In the central part of the Sahara, it was mandatory to obtain a travel permit from the “Daira,” a local police authority, before departure. That system dated back to the French colonial era.
The idea was that, before departure, a vehicle with passengers would be checked out at the point of departure and announced via radio at the planned point of arrival, along with the expected arrival time, number of passengers, etc. If a vehicle had not arrived by the planned date, a search operation could be launched.
It undoubtedly worked well during the French era, but we soon realized that in practice, nothing came of it. Sometimes the Daira was a month behind in recording vehicle traffic on the roads. Everyone was simply left to fend for themselves—which, incidentally, was exactly what we had anticipated.
This is the form we used to check out at the Daira in Djanet, with Tamanrasset as our destination. Lots of stamps, as is the case everywhere in Africa, but that doesn’t help much if things go wrong.