Riding my Motorcycle across Mauritania
Update 76 (December 2024)
Morocco into Mauritania
After 380 kms from Dakhla I reached the border. It was fairly well serviced with a few small restaurants and a petrol station, although I am not sure if they had petrol. I still had half a tank.
After the initial police check at the Morocco border I rode to the border offices. The Morocco officials were good and waved me up to the front to park my motorbike. They gave me good directions and the process was over in about 20 minutes.
Unfortunately my Mauritania experience was not the same. I was immediately pounced on by fixers and money changers. They annoy me and I told them to go away. Sometimes I will change money but not until I finish my entry process. But it soon became obvious this was not going to be a straightforward crossing. There was no direction from the officials and the process seemed over complicated.
I relented and used a young fixer to get through. Between the truck drivers and the other fixers it was just a free for all with the loudest and pushiest getting the attention of the officials. And there was a back and forth to different offices that I could not see the logic in. It took a while but I got a visa on arrival (55 Euro, paid in Moroccan Dirham) and a temporary import for the motorbike (free I think or maybe about 10 Euro?). I also bought third party insurance for 30 days for 700 Mauritanian Rupees (23 AUD). I paid the fixer 100 Dirham and changed some money. He was a good guy and even handed back some money when I made a mistake about currencies.
Riding into Nouadhibou which was about one hour from the Moroccan border. It was around 6pm by the time I arrived.
I had booked one night at the Nouadhibou Guest House above. Normally I find it best to book ahead when crossing a border. Sometimes the border officials will want an address and often I do not have phone services when entering a new country. I ended up staying a week. They had safe parking for my motorcycle. The staff spoke English and it was a good place to rest up. They were very helpful including assistance finding a SIM card and other advice.
An afternoon game of football each day.
The man running the guest house was Australian and had invited me to dinner with them. As it turned out I had a horrible cold by then but I still had a delicious dinner (Senegal recipe and spicy) delivered to my room. The included breakfasts were really good also.
Out walking to a local restaurant. There was a Spanish restaurant nearby that was okay. I drank the tap water in northern Morocco but I have now gone to bottled water only.
Eventually I was on the move again. The next stop with any accommodation was the capital of Nouakchott about 500 kms away.
There are many police checkpoints in Mauritania and I would get stopped at every one. Very few police speak English and my French or Arabic is non existent still. They will ask for my nationality, passport and travel plans so I just ended up stating these after saying bonjour or bonsoir. They then enter my details into their computer system. Many will also ask for a fiche, a copy of my passport that then gives them the option to record my details later, rather than me waiting at the checkpoint. I started out with some fiche but ran out eventually.
Occasionally there were buildings or people around but it was a pretty harsh environment.
Nice weather. Every day is clear skies and ranges from about 18 to around 32 degrees Celsius.
I was starting to see some larger sand dunes.
This is the town of Shami, about half way to Nouakchott and the only place for petrol. I tried four petrol stations but only one actually had petrol.
Someone’s home on the left.
Approaching a large dry basin. The road actually dropped to -4 metres below sea level. The basin was covered in seashells. The last time I remember being that low was near Lake Eyre in South Australia’s outback. You can read about that trip here – Adelaide to Darwin
The road soon turned to the coast. I took a quick detour to the beach and a small fishing village.
The view from my hotel rooftop in Nouakchott. There wasn’t too much to see in the city. There were a couple of supermarkets nearby. Everything is imported into Mauritania from Spain, France or other European countries so it is quite expensive for the locals.
A concrete block manufacturer around the corner from my hotel.
I stayed a couple of nights in Nouakchott and moved on towards the Senegal border. There are two crossings, the main one at Rosso and a smaller one that I chose at Diama (pronounced Jama).
Riding into the town of Tiguent. Old Mercedes sedans are popular here. Most have had a very harsh life and are barely running. Some men had just pushed that silver one across in front of me for some reason.
There were quite a few camels around as I rode into more remote areas. Sometimes they have ropes on them and were perhaps domesticated.
About 50 kms from the border the road became dirt.
There is a police checkpoint near the start and then a ride about 45 kms to the Mauritania Senegal border.
I must admit I had not done much research on this crossing and it was turning out to be more remote than I expected. The road was rough but okay when dry, during rains it would be very difficult or maybe closed. I like small border crossings without the normal chaos but sometimes they are just not set up to manage foreigners like me. I have been turned away at small crossings in other countries because they do not process foreigners, or had to go to another crossing because they could not process my motorcycle into the country.
I had visited the Senegal consulate in Casablanca, Morocco and been told I could get a visa at the border but I was nervous as I rode on. It is a long way back to Nouakchott or the main Rosso border and it was about 3pm.
The road passes through the Diawling National Park. There is a checkpoint nearer the border where you pay a fee of 200 MUR (6 AUD) to pass through the park. There were just a few locals using the road and the occasional little settlement. I did stop and talk to a Spanish biker and a brother and sister cycling from Germany.
Looking back at the Mauritania border crossing. Leaving Mauritania was fine. The officials were all helpful and it was pretty straight forward. I exchanged some of my Mauritanian cash and paid a man 100 MUR for some type of tax but that was it.
Looking towards Senegal. I just needed to cross Barrage de Diama to the Senegal border control.
Barrage de Diama controls the river flow. I think it was the Senegal River. There was a fee of 4,000 West Africa Francs (10 AUD) to use the barge.
I rode up to the Senegal Immigration Office. My moment of truth……