Duma Travels: Senegal

We created 2 separated posts today. The Last Days in Mauritania and Senegal - Part I

Border crossing Mauritania/Senegal

Ok here is another account of a border crossing. This one was a lot quicker than the one between Morocco and Mauritania. It took only two and a half hours and most of that time was fighting with the Mauretania customs Nazi

1 Mauritanian gendarmerie

The first stop was at the gendarmerie, the guy was friendly wanted to see the passports, the fiche and the car papers. He wrote all the information in a big blue book, gave Marc the papers back and asked for 10 euro. Marc asked why and told him that it was not necessary to pay. The official said ok and wished us pleasant trip ( an easy 1-0 lead over the corrupt officials)

2 Mauritanian customs

A not so friendly guy asked us to see the inside of the box. Standard procedure is to have Rosana go with them as they seem to be more hesitant in asking for something and looking for something. This guy was closely followed by his son (apparently it was take your child to work day). He wanted to see in the fridge and that was it. So far so good. Now we had to go to his office. It looked more like his house. The TV was on and the whole family and some colleagues were watching some kind of soap (11am in the morning). In another room a couple of uniformed guys were sleeping. We went into an empty room that could be an office. The officer wrote down the vehicle information but before he stamped Marc's passport to release the vehicle he wanted 10 euro.

Based on information we had from other travelers we knew we should not have to pay anything on the Mauritanian side. So we told him we should not have to pay, other travelers did not need to either. But he plainly refused to stamp the passport without payment. So we sat down at his desk hoping to out-wait the officer until the next victim would be there. Thinking if everyone refuses to pay we have power by numbers. But this tactic was pretty much trashed right away as a guy from Senegal came in and he just paid them 10 euro. Then some polish people came in, coming from Senegal and hey also paid 10 euro. Our situation was getting more difficult now, so we tried something else. We received a copy of a form made by other travelers that is an official looking document for the protection of the tourist. We told the officer that we were willing to pay the 10 euro if he was going to fill out the form ( basically writing down his name and indicating how much he has charged for what service). But he refused he only was willing to give us a receipt. He showed us a receipt and it was just some made up receipts but nothing official. We said that we were only prepared to pay if he signed our paper. He left angry and we stayed behind in his office without Marc's passport being stamped. This was not going into the right direction. After a while another officer came into the room. We tried to plea our case with him, but he would not budge either. On the contrary he was explaining why we needed to pay. Today was a holiday and no one in Mauretania had to work, everything is closed but he and his colleagues were so good to keep the border open, but to do that we should give them 10 euro (how corrupt can you be) After all this we figured we were not going to win this battle, so we decided to give in. We tried one more time to ask for his name, but he would not give it. We paid him the 10 euro and Marc tried in his best French to tell him what an embarrassment this guy was for his country and that maybe now he understands why so few tourists are still coming to Mauretania. The guy was not impressed. This was a beautiful and painful equalizer by the bad guys, 1-1

3 Mauritanian police

Next stop was the police. Some polish guys had told us that they also wanted 10 euro. They told him that they were going to have dinner tonight with the under secretary of internal affairs in Nouakchott. The guy gave them their passports back and they did not have to pay. It sounded like we can take the lead back. We went into the office, the guy scanned the passports (with scanners donated by the European union, just for all you Europeans to know where your tax dollars are going), stamped the passports, put them on the table and he told us that he needed 10 euro, the passports were free but we needed to pay for the vehicle. Big mistake by this corrupt officer as Rosana told him that we already paid 10 euro for the vehicle and showed him the receipt of the customs guy. We grabbed our passports and left his office. He said something in French as we left but all we said was merci and au revoir. 2-1 for the good guys.

4 Toll bridge

On the Senegal side of the river when crossing the river over a wooden bridge of about 20 meters that was probably donated by the European Union as well we were charged the equivalent of about 8 euros, which was a good deal as we had heard from other travelers that normally only cars get charged 8 euro, trucks up to 10 ton, 20 euro and above 10 ton even more. Since our truck is 7.5 ton we quickly paid and moved on.

5 Senegal police

Here we needed to hand over the passports and the vehicle papers. One guy was entering the vehicle information in a book, the other guy was entering the passport information. They stamped the passport and then asked 10 euro for the car. So Rosana pulled out the tourist protection form and said ok we will pay but you have to fill out the paper. They took the paper, looked at it, started discussing it and said that they were not prepared to fill out the paper and gave us back our passports. (3-1 R&M vs corrupt Africa)

6 Senegal customs

Here we again encountered a not so friendly guy, but also a not so smart guy. We needed to get our carnet de passage filled out and stamped. He was proudly telling us that he knew how to do that and showed us some other carnets that he had filled out. He wrote down the vehicle information in another big book and then he started to fill out the carnet. Rosana needed to help him to make sure he did it right. Once he thought he was done, he asked for 20 euro. We ignored him and said that he still needed to fill out two lines on the carnet. He did not listen to us and he did not understand. A colleague of his came over and they started to talk and he finally understood. He filled out the two lines, while Rosana already grabbed the car papers and the passports. As soon as he finished the carnet, Marc grabbed the carnet, merci au revoir and before the guy knew what happened to him we were gone. Not paying 20 euro. Final score 4-1.

The last step is the insurance. We did not have a lot of information on the pricing but we took out insurance for 3 months that is supposed to be valid in various western African countries. It was about 60 euros.

It was good that we took out the insurance because after we drove for about 20km we got stopped by the police. We had heard from other travelers that they can be pretty nasty. This guy pulled us over and wanted to see the drivers license and insurance papers. He checked it and it was clear that he could not give us a fine for that. Now he started to say something about Rosana's seat belt. We really did not understand him at first, so Rosana took off her seat belt. Then we got what he was saying. He basically was telling us that Rosana was not wearing her seat belt. Which was bullshit, but we figured we keep acting like we did not understand him. So we both started to unbuckle and then buckle up again while saying “je ne pas compris”. Ultimately he got tired off us and he saw an easier target so he handed us back the drivers license and the insurance paper.

After that we made it, without anymore interruptions to our next stop - the zebrabar, on the way we saw tons of garbage (a common scene all over Africa so far - very sad - see video). Zebrabar is a campground near a national park on the coast south of Saint-Louis. A very nice place to stay for a couple of days.

Update on 2/2 Hunting for visas

After a relaxing 5 days at the Zebrabar and a visit to the cute town of Saint-Louis (reminded us of New Orleans), we decided to drive to Dakar to get some visas for the next few countries.

The good life

We have decided on a route going south. We are planning to go from Senegal to Burkina Faso via Mali. The route through Mali apparently is safe, the borders are open and the roads are supposed to be decent to good. After Burkina Faso we will be going through Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon and Gabon to Congo. From there it is either to the DRC and then into Angola or, our preferred route, to go from the Congo to Cabinda (Angolan enclave on the coast between Congo and the DRC). The biggest challenge is getting a visa for Angola. Many other overlanders have been struggling to get a visa. It seems that at this time you can only get a visa in the country where you reside (unless you know someone that can help you… We are looking for that “someone”)

We have been in Dakar for 4 days now and are staying in a nice hotel in the centre of the city near the coast. The truck is parked in the hotel’s parking lot and it is quite the attraction for the tourist and business people staying in the hotel. We are thinking of charging a fee each time someone wants to take a picture.

The first two visas, for Mali and Cameroon went very easy. For Mali we dropped the passports off on Thursday and we could pick them up on Friday afternoon. We rushed over to the Cameroon consulate to drop off our passports there. They were super friendly and accommodating there. We had been there the previous day to ask what forms they needed, how much it costs and how long it would take. They said it would take 24 hours, but when we got there at 4pm on Friday, they rushed our passports through and we had them back 30 minutes later.

Embassies in Africa or better African embassies in Africa are a little bit different from other embassies. So far we have visited, Mauritania, Mali, Congo, DRC, Angola, Cameroon and Gabon and the common theme seems to be that they are in an old house from the colonial times which has not been maintained since that time, there is a lot of people hanging out and you have no idea what they are doing, you walk through a kitchen area to get to an office and there sits a bureaucrat who acts like he is the king himself and gives you a price for the visa that is higher than what the official fee is that is posted on any of the forms on their wall.

Big tree, small truck

Only the Angolan embassy was a bit different, it was actually a honorary consulate in which none of the employees spoke Portuguese and the consul himself was Lebanese. Oh... and they do not issue visas.

Tomorrow we will try to get the visas for Burkina Faso and Benin and then it is time to start moving again. We will probably head straight for Mali. We first intended to visit a national park here in Senegal, but you are required to take a guide and we heard from other travelers that they barely saw any animals. So far many of the parks that we visited have been disappointing. Mainly probably because we are used to the parks in Southern Africa, where the parks are clean and managed well.