Fastest reasonable time to bike solo England to South Africa?
 

Hi folks

What is the fastest reasonable time you could do the west coast by bike, solo, England to South Africa, via Morocco?

Wat is the fastest reasonable time you could do the east coast by bike, solo, England to South Africa, via Egypt?

This is research for a friend who is planning a trip down Africa end of 2011. I'm trying to show him how useful the HUBB is! :)

TIA
Steve

Hey Steve,

Hmm, fastest reasonable time is a pretty loose definition which makes it tough to say with all the variables, but I'd throw out a rough figure of 2 months for either route. It's been done faster no doubt but even 2 months wouldn't leave you much time for looking around. It almost goes without saying but more time is better to stop and see the classic places so three months would be a rough figure that I would throw out there for the fastest, reasonable, enjoyable trip:)

The east route has the hard to time Sudanese visa dance in Cairo coupled with trying to time the once a week ferry from Aswan but if you stick to the main route now only has one long stretch of unpaved road on the whole route which is in northern Kenya. From Nairobi you can ride all pavement to Cape Town so that makes it easier and more predictable.

The west route has the Angola visa dance which can be avoided in Abuja but on the main route has unavoidable short to medium length non paved sections in northern Cameroon, eastern Gabon, northern Congo-Brazzaville, and northern and southern Angola.

If he is under time constraints, then he could consider taking the ferry from Italy to Egypt which cuts time on the drive around Turkey/Syria/Jordan but sadly misses those countries which are amazing places in their own right.

There was a couple of riders that I bumped into that came down the west fairly directly from the UK this past spring so their trip time would be a good proxy for planning. If they don't notice this thread, I can contact them and see how long they took.

Thanks Mountainman! I heard the road between Egypt and Sudan is now open, which makes a HUGE difference! We got stuck for 1 week in the desert in Wadi Halfa, and then 2 weeks in Aswan waiting for our truck - which sucked a lot!

Please do contact your friends who did the west coast route - the more info the better!

Can I ask who you heard this from and how accurate you think the information is.
I may just be being cynical but rumours have been around for years about this but there's never been anyone who has actually done it. Many have tried and always been turned back.

Just hearsay - we had to take the ferry, but heard (can't remember where) it is now open - I know, I know, we were hearing rumours for the 18 months prior to our trip, and the 19 months of our trip, so who knows?!

Chris Scott's just posted a link in 4wd overland travel, they're going for the record.

West Coast: doable in two months if all goes well but I would strongly recommend against it. Three months is the reasonable minimum, imho. Either way you'd probably change your plans along the way and take much more time.

This guy did Cape of Good Hope to Cairo in two weeks early last year, so in comparison two months seems like a leisure trip...

(link in swedish, I'm afraid)
Snabbast genom Afrika - Bike