD) for 30 days of insurance.

We are currently in Rabat, Morocco. Our goal is to get approved for several visas while we are here, as it would be nice to have everything situated and better able to plan our route and timing.

Visas Obtained in Morocco
Mali: Obtained
Location is correct on iOverlander, Maps.ME, and Google. Very easy process and polite people. Same day pickup. We were even there on a Friday.

Required:
Passport
2 passport style photos
1 print out for a hotel reservation. Canceled later via booking.com
A short application which they provided

One month single entry visa was 250 MAD (27USD) they allowed us to pick the start date of the visa.

There is an internet / print shop in the tobacco shop inside the Carrefour on the main road a few blocks away. We used this to print the hotel reservation.

Ghana: Not Obtained
Location is correct on Google, but not found on maps.me or iOverlander. It’s just down the street from the Mali embassy.

We were told that only residents of Morocco can apply for visas. I sent an email over the weekend, hoping someone is sympathetic to our cause. I will update as I know more.

We are in Rabat for one more week, so our plan is to apply for a visa for Nigeria, if they allow us. I will provide updates at the end of the week.

If you want to see some of our photos and videos, we have an Instagram @destination_south and our youtube videos are a link in that bio.

Thanks for reading. Hopefully someone, somewhere down the line, will get some use out of this. Updates coming soon.

Gino

If it helps, I applied successfully for a Nigeria visa in Ouagadougou in January. I am Irish national.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Great stuff, guys. Will be following your thread and your wheel tracks in a few months.

Hi Simon. How did you go obtaining a DRC and Angolan visa? Or did you not go there?

Thanks, Simon. Yeah I saw your messages in the “Nigeria Visa” post. I think you were the last person to successfully get it and report back.

Ougadougou is basically our last chance to get it, so we are going to try a few times before that, just so we aren’t potentially putting the whole trip in reverse if we can’t get it there.

Thanks for your help!

Gino



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Only got to Cameroon on this leg. That’s for the future...near,

For me DRC was very easy but to get the Angola Visa took me allmost 3 months caling the embassy again and again and at the end even going there in person and every day untill finaly i got a 5 days transit visa for 160 Euro. By this time my DRC Visum had allready expired... http://afrikamotorrad.eu/?report=en_westkueste

Ouaga refused people this week under 'new' orders!

Bamako is still refusing to do them, but you might be lucky in Dakar

__________________
http://www.west-african-views.blogspot.com

DRC was same day in Cotonou when we went through June 2017. Angola we did manage to get in Kinshasa but it was a hassle and not sure I would rely on it but in a pinch you can try there. Apparently the best place for Angola is Pointe Noire in Rep of Congo.

Good luck guys.


Follow our trip at https://nomadikandco.com and on Instagram at @nomadikandco
Big thanks to Revit Sport, Enduristan, Rally Raid and Scott Oiler for their support.

please don't limit your information gathering and sharing to other overlanders. there is a huge community of local bikers in West Africa, particularly in central west Africa who are full of information and offers of support.
I did Dublin to Capetown last year and was overwhelmed by my encounters with local African bikers

***NIGERIA VISA UPDATE***

Nigeria: Not Obtained

Unfortunately, we were not able to get our Nigerian tourist visa in Morocco. We did everything we could, including writing a letter to the Ambassador and Consul.

I spoke with the Consul today and she was adamant in her refusal to issue a visa to people who are not Moroccan citizens/residents. Even though I explained that we left the US 9 months ago and, at the time, did not know we would be visiting Nigeria (which is actually true. I guess I didn’t pay enough attention in geography class.) She mentioned that an Australian tried to get a visa here a few weeks ago and she told him the same thing..Wish I'd known that a week ago. Her only recommendation was to return to the US and get the visa.

Umm...no

We will try again in Dakar. Given the recent updates on Nigerian visa denials in Burkina Faso, Dakar is probably our last, best hope. I will post updates on the Mauritanian process in a couple weeks when we get there.

Oh well, enough of this damn paperwork and bureaucracy; it’s time for us to rip around Morocco.

Guys you do a piece of a great trip and a good job with up-to-date information. Keep it that way, I keep my fingers crossed.

I am very interested in the quota of visas to Nigeria and Cameroon. Also, next year I would like to get there.

Safe travel

__________________
Bartosz
www.wyprawy4x4.com.pl

Hi,
A friend of mine and myself rode through West Africa a few of years back. I was able to get some visas along the way because I was resident in Sierra Leone at the time. However, my buddy as able to get his Nigerian visa at the embassy in Ivory Coast. After Abijan it is becoming increasingly difficult. Ghana, Togo, Benin it was not possible.
Good luck.
CJ.

Mauritania Information

I apologize for the lack of updates, but it's been tough to find the time to sit down and just do this. We are currently in Senegal, so I will do a post about that next time.

Entry to Mauritania From Western Sahara

First, get gas before crossing. Gas is both more expensive and much more sparse in Mauritania. I think we passed out first station about 120 miles from the border.

We arrived at the Moroccan side of the boarder around 6:30 PM, which was too late to begin. We had wanted to camp, but the combination of wind and sand makes for a pretty uncomfortable night.

We decided to give a hotel a try right next to he boarder. Listen, I’ve been all over the world and some parts of Georgia, and I’ve slept in some dodgy spots. But this one takes the cake. I would call it more of a cesspool than a dump. So we compromised, paying 50 Dirham each to pitch our tents inside the hotel’s walls.

The boarder opens at 9am, and we went right to the front of the line. Immediately upon going through the gate, there is a police office on the right which hands out a fiche that you need to fill out before you can get stamped out.

After getting the fiche, get stamped out at the building ahead and on the left. After that return to your bike/car and provide guards with both copies (1 white, 1 green) of your TIP. They will inspect your vehicle to make sure it matches, and then sign off, giving you back one of the papers you will take to the customs office right across the street on the right.

The customs officer wanted the paper and a copy of my registration. He signed the same paper, giving it back to me, and then I headed off.

But you don’t get far before you find another guard in a small shack who wants to see the paper and your registration. He records the information in a log book and then you drive off a bit further until you have to enter another building on the right, just before you would exit Morocco. They also want registration and the paper.

I can’t remember which, but obviously bring your passport to each of the checkpoints, as some of them were also asking for that.

Done with Morocco. Now drive through the desolate and very rough no mans land until you reach Mauritania. To call it a road would be a lie. I wouldn’t be surprised if some people get lost and end up in the mine fields. Also there are mines, so don’t wonder off.

Once you get to the bordder you will have have the option of using a fixer. He said €10 each, but we didn’t use one.

1. The first building on your left. Go here and provide you passport, registration, and a copy of a fiche. I gave him a fiche I made with my Moroccan visa information, but I guess he didn’t like that, so he hand-wrote all of of he information he wanted.

Note: I have been handing copies of my Moroccan fiche to all of the checkpoints in Mauritania and they just accept them, so make sure you have a lot of copies before you cross the boarder.

2. The second building on the left. Go here to get the visa. Apparently we arrived during the African Mornibg siesta, because we waited an hour and a half just for someone to show up. Anyways, as you enter the building, the visa room is the first room on the far wall. Should be easy to find, as I think all of the other rooms are either sitting rooms, toilets, or the kitchen. The visa costs €55. And you pay in Euros. I opted to pay in Dirhams, which 660 Dirhams. I paid a bit more, but it was a good way to get rid of the cash.

Note: you should change your money into the Mauritanian currency here. There are no ATMs close to the boarder and the gas stations only take cash.

3. Drive up to the next set of buildings. There will be cars parked outside of it on the left. The building is on the right. Walk up the hill into the compound. There are 3 visible buildings, left, right and straight. Go to the building on the right. The customs officer is in the first office on the left. Give him your passport and registration. He will fill out a form, giving you a copy and stamp your passport for the vehicle.

4. Proceed up the road a bit more until you come to the boarder. Go into the police station on the left. We met with the chief and he wanted our passports and registrations. He made some notes about our travel plans and then gave our documents to another officer, who then input our date into the police computer, and then gave us another stamp in the passport.

5. Enter Mauritania.

6. On your left there is a place to buy insurance. We paid the equivalent of €8 each for a 4 to 10 day coverage period.

The road to Nouakchott is in pretty good condition. Potholes are here and there, but having sand cover the road, camels crossing, and stopped vehicles are pretty common. Ride safe and enjoy the desert!

Visas Attempted in Mauritania

MALI: OBTAINED
We had to get our Mali visas again because we stayed in Morocco so long. They're cheaper here at about $20 USD.

The Mali embassy location is correct on iOverlander. The staff were very kind and helpful. We asked them to make our entry date into Mali about one month into the future. They also agreed to put the visa on an already-stamped page of my cousin's passport, as he needed the space before receiving a new passport in Dakar.

The visas were ready for us to pick up about two hours later. We waited in a great little café which is right around the block. We put it on iOverlander because we thought it was so good. Also we went back there 2 more times for breakfast. Highly recommend!

We stayed at "Auberge & Camping Terjit Vacances". It's on iOverlander, and located west of the downtown, right on the coast. It's right on the beach and we rented a small hut, which was big enough for all three of us and our gear, for about $20 USD/night total. Also, the food at the restaurant was really good, but a bit expensive. Nice view and nice staff.

Exit from Mauritania

We left from the Diama border. We camped out about 10 miles from the border the night before at a wild camp, which is also located on iOverlander. The description was accurate, as it provided good concealment from the road. But we did hear someone walking right through our camp at about 10PM. But not sure what you could do to avoid that possibility.

The next day we rode to the border. It's pretty easy, as there aren't a lot of buildings to choose from.

When you get to the first gate, hand the guard a fiche and then drive through.

At the Poste Des Dounes (first building on left), bring your passport, registration and TIP. You have to pay about 10 Euro to get the TIP cancels. They give you a receipt, so I guess it's real. They will then ask for about 10 Euros to stamp your passport. That's a scam. Say "No" and just wait them out. They will stamp it for free.

I don't remember if there was another gate/toll. It seems like there are a few "local tolls" of questionable legitimacy. But just pay them and you're on your way.

Next time: Update for Senegal.


Thanks!

Gino

Mauritania Information

First, get gas before crossing. Gas is both more expensive and much more sparse in Mauritania. I think we passed out first station about 120 miles from the border.

Fuel is almost 40% more in Mauritania, so worth filling up at the border, however don't attempt to smuggle too much in jerry cans, Mauri customs do look for it & will confiscate it! First filling station is about 40km from the border on the road to NKT


The border opens at 9am closes at 6pm

After getting the fiche, get stamped out at the building ahead and on the left. After that return to your bike/car and provide guards with both copies (1 white, 1 green) of your TIP. They will inspect your vehicle to make sure it matches, and then sign off, giving you back one of the papers you will take to the customs office right across the street on the right.

The customs officer wanted the paper and a copy of my registration. He signed the same paper, giving it back to me, and then I headed off.

Then if you're in a van/big 4x4/truck, you go through the scanner although it appears some people who have a carnet don't have to go through this step! You have to go to the small office whilst this is being carried out then the big final office just at the border exit


But you don’t get far before you find another guard in a small shack who wants to see the paper and your registration. He records the information in a log book and then you drive off a bit further until you have to enter another building on the right, just before you would exit Morocco. They also want registration and the paper.

I can’t remember which, but obviously bring your passport to each of the checkpoints, as some of them were also asking for that.

Done with Morocco. Now drive through the desolate and very rough no mans land until you reach Mauritania. To call it a road would be a lie. I wouldn’t be surprised if some people get lost and end up in the mine fields. Also there are mines, so don’t wonder off.

Gino, you should have been there a few years ago, it was all sand, no tarmac at all and endless deserted vehicles sitting in no-mans-land, it was also littered with land mines, so you had to stick to the tracks which on a windy day weren't easy to find!

Once you get to the bordder you will have have the option of using a fixer. He said €10 each, but we didn’t use one.

1. The first building on your left. Go here and provide you passport, registration, and a copy of a fiche. I gave him a fiche I made with my Moroccan visa information, but I guess he didn’t like that, so he hand-wrote all of of he information he wanted.

Note: I have been handing copies of my Moroccan fiche to all of the checkpoints in Mauritania and they just accept them, so make sure you have a lot of copies before you cross the boarder.

2. The second building on the left. Go here to get the visa. Apparently we arrived during the African Mornibg siesta, because we waited an hour and a half just for someone to show up. Anyways, as you enter the building, the visa room is the first room on the far wall. Should be easy to find, as I think all of the other rooms are either sitting rooms, toilets, or the kitchen. The visa costs €55. And you pay in Euros. I opted to pay in Dirhams, which 660 Dirhams. I paid a bit more, but it was a good way to get rid of the cash.

This 'Morning siesta' is in fact probably due to the internet connection which isn't very strong at the border, however the border has improved massively over the years when it was literally a cardboard shack!!!

Note: you should change your money into the Mauritanian currency here. There are no ATMs close to the boarder and the gas stations only take cash.

3. Drive up to the next set of buildings. There will be cars parked outside of it on the left. The building is on the right. Walk up the hill into the compound. There are 3 visible buildings, left, right and straight. Go to the building on the right. The customs officer is in the first office on the left. Give him your passport and registration. He will fill out a form, giving you a copy and stamp your passport for the vehicle.

4. Proceed up the road a bit more until you come to the boarder. Go into the police station on the left. We met with the chief and he wanted our passports and registrations. He made some notes about our travel plans and then gave our documents to another officer, who then input our date into the police computer, and then gave us another stamp in the passport.

5. Enter Mauritania.

6. On your left there is a place to buy insurance. We paid the equivalent of €8 each for a 4 to 10 day coverage period.

The road to Nouakchott is in pretty good condition. Potholes are here and there, but having sand cover the road, camels crossing, and stopped vehicles are pretty common. Ride safe and enjoy the desert! Don't forget to have about another 15-20 fiches handy!


Apart from Camping Terjjit which isn't bad at all, I was given an apartment for one night next door to Auberge Sahara (to the right) by my former Mauri boss who felt Terjjit was unsafe for a woman (even accompanied by a man, but I tend to disagree with him!). However, you can rent them fully-furnished for as many nights as you like and the van was parked outside without a problem. +222 26 96 52 26, the owners live next door to the left and will open up for you. For a 1 bed with sitting room with several sofas, full kitchen, large bathroom and a bedroom, it was just a little more than we paid at Terjjit for 2 of us in one of their round rooms.

__________________
http://www.west-african-views.blogspot.com