Senegal To Gambia Border Barra Ferry To Banjul

Gradually getting round to posting these crossings as i get the time. IT takes ages! Anyhow i know this is not the official name of the place as the border is miles before the actual ferry and Barra but it describes its location quite well. I’ve also posted below the way to get on the ferry. The bridge at the moment has no on an off ramps so large trucks are limited on the bridge. This limit will be removed soon enough. The trucks all use the ferry. Its sometimes busy so avoid mornings and evenings if you can. We had no problems and they are now running two ferries again. The last one sank….This is an easy border. There were loads of kids as always and a few touts and no fixers. We changed money here with one guy. The rate was OK. We secured his services early on and he stayed with the car. I did everything on my own and then Jelly went to do her passport. She always stays with the car. It means queuing up times are doubled for passport control but it was no problem. 

When you arrive it looks like the pic above. Go left and park up. Someone who may of may not be a police guy will tell you where to park. We parked at the far end near the Douane booth. Pic below.

Take your carnet here (above). Now i’m not so sure you must do this as the car is cancelled later on and you might be able, as I’ve heard to cross Gambia without burning a carnet page but that’s your decision.

‘Next go a queue for the passport exit. The queue is to the right. The other queue on the left is the entry queue. There were a few people working and the queue “snake” was three “wiggles” deep and it only took 10 mins.Next you go to the back office. There’s and entry way in between the two queues. See the kid in blue in the photo. Right where his face is. Go down that and get to the windows and go left in front of all the windows. Then at the back left a corridor to a small office on the right. This is where you get the car stamped out (i think the passevant is cancelled) in your passport. He also took my finger prints here as they didn’t do it at the front windows. They did however do Jellys fingers and photo at the front. So maybe this is a way of making sure you do it?That’s it you are done. 

This one is a little confusing but its all good. We paid nothing as we are visa free. First go to point 1 which is the main desk/counter on the left in the main office. I handed him my carnet and he kept it. They were busy. He stamped the carnet with a police stamp on the page eventually. This is not the main customs stamp you need. That’s later. Then they sent me to the back right office where he looked at the passports (point 2). I was on my own again. Jelly stayed with the car. Then to the office at the back left (point 3). Right at the back. Down the corridor and last door on left. This is where they took the passports and filled in the big book. Again I was on my own. Jelly is normally never seen. All good. I suspect if you need to pay for a visa this is the place. Below is a list of the visa free countries. ALL others pay. Next go to the Douane office (point 4) and get the carnet stamped. He almost knows what hes’ doing.  No drama here.No fees for us and no inspections and no hassle. One carnet guy asked for something an I told him he was 50th in the queue for a gift as we’d been asked loads of times before. A bit of a joke and we were on out way.

So now you are in Gambia and passing a few check points. Don’t miss the ticket off which is actually a weigh bridge. You MUST get your ticket for a foreign vehicle here. Cost was 8000CFA and 500CFA for the person extra. Driver is free. You  pay inn CFA !!!! not  Dalasi.

Drive into the weigh bridge park up and go to back of the hut shown. All very pleasant. We are a Land Rover so no need to weigh. Not sure if they would ever ask to weigh you.

Drive on to the port gates. Go straight to the metal gates and wave your ticket. Get let in and queue on the ramp. The red white metal gates across the road are manhandled by a yellow vested womble.