29th May - back to Nouakchott

Today we had our earliest start yet. David's phone woke us up at the crack of 5:30am as we were eager to get to Rosso (the worst border crossing in Africa reputedly) as early as possible. We stopped and used up all our CFAs on petrol on the way and also had our first bad encounter with the police… we were fined for not wearing a seatbelt! Despite this not being illegal in Senegal as far as we know, and despite having gone through probably 1000 other Senegalese police stops where they did not find a problem, and despite the fact that none of the locals even know what a seatbelt is, and despite David arguing valiantly, we still parted with £12, much to our disgust.   The policeman wanted us to return to the police station, but we managed to negotiate to pay on the spot.  Given that other people have been given highly optimistic fines of €120, it could have been worse.

 

We reached Rosso at around 9am and so began the worst border crossing to date. David went in to have our passports stamped and was asked for payment of £2 for this, but after a while a rush of people ended this debate and we got away with not paying. He then got the Carnet de Passage stamped, which was the easiest part of the process. Then we moved on to the ferry queue where we had to pay to get into the ferry compound. Just as we were nearing the head of the ferry queue with the ferry in sight they tried to demand ten euros off us for 'not having our car documents registered' even though we had been following their instructions all the way along. Eventually we turned around and went to the back of the queue where after a lot of hassle David managed to register our details with a now very stroppy police official after handing over ten euros anyway. A financial incentive to a guy in a white t-shirt who was helping us eventually got us on the ferry, and we departed Senegal.

 

Our relief was short lived when a police officer demanded every single one of our documents and then walked off the ferry with them. We were unable to follow for some time as we were stuck at the back of the ferry, but eventually we did. We drove over to immigration where we managed to get all our documents back eventually from the various places they'd been scattered after having to pay to get them back!! David said 'But why? What are we paying for?! It's MY driving license!' Then came the long and drawn out issue of getting me a visa, which eventually didn't cost too much (€20) but took about an hour to materialise. The officer in charge of that area then wanted payment for having got the stamps, which we managed to avoid in the end. Then we had to pay for the ferry ticket, a whopping twenty euros for a ten minute trip, and then the car insurance, another €20. So all in all goodness knows how much we spent and David said thank heavens I don't have a first-born child because they would want that as well!   The officials were unfriendly and aggressive, just as we'd heard they would be.  They are well practised in parting people from their money and know every trick in the book.   The police are also in cahoots with the local "guides" and money changers, so you'd struggle to beat them at their own game.  If you had all day and spoke perfect French, you might save a bit of money, but it's a really crappy border crossing.   (Unfortunately the nice Diama border post nearby can't issue Mauritanian visas, and we were short of one.)

 

So we hit the road to Nouakchott, which is a very dull, long, samey road for about 3 hours. All you see for miles is sand, a few trees, some abandoned buildings and also camels, as well as the usual goats, cows and donkeys. We saw a camel's skull by the road, which isn't an encouraging sign!   We went through a few police checks and then I saw a guy with a shop selling cold coke, so we pulled over and I shot in the shop to get one. He charged me £1 for a can, but I was beyond arguing so paid up and left. A minute later the police officer, who had followed us in, came back to us waving the equivalent of 40p, he had obviously rumbled the guy who was trying to overcharge us! So nice police officers do exist!!

 

Eventually we reached Auberge Sahara, the place where David and Abby stayed before. It is pleasant with hot showers and toilets, a kitchen at our disposal, cold drinks and an electricity hook up that we are currently running the air-con off of. It is working a bit, the truck is getting a little cooler I think! Shortly we are heading to the supermarket (expensive I believe as it is all Western imported items), the internet café and the bank to change some money. We have just totalled the money and have realised we spent way over budget last month. This is mainly because petrol is working out far more expensive, as the prices we had obtained before we arrived are basically totally out of date now.