Diama border | Customs and Immigration

Change CFA to Ougouiya before you leave, you will need it!
Take screenshots of the NEW Ougouiya bills and compare. Senegalese money changers want to give you old bills for the old exchange rate.

Bridge toll must be paid in CFA:
Motorbike: 4000 CFA
Car: 10.000 CFA
Truck up to 10to: 20.000 CFA

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Mauritania -> Senegal with Bicycle

arriving at the border, I gave my last fiche to the police man at the first building. then they sent me directly to the last building. (I didn't pay the 100 MRU tax)

I gave my passport to the police men there. He took it, stamped me out and returned my passport after 2 minutes. (didn't ask me for any money)

I crossed the bridge. I didn't pay the toll with the bicycle. I went to the police building on the right sight. they took my thumb prints into the system and gave me the entry stamp

all together one of the easier border crossings so far. took me around 15 minutes. I arrived around noon and was almost the only one there

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Very relaxed border crossing. Took an hour in total or so.
The description is fully spot on in terms of fees.
We had to pay 12.500CFA for the bridge though (truck).
Money exchange was a good rate after some bargaining.
The bumpy road is ehh bumpy, but nothing major. If you calculate 3-4 hours for the drive you have plenty of time to look around, spot some wildlife, fix a broken bicycle and have a coffee.
enjoy!

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Senegal to Mauritania......stamp passports on the left, finger scan and photo. Stamp right side CdP. We exchanged our remaining 70,000 CFA for 4,000 Ouguiya. The bridge costs 12500 CFA for our 4x4 MAN. On this page it took 15 minutes. Driving over the dam.........On the Mauritanian side, the passports are scanned, finger scan, photo, a visa is printed out and stuck in. Per visa 55€. 100 MRU for vehicle tax. 1259 MRU for vehicle insurance valid for 10 days. Lastly, 200 MRU per person for national park entry. Our vehicle was thoroughly searched, particularly for alcohol. It's better not to have anything with you. Luckily he overlooked our bathroom and toilet. I suspect that many of the tubes and bottles are not ok for them. The Mauritanian border took over an hour.

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We had a smooth crossing from Mauritania to Senegal with our Volkswagen T4. The Diawling park costed 200 MRU per person as we were informed upfront.
At the Mauritanian side of the border we were asked to pay a communal tax of 100 MRU, we got a receipt so we paid.
At the bridge we had to wait some 15 minutes since the guards were having a lunch break. They kindly offered us Thiéboudiène.

When we arrived at the Senegalese border we encountered some friendly English vagabonds who were having a discussion with the douane about the Passavant. They said it's a scam and as long as Europeans keep paying it will stay, but we had already admitted that the passavant is a necesarry cost on this travel so we didn't bother trying to get away with it. And we were stopped many times in Senegal by police who were asking for the passavant.

A guy called Moussa was instructed by the douane to make our Passavant in order. It took two hours and they let us park in the shade where we could have a lunch break.

After some two hours we were surprised that everything was in order and we could roll into Senegal after paying 250 euro's for passavant and also a months worth of AXA insurrance which costed 15 euro's

At the border my girlfriend bought an Orange sim-card for 5 euro's with 14 GB for 20 euro's: total €25

When I bought an Orange sim-card in Saly Portudal it cost 1000 CFA (€ 1,50) with 2 GB for 2000 CFA (€ 3). Thus it's cheaper to not buy at the border or maybe try to bargain for a better deal.

All in all a very nice relaxed border crossing if you have the time and the patience to drive the muddy bumpy road on the Mauritanian side.

N.b. We don't have a 4x4, (in the dry season) the muddy road is doable with a normal car.

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We crossed from Mauritania to Senegal.

Mauritania side:
-100 MRU for the barrier
-Police with 1 fiche
-Douane for the exit of the vehicle
-Immigration for passport stamp

Senegal side:
-4000 CFA for bridge toll
-right side immigration
-left side douane, 5000 CFA for 3 day passavant
-one guy said we needed insurance and that the police is waiting to catch us. We risked it and got a 5 months insurance in St Louis for 37000 CFA

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Mauritania heading south Sengal. British passport and bike.

Mauritania fees
200 park fee with reciept
100 Barrier tax with reciept

First office - gave them a copy of passport - friendly guy.
2nd office took the passavant and stamped the bike out
3rd office (police) stamped visa in passport (remember to ask for a ticket for the barrier, a tiny scrap of paper). The boss was there helping me through. This was the longest wait of maybe 20mins.

The exchange rate and SIM card was worth it 500MC for 3gb. Did it during the 3rd office whilst waiting for police.

The guys doing the sim/exchange told me where to park and which office to go. Everyone friendly. No issues. Arrived at 0900 and roughly 45 mins this side.

Exited MC

Senegal entry

Drive across and then paid 4000CFA for the bridge. Get receipt.
Then passport, drivers, motorbike reg, to police on the right for the passport stamp.

Customs on the left, presented my CDP, bike reg, drivers licence and stamped passport. Gave me a passavant for 5 days for 5000CFA. Stamped bike into passport.

Insurance from a guy walking around, had the documents in a brown paper bag. Was 20,000CFA for my 700cc motorbike. Guess I was ripped off here. Would of been cheaper to just get one month local and get a better deal in St Louis.

1000 CFA for the barrier to open (reciept)

All up 30,000CFA to enter.

Total time 2hours.

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Today we entered from Mauritania to Senegal with absolutely no problems or delay. Reading some experiences we were anxious about this border but as it turned it was for no reason, maybe we were just lucky or it depends on their mood. We were with 3 motorcycles with no carnet and no one asked for it. It is a small border and everything is in front of you, the police tells you where to go.
We payed per person/motorcycle:

Mauritania exit:
- 200oug national park fee in the park (5e)
- 100oug for taxes at the border (2,5e)

Entering Senegal:

- 6500cfa for the bridge (10e)
- 2500cfa passeavant for 3 days (4e) alhough it was Friday they gave us only for 3 days and said it's ok

Leaving Mauritania, after stamping passports the policeman asked politely for 10e for the stamp. I played stupid like I didn't know what was he asking as French is not my native language so after 2 attempts he gave up and gave me the passports.

Don't be afraid and good luck everyone!

When we went to extend the passeavant to Dakar, they wanted to charge 50000 cfa for extension per motorcycle because it said Declarer and not Tourism on paseeavant (he said it cannot be for tourism because we don't have carnet) and checked the date on passeavant which was 1 day over due. In Kaolack the same thing is for free. The guy in Dakar office is a player as all of them all tells everyone he doesn't do things usually but exceptionally just for that time.

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Mauritania to Senegal with a scooter where I bought from Morocco. The scooter not even in my name. No CDP.
On Mauritania side, long waiting for an hour. But didn’t ask for money to stamp.
Senegal side more easy, 4000cfa for passavant which is a white paper. It valid for 5 days.

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Mauritania -> Senegal

Road to Diama was 40+ km of rough track with big ruts. We are two up on GSA with well worn Anakee Adventure tires so took us a while. People solo on slightly smaller bikes were zooming past. Saw lots of SUVs and even cars coming the other way.

MRU400 nat. park fee with receipt. Friendly guy.

MRU100 community tax with receipt.

MR douane stamped bike out no problem

MR immigration guy (large fellow, didn't catch his name) asked for MRU400/CFA5000 fee. I obv complained that it was free but he sat, impassive. It was 6p and didn't want to be stuck in dark so I paid (sorry).

CFA4000 bridge toll with receipt.

SN immigration very friendly no worries.

SN douane gave me passe-avant until Monday. Can't remember the price but it was as expected as I recall.

Note: the passe-avant was stamped "a declarer" after I told him I was expecting my carnet in Dakar. The carnet is late and when I went to douane (downtown Dakar by place de l'independence) for a prolongation (at the port douane they stamp carnets, they don't do prolongation) the officer told me he couldn't prolong a passe-avant that said "a declarer", and only could if it said "tourisme". He said he could arrange to do it - if my carnet doesn't come - for CFA50000 (which is much cheaper, he assured me, than his corrupt colleagues at the border would charge!). TBC.

A guy tried to sell me insurance - no shop or office - and said gendarmerie was waiting just down the road but I didn't and they weren't. I got some in Saint-Louis for cheap the next day.

All in all no hassle apart from the non-voluntary fee at MR exit immigration. We got there around 1745 and the whole thing took less than an hour. I think we were the only ones heading south that I could see. A handful of cars and trucks headed north.

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Senegal -> Mauritania

Fairly straightforward.

Mauritania side:
€55/person for visa (Euros or MRU, dollars didn’t seem desired and had a poor exchange rate)
€10 or 400MRU for passévant even with a CDP
100 MRU for community tax (with receipt)
200 MRU/Person farther down the road for the national park.

We were able to get insurance at the border there, prices were on a piece of paper by duration and vehicle type/category so you can make sure price is correct.

Senegal side:
Police then Duande. Both easy, police got stamp, fingerprints and picture, Duande got exit stamp. No money asked.

Toll for bridge was 4000 with receipt, maybe because it’s dry season as other people have indicated, but couldn’t verify price for rainy season.

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We used a handler to cross the boarder. Everything seemed to be fine first. But then when leaving Senegal to Guinee there was an Officer at the Gerdarmerie that checked our insurance. The National insurance stated it is valid for three months with due date on 16.1.2024. but the one that is valid for all of Westafrica said it is due only to 16.1.2023 - although it starts on 17.10.2023. officer asked us to pay temporal immatriculation for 250 Euros or go find a valid insurance at Koundara. Difficult to tell whether simple mistake or scam by our handler. But learnt to check everything properly!

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t is possible to cross the Diama track. Some sections are a bit complicated but can be passed by motorcycle or car. Tax National park 400 MRU , 100 MRU tax Communityr , don't pay nothing fir exit frontal ikMauritania border . The police ask me 10 € , but I refused . In the Senegal side , The bridge 10.000XOF . Passavant per moto 10 € 5 days . Extend in Dakar .

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Mauritania>Senegal on motorcycle.
Easy quick painless border crossing. I paid whatever fees they asked for. Received receipts for everything. Done both sides in 45 minutes.

Mauritania side;
400 ouy - Customs exit
400 ouy - Immigration exit
100 ouy - Parks guy

Senegal side;
10,000 CFA - Bridge toll
5000 CFA - Customs / 5 day passavant - CDP to stamp in Dakar.
10,000 CFA - Brown card Insurance.

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Mauritanië --> Senegal

200mur/p nationale park fee
100mur community tax (port)
exitstamp passavant/paspoort free! (the wil let you wait to hope you pay)

4000cfa bridge tax
5000cfa passavant (also with cdp) (we get 5days because it's weekend)
1000cfa community tax (the tel its officiële and the block the car)

I did not see an insurance office.

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Senegal>Mauritania in public transport

Arrived at the border and official said the "Reso" ( Connection) is not working so it's not possible to get a Visa. Saying we have to go to Rosso. After 2 hours insisting he said the problem was actually that I was walking and didn't have a car (?). After q more hour insisting, the boss arrived, asked a few questions and they gave us the visa for 55 euros.
Just be firm and insist, don't believe their lies. They can be a bit agressive.
Recommend to change CFA to Ouyga here instead of Euros. Much better rate.
After entering Mauritania there is a garage where you will wait for a car to fill up. 500 + 100 bag. Bag is possibly negotiable. Possibly you can hitchhike here as well, but not too many cars passing.

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Border Report specially for travellers crossing the border without a car - From Senegal into Mauritania
We took a taxi from Saint Louis to Diama for 1500 cfa per person. The taxi left us before the bridge. We took our exit stamps from Senegal side in 5 mins, then walked along the bridge to the Mauritanian side.
The first officer requested our passports, gave them to the ‘officer in charge’, who returned the documents to us, saying: ‘there’s no réseau here! You need to go to Rosso for your visa!’ Meaning there was no network connection to issue us the visa. Or so we thought. We said we would wait until the network came back on and sat down right next to them. The officer wasn’t happy and kept repeating to us: ‘Go to Rosso! We can’t do your visas here, why don’t you understand? Just leave! Go to Rosso!’
We tried asking everyone around, all officers and they all were trying to dismiss us without a valid reason. We kept insisting for hours until the chief officer said: ‘If you don’t have a car you will not cross this border!’ That’s when we understood that the REAL issue (although it’s not true) he was having with us was that we had no car. We said we could just arrange a car at the garage after the border like everyone else. He stood his ground and still refused our entry until his boss showed up, sat next to us, asked us a few questions and then said to the others: ‘that’s fine, give them the visa’. So we finally went inside, realised there were no issues whatsoever with the network or anything, they were just being annoying or trying to make us offer some money?
The real reason, we don’t know. The main point being: if you’re crossing the border without a car, be aware that this could happen. I would advise you to be patient, sit right next to the officers, keep talking to them, make yourself comfortable and insist until they get tired of you and give you the visa.
We arrived at the border at 8.30am, got our visas at 11.30am, went to the garage and waited 1 hour until the car was full (a very very very old aldi where they put 2 people sharing the front seat and 4 people squashed on the back set. Price was set (non negotiable and same price for everyone in the car) 500 pp + 100 per bag in the boot.

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Senegal -> Mauretania

Senegal side is easy. Everybody was super friendly. First get your passport stamped out and then the CDP (no issue at all).

Bridge toll costs 4000 CFA with receipt.

At this Mauretanien border paying in US$ is not possible. (Even in the north maroc - mauretania it is easily possible, did 73 border crossings in the last 2,5 years and never had it). Had to change on the streets. Costs us an extra 500MRU. Paying is just possible in EUR (55€) oder in MRU (2400). In MRU is more expensive because the VISA guy will tell you he have to change it itself on the streets. For sure - not. First he told us paying in another currency beside Euro is not possible, cause his machine is not working. The VISA guy was called Sidi, not friendly at all. Avoid him if possible. Seams that he worked with the money changers.

Afterwards you’ve to go to the toll / Douane for your car. Passavant is 400 MRU (also just payable in MRU or EUR).

Community tax on last gate is 100 MRU.

National Park fee is usually 250 pp. This time nobody have been at the gate.

Mauretania to Senegal was easy, just the usual thing with the Carnet. Had 5 days to go to Dakar.

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confine tranquillo. prima della svolta di Diama, sulla strada principale cercheranno di inventare scuse per non farvi venire qui ma di mandarvi a Rosso.sorridete, annuire e venire qui lo stesso! a noi hanno detto che c'erano terroristi
cercheranno di chiedere 10€ per il timbro ma NON VANNO PAGATI!
per il ponte ci hanno chiesto 4000cfa
chiedono soldi anche per aprire la sbarra, pochi euro
200 mru per il parco a persona

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We were able to get from Senegal into Mauretania without paying 10€ for Passavant after disscussion. We asked to show us were it is regulated in the 'code de douane' We get only 10 days (Equal if you pay or not, friends get also only 10d, and they paid). Should be possible to elongate in different citys.
Prepair that you know the (Chevaux fiscal CV) of your car for the insurance. We paid 45 € for Pickup for 30d.

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Very easy and friendly. 2 motorbikes going from Mauritania to Senegal.
Pay attention to the stamps as they stamped our passports out instead of in and put a wrong country of origin on the LP.
All stated fees are with reciept, so please be nice, those people are only doing their job. Will upload the tickets I still had in my pockets to make you believe that the only scammers at that border are maybe the fixers (not at all necessary!), money changers and simcard dealers :-)
Bring enough Mauritanian money ( +/- 800UG) and some € to be able to pay the fees. On Senegal side no Ugiya accepted, only CFA and €. Bring small bills.

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outsider stamp on passport 500 MRU. WE were 2 adulte 1child
comunal tax 100 MRU
passavant for output car 400 MRU. look normal.

We do change here with MRU it s possible with Euro

i will leave next information on Sénégal custom

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Diama border crossed today going north.(Mauritania to Senegal)
Very dry road, no mud at all. (13 Nov)
Border was quiet and didn’t have to wait anywhere.
Didn’t timed myself at the border but i left Nouakchott at 8:15am and i was in St-Louis at 13:15pm. So 5hrs to do the ride + border.

Mauritania customs: 400 ouguiya
Community charge (gate) 50 ouguiya

Bridge: 4000cfa

Senegal customs: 5000cfa. Not sure if that one should had been 1/2 that price. I asked for 4 days passavant so that might be a reason why i paid more.. I didn’t questionned.

Mauritanian official were extremely friendly, senegales had the typical immigration/ customs officers face.
Can only recommend that border. Very fast and smooth process.

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Official would only give 2 day duration on the Passavant to reach Dakar. Don't stress! Guy's in Dakar don't care didn't even bother reading it before stamping the Carnet. Easy border, as others have said, just pay what you get a receipt for. Ignore any fixer's, there's just no need.

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they tried asking money for multiple things but we only paid once 10 euros and said we dont have anymore..

https://youtu.be/dmIFUgOEQ8Q

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Crossed from Senegal to Mauritania. All super easy and friendly. Total 1hr.

Stamped out of senegal and then 4000CFA to cross the bridge.

On Mauritania side:
-Visa on arrival for 55 euros.
-Vehicle passavant for 500MRU.
-100MRU community tax at last gate.
- 200MRU National Park fee (10km after the border)

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Passed through from Mauritania into Senegal. Super easy, camped next to the lake 20km away and we’re unbothered and arrived at 9am.

Mauritania exit:
Paid 500MRU Exit Stamp
Paid 100MRU Communal Tax
Receipts given for both. Took 15 minutes total.

Senegal Entry:
Paid 4000CFA for the bridge. Receipt provided.
Paid 5000CFA for a 3 day passevant, 1998 Land Cruiser. No receipt and the border official became very defensive when I challenged him on this. Ended up paying it as he wouldn’t give us the passevant without the cash, frustrating.

Carte Brun (Insurance) purchased from a man on a bench round the side of the vehicle clearance office. We were told €40 for 3 months but I paid $40, no idea what the actual cost of insurance is here.

Would recommend having MRU/CFA/Euros, dollars not useful.

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Everybody will give you prices in OLD ougiua and will happily receive that amount in NEW UM. The 400 um from the customs guy, the insurance, sim. I lost about 60 euros.

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We went through Diama and very easy crossing. It took us 1hour in Total.

We paid :
- 400 MRU for National Park
- 400 MRU at the Mauritanian Customs for our car
- 200 MRU each for Police
- 300 MRU for the Bridge

On the Senegal side we paid 2 500 FCFA for an unknow tax.

We have a CPD (1986 LandCruiser) and they gave us a pass avant and 3 days to go at the Customs in Dakar to get it stamped there !

We got a insurance « Carte Brun » 2 months, 40€ and works in all CEDEAO countries.

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Le meilleur passage entre la Mauritanie et le Sénégal. Le seul problème c est la piste pour y arriver qui est defoncee il est souhaitable de la faire en 4x4. J ai mis 2h30 à faire les 40 kms avec un California. Coût taxe locale 100um et tampon passeport 400um

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The bridge is 10000 during the rainy season, we were shown a book full of receipts starting in July when it changed. in October the price goes back to 4000.

Also the passevant to get to Dakar (to get the carnet stamped) is now only 2 days, apparently this has recently changed. We crossed the boarder on Tuesday morning and were given until 11am Thursday to get to Dakar.

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from Senegal to Mauritania
Senegal easy, no need to pay anything
Bridge is 10 000 CFA at season 15.07-30.09. We saw official price list and tickets of previous people who payed and it's really 10 000 for stupid bridge...
1.10-15.07 it's still 4 000 cfa.
Mauretania border - we spend 3 hours there and we payed:
55€ pp visa
10 € for passavant - they DON'T ACCEPT CDP and we were forced to pay, got receipt for it
100 ouiguya for community tax
20€ for insurance (but we regret we bought it, we should have argued more)
crazy expensive border and bad experience :(

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we used the services of zargane for entering the car into Senegal. we paid him 250 euro's. cars older then 8 years are not allowed according to border. we let a guy from zargane make pictures of our passports and carte de gris. people of zargane then make the papers and get a stamp at the chef of the borders at St Louis. after this they will bring the paper with the needed stamp to the border. this took them about 3 hours in our case. if you want to use zarganes services you can 2 things:

1. go to diama (don't know about Rosso) and ask for mr bebeya, he's zarganes guy at the diama crossing. hè will make some photos and you will get the required documents in a few hours. afterwards you"ll pay him 250 euro's

2. note that we used the first option but this seems possible: get zarganes number: you can go to zargane.org this is not zargane himself but a Portugese partner that he organises rally's with. ask them kindly for his number. they will probably give it. contact zargane and tell him you need to cross the border without carnet. i've spoken to him, he's a Nice guy but he craves the feeling that you need him, so make him feel important. send him pics of your documents and ask him if hè could prepare the documents before you get to the border. this will save you a lot of time (several hours)

we did not use option 2 so if it works please post on ioverlander.

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1. mauritanian park guy is legitimate. he has seen enough abuse from Europeans that he now stands with the police who corroborate what he is telling you. there are signs everywhere telling you you are entering a national park. check your privilege, and pay what is due.
2. Mauritanian passavant exit stamp is a con. Yes you get a receipt, but it is for "travail supplémentaire" ask the chef what work exactly he is doing that is "supplémentaire" before you pay. we paid before seeing the receipt and feel very stupid.
3. almost impossible to get car older than 8years through border when we arrived at Senegalese side. Senegalese customs website now says it is only "dans certaines conditions, être autorisés par le directeur général des Douanes ou le Directeur dés Etudes et de la législation douanière à importer sous le régime de l'importation temporaire," that you can get a passavant. i.e. you need the regional chef to authorise your passavant. you have 0 grounds therefore to demand entry. https://www.douanes.sn/fr/node/92

Potential options:
1. buy a cdp and no issue.
2. pay for a "facilitation" at the border. standard cost for passavant transit (48hrs non renewable) or sejour (up to 10 days which can be renewed twice for a period of 15 days each) is 250eu. customs gave us the phone number of "Zargane" who is a 3rd party intermediaru and friends with the chef of the regional douane du nord and organiser of the Dresden - Dakar rally. sorted out our paperwork in 6hours on a Saturday.
3. go and liaise with chef of the regional douane du nord yourself in st Louis. you will have to get a taxi there. this is what the previous post did and paid 150eu for a guided escort out of country of which chef paid 100eu. We arrived during the jazz festival on a Saturday morning so we thought that the prices would amount to the same if you included a taxi and hotel costs etc, but two French guys we were with are trying this route and I am sure they will update here.
4. get permission in advance. not sure how feasible this is. border guys are following orders. if you get permission from the chef or from "Zargane" the 3rd party who represents the chef, they will let you in. they are not in themselves wanting to be bribed. zargane.org is his website you can check in advance.
5. go through Mali.

In the end, we paid €250 for facilitation for the passavant with Zargane which we received ib 6hours. we could maybe have got it for €150 or less if we had gone to st Louis and negotiated ourselves with chef. We will see how our French friends get on. border guys themselves very lovely. fed us, and we watched football together. they may not be making money off this 8year rule, but told us they tell Zargane how nice the people have been with them so he knows what price to charge. three Germans who kicked off got arrested after waiting 3 days. waiting will get you nowhere.

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We arrived around 19:00, boarder was closed at 18:00. we could have managed to cross at that time, but decided to overnight at the boarder crossing. We didnt want to pay bribe.
No problem at all to enter Senegal with a 1975 VW Kombi. We had a Carnet, but still needed to buy a 3 day passavant. Carnet can be stamped in Dakar.
Super friendly stuff on bith sides. All payments are done with receipt. Nobody asked for bribes, just for „cadeaux“. We gave them some candies.

Opening hours: 08:00 - 18:00

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From Mauritania to Senegal. If you cross by car older than eight years get yourself a carnet! Its a rip off but the law of the land. There is no way they will let you cross for free without one. People camped for five days at the border, still payed. Depending on the mood of the day this might be 250 to 700 euro per car. Get yourself a carnet. Passavant was 5000cfa for 72hours when we crossed, with receipt.

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Entering mauretania: Needed to wait for 1h for visa because network connection was bad.

Immigration wanted 400MRU to stamp passport, but managed to get it stamped for free. Passavant was 10€. 50MRU road tax.

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Coming from Mauritania, crossing to Senegal, Land Rover Defender.
Mauritania: no one asked for the park fee, 4.000og (or 10€) exit stamp passavant with receipt, 500og community tax with receipt. Officer tried 10€ for exit stamp, said several times no, after 10 minutes we got our stamps. Then change your money outside with guys, negotiate a good price with a currency app. Drive to Senegal border. 4.000cfa Bridge with receipt. 2.500cfa passavant, valid 48h, to be extended in Dakar (Carnet to be stamped in Dakar as well), buy insurance in saint Louis. That’s it, no fixed, quite easy.

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Beware, absolutely no alcohol. They almost ipend all my bags, but not my food compartment nor fridge.

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There's no need for a fixer. They issue the visas in the tiny booth across from the immigrations building.

The guy wanted money to stamp my passport, I said not without a receipt and he stamped a new page (out of the very few I have remaining) as revenge. Men acting like children, I have seen it before.

Just as Stuart said, I had to pay similar amounts of money. Remember that everything that is without a receipt IS negotiable. Having XE on the phone can help with a better rate if you exchange money. I also negotiated the insurance for the motorcycle to 400MRU from the 500 quoted initially. The receipt says 310, so there's room for more. Did not pay any community tax or any 40MRU (to whom, Stuart doesn't say).

They did not want to let me go without paying for the passavant for the motorcycle, even though I insisted many times I have the Carnet. They gave a receipt.

Down the road, only God knows how much the park entrance fee is. I negociated from 500 to 200, which is what the others have paid. No receipt or ticket given.

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As others have said it’s corrupt but not terrible.
- all prices in old money -
4000 per Moto for customs with receipt.

500 community tax with receipt

Passport they wanted 4000 each. I said no politely and after 5 minutes of standing in the police office he let us go.

Bridge is 4000 CFA each. Tried for 10 minutes to negotiate but he wouldn’t have it.

Note there were no money changers on the Senegal side. So change money here. There were a few of them we were able to get a decent rate.

Took about 1 hour.

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I'm an Australian that crossed from Senegal to Mauritania on a bike, no Carnet.

Senegal
- only payment was 4,000 CFA for the bridge
- I changed 100,000 CFA for 61,000 OUG at the border because I couldn't find anywhere to do it in St Louis. The OUG has recently been revalued by a factor of 10, such that 61,000 is now only 6,100 on the face of the notes.

Mauritania
- 55€ for visa (had to be Euro and I couldn't get one for 40€)
- 5,000Oug (ie a 500Oug note) for insurance
- Dont pay for getting the visa stamped. The guy asked, but finally stamped it.
- 500Oug (ie, 50Oug note) community tax
- 4,000Oug (ie 400Oug notes)
- 2,000Oug (I had to pay with a mix of Oug and CFA) about 20kms down the road for National Park

The road is corrugated dirt for about 50kms. Watch for warthogs running out of the reeds, I nearly went over. Also not a lot of fuel until you get to Nouackchott, so fill up in Senegal.

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Yup. Prepare for the Arab batering with every little thing. I was pressed for time and paid Cfa5000 to have passport stamped. I got into am argument about the €40 for single entry visa and €55 for multi. Push for the €40. No fixers needed. Got my Mauritania insurance from a guy who spoke good English. His name is Himah. Have attached a photo of his contacts.

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Crossed this border yesterday. Problems with our car, which is older than 8 years, coz we didnt have Carnet de passage. They gave us 3 options: leaving the car at the border and visit Senegal without it, quickly crossing the country into Gambia or Guinea with an escort (dont know the price for that) or paying 250 Eur for some special document which gets you 7 days with an extension possibillity of another 15 days in Dakar (should be free, but some say 2500 CFA, dont know yet). BUT we checked official senegalese customs website later and there is a statement, that the 8 year old rule only apply for permanent car import, which as tourist you obviously do not do. I guess the possibility to avoid the 250 EUR payment is to show the info on their website to them (its in french only), but not sure if they would accept :/

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Very easy crossing, no stress and no fixer required. Make sure you have the local cash (CFA and OUG) for the various small fees, otherwise you're obviously offered a real bad (up to 10 times more) rate. We left the vehicle, walked to the next money changer (few meters), got a normal rate, and used that to pay the fees. Smiles all around, no problems.

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Crossed this border today, is corrupt but no problem. People saying you need a 4x4 for the road to Diama are wrong, you just need good time if you don't have it.

Now you get a receipt for the 10 EUR car stamp which people say is fake, so we had to pay that. The passport exit stamp fee is still fake and we had to wait about one hour until the person there finally stamped us out. May seem like a lot of time for 10EUR only, but it's really fun ;) try it. The guy there got soo nervous.
Still 2000pp for national park and still 500 for community tax (per car).

Entering Senegal is easy, carnet stamped and you get a passavant to extend in Dakar within 48 hours.

Payd 10 EUR for something for the police in Senegal (only per car), then 2500CFA for passavant, then bridge tax of 7 EUR. No receipts for anything there, was late so we didn't have time to wait it out.

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Transiting from Mauritania to Senegal.
2000Oug for the national park (by the way we were lucky with wildlife spotting on the way)
First got the car checked out. Were asked for 4000UM and got a receipt so hard to argue against it.
Then got the passports stamped out, the policeman tried to ask extra 4000 oug, we refused and he let go.
500 oug for barrier
4000FCFA or 3000 oug for the bridge
Done pretty quickly altogether

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I drove from Mauritania to Senegal. At some Mauritanian check-point the officer insisted I’d give their village doctor, an elderly guy, a ride to his mother in St. Louis. It was around 4 pm and I was in a hurry to make it to the border before 6 pm. I had a hunch that it was a scam, me being a doctor too. But at the same time I thought it would make things easier. Well both: in the park a guy with a booklet of receipts insisted that I’d pay 1000 UG park fee, but I refused and my new companion backed me up on this. So without paying we raced on and I reached the Mauritanian border at exact 6 pm. As described, the officials will not let you through without paying a €10 exit fee. I didn’t felt like spending €€, so I paid $10. Meanwhile, the so-called village doctor drove off in a car back to Mauritania. I think the check-points informed eachother about my profession (as I had noted on the fiches) and made up this scene. Next, the bridge crossing. The guy demanded €10. At that time, I called it a day and decided to camp on the side of the bridge at a small pier. The bridge guy didn’t allow me to stay there so after some arguing I paid another $10 to let him open the barrier. It was already 7 pm and the Senegalese police told me to return the next day. As I started to make camp next to their office, their commander came by and asked for my papers. After handing them over, he insisted I’d move on or return to Mauritania. I told him he could keep my documents untill the next morning and I had no problem sleeping here. I was somewhat suprised he allowed me to enter Senegal for, ofcourse, €10, which again I paid in $$. Custom officers were also still around and I just paid the 2500 CFA. At 8 pm I was in Senegal and around 10 pm I was enjoying a cold beer in St. Louis. Good luck overlanders!

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we came from senegal and everything went smoothy, but the senegal -Police wanted 10 000cfra and the custom 5000 ... we asket for a receipt and they said No, so we did not pay anything! Mauretania Border was no problem, 4000 cfra for 2 people. friendly Officers.

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This crossing wasn't as bad as we expected. We, two of us, we're heading from St. Louis to Nouakchott. Got the border around 9 am and it was open. Leaving the Senegal side was very easy. Paid 2000 CFA each for the bridge crossing.

Got to the Mauritania border. A fixer approached us and said that he could do everything for us for 30 euro but we decided against using him, figuring we could do it just as easily ourselves. He hung around for a while until he realized we were serious then left us alone.

First was the visa which a police officer directed us to. They process visas in the little shack on the left side of the road. Picture taken, fingers scanned, 55 euro paid. Then we went back over to the police office across the road and paid 10 euro each to get the visa stamped. Move on to the customs office, each of us had to pay 10 euro for the temporary import permits for the bike. Then we had to pay a "community tax" of which was 500 ougiya each -- was really useful to have Mauritanian ougiya. We changed CFA to UG in St Louis and again at the border. Make sure to have UG for entry to the national park you have to drive through to get to the road to Nouakchott. For the park we each paid 2000 UG plus 1000 each for the bikes.

After customs, we each had to pay 10 euro to be let out of the border area by the genderarmie.

All of these 10 euro charges were just told to us straight-up, there was none of that awkward posturing "is this a bribe" "is this guy just suggesting I give him money." Instead, they just say you need to give the money which we did and we were finished within an hour and fifteen minutes. Highly suggested to just pay and move on!

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Make sure the passavant is noted for 'tourism' not 'import'. Ours was marked incorrectly for import and we had to bribe the Douane office 2,000 CFA to get it extended.

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Details for heading north into Mauritania

Exiting Senegal
Left side of the road is a building for registration and passport stamp out
Right hand side of the road is a building for customs. Stamped my carnet quickly and no fuss

You then pay the bridge fee. 4000 CFA, i got a receipt. He showed me a stack of previous receipts with the same. Doesn't make it legit, but hard to fight it. So I paid

Entering Mauritania
After a lot of hassle. I'd been firm with the fixers for Mauritania on the Senegal side. This might have been an issue for me. Entering the Mauritania border they said the computer was down. No visa could be issued. Go to Rosso. I turned back. There were a group of Austrian big rigs waiting in no mans land. I spoke with them. They'd been there around 24 hours. They had a guide though (from Algeria). All of sudden he was rustling them up. Visa possible. I followed back into the border

First need to pay 500 ug for community tax. His prices in CFA or Euro were way out of line. Have ug. Enter thee border

On the left side is a solitary shack that has a computer and equipment for the biometric visa. They did it. €55 for the visa and 10 as a 'fee'. Didn't argue given 20 minutes earlier I was off to Rosso! Visa done, receipt for the 55.

Move across the road to the right hand side from the way you came. Immigration, stamp the visa after inspection of this and vehicle document. At stamping point. €10 was requested. I'd have probably paid. But as the Austrians were all coming and going. The guy taking the money lost track and the guy stamping the passport (on top of the visa) just stamped it and I hurried out. They also had the machine for the visa. I did fingerprint there. I think the fixers on the Senegal side are in league. I think they phones ahead as one of them laughed with me saying they knew I was coming as they were phoned. Unsure of this. But my gut says in league

Move to custom's on the same side. Green and white sign above the door. Pretty obvious. There is an old customs building with sign. Not that one. Nice new sign above the correct one. 4000 ug for the TIP. Pretty easy. Didn't ask for extra. Asked how long I wanted. Asked for 5 days and gave me 10.

Insurance guys hang out outside. They have a table of fixed prices. But negotiate as all things in Africa. 4000 for three days. But they put march instead of February so got three days one month

Left the border. After the piste before you turn right into the national park you pay 2000 ug for national park entry. Got a receipt. I'd managed to dodge ithis on the way down slipping in with a group so wasn't too bothered to pay it

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Follow oneroadoneworld on fb for more information.

Border is pretty corrupt but takes about half an hour of your patience to not pay. They will ask 10 euro to stamp your motorcycle out, the next one didn't try it anymore. Only the 500 um seems correct to pay, on the Senegal site no problems. No insurance available there at a office only some dodgy people trying to sell it. We got ours in St. Louis ecowas (4 months 17.375 cfa per motorcycle)

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They want to 10€ for stamp on your paper. To be calm and wait. Don't pay! The border is closing 6 pm. If you arrive 5 pm They can try to get money. We waited and talk 40 min and we didnt pay anything.

Bridge is 4.000 cfa to pass Senegal. 2.500cfa for import your vehicle.

Dont buy ThemBrown insurance which is western african traffic ins... because you need to recieve. Do this in St. Louis

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Official tarrifs
2000oug for National Park
500oug community tax before first barrier

Do not pay 10 euro for passavant exit stamp (for vehicle)
Do not pay 10 euro for passport exit stamp
These are false

Bridge is 4000CFA (6 euro) not 4000oug (10 euro)

Senegal did not ask for any false payments
Senegal passavant is 2500CFA for 2 days, to be extended at Douane in Dakar at no cost. Douane in St. Louis is corrupt and ask for 150euro

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