England to South Africa
 

Planning a trip in September/October 2007 to ride from England to South Africa (mates live there so you can leave your bike with them if you need to, e.g to plan a trip to South America after or no cash to transport them back).

Waiting to see if the border will open between Morocco and Algeria otherwise I'll be entering Africa through Tunisia via Italy. Either way, Im heading down the East coast with only 2 planned stops in Addis Abeba (brother flies into there so would be a cool place to meet up) and just South of Lake Victoria in Tanzania in a place called Geitz (mate works in the mining area there). Will be avoiding Zimbabwe, instead riding through Mozambique.

First point of call though after leaving England, is to spend a few weeks with a mate in North West France on the border of Spain for a few weeks down the beach.

This trip is perfect for anyone wanting to get their first long ride under their belt and for those who just want a chilled adventure. I am very placid and open minded to re-routing and stops. I estimate the trip will take a maximum of two months.

Ill be riding a BMW F650 Dakar bike with a 39litre tank (sadly from Touratech as its so expensive!). With Garmin Zumo 500 GPS and a couple of paper map books. Ill also be taking a Carnet de Passage. Obviously its up to you if you want to get one, although it may cost you more at the borders than it's worth. However, I dont mind spending 7 hours at the border as I see it as just part of the experience.

Estimate costs at around 20-30 quid a day = max 900 quid a month (obviously excludes repair/service costs).
Carnet de Passage (excluding Egypt as its 800%) will cost me around £750 on my bike valued at around 3 grand but only telling the insurance company 2 grand (uh hum..cough cough)...

Let me know if you would like to join, what bike you intend to ride and if you have any past experience of similar rides.

Ive started collecting information together here: Smellybiker :: View topic - Helpful Beginner Guides

Also, go talk to your doctor about what vaccinations you need as they can take up to 6 weeks to do! Let him/her tell you but some of the ones he/she should suggest are Hepatitis A,B, diphtheria, tetanus, measles, mumps, rubella, polio, typhoid, Meningitus ACWY (Meningococcal meningitis), Rabies and Malaria. AND GET A CERTIFICATE AS SOME REGIONS MAY NOT LET YOU IN WITHOUT IT

Regards
Christian

Great,


I could join you if you want...


fre

yeah sure man. no worries.
what size bike, fuel tank have you got?
Have you also got funds to keep you topped up with fuel?
Have you done a long ride before?

I never leave anyone behind and always help when I can but I can't afford to pay too :)

Mine in TZ
 

Hi there,

Sounds like a good trip. I am also working in a mine in TZ but not Geita. I am also riding a bike and will be riding from Oman to here in August. I will be riding through Yemen though.

Send me a message as one of my collegues here worked for Geita and probably knows your friend there?

Cheers
Ivan

Hey Dingo,

I cant send you an email as you've disabled the feature so hope you re-read this forum page.

Mate works for Aggreko, his name is Dave Butler. Good lad.

I grew up in the Middle East. Lived in Dubai for the past 16 years. Abu Dhabi and Bahrain before that. Been to Oman many times but never ventured down to the mad soil land of Yemman. After SAfrica, I might ride back up and across into Yemmen as it's the only Middle East country I havent been to, and back to Dubai... One things for sure, Im never coming back to the UK! Its bloody crap and expensive!

All the best
Christian

Hey Christain

Wave as you pass us by. We are leaving for SA next month via middle east

haha, will do bossies!

just got word back from a fellow couchsurfer (http://www.couchsurfing.com/) who's going to let us crash at his place in Sudan!

Just had my first set of jabs too.. measles, mumps and rubella. Over the next 28 days I will have had Polio, Diphteria, Tetinus, Typhoid, Hepatitus A (not B as its only transferred via blood and seaman and takes 6 months to have the full treatment), Meningitus ACWY, Rabies, Yellow Fever, Cholera and started a course of Malaria!!!! Im going to be a walking.. sorry, riding drug bank!

Got my last Rabies jab yesterday. Final jab is a Hep A booster next week then all done.

You can do the accelerated Hep B course which takes 4 weeks. But as said you wont be coming across many Seamen in Sudan so long as you lock yourself into your cabin on the WH ferry.

At your pace you will most prob fly past and leave us in your dust somewhere around Egypt...

hey bossies.

Who are you travelling with? Will you have a phone with you? Ill let you know mine when I get a sat. phone (if i can find a cheap one otherwise it'll be a Worldwide mobile SIM). Im not actually planning on entering Africa till late September, early October.

I also have a feeling the Egyptian border might take some time as I wont be getting a Carnet for it... can't afford the extra £1,600 the Pharoas need!

All the best
Christian

Christian

If it is important to you to have communications etc make sure to take your normal sim card as Maxsim do not cover all the countries on your list hence us not using them.

hi guys,
 

I will be running later than you guys, dakar to cairo.. but thought i might offer a little help on your budgets..

Egypt as you know is dirt cheap, if you take the desert road from cairo (past pyramids on the way out) to the western desert you can camp just of the road in loads of awsome places, check out the white desert for a night under the starts). This also gets you to luxor without having to do any organised convoys. You will be escorted occassionally through short sections a couple of times but these police guys are really chilled and you never pay them anything its just their job. there are ambulance stations all the way round, great for a strong cuppa tea. I've bush camped with 20 passengers and the police convoy because we where running so late and couldn't drive anymore. you have to check out the hot springs also for a free mineral daily bath !!

say at Rezeiky camp site in Luxor, greate walled compound with a swimming pool and very cheap. great to get yourself sorted for the ferry out of aswan, no stress about security.

the ferry from aswan goes regularly as you may have heard and you can call from luxor to aswan and get it all sorted out early no stress, In aswan Mahmoud Idris is greate, good english and will sort youselves out easily with your ferry tickets.

Luxor to Aswan road is controlled with police convoys, don't try and buck the system it works and after 3 years of them it's quite fun. check with mr reziky for the current times and weather it's a fast or slow.

Luxor to Aswan covoy normally stops at the temples on the way, for about an hour in each (2 temples on the way). (well worth it in my book, if nothing else to get a cold coke) and goes early morning around 7 or 8am (cant remeber which), and around 11am. Take the early 7am convoy so you arrive in aswan for lunch.

If you decide to go via suez, you get all the way down to hurgada without convoys then its a convoy from the coast into luzor.


Re carnets in egypt, I've had to buy these twice in suez, but we took a representative from suez to the port in nueweba with us a day later and gave him the carnet back straight away and only cost around $200. I have also spent 48 hours locked in a compound due to incorrect paperwork.

Anyway

hope it helps.

Andrew.

Check out the local sim's in each country from my memory only sudan is a little difficult and not really worth it. Uses pay as you go when you are south of kenya, they are mobile phone savi.

I've used my english contract sim from orange and that works nearly everywhere with no trouble, just watch the phone bill and dont get carriedaway with data services.


£££ for carnet, hopefully just putting the money in special lloydsbank account, and getting a guarantee costing £75 for the duration, way cheaper than paying an insurance company each year.

hi

im on my way up on same route.

some good contacts in Sudan and Kenya if you need them, also fresh info about the route, roads etc.

send me a message if you want any help

Wicked! Thanks for taking the time to put that up

Hi Christian

I'm in the fairly early planning stages (making your departure date a touch early for me) of a ride from UK to SA, eastern side too, on a KTM 640. Your list of resources & hints/tips is awesome, thanks.

I see there are a few folks doing the same route from the South and I'm very keen on hearing what things are like in Sudan/Ethiopia at the moment as I haven't found a recent a ride report from that area and don't want to go with the foreign office warnings of it.

Hi Bossies

I was walking to my gym in Holborn oneday a couple of weeks ago and spotted this cool looking XR250 so wandered up and had a look. I clocked the Buya Ikhaya sticker on the top box and had a good old chuckle, mostly because I had recently also seen one of the 2k5 africa twins near my work at high holborn.

Do you have an ETA for your Sudan/Ethiopia leg? It's the one part of the trek above others that I'd appreciate being in convoy with.

Cheers
Mark