UK - South Africa - A few questions
 

Hi,
So I’m thinking about riding from London to South Africa (via the West Coast), I have a few general questions if people would be so kind as to help me with.

First, I’ll explain my situation (briefly). I already have the bike. A well modded F650 Dakar setup for this trip. I’ve done a previous big trip on this bike so I am familiar with most of the basic stuff. I’ve done lots of smaller European trips on the bike too, so I know the bikes limit. Anyhow, here we go.

1: I must travel between April 2011 and August 2011. Is this a feasible time to do it?

2: Is 5 months enough time, including the obtaining of visa’s and carnet?

3: How much of a budget would I likely need? Not including shipping the bike back and the cost of the carnet. Just the ‘on the road’ money and visa costs. I intend to do it on a budget

4: Is the area around the Congo possible to ride, in safety terms? Or do I need to ship around that area?

5: How long for the pre trip paperwork to take place (carnet and visa’s). Also, what visa’s could I acquire in the UK before I departed

6: What are the rough prices for the carnet on my likely route? Is all of Africa (excluding Egypt) still 200%? (I know the admin costs and so forth. Just the percentage costs for the insurance option).

7: How long is the longest stretch of the Sahara without a fuel stop?

8: is the East coast a better (possible) route. If Egypt is still expensive to take a vehicle into, then I wont be touching Egypt. Its more about crossing Africa then going down the west route really.


I think that’s everything for now. I’m currently not in the UK and will not be until closer to the trip sadly as I now work abroad. I’ll be home in September so if I can get anything done then, I’d like to. Please direct me to other threads. I went through all the relevant pages for the past 6 months, I figures much after that would possibly be out of date.

Cheers in advance

Check out this thread http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...st-route-50869

Similar route, similar timescale, lots of questions answered. Hope that helps!

Hello,

Just returned from the same trip onboard a Tenere, here's what I found:

1, It took me two months to get to SA then I toured around SA for a couple of weeks before CT.

2, I had no visas on departure. All obtained a country or two before or on the border. I had an existing carnet from a trip last year.

3, Cost me in the region of €3000-€3500 for what you described. Main cost 'on the road' was the visas. Some were up to €100 a go, all seemed to depend on when and where they were purchased.

4, I rode down to Dolisie, turned right for Pointe Noir, then Cabinda. No problems.

5 & 6, I'm not an expert on this, plenty of info on here though. I had five pages and came back with an unused page, others claim to not need one while others will use one all the time even if it's unnecessary.

7, From memory around 250 miles? Maybe someone will correct me on that. However, I didn't take spare fuel and my bike's range is up to 300 miles and I didn't have a problem.

8, Haven't done the east coast but like everything on here there's many many different opinions and things are always changing. Remember though, my experience could be totally different to yours along the same route. This is Africa...

More info here if it helps...
Ian's RTW trip

Good luck!

Ian