Below we won’t take a deep dive into all topics but will explain the basics, give you some hacks, and provide you with advice that will ease your mind and prepare you for the fun road ahead.

We will be talking about the following:

• Passport
• Driver’s license
• International driver’s license
• Car documents (carte gris)
• Carnet de Passage (CdP)
• Car insurance
• Vaccination booklet
• Travel itinerary
• Dog health certificate and passport
• Fiche
• Document copies
• Pro tips

What documents are important

During your trip down south, you’ll encounter dozens, most likely hundreds of checkpoints. Every time, members of the police force, customs, or immigration might ask you for certain documents. Often, this won’t be anything too worrisome. By being well prepared, you’ll be able to provide them with the right documentation, to speed things up, and let them know you are knowledgeable. And this, knowing you are right, will help you to stay calm when a corrupt situation seems to evolve.

So with that in mind, let’s dive into the documentation you should know about.

Passport

This is common sense, and going to be one of your most valuable documents on the entire trip. Your passport, together with the passport of your car (most likely the Carnet de Passage) will be the papers most asked for.

It might be nice to buy a new passport before starting your trip. That way you make sure it won’t expire whilst on the trip, at least if you plan to return home within a few years. Keep in mind that many countries require your passport to be valid for at least six months after your visa expires. So leave some wiggle room there. A practical thing to keep in mind is that you can apply for a thicker passport, with more pages. That way you won’t run out of pages quickly, which can happen if you travel across Africa. You will be astounded by the amount of pages used at the border. There will be stamps for entry, a visa, more stamps, stamps on stamps, and even stickers. Make sure you have an almost empty passport or buy a thicker one before you leave home.

Driver’s license

It goes without saying that it is important to bring your driver’s license back home. This document is regularly asked for, especially if you are a woman (often police in the countries aren’t used to women driving and find it very cool)

International driver’s license

Whilst the international driver’s license isn’t necessarily mandatory, police officers can give you quite some trouble when you don’t have it. The international driver’s license mentions all the info of your original license in different languages and in a format that is internationally accepted.

There are a few different types of international driver’s licenses out there, make sure you bring the correct one for your region. For Africa, we got the Model 1949 type. For us this was valid for three years, new information suggests it is valid for two years. Also, Model 1968 should be applicable in some countries, make sure to dive into the requirements for the countries ahead. As said, it isn’t necessarily mandatory in all countries, but it isn’t expensive either and well worth the effort to get it back home. You would rather spend an hour and € 20,- back home, than an hour discussing with a corrupt police officer in a foreign country.

Car documents (carte gris)

Your car comes with registration documentation. In the past this was a paper document mentioning all the vehicle’s characteristics and VIN (chassis) number, these days all the same information can be found on one plastic card. This card, your car registration, is very important to bring along and will probably be asked for countless times. In French-speaking countries this (in Europe) green card is actually called Carte Gris, as it was a grey card in the past. So when police ask for Carte Gris, just give them your car registration documentation. Start with this, and scale up to your Carnet de Passage if they won’t accept your registration. There is no legal basis for them to make a problem out of your registration, but of course, sometimes they try.

Carnet de Passage

The Carnet de Passage is the document that acts as your car’s passport. Depending on the country, you can enter with your vehicle freely, or need a Temporary Import Permit (TIP) or Carnet de Passage (CdP). The TIP can be acquired at most borders and lets you import your vehicle for a certain timeframe, for a certain amount of money. The CdP on the other hand, will allow you to stamp in your car without any extra payment involved. For some countries, it is even mandatory to have a CdP, as they won’t issue a TIP.

Our advice is to buy a CdP as this will save you a lot of hassle and money at borders. Entering Senegal with a TIP will be the same price as the initial cost of the CdP, hence worth bringing a CdP along for the whole trip. With the CdP you’ll stamp in, and out of a country without hassle, payments, or timeframes involved. The only downside is that it requires a huge bond, which will be returned when you arrive back in your home country.

When it comes to the CdP we have two tips right from the bat. The first is that if you buy your CdP with an active local automobile membership, you get a discount on the initial price, which will most likely save you about € 70,-. The second tip is to ask the issuing authority to list all the countries that you will be visiting. For some reason, they list a few example countries on the back, which makes you super susceptible to corrupt, or unknowing, police officers. If you don’t have everything listed, you can be sure to have some (unfounded) discussions about its validity along the way. We encountered this situation multiple times and in the end made up a fake document highlighting the CdP document number and all countries. We called it an ‘add-on’ and used it when a problematic discussion arose.

Car insurance

As mentioned in our ‘Admin – what to take care of before departure’ blog, you will most likely cancel your car’s insurance after you leave Morocco. From that moment on you’ll buy Third Party insurance at every border(city).

Of course, it is smart to buy this, as it is often mandatory, and clearly, you don’t want to risk being involved in an accident without insurance.

Our insurance from back home covered Morocco, but not Western Sahara. So starting then we bought insurance for Western Sahara and then Mauritania. After that, it becomes more interesting, as there are now regions covered by the same insurance. Officially, this is divided into the brown, pink, and yellow cards. This will be Carte Brune, CEDEAO, Ecowas, etc. depending on what name the insurance provider uses.

In reality, the insurance that you buy in Senegal will most likely cover you to the Republic of the Congo. Often the insurance provider won’t even know that it will cover you down south, as it’s not applicable for local people. It is important to check both papers and both sides yourself, to make sure you are fully covered. You can then decide, depending on the regions covered, for how many months you want to buy it. You’ll receive your insurance papers (including a stamp!) and an invoice.

A little side note for when buying insurance. At the border, you’ll often be asked to buy insurance by sketchy-looking guys. We recommend ignoring them and finding yourself a real insurance office (although it can still look like an abandoned office building). In reality, you don’t have to worry about the police just after the border, you will be fine to buy insurance at the nearest (real) city after crossing into a new country. We have never encountered police between the border and the first city that asked for insurance. For this Third Party Insurance, we mostly paid about € 15,- a month, or cheaper if for a longer period. You can negotiate the price!

Vaccination booklet

Traveling internationally requires some extra care when it comes to vaccinations. As expected, many countries ask for your COVID vaccination papers these days. This can come in the form of a stamp in your yellow vaccination booklet, or just a printed PDF mentioning your personal information and the latest vaccination. Because COVID was something relatively new, and there was no registration standard, there is not one type of document that you specifically need.

Traveling down south will require you to show proof of vaccination against Yellow Fever. Officially, vaccinations like Hepatitis, might be mandatory. In reality, you’ll most likely already have them, or want to have them. Yellow Fever is a bit of an odd duck here, as this vaccination isn’t something Europeans are used to, but it is this one, especially this one, that officials at borders will ask for. Make sure you are vaccinated, and that it is registered properly.

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Travel itinerary in English and French

Whilst not essential, it can be nice to have your travel itinerary printed out. We always bring an itinerary along that mentions the general route (for the whole of Africa) and our reasons for traveling (nature tourism). Having this visualized, and written in both English and French, can be an ice-breaker in certain situations. Especially people in West Africa aren’t used to tourists and can be curious and wary at the same time. Police can be super skeptical when coming across tourists traveling as freely as we do. Tackling their suspicion right from the start is a great way to keep it cool. A visualized plan will help you out here. It might also be nice to include a picture of your camp setup (opened roof tent, etc.) to show people how you live.

Dog health certificate and/or passport

Bringing your dog along on your trip can be super rewarding. He or she will most likely keep you active and will break the ice when meeting locals. They might be scared at first, but especially children love calm dogs.

But before you start your trip it might be a good idea to double-check regulations and make sure your dog is fully vaccinated. The latter is super important, as threatening diseases still roam around in Africa. Our experience, and the experience of our friends, has shown that borders aren’t a huge problem. Make sure you have your dog’s passport at hand and you’ll be fine.

For some countries, it can be helpful to have a ‘Dog health certificate’ in French with you. When we entered Cameroon and vaccinated Nimba for the first time, we also made up a document highlighting her health, vaccination status, and fitness for travel. Having something that looks official, including a few (fake) stamps, can be super helpful with corrupt officials. However, we don’t recommend using documents like this in official situations. It is important to have your dog’s passport fully up-to-date and at hand, but having this extra (fake) document can be helpful in a corrupt situation.

To prevent unnecessary hassle we recommend hiding away your dogs in the vehicle when approaching a border. Make sure you abide with local regulations, but preventing a (friendly) discussion is always the way to go if you ask us.

Fiche

It will be in countries like Morocco, Western Sahara (part of Morocco), and Mauritania where you might be asked for your ‘Fiche’. Especially the latter two of these countries are famous for having dozens of checkpoints that will ask for it. Whilst these countries might be a lot safer than they were before, this ‘Fiche’ is used to keep track of your whereabouts to keep you safe in case something happens. It is a piece of paper mentioning all your personal information, including your vehicle’s data.

A ‘Fiche’ isn’t mandatory to bring along, but it will save you loads of time if you have it with you. The checkpoints along your route need to write down your personal information before they can let you pass. This can take ages, hence the need for a ‘Fiche’. With this paper at hand, you’ll just hand out copies whenever you arrive at a checkpoint, and you’ll be on your way within minutes. It will make your life a whole lot easier.

For an average trip in Morocco, Western Sahara and Mauritania you’ll most likely use anywhere between 30-80 fiches. Bring enough with you!

You can download our fiche template for free!

Bring copies

Having copies of everything will be super helpful. During your trip through Africa, especially West Africa, you’ll go through dozens of copies. Especially when applying for visas and passing checkpoints you’ll end up giving away countless copies of your passport and passport photos.

We recommend to bring copies of at least the following:

• Passport – paper version in color (40x)
• Passport – laminated paper version in color (10x)
• Passport photos (white background!) – official or self-printed on high-quality glossy photo paper (40x)
• Driver’s license – laminated paper copy in color (5x)
• Car registration – laminated paper copy in color (5x)

P.s. It might be nice to have laminated, officially looking, copies of everything to tackle corruption. We always start with a laminated copy of our passport, driver’s license, and car registration, before handing over our originals if asked for.

If you don’t bring enough copies of the above, you’ll be fine as well. Copy/print shops can be found in every village. We often found out the only real challenge is finding a shop that will take a USB stick, and/or find a shop that has electricity at that moment. It can be super helpful to have all documentation digitalized as well, which can come in handy when you need to print or apply for a visa online.

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Pro tip

Traveling through Africa, especially along the west coast, can be daunting when it comes to paperwork. It will be a journey of trial and error to find your way through it. We hope that the above has provided you with some knowledge that’s helpful when on the road. We do still have some extra pro tips to get you kickstarted.

• If there’s a difference in your documents, start with what you both have and scale up from there. For example, proof of Tobias’ COVID vaccinations is both a printed PDF, as well as stickers and stamps in his vaccination booklet. Manon has her vaccination proof only on a printed PDF. So we always start with the PDF version and see from there. Don’t raise unfounded suspicion if not necessary, and provide them with the simplest of documents, that are the same for all your travel companions.
• Know what’s necessary and what’s not. Often police aren’t familiar with short-term tourists with a vehicle. Be prepared. Know that you are right, that way you can stay calm when a corrupt official stops you. For example, we were stopped by police checkpoints in Cameroon asking us for a technical analysis of our vehicle. We knew it wasn’t mandatory to have this, as we were in the country for a short period. It took quite some convincing on our end to clear up the situation. Mentioning you’re a tourist, in transit, visiting the country for only a couple of weeks, will often solve difficult situations.
• When asked for papers at a checkpoint, always start at the basics and scale up. Start with copies, working your way up to the originals. Keep your documents in your own hands first while showing the information, and only give them to the official in front of you as a last resort. Feel the vibe, you’ll learn how to deal with it soon enough.

And then, to conclude everything above – don’t worry, you’ll find your way. It is Africa, there always is a solution as long as you keep a cool head!