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sub-Saharan Africa Topics specific to sub-Saharan Africa. (Includes all countries South of 17 degrees latitude)
Photo by Danielle Murdoch, riding to Uganda - Kenya border

The only impossible journey
is the one
you never begin

Photo by Danielle Murdoch,
riding to Uganda - Kenya border



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  #1  
Old 10 Feb 2004
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Rainy season blues - East Africa

The price of cheating, and shipping our car from Accra to Cape Town (cost $1400), is that driving back to the UK we now have to plunge into Botswana, Zambia, Malawi and Tanzania during the rainy season. Do any of you good folk have experience of those countries at such a time (Feb to April), and what useful experience could you share with us? Are all non-tarmacced roads utterly unpassable? Are certain main roads better than others? Will crocodiles be crashing through the windscreen? Thanks in advance.

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Old 17 Feb 2004
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Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: twickenham, blighty
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weve just come through there, and it was hoofing it down most of the way until malawi where it seems to rain briefly in the afternoon. you can use tarmac all the way.went offroad in mozambique into tanzania and spent a lot of the 450 kms to songea covering less than 3kms per hour because of the mud. how can something so sticky be so slippery?we are currently in dar es salaam and it seems we are above the rain area.
dave

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  #3  
Old 18 Feb 2004
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Location: Kent, Uk
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Hi

I have driven in various ares of Africa during the rainy season and as long as you are on the main roads (so to speak) then you should not have too much trouble in a 4x4 or car, it can be a different story on two wheels.
We paired up with another vehicle and drove thru Chobe NP, Botswana - against advice I must add, but decided that one of us would try any bad stretch and the other would help to recover if stuck!!
It was very hard going water up the windscreen and very deep mud, but the 2 TLC's we were driving had the power to pull thru. We stopped to help several other stuck vehicles inc Park rangers and Safari guides who all turned back. We made it with lots of determination, a large helping of good luck and 2 well prepped TLC's - I would not have tried this without a second vehicle, IMHO it would have been suicide.
Push the boundaries, but play safe!

Happy travels

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