Leaving bikes in Africa....what about Carnet
 

Hi guys,

me and my friend are planing to buy two low cost bikes and send them to Kenya in a container.
We will take a plane, pickup the bikes in the port (Mombasa) and do first part of our trip (Ethiopia, Uganda, Ruanda and Burundi) after that we are planing to leave bikes at friend in Kenya and fly home.
After one year we are planing to come back and do the trip to South Africa.

But as always there are problems with paperwork. When we will return with bikes to Kenya and fly home we will have only entry stamp in our carnet and before we will come back again in next year the carnet will expire and we will have a problem.
We will not be able to get new carnet or return the old one becouse exit stamp will be missing.

Do you maybe have any idea or experience how to do this as we don't have any idea how to do it on legal or illegal way.

Regards

Gregor

I don´t think you are officially allowed to leave the bike behind in a carnet-country (if and when you´ve used the carnet for temporary import). Another thing is, how strictly this is enforced, and will they have a system to notice, that you have a bike in the country, if you´re flying away, for example. But you could face big problems, when you return, and try to continue with the bike. The customs probably would also have the right to claim the taxes & import fees be payed from your carnet deposit, if the vehicle overstays the time they´ve given your bike to stay there legally.

But this is just speculation. Might be worth asking from the carnet issuing body (the AA in your home country, I believe).