Shipping motorbike from West Africa to Europe
 

Hey guys!

I'm planning the motorbike trip to West Africa this winter.

I don't know where exactly i will finish the trip, but probably in one of the countries south of Burkina. That depends on where is the best and easiest (and cheapest) possibility to ship the bike to Europe.
What do you think? Ghana? Togo? Benin?
plane or ship?
As for destination in Europe (if matters) - I live in Croatia, and closer to that would be fine, but i can come more or less anywhere in Europe to pick up the bike.
Anyone done that recently?

I've searched the forum and googled on that topic, but i haven't really found enough info to decide where's the best.

Thanx a lot! I appreciate your answers!

Davor

Shipping out of West Africa
 

Personally i would fly it out. Expensive but usually you can get it into Europe in 3-4 days from the date it clears outgoing customs. Wherever you ship it from. Try Cargolux or any of the Major airlines flying from Europe to Africa.

What alot of the agents do not tell you or understand when initially quoting is that your bike will be charged by volume rather than its exact weight. If you can,partially disassemble it and put it into smaller packing crate to reduce the overall size, it could save you 50% in shipping costs.

Make sure the bike is loaded and enroute before leaving whatever country you are shipping it from. You should have a waybill that you can track and confirm where your bike is. Once you are out of the country, you have next to no influence on getting it out if it 'accidentally' did not get on the promised flight.

When I came out of Gabon, the handling agent insisted I had to pay export taxes even though the bike was covered by a carnet. I would avoid shipping anything into or out of Gabon in the future. I would not use Sky Gabon due to their lack of honesty and total lack of cooperation once they refused to honour their intial transport agreement. I could not even get my motorbike out of their warehouse once I found out that they were not going to ship it.

My hats off to UK Cargolux for their work to make the shipment happen.:thumbup1:

Thanx Travis!

There doesn't seem to be much solid info on shipping back from any W.A. port and everybody seems to find an agent more by luck than anything else.

I shipped back from The Gambia last time I was there (2004) and found the agent I used by asking around but it took a couple of days and it was a case of crossing my fingers and hoping I'd see the bike again. As it happened everything worked out but if it hadn't ...

I was / am planning a UK - Ghana trip and the shipping back seems to be the only part I can't get any info about. I've been to Africa enough to know what it's like but if anyone has shipped back from any WA port it would be great if they could post up some details - give the rest of us a bit of a head start!