Just back from Algeria. Arrived with a group into Mostaganem travelling to Tadrart Rouge in SE Algeria pretty close to the Libyan border. We had a local guide which made some of the checkpoint work easier but we had a Gendarmerie Nationale escort from the port to Illizi. The escorts changed at city/town/department boundaries but these guys drove their g-wagens with lights and sirens on for the most part and got us through towns and busy intersections in fast order. The handover from one escort to the next can take anything from 30 seconds to 30 minutes. Most handovers were pretty efficient however.
Customs entering and leaving Mostaganem is serious. We had our CB radios confiscated (returned at departure) and while the customs staff were friendly, they were very thorough and went through pretty much everything. Took us 6 hours from arrival to getting out of customs.
The security posture in the country seemed heightened at time of arrival as there were certainly fewer checkpoints and no escorts for the journey north (well just one).
The main worry I had prior to going was the quality of the diesel in the country. While its super cheap at €0.17 cent a litre, it also has a high sulphur content (maybe 900ppm but less than 2000ppm anyway) and there is a distinct yellow colour in the diesel when you fill the car. I got plenty of NOX errors with the usual accompanying warning 'no restart after x kilometers'. Using a friends OBD tool I was able to delete the error code. This was a once and sometimes twice a day episode. South Eastern Algeria is seriously remote and very limited recovery options. The Tassili n'Ajjer and Tadrart areas are amazing with long sections of hard and soft (some very soft) sand. Given the remoteness, I was carrying plenty of spare diesel, water, adblue, etc so was running pretty heavy and a bit low at 19psi but I had the Rival skid plates which really came in useful - that was a last minute addition and I am glad thst I did it. While my Gren has a 90L tank, my friends AT35 Hilux was only 65 or so and the Ranger had a tank in the 70L+ range.
I have heard that other European Gren owners are taking their cars into Tunisia and Mauritania so they will probably experience the same NOX issues. Maybe the issue is the BMW ad blue ECU hitting some limit (after all the drivers manual says 50ppm of sulphur) but am not sure. I was able to get around the problem with a combination of adding European diesel (which my friends carried) and resetting the code.
Some other thoughts on Algeria:
+ Plenty of small groups of teenagers and young men from Niger or beyond walking north along the sides of the road from Ghardaia to Djanet.
+ We met one other team of overlanders from Portugal in Djanet but otherewise expect to see very few foreigners - interestingly enough one of them had a brand new Jeep Rubicon hybrid which seems to have accounted itself well
+ We all had eSIMs but they did not work in any of the sensitive areas, oil and gas production areas or military zones. We could see locals on phones but ours would not connect to any of the DZ carriers.
+ People are super friendly, regardless if they are military, police or civilians. With the regular 'welcome to Algeria' being a regular greeting. No begging or any harassment whatsoever.
Customs entering and leaving Mostaganem is serious. We had our CB radios confiscated (returned at departure) and while the customs staff were friendly, they were very thorough and went through pretty much everything. Took us 6 hours from arrival to getting out of customs.
The security posture in the country seemed heightened at time of arrival as there were certainly fewer checkpoints and no escorts for the journey north (well just one).
The main worry I had prior to going was the quality of the diesel in the country. While its super cheap at €0.17 cent a litre, it also has a high sulphur content (maybe 900ppm but less than 2000ppm anyway) and there is a distinct yellow colour in the diesel when you fill the car. I got plenty of NOX errors with the usual accompanying warning 'no restart after x kilometers'. Using a friends OBD tool I was able to delete the error code. This was a once and sometimes twice a day episode. South Eastern Algeria is seriously remote and very limited recovery options. The Tassili n'Ajjer and Tadrart areas are amazing with long sections of hard and soft (some very soft) sand. Given the remoteness, I was carrying plenty of spare diesel, water, adblue, etc so was running pretty heavy and a bit low at 19psi but I had the Rival skid plates which really came in useful - that was a last minute addition and I am glad thst I did it. While my Gren has a 90L tank, my friends AT35 Hilux was only 65 or so and the Ranger had a tank in the 70L+ range.
I have heard that other European Gren owners are taking their cars into Tunisia and Mauritania so they will probably experience the same NOX issues. Maybe the issue is the BMW ad blue ECU hitting some limit (after all the drivers manual says 50ppm of sulphur) but am not sure. I was able to get around the problem with a combination of adding European diesel (which my friends carried) and resetting the code.
Some other thoughts on Algeria:
+ Plenty of small groups of teenagers and young men from Niger or beyond walking north along the sides of the road from Ghardaia to Djanet.
+ We met one other team of overlanders from Portugal in Djanet but otherewise expect to see very few foreigners - interestingly enough one of them had a brand new Jeep Rubicon hybrid which seems to have accounted itself well
+ We all had eSIMs but they did not work in any of the sensitive areas, oil and gas production areas or military zones. We could see locals on phones but ours would not connect to any of the DZ carriers.
+ People are super friendly, regardless if they are military, police or civilians. With the regular 'welcome to Algeria' being a regular greeting. No begging or any harassment whatsoever.
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