These are the visas and border proceedures we encountered on our travels. I have also included information on the vehicle paperwork we needed.
For British passport holders the visa is free and can be obtained at the border. We entered from Ceuta and the process was relatively painless. Forms were filled inand then our passports stamped with our visas.
For the car you need your vehicle registration documents and fill a Declaration for temporary import of a vehicle and you get to keep two copies (a green page and a white page). You have to buy insurance at the border. We paid €90 for 1 month. After all the paperwork is done you clear customs. We were only asked if we had anything to declare and were then allowed to go.
Leaving morocco seemed to be more of a hassle to arriving. First we had to fill in a form then get our passports stamped out. There was then a very long wait to clear customs which involved handing in the green sheet obtained on entry.
For British passport holders we got our visas at the border without too much hassle. We paid €20 for a 1 month visa and needed a photocopy of our passports. For customs we had to fill in a form declaring what foreign currency we had and what gold we had.
For the car we filled in a form and had a passport stamped with the vehicle details. We were charged €10 for taxes. We bought our insurance in Nouadhibou €10 for 10 days.
Leaving Mauritania was easy. There are several police posts and customs posts on the road to the border. Eventually one stops you to stamp your passport. As we didn't use our Carnet we had to get the car stamped out in my passport as well which cost €10 again.
For British passport holders we got our visas in Nouakchott, Mauritania. A 1 month visa cost UM 6500 (€ 20) and we needed a photocopy of our passport and 2 photos. The process only took 2 hours.
Entering Mali you have to go in search of the correct people. We stopped at the police post outside Nioro to get our passports stamped then went in search of the customs office in town to get our Carnet stamped. It did not cost us anything although we had to wait for the chap to pitch up to stamp our Carnet. We bought our Carte Bruin (insurance for west African countries) in Bamako. It cost us CFA 38 000 for 3 months.
Leaving Mali involved more paperwork than getting in. The police checked our car insurance, vacination certificates and passports. Getting the Carnet stamped was no problem.
We got 7 day visas at the border which cost CFA 10 000 each. These can be extended at Immigration in Ouagadougou. We did not do this as we were planning to be out of the country within 7 days. The Carnet stamp was a simple process and didn't cost anything.
Leaving was also a matter of visiting the correct official and geting passports and Carnet stamped.
We got our visas for Ghana in Ouagadougou. You need 4 passport photos and the addresses of 2 contacts in Ghana (any hotel will do). The visas cost CFA 15 000 (3 month single entry). We could collect our visas the next day after 2pm.
To enter Ghana you have to fill in an entry card and get you passport stamped. The customs officials actually checked the registration and chassis number of the car before stamping the carnet. No cost at the border.
Leaving Ghana was fairly easy except for the fact tha we didn't get a little piece of paper from some office or other. It wasn't a huge problem - you just have to wait until somebody writes the information they need down. A confusing border as the customs is off to one side and immigration is in a completely different place.
Visas at the border (on the main road crossing only). A 7 day visa cost CFA 10 000 although the guy tried to charge us 11000 each. Getting the Carnet stamped was also a bit of a mystery. We got a tiny bit of paper with a stamp on it and were then sent to another office where we got the carnet stamped.
The Ghana-Togo border post is extremely busy and chaotic and the Togo officials are not very friendly.
Leaving Togo was straight forward.
You can get a 48 hr visa at the border but we don't know how long we're going to be there so we applied for a visa in Accra. A 15 day visa costs CFA 10 000 and is processed the same day. You need to fill in 2 forms, 2 passport photos and an adress in Benin. Pick up your passport after 2pm. The visa is valid for 15 days from the day you say you are going to enter on the application form, not the day you actually enter the country.
Entering Benin was no problem intil we presented our Carnet. It was a Sunday and the customs office was closed. The officers on the gate told us we'd have to go to the next town (Come) to get our stamp. We arrived at the Customs office in Come only to be told that he didn't have a stamp and must come back tomorrow. We went back on the Monday and this seemed to be a problem. The big chief did not want to stamp our Carnet and was telling us to get it done when we left the country or go back to the border. We eventually managed to sweet-talk a guy into stamping and signing our Carnet.
Leaving was no problem. The customs office was in Nikki and the police post a few km's down the road at the border.
The most beauracratic yet. You need 2 photos, 2 copies of your passport and Ghana visa, then 1 copy each of your international driver's license, car details, car insurance, carnet (including the page with the Ghana entry stamp), health insurance, application form and anything else they can think of. The visa costs US$ 100 and is issued in up to 48 hrs ( We picked ours up the next day). Officially applications are Mon - Thurs and pick ups on Wed and Fri. We got a 20 day visa, valid for 3 months from the date of issue.
The Nigerian officials were very friendly and welcoming although slow. The police post is first, then a health inspector who wants to see you vaccination certificate and look inside your car and finally you get the customs office.
There are police, customs and military checkpoints all along the roads in Nigeria. We found all the guys to be really friendly and happy to see us. Some ask if we have anything for them but if you say no it is not a problem. The one's you have to watch out for are thr Revenue Task Force. They try and tax or fine you for anything. The answers we always gave are that we are tourists and have already paid for a visa and that we have a permit that allows us to have our vehicle in the country.
Leaving Nigeria was an extremely slow process. Our passport details were written down 4 times at African pace. Other than that it was a straight forward proceedure and everybody was very friendly.
We got our visas in Calabar. You need 3 photos, a copy of your passport, vehicle details and insurance (we showed our Brown card) and the cost is 13 500 Niara or US$ 100. The visas are issued the same day.
Entering Cameroon was straight forward. There were some officials at the border who wrote down our details then we proceede to Ekok where the customs and police were and we got our stamps.
Leaving Cameroon was straight forward.
We got these visas in Abuja, Nigeria. You need 2 photos and a copy of your passport. The visa cost 10500 Niara and was issued the next day.
Arriving in Gabon you have to fill in a fiche and then take that to the immigration in Bitam. Customs is a road block along the way and fairly easy. In Bitam you need a photocopy of your passprt and the fiche.
Leaving Gabon you reach a locked barrier south of Ndende. The guy there stamped our passports and carnet although he did say we should have had a stamp in our passports from Ndende. There was another check post at the border where they wrote down our passport deails and let us out of the country.
We got these in Abuja, Nigeria. You need 1 photo and a copy of your passport. The visa cost 10000 Niara and was issued the next day.
Entering Congo was a long winded process. You get to a locked barrier where a policeman writes down your passport details and a customs man has alook in the car. You're then sent 50m up the road to another policeman who writes down your passport details. Across the road and 20m further on you get to the guy who actually stamps your passport. A few kms down the road at another barrier yet another policeman writes down your passport details and stamps them again. Then 50 km from the border you reach Nyanga. Here you get your Carnet stamped and stop at an immigration check point where he writes your passport details down and a police checkpoint (next door), where he writes your passport details down - how many more times??
We left Congo by an unusual post. The police in Mindouli stamped our Carnet and the immigtation stamped our passports.
We tried in Abuja but visas were a no go so next stop Yaounde. Yaounde was no problem - 2 photos and a photocopy of your passport and 45 000 CFAs is all you need for visas issued the next nay. We paid an extra 10 000 CFA for express visas and got them the same day.
We entered thr DRC where no tourists have been before. There is an immigration check at the village at the border but he has no stamps. You get your passport stamped in Luozi - and here we encountered the first border official who tried to demand a bribe. We flatly refused to pay any money so he eventually let us go. There is no customs here so we didn't get our Carnet stamped.
Leaving the DRC took ages. They checked our yellow fever certificates, stamped our passports and Carnet - the missing 'in' stamp didn't seem to be a problem.
After trying all through Africa we eventually got 5 day transit visas in Matadi. It involved a lot of waiting about and an interview asking all sorts of irrelevant questions and 2 photos. The cost was a heafty US$ 80 each.
Getting in to Angola was straightforward with immigration and customs in the same building.
Leaving Angola was a hectic border post. It was a mission to find the right person to stamp our Carnet and we sneaked out without getting our passports stamped as we'd overstayed our visa. The car was superficially searched. We were sent back from Namibia to get our passports stamped - but weren't fined.
No visa required for British passport holders but you need an exit stamp from Angola. You also need to pay a cross border fee of $160 (Namibian) for a foreign vehicle - otherwise it's all very simple and straight forward.
Leaving Namibia is equally straightforward.
Entering Zambia is a costly affair. Visas are obtained at the border US$70 for British passport holders, free for South Africans. To bring a vehicle in you have to buy insurance, pay a carbon emissions tax and local road tax which all amounted to about £55.
Leaving Zambia was straight forward.
As we are shooting through on our way North we managed to get US$30 transit visas rather than the usual US$50 visa. Multiple entry visas were not possible to get. There was a US$25 charge for the car. On second entry we could only get the US$ 50 3 month visa.
South Africans get into Kenya free, Brits pay US$50 at the border. There was a US$ 40 road tax for the car.
Leaving Kenya was no problem.
The visa for uganda is US$ 50 for everybody, obtainable at the boarder. There is a road tax payable depending on how long you're in the country and where you're going. We paid USh 35 000 for two weeks in Kampala. Nobody checked the paperwork in Uganda and it was not a problem when we left at the Rwandan border.
Leaving Uganda was no problem.
Rwanda is free for Brits and South Africans and there is not even a charge for the car - a straightforward process.
We got a US$ 20 two day transit visa. The car was free.
Free for South Africans and Brits. The car was free.
Brits have to get a visa, South Africans don't need one. There is also an entry tax at the border we paid 400 Kwacha. Bringing the car in was free.