As the start of the rally draws closer, we’d like to give you an overview of the route as outlined in the Roadbook. For this, we deliberately focus on the African section of the rally, as the first four days up to the ferry to Tanger Med in Morocco are mainly about covering distance and racking up kilometers.
Once we arrive in Morocco, the pace becomes a bit more relaxed, and we’re already looking forward to experiencing the country’s diverse regions. From the Mediterranean coast and lively markets to the Atlas Mountains, a wide range of impressions awaits us — all of this during the fasting month of Ramadan.
With the transition from Morocco (Western Sahara) into Mauritania, the truly intense part of the rally begins.

To better understand what lies ahead, we’ve translated the official Dresden–Dakar–Banjul Rally Roadbook into Google Maps.

In fact, we created different map views with Google Maps, each serving a specific purpose — from overall orientation to regional detail.

Planned Route vs. Reality

Before diving into the maps, one important note:
All stations shown are planned locations based on the official Roadbook. While certain meeting points and border crossings are mandatory, we are free to choose our own routes in many sections.

That’s exactly what makes this rally so exciting. Later on, it will be fascinating to compare the planned Roadbook route with the actual route we end up driving — shaped by road conditions, weather, spontaneous decisions, and encounters along the way.

We’re already very curious to see how closely theory and reality will align.

Map 1 – The Complete Route Overview

The first map shows the entire journey, from the rally start in Dresden, Germany (in fact Hohenstein) all the way to the finish in Gambia. This overview helps to visualize the sheer scale of the rally: thousands of kilometers, multiple climate zones, and a steady transition from Europe into North and West Africa.

At a glance, it becomes clear how diverse this journey really is — from European motorways to Atlantic coastlines, desert tracks, and Sahel roads.

Map 2 – Focus on the African Section

The second map zooms in on the African part of the rally, the crossing from the Morocco boarder and continuing south through Western Sahara, Mauritania, Senegal, and finally into Gambia.

This section marks the true heart of the rally. Infrastructure becomes more sparse and conditions more demanding. At the same time, the landscapes open up dramatically — from coastal roads to endless desert plains.

Crossing from Morocco to Mauritania

One of the most significant transitions of the entire rally will be the border crossing from Morocco into Mauritania. Here, European-style road travel gives way to the realities of remote desert logistics. Formalities take longer, patience becomes essential, and preparation truly pays off. An approved eVisa for Mauritania is mandatory (which we have already secured), and once across the border, teams enter the Sahara convoy phase.

Map 2b – Mauritania: Between Two Borders (and much bigger than it looks)

To make the scale of the rally’s most demanding country easier to grasp, we created a map focusing solely on Mauritania. In particular, it includes both border crossings — the northern entry from Morocco/Western Sahara into Mauritania and the southern exit into Senegal.

Even on a zoomed-in map, Mauritania looks deceptively “empty.” However, this is exactly what makes it so intense: distances are huge (Maruitania is 4-times bigger than Germany), infrastructure is limited, and conditions can change quickly. Therefore, seeing the country isolated on its own map helps us visualize just how much ground we’ll cover before we even reach Senegal.

Where We Cross the Tropic of Cancer

One interesting “geography moments” along the route is crossing the Tropic of Cancer (also called the Circle of Cancer). This is the northernmost latitude where the sun can be directly overhead at noon — a global reference line currently around 23.4° North. Kind the opposite of the artice circle, which we crossed one year ago on our Baltice Sea Circle Rally.

According to the Roadbook, we’ll pass it on the way south in the Morocco / Western Sahara region — it’s even listed as a waypoint: Tropic of Cancer: N23°26.362 W015°57.973

In other words: it’s a symbolic threshold — from “North Africa” into the deeper Sahara world.

The Legendary Iron Ore Train of Mauritania — and where it runs compared to our Rally Route

If you’ve ever seen photos of people riding on top of open ore wagons in the desert — chances are it was Mauritania’s iron ore train – Social media creators are drawn to it because it checks multiple “story triggers” at once — visually, emotionally, and narratively. It runs on the Mauritania Railway, a single-track line of about 704 km connecting the iron mining area of Zouérat with the Atlantic port city of Nouadhibou, passing places like Choum and Fderîck. It’s operated by the state mining company SNIM, which runs the mine‑to‑port logistics chain and owns the railway line.

What makes it so legendary is not just the landscape — but the scale. Trains can be up to ~3 km long and are widely known as among the longest and heaviest in the world, hauling iron ore across the Sahara.

Where is it relative to our rally route?

Our rally route through Mauritania focuses more on the southern corridor toward Nouakchott and the Senegal border, whereas the iron ore railway runs farther north, between the inland mining region (Zouérat) and the northern Atlantic coast (Nouadhibou). But we might cross the railway on our northern entry.

Senegal & Gambia in Detail

The following map focuses specifically on Senegal and Gambia (officially the Republic of the Gambia), the final stretch of the journey. While this part of the rally comes after the Sahara, it will bring its own challenges: dense traffic, heat, border formalities, and a completely different rhythm of travel.

Looking Ahead

For now, these maps represent the plan – comparing the planned Roadbook route with the route we actually drive will be one of the most interesting reflections once the rally is over.