London to Cape Town in 3/4 months?
 

Hiya all, havent logged on here for a while, in fact not since i returned from a london to Sidney overland trip in 2002/03.... that was 18 months and a lot of fun!

I am now getting that 'work/life/house/london trapped' feeling again and want to do something vaguely interesting, and always said Cape Town would be my next trip.... problem is, i only have 3/4 months this time.

So, is this long enough for this trip if i accept it is merely a blast through taster of this amazing continent? Starting say Oct 08 till Xmas/Jan 09?

Yours thoughts/experiences would be appreciated.

Many thanks. William

Hi William,
There have been one or two similar questions in recent past, including one thread on the lines of "is it better to take 10 weeks or 10 months".

I think these may be in "trip planning" or "route selection" (this website gets bigger by the day!), but a search around will bring them up.

i know two Dutch guys (who are also HU members) try to do from the Nederlands to SA via east coast in 4 months and ship the bikes back by sea. They stayed in my house in Turkiye. haven't hear since then. but i guess if you follow the east coast and ship the bike back by air 4 month is doable from the UK to SA.

good luck

Its certainly doable - I think the long way down lot did it in under 2 1/2 months. There is the usual stuff that you already refer to about taster versus seeing more of the place but if you only have 3 - 4 months then you might as well make the most of it and its still a reasonable time. You'll probably have an easier run in the timescales if you are looking at the East coast as apposed to West Africa and the west coast. Also you might want to line up more visas in advance etc so that you reduce the time sitting round waiting for documentation. However some visas such as Sudan can be achieved in 24 hours in neighbouring countries seems to involve a lot of effort in gaining from the UK so there is probably a balance there, particularly if you don't have a multi million pound budget, a warehouse in london and a team of staff to sort all your paperwork.

Have fun.

Thanks for your replys... have found the thread to similar questions in 'route planning' which was useful if a little mixed in its conclusion. Have also just bought the updated version of Chris Scotts AMH and in that he reckon two months is the minimum needed, so that sounds promising at least!

Since i am now getting a little excited about being away again... well theres a surprise..! i think i will plan for the trip but on the understanding if the time is not going to be enough to really enjoy the trip then i will just use the time i have to get as far as i can and then find another port on the West coast to ship/fly back from.

Therefore no stress or time pressures and just que sera sera! Thanks

in legs
 

Hi,

You could consider doing the trip down in legs. First leg to Nairobi (asuming the unrest will have settled by October). Three or four months for London to Nairoby is pretty relaxed. There is a very good place to leave your bike in Nairobi, Jungle Junction. Maybe you heard of it, German bloke with motorbike work shop. Big enclosed area where lots of overlanders stay. He can take care of the bike, store it, run it regularly etc all for a very small fee. Friend of mine did it with his Landcruiser. Was there for a year and then he picked it up again to continue the trip.This way you would enjoy it as much you'd expect !

Cheers,

Noel
exploreafrica.web-log.nl

hi there
Me and 2 other friends finished doing the london - cape town last week in 3 months with ktm's.We went down the west coast,morocco-mauritania-mali-burkina faso-ghana-togo-benin-nigeria-cameroon-gabon-congo-drc-angola-namibie-south africa.

It all depends on what you whant to do.
If you just whant to go from north so south then the trip can be done in 40 days but if you whant to see africa then no less than 5 months is needed.
We did it in 3 months and will do it quicker next time but that is because we live in South Africa and can easily go and travel to these countries again.
Others travellers we met along the way said that they thing 3-4 monts is enough cause you tend to get frustrated and tired if it is any longer,that is if you are on a bike.

Up to you eventually,3-4 months is doable
regards
mj

remember me?
 

Heey MJ, how many tyre's did you end up fixing??
I'm in Nairobi right now, waiting for a new front rim, well still looking for it actually.

Did the trip go all right, no problems what so ever?

-Steven, (we met in Windhoek)

Noel and MJ, thanks for the additinal suggestions and comments... both are very interstesting and useful. Will

Hi,

These guys (who have posted here btw) made Brighton-Cape Town in 4 months:

Dan and Ed's Motorcycle Adventure - Brighton2capetown.googlepages.com (document.title= "Dan and Ed's Motorcycle Adventure - Brighton2c

Best Regards,
Luís CaBRita

Time
 

We did London Ct in 6 months. 5 4x4's. We stopped all over the place and even had a 2 week holiday in between. i am 100% sure you could do it on bikes.

Cape Town to London via the east coast took me 14 months. Of that, if you take out a months prep in SA and 5 months hanging out in Egypt, then I would think 6 to 8 months would be ideal. As from other posters, it can certainly be done in a shorter timeframe, but that will mean compromising on something. I think the record is somewhere around 20 days or so at the moment, but that tends to be transiting countries, rather than really immersing yourself in their culture.

It also means being far more prepared and ensuring that you are far more self reliant for parts etc. I had to have a KTM part shipped from Austria to Kenya and that alone took 3 weeks. Therefore you dont have much time to fall back upon if things go wrong.

I think Noels idea about storing the vehicle halfway en route and coming back to do it in pieces is a good one.

Either way, it is better to do it in 3 months then not at all, so take what you can!

We did indeed... And our site will get another update when I get home in a few weeks time, with more waypoints and info. 3-4 months is fine, we could have gone faster and seen less and we could have taken longer and seen more. From your other trip you'll already know that you'll enjoy whatever you do in however long you take over it...

Hey MJ, didn't see you there :)

Pizzas
 

They drove pizzas on Vespas from RSA to London in 28 days and a BMW..cant remeber which bike though.