To cross the border of Mauritania visa is required without exception. To get it will need a passport valid for at least six months after the date of entry into the country, two passport photos and fill in the form of visa. The visa must be requested well in the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania in Madrid or the Consulate General of the RIM in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Quintana Street, n º 14 – Ciudad Jardin – 35 005 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria – Telefs.: 928/23.48.33 and 928/23.45.00 – Fax: 928/29.31.66). You can also get at the border for a price of around 60 euros.

* Algeria

The Algerian authorities also require visas. The consular fee charged for issuing visas for tourists is around 25 Euros (for employers and employees of Spanish companies have superior consular fees). You must have a passport with a minimum of six months of operation, complete the form and two passport size photographs. The embassy is on the streets of Madrid General Oraá 12 and there is a consulate in the Eusebio Sempere Calle Alicante 14.

* Libya

As for Libya, a visa is required for entry into the country. Visas must be obtained from the Libyan embassy in Madrid. It is advisable that the visa application is submitted with at least twenty days before the scheduled date for the trip and also must pay the “reasonable” price of 50 euros. Also, get the facts at the embassy because people are not as good Gadaffi friends of the Western tourists and their travel agencies and tourist visas are usually denied for trips that have not been contracted with a travel agency in Libya.

Furthermore, since 15 August, the Libyan authorities in the border require the accreditation of financial means – at least 500 Libyan dinars or its equivalent in euros, 300 – for all those wishing to enter the country unless: you are a tourist who has come by agency and covered all expenses for the stay come on official duty; you are a trainee with student visa, “Erasmus in Tripoli? Absolutely! With two lame … -, official invitations, or family reunification or visiting a resident in Libya, provided you like to be the friend pivot, because it must state that takes care of the expenses of stay and medical care

For processing, you need the passport and four photographs of passport size and format, equally between them and without much difference with the passport (since I have no more than when I was 18). Ratilla not be valid because they are not color copies. Also need a certified translation of your passport (visa included in price). We must also fill out the form supplied by the Libyan embassy in Madrid.

The culture and traditions of the Maghreb open their doors to you. Although, as you can see, some you have to give it more oil than others.

I have not set foot on this fascinating continent where our species began to evolve. I have heard and read stories of travelers who have not done more than fan the flame of adventure that runs inside and increase the desire to step on that land chaotic, breathtaking landscapes, unstable governments – and, unfortunately, often bloody and cruel – temperatures and extreme conditions, people of thousands of ethnic groups, cultures and religions, and wild nature. In fact, my current book nightstand is The Long Way Down, written by Ewan McGregor – Obi Wan Kenobi for Star Wars freaks like me – and Charlie Boorman – the kid from La Selva Esmeralda for big film fans like me, I am fan of Antonio Gasset and Film Days program. In the book recount the bike ride from the northern tip of Scotland to the southernmost point of the African continent Cape Agulhas). For now I recommend it.

So if you too are you in love with Africa, or simply think you are curious and visit soon: here’s information on the requirements for entry and stay in some of the countries of the African mosaic. Soon we will try to cover the entire continent by facilitating the work to travelers.

* Morocco and Tunisia

To walk about the streets of Marrakech, Agadir or deeper into the Berber region, provided that the maximum stay is 3 months, only you’ll need a passport valid for at least six months from the time of departure.

The same applies to Tunisia, but only here you can also enter into force with an ID whenever you are traveling with a tour package.

* Egypt

However, if you want to dive deeper and explore the land of the Egyptian pharaohs, you will need a visa unless you’re a cruise passenger from entering the country by any other port in Egypt and whose stay will not exceed 3 days. Of course, whether you need visa or not, will always be fundamental requirement to hold a passport with 6 months validity from the date of departure.

The regular visa entitles a maximum stay of 30 days and a single entry into the country. Can be requested at the Egyptian Embassy in Madrid although those who enter Egypt for an international airport may apply for a visa at the Immigration office at that airport. The cost of this visa at the airport is 15 USD.

For visas of longer duration or multi-entry is necessary to satisfy other requirements for it – and if you are traveling to Egypt in general, since the requirements, price and duration of visas are very changeable – you must call the Embassy and stay informed.

We market the next morning only when accompanied by a Bedouin in the logistics team: our guide did not see fit to come with us. Still, I was quite shocked to the casualness of it, someone very young who thought primarily to party. Nor had he bothered to greet us at the airport, he will move for us to say goodbye on the last day.

We are moving to the new White Desert where we will hike the afternoon. The training that we find in this part are even more beautiful than those of the former White Desert.
We joined the vehicles for a picnic lunch, at the same location as the camp at night. The picnic was a little hard because there is no shade, the sun is almost vertical, and it was quite warm for April. The small “Moula-Moula” (birds of deserts) we were almost eat out of hand.

In the afternoon we had “free time” to tour the limestone formations of the new White Desert (pity that these traces of jeep).

Before turning to the White Desert itself, we stopped in a small oasis, a rarity in this particularly dry (there is virtually no vegetation in the desert, not even at the bottom of the wadi where there is no acacia). It is not far away the traces of graves which our guide told us that they are Roman (or at least to Roman times).

We now turn to the series of photos of White Desert, which are quite numerous and rather difficult to comment in an original way. We discuss the chalk formations at a location fairly typical, with a mimosa (which I did not take pictured). We are here in the former White Desert.
On this trip I found that digital photos (like this last photo) make it worse than film photographs (like the penultimate or the next), but this is not always the case.

The next picture, therefore, was taken to the location of our camp at night, in the heart of the old White Desert. I was surprised that we were provided tents, the rain is not frankly what is most likely to occur in these places. Anyway I am personally past. The vertical canvases leaning against the 4 × 4 we used a screen, but they were not absolutely essential.

The next morning we leave for the desert. And before the White Desert, the Black Desert in which we stopped after a few miles drive away. These pinnacles (the photo is taken from the highest of them) are apparently of volcanic origin there.

The quartz mountain is an area which as its name implies, the rocks are made of quartz crystals (the natural arch is not very high).

Only a few miles away that we abandon the vehicles for a two-day hike in the White Desert (then we start it is almost noon, it is desirable to put cream !). The following photo was taken from the road, towards the east. Access to this area is highly regulated as the region which it belongs is the site of trafficking of all kinds towards Libya (whose border is remote, however several hundreds of kilometers). Our hike thereby segregate the portion of the White Desert west of the road.

After this introduction, towards the desert. Indeed, we have 400 km of road to go to the oasis of Bahariya – I failed to mention that this trip is not exactly a ‘journey on foot. ” It must be an hour’s drive before leaving the greater Cairo (the modern residential area of Oct. 6 – a reference to the “victory” against Israel in Egypt in 1973 – on the horizon which we still see dawn, miles during the peak of the pyramid of Chephren). Can you pass along a railway cutting the iron ore produced near the oasis of Bahariya, and some oil wells. This portion of the desert is not the most entertaining as can be seen on the next picture.

And contrary to what I know in Algeria, Niger and Mauritania, the desert of Egypt is an absolute desert, virtually devoid of vegetation!

Our destination for tonight is the oasis of Bahariya, or more precisely the location of Baouiti in the latter. This site contains some curiosities archelogiques: first a so-called Temple of Alexander, absolutely no interest (there would come after his pilgrimage to Siwa).

Then, a few mummies late (3rd century BC), head covered with gold leaf, and recently discovered in the vicinity. Unfortunately, it is forbidden to photograph. And finally, the underground tomb of a rich merchant (Qaret Qasr Salim), dating from the same era and it is in principle equally forbidden to photograph. But Egypt is still Egypt: a small bribe to the guard is sufficient to close my eyes! The photo is what it’s worth, I unfortunately had not brought up, and flash I have still not dared.

The journey is obviously on the charter flight, bound for Cairo. Several surprises await us in the descent flight: first our guide did not see fit to greet us on arrival. He just called me through the driver’s mobile phone to give us the start time of the morning. We were rather surprised by the cold call, as I have not used cell phones, and also the focus of my interlocutor, I understand four o’clock in the morning I’m surprised a little, so I am repeat, I do not get any answer. In addition, the hotel is not located in the downtown as planned, but in the suburbs on the road to the pyramids. The time to go there and given the congestion, the afternoon ends. I do not see her much about this city, whose size has almost doubled since my last visit in 1984. Too bad, there were several things I liked to visit, like the Al-Azar or the pyramids of Dahshur. All that we can allow is a walk in the populous (and rather quaint) suburbs, reaching the foot of the Pyramids (Giza those of) the price of a good hour’s walk. And then, a meal in a kind of Mcdonald.

The next day begins in the confusion. But we are still entitled to some compensation: the authorization to spend half an hour on the Giza plateau. A visit to the Japanese! For members of the group who have never visited Egypt is always better than nothing.