If you have a plan Western Africa trip you should check all border crossing and bribes in West Africa; Morocco to Mauritania and other countries until Namibia.
Senegal
You pass a bridge from Mauritania what costs 4.000 cfa (6,50 euro), you need to pay this in cfa or he will charge you 10 euro each! After that he opens the gate for you.
Passport – You hand over your passport, they give you a visa (stamp) upon arrival, no money or gift asked here.
Import vehicle – You get a Pass Avant at the other side of the Street this costs 2.500 cfa (4 euro). You get 48 hours to extend this in Dakar (of you go on Fridays you get 96 hours).
Vehicle insurance – Don’t buy this at the border!! It’s fake! Where can you get ECOWAS?
Bribery – Here we only got asked 10 euro fort he Pass Avant by one of the guys, don’t pay him just pay the guy at the desk the 2.500 cfa and you have no problems. And just don’t buy the insurance!!
Leaving Senegal
We left Senegal to The Gambia, we used the border crossing nearby Barra, no bribes asked and we got our smoothly.
The Gambia
We entered The Gambia at the Barra border.
Passport – All pretty smooth we got our visas and passport at the border for free, no money or gifts where asked.
Import vehicle – We used our Carnet the Passage .
They told us they would do in Dabbis, but that’s wrong. You need to go to
Leaving The Gambia
We left The Gambia from the border near Soma
Passport – easy and smooth they stamp you out in the last village before the border.
Export vehicle – We used our Carnet the Passage .
Bribery – No money or gifts where asked.
Senegal (Casamance) – We entered from Soma and left from Zigounchor both really easy no money or gifts asked for.
Guinea Bissau
We entered Guinea Bissau from Zigounchor.
Passport – All really easy and smooth they stamp it fast.
Import vehicle – We used our Carnet the Passage.
Vehicle insurance – ECOWAS insurance valid here.
Bribery – No money or gifts where asked
Leaving Guinea Bissau
We left Guinea Bissau on a really small border not used a lot by overlanders from Contabane.
Passport – Our passport got stamped out easy
Export vehicle – We used our Carnet the Passage.
Bribery – They asked what I have for them when we got write out of the country I told him a handshake, shake his hand and we both smiled and we where free to go.
Guinea Conakry
We used a really small border to enter Guinea from Contabane to Dabbis.
Passport – This was a problem, when we arrived at the border they told us they will stamp it in the next (bigger) village. Unfortunately they didn’t. They told us to go to Boke, the next city at the end of the road. We didn’t push anything and trusted them, our mistake! Push more at the first border crossing they need to stamp you in the country. Eventually we got into Boke riding around trying to find customs, this took a while but here are the GPS coordinates 10.930486, -14.291541 if you end up here as well to get your stamp in your passport. The chief here needed to call the minister of tourism who needed to give him permission to stamp us in the country. This all took a long time, we stayed a couple of hours waiting and waiting. The chief then wanted 100.000 GNF (10 euro) when he had the permission to stamp our passports as always we refused to pay and eventually he didn’t ask about it anymore. When we got our passports stamped and went back to our motorcycles his right hand came to us and asked us for a little money because he needed to use his mobile phone all the time, this time I gave him a little money because it is true he put in a lot of afford for us and made some phone calls, I gave him 10.000 GNF (1 euro).
Import Vehicle – We used our Carnet de Passage.
Vehicle insurance – ECOWAS insurance valid here.
Bribery – The chief asked us in Boke 100.000 GNF we refused and got away with it, only paid 10.000 GNF for his phone costs and because he put a lot of afford into it.
Leaving Guinea
We left Guinea from the Kouremale border to Mali.
Passport – We got our passports stamped out easy nothing asked for.
Export Vehicle – We used our Carnet de Passage.
Bribery – They only asked a gift when exporting the vehicle, I offered him a handshake and he excepted it.
*** You can watch our Guinea motorcycle trip adventure.
”Travel Guinea Conakry is trouble in protests time also no safe. Is true? :”
FS
7 comments
so many bribes….. but then again i am a backpacker… u did not use the ROSSO crosssing into Senegal.
I am also traveling on my bike thru Africa and I just love to read your postings……maybe will meet on the next turn!
Buen Camino.???
Hey Enrique, that will be awesome can you send us a message through Facebook http://www.facebook.com/oneroadoneworld maybe we are close or will be at some point 🙂
Excellent and informative article.
Thanks, I hoped it helped you across the borders 🙂
It’s a shame you did not recognize that you were in a country where some people will help you so easily and you can’t be kind enough to give them some money for their trouble or you think you are doing something kind just to give them something for their phone calls. One day you’ll really need someone to help you and again they will be there, don’t be so selfish next time. If you are rich enough to travel to Africa like that you can surely help someone earn a bit of extra on the side in order to help you, they don’t have to. They could have made it impossible for you. Maybe one day you will experience that and then you’ll understand something about how it is to live in those countries. Good luck on your journey. You have a lot to learn.
You truly do not understand who needs some money and who doesn’t, especially a chief sitting in a office with AC doesn’t need to paid bribes all he did was his job and he tried to make our life hard with that. We rather help people that need it then people that are just corrupt so I guess you are the one who has a lot to learn…