Africa - West Coast or East Coast?
 

I'm planning a solo overland trip on a DR800 starting September/October 2005 ending in Cape Town. I should be able to gather a budget for the road somewhere around 8-10 000 euros and timetable somewhere between 5 to 10 months. Camp as much as possible and travel modestly. At the end hoping to fly the bike back somewhere in Europe. Sounds reasonable?

The farther my plans get, the harder it seems to make a choice of route. During 'preliminary planning' for a few years the west coast seemed like the obvious choice, but now that the chad/sudan is out of the question, I'm not sure of my own abilities to cope with the Congo region. Also, getting the Angola visa seems to remain a questionmark. Then again in the east, how big of a problem is the Egyptian bureocracy and Sudan with the current Darfur situation?

All in all, I believe what I'm asking is which route would you choose/did chose and why? Given my limited budget, I don't think flying the bike over some areas is a viable option and not even a thing I'd want to do anyway but as a last resort.

My humble thanks,
Vesa

Hi,
you can get very new informations on the following websites:

http://www.globebiker.de

http://www.Motorradnomaden.de

but they are in german!!

We think, your budget is ok



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Best wishes
:-)
RalEva

http://www.Motorradnomaden.de

The homepage has a translation service!!

Hi,
I agree with RalEva concerning your budget. Your time of departure is good as far as weather goes. In 2000 I did London-Capetown via the West Coast, and back to London via the East Coast in less than 5 months (see my book in the Books section).
Both coasts can be problematic. In my opinion, the West Coast may turn out to be the easiest. You should not have problems getting visas as far as Congo (Brazzaville). For Angola try their embassy in Libreville, Gabon. If you're not successful, you can airlift bike from Libreville to Johannesburg on their weekly jumbo. Shouldn't be too expensive. On the other side, Sudan is the problem. But if you don't get visa for Sudan, you can airlift bike from Cairo to Addis Ababa, and continue south. Plan C: You should be able to get visas as far for Chad, and if Sudan is impossible, airlift bike from N'Djamena to Nairobi. The important thing is, be flexible and bring money.
Werner Bausenhart.

Thank you both alot!
RalEva, great exact info on your site, and gives a reason to train my poor german...
Werner, will check the book.