Africa Travel Guide - Senegal - Djalma Border Crossing

Entry into Senegal through Djalma:

From May 2015, no visa is required for Senegal.

At the Senegalese side, 10 euros are required to pay for the toll to cross the bridge between Mauritania and Senegal.

The police also asked us for about 5 euros to be processed at entry.

When you enter Senegal, there will be a lot of pressure to buy some car insurance. You will be sent to talk to somebody for that purpose. This car insurance agent will not wear any uniform and will not work for the government. No government official will sell you any car insurance (this is different than in Mauritania, where it will be a government official who sells you the insurance to travel through Mauritania). We had read we were supposed to get the 'carte brun', which is accepted in most Western African countries. The guy in the car insurance tent on the Senegalese side of the border, insisted the carte brun was valid only in a couple of countries. We ended up buying some insurance that supposedly was valid in most Western Africa. We paid 50 euros for two motnhs. We only were asked once in Senegal to show this proof of insurance. After Senegal, whenever a police officer was looking to get some money from us (bribe), he will ask us for our car insurance. We will show him the insurance we bought in Senegal and he will say it is 'no good'. Then we will show our European insurance, and he will say again it is 'no good'. At that point we will reply: "of course it is good, it an international insurance, he has been accepted in the countries we have gone through". When the police officer sees that you are not scared, but rather certain your paperwork is all correct, and, moreover, you have no intention to offer him some money to sort out the problem, he will let you go. That happened to us many times, even if our paperwork was not quite correct (they just did not know, only we did!).

In Senegal the 'carnet de passage' is required. You need to go to Dakar within 48 hours to get the entry stamp. Somebody offered some help guiding us through the customs building in the port. Then, he asked us for a stupid amount of money. We did not pay anything. You are not supposed to pay anything for the carnet the passage entry and exit stamps.

Africa Travel Guide - Mauritania

Mauritania:

Coming from Morocco, entry into Mauritania is one of the most painful experiences you will have throughout your Africa travels. We consider the Benin-into-Nigeria border to be the worst border crossing we experienced in Africa. In our ranking of worst African border crossings, Western Sahara-into-Mauritania very well deserves the second place.

Once you are in the country, Mauritanian people turned out to be very nice and friendly. In Mauritania we never felt any harassment against tourists and their money, so common in most African countries. In the tiny shanty villages of the North, people will run to the road as they notice a car of tourists pass by: clearly they hope you will through them something. However, as we walked around in the country's main towns, we were never bothered for money, a cadaux (gift), a bonbon or anything. more to the contrary, Mauritanian people were always very friendly and sweet whenever we asked for help or assistance: like for example if we asked some random person on the street to allow us use his phone to make a call for us. In one ocasion, as we stopped in some small town in the North, I entered some building asking if they knew any place where I could withdrew some money. As the only ATM's in the country seem to be in Nouatchott (the capital), the man asked me what I wanted the money for. I explained I needed money to buy food. He then replied he could give me (for free) some food, some sandwich to eat. In most any other African country, where the white traveller is immediately assumed without any question to be stupidly wealthy, a reply and an offer of that kind had been totally impossible.

As a matter of fact, contrary to common opinion, inside the country, we did not even ever had a problem with any official. Mauritanian police offices have quite a reputation of being corrupt. We did not experience that inside the country (we did have a rather bad experience at the border, though). Certainly, there were many checkpoints along the way and it slowly became rather tedious to be constantly stopped. However, they were always very friendly and only one or two times, we were kindly asked if we had any little gift for them. We did not and were still able to continue with no further inconvenience.

Traveling through Mauritania, you will find and be stopped in many checkpoints along the road. This turns out to be rather tedious, but it is not any worse than in most other AAfrican countries. As a matter fact, we would say it is less painful than average in Africa. In Mauritania all they ask you is to fill out your information: la fiche. This includes your name, driver's license, license plate, etc. For this reason, it is a good idea to write down all that information in one sheet and then make multiple copies of it. You will get through each of the checkpoints if you just hand them one copy of 'la fiche', with all your information. If you think Mauritania checkpoints are bad, wait to go to Cameroon or Gabon. Over there it is like visiting the dentist's office: they keep looking for any chance to pull some tooth (money) out your mouth. In fact, you will not need to get to Ecuatorial Africa; you will already experience your own ordeal at Mauritania's border crossings...

Western Sahara-into-Mauritania border crossing 

Africa Travel Guide - Mauritania - Border Crossings

Western Sahara-into-Mauritania Border Crossing

 

Visa

If you did not know already, you get your first heartattack right as you step your foot into Mauritania: since February 2015, the fee for the Mauritania visa is 120 euros, double the amount than before. It is possible however to obtain the visa at the border (at least some border posts, but, as of 2015, not all of them).

Laissez passer

In order to get the 'laissez passer' for your car, If you allow 'the fixer' to prepare your documents to present to the gendarme, he will ask you for 50 euros for his 10 minute work. The gendarme will not take any money from you for the 'laissez passer'. You are not required to pay for this document, but the gendarme will tell you you should pay to the 'fixer/helper'. The fixer will get very agressive if you don't pay him. He will even take the document from your hands, if you let him.

It is highly advisable that you do not hand any of your documents to anybody but the gendarmes. If you give your documents to somebody without uniform (no matter how well dressed he is and how comfortably he walks around the different offices), you will end up paying something. It is important to note the gendarmes will not take any money from you to issue the 'laissez passer', but they will tell you to pay something to the fixer. Clearly, they may get in trouble if they take any money directly from you, but, obviously, they will get some of your money from the fixer.

Car insurance:

Mauritania also requires you buy an insurance for the visitor's vehicle. At the border, you will be asked for 25-30 euros for one month of insurance.

As you approach the Senegalese border, when you explain at the checkpoints you are heading towards Senegal, you will be offered help to smoothly go through the border. We were repeatedly given the contact information of Mr. Mohamed Ali. Supposedly, he would help us at the Djalma border crossing. Then we found out Mr. Ali will get us a car insurance for Senegal. They will insist there is some problem at the Senegalese side and it will become impossible to get an insurance once we are there. Do not do it. You can be sure there will be no problem to sign some insurance in Senegal. Most certainly, the Senegalese will be waiting for you and be also very excited to rip you off on that one as well. At least, the car insurance you get in Senegal, although not very useful, will most likely be valid in Senegal.