West Coast Africa
 

Hi Guys,

I'm leaving Scotland on 8th Jan 2010 to go down one side of Africa and back up the other side.

Currently looking in detail at the West Africa route. I've noticed a lot of people miss out Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Benin, Togo.

Instead they seem to cut across the top of them through Mali, Burkino Faso, Nigeria before turning south.

Any particular reason for this for it is just personal preference. Or is it down to security/paperwork issues and the bikes.

Many thanks in advance
Richard

Hi Richard!

We did the Westcoast in 2006/07. We traveld in both Guinea's ,Ghana,Togo, Benin and than to nigeria.
Guinea Bissau i wouldn't do no after the coup. We heard in 2006 that Sierra Leone and Liberia is possible to travel. The visa were just a bit expensive for us (100US$ each) . Cote ivore was not on our way...
Ghana, Togo, Benin were great to ride and really nice people!

Have fun!!!

Werner

Hello,

Thanks for that. I'm going to Senegal/Gambia anyway so I suppose I can judge local knowledge of what Guinea-Biseau is like when I get there.

If the visa is easy enough to get I'll give it a go if not I probably won't. The FCO in the UK haven't issued any specific travel advice about it being too dangerous so maybe I will.

Many Thanks, Richard

Guinea, Guinea Bisssau, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Cote d'Ivoire are harder traveling than Mali and Burkina Faso (although Cote d'Ivoire still has the infrastructure if they ever recover from the civil war and governance-by-police-roadblock). I think that's why people take the Sahel routes---they (we) were doing this long before this or other coups.

You can sus out Guinea Bissau from Casamance in Senegal, where you can also get a visa. Heading down that way doesn't commit you to the full route. Similarly, you can easily drop down into Guinea from eastern Senegal, turning northward again into Mali or continuing south to Conakry depending on whether you like what you see. It's not as if a single fork in the road commits you for the duration.

Hope that helps.

Mark

benin/nigeria crossings
 

does anyone know if theres a custom post at the segbana border crossing from benin to nigeria.

I know alot of travellers cross at Nicki however I was hoping to travel further north into nigeria and the map doesn't currently show any border flags at this point.

cheers
Mike

West coast & Angola Visa
 

Hello Richard, there's a lady on here called Kira who has some sound advice on west Africa travel and rates Guinea & Ivory coast as her favorites. See this link http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...e-guinea-41210 also Sierra Leone sounds like a winner.
My boyfriend & I are hopefully setting off in December down the west coast and back up again, stopping in South Africa for the World cup in June-if we can manage the distance in 6 months!

Hope the link helps, apparently it's extremely difficult to get a visa for Angola now. I rifled through Hubb pages and made these notes: Get your Gabon and Congo(Brazza) Visa in Yaounde, get your DRC Visa (Tourist for 30 days) in Brazza. Get your Angola Visa in Matadi. I read something about being able to organise the visa in Ghana and have the details all emailed through to Matadi but I can't seem to find the link again, anyone any advice on obtaining visa's for Angola?? mmm side tracked a bit from West coast routes...

Thanks,

Jemma

Thanks Jemma, just reading through this thread & about to add when I saw yours.

Personally I love Guinea, Cote d'Ivoire & to some extent Guinea Bissau.

Guinea Bissau, has it's moments. A friend was there a few months ago when Nino was killed, had no idea what was going on about 75km from Bissau itself until he received a text from me! It's lacking tourist infrastructure but worthwhile ... I've still got a lot to explore there!

Guinea, tough; the infrastructure in terms of roads (especially in & out of the country with the exception of Kankan-Bamako road) is terrible. The locals are wonderful, the military are B*******s ...

Cote d'Ivoire (MarkHarf & I agree to disagree over CI most of the time) is great in terms of infrastructure especially in comparison to the two above. The people are wonderful, the roadblocks are getting removed bit by bit & if things hold then I hope the country will get back on it's feet. The elections are 'due' on 29th November, worth keeping an eye on but this must be the third or fourth time they've given a date; however this time most of the country is now registered to vote. I will probably be there during that period & will be ready to make a run for the border BUT knowing the Ivorians I am constantly in shock as to how they managed to have a war in the first place; fantastic country!

Well done for thinking of going off the beaten track! If you need anymore info PM me!

Kira

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Hi Richard,
We, me and wife, are in Warrington, and also plan around that time to 'drive' to Cape Town.
We are looking to do it in no more than 3 months (13 weeks), or not too much after the 13 weeks.
I estimate the distance to be some where around 10k miles (16k km)
We would be in a 2005 Land Cruiser.
Roughly 110 miles (170km) every day. Or lose some miles and catch them back next day(s)
No additional fuel tank, as I can get 500 miles (800km) from a tank in UK, so estimate just 380 miles (600km) in Africa on a tank.
We would use as few hotels as possible, and will be 'roof tent sleeping' as ofton as possible.
I actually got the roof rack last week.
BFG A/T are all on already, with spare on rear door, and second spare on roof.
I bought it knowing it was too long, but I wanted the 4 foot 8 inch width.
It was 10 feet long, which I cut and welded down to 6 foot 6 inches.
No snorkel as yet, and still undecided if I want one.

'vette

Hi Vette
snorkel would be a good idea-:thumbup1:
I had no choice but cross some flooded oueds and passages during the monsoon time and was glad to have mounted a snorkel on my Toyota Hilux- Water got way over where my original air intake was in the wheel well-
would have been stuck without one-
It also lessens your air filter getting clogged by reducing the amount of dirt going in as it picks up clean-er air from above. It is well worth the investment IMHO

Hi Bertrand,
I was looking at the Safari snorkels, they are £320 to buy.:helpsmilie:
Quite a bit more expensive than I was hoping.
Not such a big job to fit, just be careful.:thumbup1:
So you suggest it could be a good investment !

'vette

Yes a bit dear= Safari is the one I have-
The critical part is the fitting so it really must form a water tight seal with the right sealant- It comes with a template to cut the access on your panel.

If U are any where near London, I can recommend a good fitter- ( no connection- just a happy customer)

Get that wrong and getting a possible hydrau-lock in a diesel is really bad news- not so bad on a petrol engine but a diesel is more work to sort out as the injectors will have to come out - not as easy as a spark plug
and as for the investment.... passing through 4" of water did warrant it! for me anyway!

angola visa
 

I obtained a dual entry 5-day visa from abuja/nigeria, its simple enough to obtain hoxwever they don not provide the forms within th embassy. fortunately i met over overlandrs with photocopies but you wil ned the embassy to email the forms to you to print off.

The embassy in abuja only processes them on a wednesday and it takes approximately 3days for completion for a fee of 100dollars.

If applying for th tourist visa it apparently takes 15days for processing.

Hi Richard,

I have a few questions:
- Are you travel with bike or car?
- Are you travel alone?
- Why starting in the middle of the winter? Marocco seems to be very nice in spring and it can be very cold in the Atlas in winter. Thats the reason I will start from Belgium for almost the same route and the same direction with bike during March 2010.
- Why don't you visit Senegal?

Hello Rone,

By bike, not alone for the first month which is also the reason for starting in Jan. I'm part of Calum's Road to The Gambia 2010 - Home which is leaving in Jan and going as far as Gambia. After that I wave good bye to the guys and carry on by myself.

Yes it going to be cold but wanted to do at least some of the trip with other people. Also I work for myself and my last contract comes to an end on the 19th Dec so a week or so to get ready for the off.

Briefly the countries I want to visit are:

Morocco Mauritania Guinea Bissau Senegal The Gambia Sierra Leone Guinea Liberia Ivory Coast Burkino Faso Mali Ghana Togo, Benin, Niger Cameroon Nigeria Gabon Congo Dem Rep Congo Angolla Nambia Botswana South Africa Lesoto Zambia Zimbabwe Mozambique Tanzania Burundi Rwanda Uganda Kenya Ethiopia Sudan Eritrea Saudi Arabia Jordan Syria

Putting everything I have into storage pr selling it, taking the money I'd saved to buy a house and leaving the UK. Coming back when I run out of money hopefully I can last a few years.

I am going to Senegal, just didn't list it earlier :)

Have fun on your trip...I'm hanging around in Gambia for a month or so at the charity we're looking to hlep so maybe you'll catch me up on the way.