One Road One World

Tag: Mauritania

  • “FICHE” papers for Morocco, Western Sahara and Mauritania

    “FICHE” papers for Morocco, Western Sahara and Mauritania

    If you are planning to go Morocco, Western Sahara or Mauritania you should make your life easy and carry a document with a lot of copy, which is called ‘Fiche’ papers.

    In the beginning we didn’t have one. Every checkpoint was asking “FISH”. 🙂 We can’t speak French, just a few words. Therefore when they said the name sound was for us “Fish”. It was a little weird to somebody saying something like that. After a while we figure out that it is a French word “Fiche”

    If you are on a motorcycle like us you don’t want to wait 15 minutes under the sun with all motorcycle gears. Almost every city center enter has three checkpoints, each 5-10 kilometers when you enter and when you exit.

    Fiche paper is just your info to give them and save a lot of time. You can make it in your home and than get fifty copies with you. 🙂

    We made it on the road. With handwrite and then made copies. What the paper need to write about you and your vehicle:

    About you

    Your name and surname

    Passport number

    Birth date and country

    Your nationality

    Your passport issue date and place

    Passport expire date

    Your home country address

    Your mother and father name

    Your job

    Family situation

    Extra

    Date of entree (country)

    Place of entrée (country)

    Motif for travel

    About Vehicle

    Mark

    Model

    Plate number

    Color

    That’s it…. But please don’t forget it; I am writing English to explain but document has to be in French!

    We don’t know when you travel by bus any checkpoint ask about the Fiche documents. If you are backpacker we can recommend that have some copies of document like that or have copy of your passport.

    Enjoy your trip in North West Africa…. If you have any question you are free to ask.

    Note, the visa starts the day you apply!

    We made a short video for our Mauritania journey, roads, life… We hope that you like to watch :

    FS

     

  • Visa applications in West Africa

    Visa applications in West Africa

    Visa applications in West Africa countries to road trip;

    Most important thing in West Africa that You need to know which countries visa where you can easily apply and get it? I will try to write up all our visa application around Africa. I will split them up in 3 parts, West Africa, South Africa and East Africa.

    I will write our experiences, this is on a Dutch and a Turkish passport. I will write down as well if I have the information about other countries passports.

    Our countries we visit in West Africa will be Morocco, Western Sahara, Mauritania, Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Guinea (Conakry), Mali, Burkina Faso, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, Republic Congo, Democratic Republic Congo and Angola.

    Morocco 

    Visa on arrival and it’s free for both of us. Also free for other European passports, also for Australian passport it’s free.

    Western Sahara

    The visa for Morocco is valid here as the Western Sahara is under control by Morocco you won’t even pass a real border.

    Mauritania

    Visa on arrival, the price is 55 euro. Make sure you have euro’s, they will give you a really bad rate if you pay in dollars or dirham. We only had dollars and ended up paying 70 dollar each. If you don’t have euro’s make sure you exchange them somewhere in the Western Sahara

    Senegal

    Visa on arrival, the visa is free for most of the passports. It is free for the Dutch, Turkish, English and Australia.

    The Gambia

    Visa on arrival, the visa is free for a lot of passports. It is free for Dutch, Turkish and English.

    Guinea Bissau

    Visa apply in Ziguinchor at the Guinea Bissau embassy, it takes about 5 minutes to get it. He’s just writing it in front of you. The price is 20.000 cfa (30 euro) for a Dutch, Turkish and English passport.

    Guinea (Conakry)

    We got our visa in Dakar, apply at the Guinea embassy. Costs 50.000 cfa (76 euro) for a single entrée valid for 30 days. If you want 2 entrees the price is 80.000 cfa (122 euro) the visa is valid for 60 days. It takes 1 working day. You need to bring in copy of your passport, 2 passport photo’s. All goes very easy. Better to do! Get it in Bissau, the costs there are 30.000 cfa (46 euro) you also need copy of your passport and 2 passport photo’s. This is all for a Dutch, Turkish and English passport. I don’t know about the multiple entrée in Bissau.

    Mali

    We got our Mali visa in Nouackott (Mauritania). This goes a little bit strange but easy to apply, you need to give your border crossing for us this was Kouremale as we will enter from Guinea. A single entrée visa valid for 1 month costs 6.500 um (17 euro), your entrée date needs to start within 1 month from the date you apply, otherwise you get a double entrée and visa that’s 2 months valid. The price will then be 10.000 um (26 euro). You need 2 passport photo’s and a copy of your passport. If you apply in the morning you can pick it up in the afternoon.

    Burkina Faso

    We got ours in Bamako (Mali). Easy to apply, costs 24.000 cfa (36 euro) for a single entrée visa that is valid for 90 days. You need 2 passport photo’s, copy passport and a copy of your vehicle papers. Apply in the morning pick up in the afternoon. This is for all passports
    Better to do! (see VTE Visa).

    Togo

    Visa on arrival, costs 10.000 cfa (15 euro). Valid for 7 days, easy to extend it in Lome for 2.000 cfa (3 euro). This is for all passports

    Better to do! (see VTE Visa).

    Benin

    We got our visa in Bamako (Mali). The lady there is not very friendly, you need 2 passport photo’s, copy from the first page of your passport, copy of your passpot, copy from vehicle papers and a copy of a reservation from a hotel in Benin. Costs of the visa is 12.200 cfa (18.5 euro), it takes 2 working days to get it. This is for all passports

    Better to do! (see VTE Visa).

    Nigeria

    We got ours in Bamako (Mali). Easy to apply, costs are various. Dutch, Australian and German passport 60.000 cfa (92 euro), Turkish passport 65.000 cfa (99 euro) and English passport 90.000 cfa (137 euro). You need 2 passport photo’s, copy of your passport and a copy from your vehicle papers. First you pay 20.000 cfa (included the price I write above) to their bank account at the bank next door. This is one of the only places to get the visa for Nigeria.

    Cameroon

    We got ours in Calabar (Nigeria). Easy to apply takes about 45 minutes to get it. The price is 51.000 cfa (78 euro).

    Gabon

    We got ours in Lome (Togo). They wanted a lot of paperwork, luckily we knew everything we needed to take with us. The costs are 50.000 cfa (76 euro) for all passports. You need 2 passport photo’s, copy of your passport, copy yellow fever, copy carnet de passage, hotel reservation, copy of a credit card, copy of motorcycle papers If you have them all ready it only takes 10 minutes. Pick-up is the next day after 3 pm.

    Congo (Brazzaville)

    We got ours in Lome (Togo). First of all this was just in a flat building, it looked nothing like a embassy, but other overlanders got it here as well and entered Congo, so it must be ok. The price is the highest one we paid so far 90.000 cfa (137 euro) each. You need copies of 3 other West African visas and 2 passport photo’s. Visa is done in 20 minutes.

    Congo (Kinshasa, DRC)

    We got ours in Cotonou (Benin). Nice embassy, nice and helpful people here. The price is 50.000 cfa (76 euro) for all passports. You need 2 passport photo’s and they make the copies from your passport. It takes about 1,5 hours to get your visa ready.

    Angola

    We got ours in Point Noire (Congo Brazzaville). This is one of the hardest visa’s to get in West Africa. You can apply for the visa on Tuesday and Thursday between 9 and 11 am. You need to put 2000 cfa on their bank account before applying the visa at the Bank of Congo. We had a invitation letter from a friend of us who lives in Angola, copy passport, copy Congo visa, copy DRC visa, 2 passport photo’s and a big smile on our face when we applied. The woman working there only wants to speak French, not even Portuguese what they speak in Angola and she’s not helpful at all. We got a paper to fill in what only is in Portuguese, luckily there is a guard around who do helps people with their application form so we filled it all in and went to the woman at the desk, handover all papers and she straight away gave the invitation letter back, she didn’t want to have it! Instead we needed a letter why we wanted a visa for Angola in Portuguese, off course she pointed us out to where we can get it, it just costs another 2000 cfa extra per person. We got the letter and handed over all papers again and it looked she was satisfied. Now we needed to wait for a phone call, next day we got one around 2 pm. They only speak French again and the only thing I understood is they wanted a reservation, this must be a hotel reservation we thought. We made a quick booking online and printed it at a shop and run to the embassy to hand it over, they accepted and told us to wait for a phone call again. The next day we received the phone call at 2:30 pm, we run to the bank to make the deposit of 75.000 cfa each took the receipt and run to the embassy, we arrived at 3:05 and got send away, tomorrow we open again. When walking away they shout at us to come back and did give us the visa. What a relief! We had a multiple entrée visa in 48 hours.

    What about border crossing and bribe in Western Africa?

     

    We made a short video for our Africa journey, roads, life… We hope that you like to watch :

    FS

  • Our Mauritania Journey

    Our Mauritania Journey

    We travel in Mauritania two week, we went to Nouadhibou, Nouakchott, Atar, Chinquetti and Terjit in Mauritania.

    First of all, we had a problem to cross the border. We arrived at the border around noon and we left almost 8:30 pm. The border was so busy as there was a German rally crossing as well and the visa office had a problem with their Internet. We waited a lot for that and than fight with fixer. (click more detail and border crossing details)

    Before start to read all details of  Mauritania  you can watch a short movie where we could make video about the journey;

    The bad thing was we needed to ride in the dark, we never want to ride in the dark in Africa and we needed in Mauritania, a new country where a lot of people talking about that it’s not safe. When we left the border we had about 50 km to ride to Nouadhibou, there are a lot of police-military checkpoints and hard to see them in the dark, they don’t have any lights at the road so I needed to stop pretty fast sometimes. Other thing, we were thinking They were really police or somebody trying to stop us. In Mauritania you need a ‘fiche’ (this is a paper with all your passport details and where you coming from, motorcycle plates etc.) we didn’t had it yet so each stop took us a while wait. We arrived there around 10 pm, opened our tent and had a good night sleep, well deserved! The bad thing is, this was her birthday, well she had better ones I can imagine on the other hand we will always remember this one. Hopefully, next year we will make it a nice day. 🙂

    Mauritania Journey

    The next day we met 2 other motorcyclists who stayed at the same place, a Italian guy who was on a 3 week holiday enjoying riding in the dessert of Mauritania and James who came from England. We traveled with him a little in Mauritania also, we met a lot of countries again with James.

    We wanted to go to Atar from Nouadhibou, there is dessert road next to the train rail. A total from approx. 500 km, and no road you need flow train rail. After serach and told some people who did before, we understood that no option to do that for us. Our motorcycles were fully packed. No petrol station and we need to carry extra petrol also food and water. 🙁 The train is still working which is calling ‘’Iron Ore’’ and one of the longest trains in the world.

    Iron Ore, longest train in africaWe started search for how we put the motorcycle on the Iron Ore train and how much the price. The train leaves every afternoon from Nouadhibou to Fderik. ‘‘Iron Ore’’ carries iron so it is a cargo train. If you want to travel with the train you can just jump in. It is free. And the train is empty when go to Fderik so you cant black from iron. And They tols us if you can put your motorcycle to wagon It is also free but no way to do that. They have a platform which you can carry your motorcycle on it. And the platform price is 500 Euros. The price was high for us therefore we skipped it. If you have more people with you, share the price. We didn’t do that but we learned for other rider, who took the train; he shared the price and paid 50 Euros. But he said that the road was terrible from Fderik to main road for Atar. Actually, They have one stop before Fderik, which is called Choum. But Iron Ore doesn’t stop there. Just gets slow down for local people get of.

    If you don’t want to ride on the desert and cant put your motorcycle to the train You have only one option to go Atar, ride from main road. So, we needed to ride all the way to Nouakchott and then up to Atar, which is 900 km!

    Road trip in Africa

    As the fuel is not a thing they sell a lot in Mauritania. Super gasoline is in the block market. They use diesel for their car and almost no motorcycle in Mauritania. Our tank is 7.7 liters, approx. 230 km. We filled up our rotopax, 11 liters. We took extra 8 liters of water bottles to make it to the next petrol station.

    women rider, west africa tripThe first day went ok, We ride around 300 km after that we found a nice spot for camping next to the road. We were planning go to a national park and camp there. The road, which we choose, was so sand. After James fell down She didn’t want to keep continue.

    wild camping in west africa

    Next day we passed through Nouakchott. We found a petrol station, We filled up all bottles and the rotopax to make it for the last 450 km to Atar. We went wild camp again somewhere in the middle of nowhere!

    Next day, halfway the road there was a city we hoped we can get some fuel for our motorcycles. Unfortunately there was no fuel 🙁 We decided to ride a bit slower to save some petrol so we hopefully we can make towards Atar. We didn’t! My motorcycle was empty about 20 km before Atar, luckily James was with us and he still had fuel.

    Discover Africa by motorcycleHe went to Atar to fill up a 5 liter bottle and would return to us with that so we can make it as well, darkness started to fall when he came back. So we went in a rush towards the camping, arrived there all 3 totally broken and extremely tired! But we made it. To see the next day it was a lovely place Bab Sahara, a Dutch guy called Justus owns this amazing place. Unfortunately there are not a lot of people coming anymore as the government says Mauritania is not safe to travel.

    Traditional food in MAurataniaAtar, itself is nothing really special. We went there because we wanted to see Chingetti and than Terjit. After get rest 2 days in Atar we went to Chingetti which is a beautiful small town at the border of the dessert, the ride is 80 km over a dirt road which is not too bad but so much bumpy.

    Chingetti road, maurataniaAnd last 10-15 km, is a little sandy road, depend on the wind. If the wind is so strong a lot of sand comes to the road.

    Chingetti trip by motorcycleWe passed through some nice mountains and the ride was fun to do, we stayed 2 days in Chingetti walked around in the dessert took some really nice photo’s. This was a lovely place to see, this is where the dessert starts and you can see oases. Also, they have old library to visit and old town center, which is in UNESCO list.

    After stayed 2 days in Chinquetti we went to a big Oasis called Terjit, this was 30 km south of Atar on the way to Nouakchott, the place was really cool to see. Just what we expected from a oasis. In the beginning the road and landscape was really nice. When we turn to Terjit we ride in the sand and couldn’t go to inside to oasis with motorcycle because too much sandy. So, we stayed in the village and walked to the oasis.

    sand road riders, maurataniaNow it was time to ride all the way back to Nouakchott, we did this in 1 day it was a long ride of 440 km but we made it! This time we took a extra 25 liters petrol with us. And we survived the crazy traffic. We met James again here as well, who applied for a Mali visa, we said 2 things before we left Europe. We are passing Mauritania as fast as possible and we are not going in Mali. So the first one failed and second one also failed. we got our Mali visa here as well. This is a cheap visa so we wouldn’t loose a lot if we don’t go. They said that we could get Nigeria visa easily in Mali. If we can’t get anywhere we can enter Mali, we have visa. 🙂

    Camping and Motorcycle LifeWe leaved Nouakchott and stayed one night closed to the border of Senegal. Next they it was horrible border crossing! (click for the border crossing info)

    For our experiences you don’t have to be scared of Mauritania, you can safely travel in the west part and go to Chinquetti, at that moment.

    (Click a photo for slide show)

    Chingetti

    [Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”15″ gal_title=”Chingetti, Mauratania”]

    Terjit

    [Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”16″ gal_title=”Terjit,Mauratania”]

    And Mauratania

    [Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”18″ gal_title=”Mauratania”]

    FS

  • Border crossings and bribery for Morocco and Mauritania

    Border crossings and bribery for Morocco and Mauritania

    I will try to write from every country how the border crossing (and bribe )went and where they where asking for money or gifts.

    Morocco 

    We entered Morocco with the ferry from Barcelona at Tangier Med. We arrived around 7 pm, you need to get your passport stamped at the ferry (this is for all ferries also from Gibraltar). When you leave the boat they check your passports and let you go to customs, this is where it all starts. When you arrive there it’s pretty crazy and crowded, there are some fixers walking around well willing to help you, but you can do this easily on your own.

     Import vehicle – The papers are all writing in French, if you don’t know what it says just asked some other people traveling or officials what you need to fill in. They will help you so you don’t need to pay the fixers! You import your vehicle with a form you need to fill in, they sign and stamp it you need to keep this paper with you till you leave the country.

     Passport – Like I said before you get your passport stamped at the ferry during the trip from Spain. After the importation of your vehicle they send you to a small office to fill in your details in the computer , after that your free to go!

     Vehicle insurance – You need a green card insurance, we both had that from Europe. Nobody ever asked about our insurance papers, hers where expired when we left the country for a few days . But never any problems.

     Bribery – No Money or gifts where asked, if you use the fixers they will ask you around 5 euro. Like I said you can do this easy without.

    Leaving Morocco

    This goes really smooth, they help you where you need to go, no Money or gifts asked.

    Mauritania 

    We entered Mauritania at the coast line near Nouadhibou (I think this is the only border crossing you can take) You ride about 2 km through no-mansland this is a very bad road fort he last kilometre to get to the Mauritania border. after all stories we got a bit scared and used a fixer here. There is 1 guy well known for motorcyclists called Cheick, unfortunately he wasn’t there when we arrived. There showed a small guy called …. up and he seemed trustable, we agreed to pay 10 dollar for him, 17 dollar for 20 days insurance and 10 dollar custom fee for the motorcycle. The visa price is 55 euro’s and he would help us as well to get that fast. Unfortunately there was a whole rally there as well, about 50 Mercedes from Germany, they needed visas as well..

    Passport – First you need the visa, make sure you have Euro’s with you for this or they give you a extremely bad exchange rate. The price is 55 euro, you need to go to s small office they take a photo and print your visa, only thing is they need internet for this and they don’t have that all time. It took us about 6 hours to get it, we heard stories people stayed 3 nights at the border to get there visa. Just before the last rope blocking the road they will scan your visa and your free to go.

    Import vehicle – Our fixer did this for us, but I’m sure you can do this easily yourself! You need to have your motorcycle papers fill in a form they sign and stamp it, you pay 10 euro and that’s it.

    Vehicle insurance – This is basically why we got our fixer, this supposed to be very hard to get and they work with the fixers. The solution is to get it in Nouadhibou. It’s nearby the camping Chez Ali des Levriers, we paid 17 dollar for 20 days at the border but here it will be cheaper. Nobody ever asked about our insurance in Mauritania

    Bribery – We had our deal with the fixer at least we thought we had, after finishing all but he took us to a little cafe and said we needed to pay 200 dollars instead of the 80 dollars we agreed on before. Of course we where not willing to pay, here we ended in a long long long discussion, he showed his temperament and everything, luckily we met Cheick (the motorcycle fixer) before and he gave us his phone number, so we called him as he told us don’t pay more then this price. He argued with our fixer as well and agreed on the phone with him but turning his face to us he was going back to the 200 dollars. Again a long ‘fight’ followed, we had a big crowd around us who eventually all agreed with us (this was nice to see)! When darkness fall down she finally convinced him that we where right and he was wrong, he got his 80 dollars and we finally left the border. Be aware about this guy and don’t trust him!! Also this border crossing is doable without a fixer!

    Leaving Mauritania 

    We left Mauritania from the Diama border, this is a small border near the coastline and is not that corrupt yet.. Don’t go to Rosso! First of all the road to the Diama border is fine to ride, you leave the highway Keur Machene where the road even gets much better. After Keur Machene it becomes a dirt-road but this is a good one and especially in the dry-season easy to ride.

    Export vehicle – We entered the office and know they would ask for 10 euro’s each to sign our papers, of course we refused to pay this and we have been talking for about 30 to 40 minutes before he signed our papers for free and let us go.

    Passport – They would do the same and try to ask for 10 euro each as well to sign, maybe he seen already we are not willing to pay, he signed our passports and give them to us and then softly asked for 10 euro each, we laugh at him and said no and left the office.

    Bribery – Like I just said they will ask for 10 euro everywhere, just refuse play the game with them, don’t leave the office and keep talking. He has 2 books, one with all people who passed and 1 with all people who paid.. Ask to see the book and show him not everyone is paying this helps you as well. If you do pay because you have Money enough or you are in a rush please think about other travelers who don’t have the money to pay this bribes because their life get’s more hard like this. –         The only thing what seems to be legit is the community fee of 500 um you need to pay at the border, the guy gives you a receipt. 

    Next country is Senegal. Also you can check about west African countries visa how and where you can get it on the road

    We made a short video for our Mauritania journey, roads, life… We hope that you like to watch :

    FS