Crossing Borders Dakhla to Mauritania

I thought crossing the border from Dakhla in Morocco to Mauritania was going to be really challenging and “unsafe” based on others’ reaction upon telling them our plans. I imagined some militiamen with guns walking out and about where we need to keep our heads down as we cross, possibly being randomly taken out of the group to be questioned.

Turns out, it’s not bad at all! Sure it was lengthy, humid, and hot but it wasn’t so much different from all the other processes I went through crossing other borders in Africa… maybe just a bit longer with a lot of waiting times so bring a book or download a good playlist.

Getting by Bus with Supratours

From Dakhla, Morocco, the best way to cross the border into Mauritania is by far with a bus. You can also go by your own car or join others in a shared trip but going with the bus ensures you can get there with a proper schedule and that someone will be there to help you out the whole way. There is a bus route established in 2019 by Supratours. You have the option to either go to Nouadhibou in the North of Mauritania just across the border or head straight down to the capital, Nouakchott.

 

Bus Location and Opening Hours

The office location of Supratours in Dakhla is along the seafront not far from the restaurant Samarkand. The opening hours of the ticket office is 8am to 9pm and while their English wasn’t great you can easily get by. We bought our tickets a day before to be on the safe side.

 

Ticket Cost

• The ticket from Dakhla to Nouakchott is 410 dirham or around 40 Euro. Prices should be lower for Nouadhibou since it’s around 5 hrs farther to Nouakchott.
• We took the 8am bus. We were not sure if there are more departures during the day but as we were told that the border crossing will take time, it’s recommendable to go as early as you can. We showed up at around 7.30am. There’s no terminal or anything so you just wait beside the road next to the office that doesn’t open until 8am. As soon as it opens, make sure to get stickers for your baggage, we didnt realize this was needed and suddenly had to rush to still make it on the bus. The bus arrived at 8am and left around 8.30am.

Reminders

• You need to bring copies of your passport for the trip. Lots of copies… 🙂 Some say 15 copies but we brought 20 to be on the safe side. And if you’re traveling within Mauritania, you will easily use those too.
• Make sure to bring food, snacks, and water to last all the way to either Nouadhibou or Nouakchott. Options were very limited during stopovers and in between borders, there are no shops. Others we traveled with even have their lunchboxes with rice and all. We only brought cookies and didn’t even have a proper breakfast. I know this already but I keep forgetting and end up getting hangry!

 

Guerguerat Border

• When you reach the border, Guerguerat, the bus will drop you off near the gate. If you bought your ticket onwards to either Nouadhibou or Nouakchott, you get to benefit from the bus service in between the borders whereas if you bought your ticket to the border only, you have to deal with everything yourself. This is totally doable as well and saw some backpackers doing it. But if you know where you are headed anyway, why the trouble? Just book to your end destination.

• So if you’re with the bus, a porter guy will put all the luggage into a cart and take it across while you deal with the stamps. If you don’t want to tip him afterward or just prefer to carry your own baggage, it’s possible also. We welcomed the help but carried our smaller backpack with all our valuables all throughout, you should too!
• That’s the end of the bus so make sure to bring everything with you. You will transfer to a minivan after you cross the border, which is part of your ticket bought with Supratours. This van is their transportation partner from the Mauritania side.
• You will then head to the gate and a police guy there will give you a slip you need to fill out (bring a pen). We saw some of the locals in the bus getting help to fill it out. We were not sure if some maybe couldn’t read and write or if it’s just a service for locals but we were asked to just move through.

• Once you have filled out the slip, go through the gate and down the road to the building in the middle of the road. If there are cars or trucks waiting, it will be to the left of those vehicles.
• In that building, there is a window with a guy who will check your passport and give you the exit stamp from Morocco. Just put your passport at the bottom of the pile. We were lucky that a lot of people came right after us and put their passports at the bottom and then the 2nd window opened and split the pile in two and voila, our passports were on top. 🙂

 

Checking Our Luggage

• While waiting, the guy who was carrying our luggage from the bus called us over to the side as the police wanted to check all luggage. Martin went and I stayed with the passports. They only really checked our hand luggage though and kept asking if we had a drone and wanted to see everything in that bag. Luckily, we left ours behind in Spain for that exact reason, although if you want to take the chance, you might make it through with a small drone if you keep it in your main luggage as they didn’t check that at all. There was no x-ray machine either. I wouldn’t recommend it though as they asked several times and would probably have checked our main luggage as well if they had any suspicion that we had one.
• When that’s done, head back to the passport window and approach the officer when you are called. They will ask you 1-2 questions and give you the stamp.
• Afterwards, walk down the road and just before the next gate, another police guy will check your passport and exit stamp before finally letting you through the gate into no man’s s land.

 

Entering No Man’s Land

• We went to find our porter and the minivan that would take us across the border.
• You will also see a lot of guys trying to sell you sim cards, wants to exchange your money or offer you a taxi across the border to either Nouadhibou or Nouakchott.
• Here, the porter helped us a bit to talk to some of the guys to exchange our remaining Dirham. A good setup is to have at least two guys bidding for what exchange rate they will give you and pick the guy that gives a better rate.

• We chose not to buy our sim card here and regretted it a bit, mostly because there is plenty of waiting time until everyone makes it across the border so you might as well spend the time wisely. A note on that, there is a good 3G mobile internet connection in most big cities and even a few smaller ones out in the desert, but as soon as you are outside the cities, there is no internet at all.
• When all that is done, just wait in the van (it is air-conditioned) until everyone is there. Here, the bus driver will collect everyone’s passport.
• Make sure to get on the right bus, whether to Nouadhibou or to Nouakchott. We initially bought our ticket to Nouakchott but on the last night, changed our plans to go to Nouadhibou instead but the office in Dakhla didn’t want to change our ticket so we took our chances. Now at the border, we just told the bus driver we wanted to change to Nouadhibou and there was no problem at all. I assume though that you can’t change the other way as the ticket to Nouadhibou is cheaper than the one to Nouakchott.

Driving Through No Man’s Land

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You start driving across no man’s s land. It’s probably around 1km or so across the desert with sand and rocks only, no road or concrete under the scorching sun. You will see lots of old cars and trucks that have just been left there broken, literally how you would think about no man’s s land. There are a few backpackers walking through, I assume to have the whole experience. Thanks but no thanks for us!

 

Mauritanian Border Control

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• The next stop is the Mauritanian border control. Here, the bus driver will go with you inside the first building where a police guy will check your passport and put details into his PC. When that’s done, you will be called and handed back your passport.

• Then, walk to the next building to a room where you will have your photo and biometrics taken and then pay the visa fee of 55 EUR. Best to bring exact money in bills as they don’t accept coins. They did give us 10 EUR change though but I wouldn’t count on them having change.
• Afterwards, go back and wait in the bus again. The driver will wait for your passports.
• When everyone is done and back on the bus, you will drive just outside the walls and stop at the first building on the right where another police officer needs to check and confirm your passports and details on the PC again.
• Here, they will ask where you’re staying and where you’re headed after Mauritania. We showed them the phone number of the tour company we were meeting and they actually called him. To be on the safe side, it might be good to book a place in advance, or at least reserve something that can be canceled after. Otherwise, I’m sure they will still let you through.
• When they have confirmed that everything is okay, they will stamp your passport and finally let you enter Mauritania.
• From the border, it’s less than an hour to Nouadhibou and I think at least 5 hrs. to Nouakchott.
• In both cities, the bus will take you to their main office from where you can take a taxi to wherever you are staying there. We arrived just around after lunch/early afternoon.

 

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  Nouadhibou or Nouakchott

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  First glimpse of Mauritania, Nouadhibou City



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