England to Morrocco or Mautitania

[uk_vette]

Hello,

Me and the wife have just returned from Oslo to home, England (north west)
I now have a few weeks on my hands and me and the wife were looking for some where warm, after a very cold Norway winter.

We have a trusty Land Cruiser diesel, which we drove to Oslo, and return, with no problems.

I was not planning on taking the trailer.
I was thinking a run down to Dover, ferry to Calais, and drive down to Tarifa, then ferry to Tanger,
FRS :: www.frs.es :: Fares :: Tanger Ferry - Ferrys Rapidos del Sur :: Fast link to Africa :: Tarifa <- 35 min -> Tangier :: Coneccion España Marrueco - Traversée Espagne Maroc
and then just where the roads takes us.

This is just a 'taster' for a run down to Cape Town next year, it's all very 'loose' at the moment, but hey, it starts some where eh?

So briefly where do I start?
vaccinations?
or just pack the Land Cruiser and follow the satnav ?

'vette

[Kipp]

Hi, did a similar trip in Jan on a bike.
Morocco seems to be the easiest place to get to and to get into.
My carefully planned trip fell apart somewhere on the M27 - I'd advise packing the 'yota with as little as possible (you should def. be able to see out of the back! - I've travelled a long way in a fiat panda before - light is right IMO) and just get going.
Good luck!

p.s. nice photo - norway is a stunning place to drive in the winter!

[uk_vette]

Hello Kipp,

Thank you, so grab some dosh, tent, passports, car doc's and it's a go.


You are right, Norway is a stunning place, esp. in the winter.
However, after 13 months in Oslo, I need some where to warm my old bones

[Edmac]

Am in Ghana at the moment having travelled down by bike from UK through Morocco, Mauritania, Mali, and Burkina Faso. The trip didnt take a lot of planning and had most of the jabs anyway. You will have a blast!!

Ed

[Maz 82]

I drove to Mauritania about 6 months. Very little prep was needed. However we did get a guide in Dakhla (ws). He proved quite useful and did speed up the border formalities.

Also aprently a yellow fever cirtificut is manditory to enter maurrintain but know one even mentioned this when we went through.

have a great trip.

[TT-Kira]

Maz, you got a guide in Dahkla??? Was this during the days you needed to be in convoy??

There's no need now!

Kira

[pecha72]

Pardon me, if this is a dumb question, but if you´d want to go from Gibraltar to Dakar, and you´re 2-up on a bike with a heavy load and little ground clearance (so practically a streetbike), are the main roads on that route ok enough to do it without the wife wanting to fly home?

She´s sat on the back from Europe to Australia, so Im not too worried, but I believe Africa can really offer all kinds of roads... I´ve been riding around the southern parts of it, but never the West. We would probably have 5-6 weeks to do this.

And will a carnet be 100% mandatory for Morocco, Mauritania or Senegal?

[Tim Cullis]

Europe to Dakar is practically tarmac all the way with just two slightly difficult sections.

- The 3km section between the Western Saharan and Mauritanian border posts is an unsurfaced track but once in Mauri there's a marvellous smooth new tarmac road all the way to the capital.

- Entering Senegal is best done through Diama and this involves a 60km track, however if you want to avoid that you can enter via Rosso.

Within Senegal many of the side roads are sand and Dakar itself was a grid-locked nightmare when I was there. I didn't have a carnet. My blog of the trip: There and Back Again

Tim