The insurance 'carte brun' good for ECOWAS countries

-they have two tariffs one for locals one for tourists, thus the confusion-
they are around 5000 vs 20000 CFA
sometimes, with the right agent, you will be offered the local tariff and save some money.

We got our VTE in Barcelona before we left. Was an easy enough process. It has "plusiers" written on it which should indicate we can come and go.

We are currently thinking of not bothering with Ghana between uncertainty about visa on arrival or the rigmarole of getting it in Burkina Faso. Our timeline for the whole trip is pretty short and the big goal is the DRC. If we had more time to stop and hang out we would definitely do Ghana. We aren't too worried anymore about voiding the VTE just the time and money for a visa to Ghana when we pass through so quickly.

-Anthony


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We are currently at the Sleeping Camel. Great place with and good food after a few scorching, 40+ degree days from St Louis to Bamako.

Borders
Senegal Exit
Customs took out TIP and kept it. Very informal and difficult to find the post. It was alright by the gate out of Senegal.
We never got stamped out of Senegal. We never saw a post and then all of a sudden we were in Mali. Figured if we weren't coming back through then we just keep going.

Mali Entry
Very friendly upon crossing the gate to Mali. Drive a few kms probably to the front of the huge line of trucks and found customs. TIP was a slow process. Passed from one to another to another agent. Then he didn't really know what he was doing. Had to help him along. They did check the VIN#on the bikes. Otherwise they spelt my name wrong on the papers. Basically seemed to be not especially literate. Charged us 5000CFA each. Everyone was paying, locals included and we paid less than the trucks. Not sure if it was legit, but got a receipt with our names and VIN#s on them.

Passports stamped a little further up the road in a nondescript, not obvious post. Visa from Nouakchott was accepted no trouble. Then we were away.

Mali people have been amazing. Some great wild camping for 2 nights before reaching Bamako.

Nigeria Visa
This has proven the easiest visa after Mali (30mins same day). Omar is the guy to speak to. Really great dude that speaks good English. 2 passport photos, copy of passport and motorcycle registration papers. It was ready the next day. We may even go for dinner and some live music with him.

Otherwise it just started raining. Heavy storm that has felt like it has been brewing for a few days. The wet season might have just started.

Onwards

-Anthony


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Hi there!

I did almost the same trip last year. I skipped Ghana and Togo but made an extra loop through Botswana, Pretoria, Cape Town and then went to Windhoek.

I would advise you not to cross the Congo river at Kinshasa unless you have a good reason to do so; the two people I personally know who did ran into problems there and left the ferry quite a bit poorer than I deemed necessary.

I crossed at Bolobo and posted information about the process here: http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...uidebook-73833


Safe travels

Thx for the note. We were planning to avoid Kinshasa so your info is perfect.

Will update here with how we go.


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Currently in Cotonou, Benin and heading to Lagos. Quick update though.

Bamako to Burkina Faso
Border crossing near Bobo was mellow. No stress or squeeze for bribes or gifts or whatever.

We decided to try our luck getting a Ghana visa at the border rather than the fuss of going to Ouagadougou. We went to the Hamil border and the immigration officers there were very helpful. We could get a 4 day transit visa for US$150. They don't actually have them on hand there, but they made some calls and said they could make it work. We ultimately opted against spending the money as we would have only spent a day transmitting through. They did say that the Pagga border crossing was better equipped to issue this visa. If you have the time it is cheaper and a longer duration in Ouagadougou.

Doubling back we traced the Ghana border east towards Togo on some great dirt roads. Over 400kms of them. It was great riding and different slice of life. On road on Google maps listed a solid yellow road that turned out to be a sandy single trail that took us down the rabbit hole. One of the highlights of the trip. We even managed a swim in the dam reservoir half way along for our troubles.

Entering Togo was easy with the VTE. Motorcycle import was he standard 5000CFA.

Lomé
We got our Rep of Congo visa easily within an hour. 2 passport photos, passport photocopy and photocopy of 3 other African visas. There was a copy shop directly opposite the Congo embassy or whatever it is. It is a non-descript apartment building down a rough track. The iOverlander map location was accurate. They let us park our motorcycles in the garage while they processed our visas. Great experience.

Togo to Benin
Easiest so far. Offices are signposted at the border for a change and friendly on both sides. No TIP or papers required for the bikes in Benin. Weird but true.

DRC visa Contonou
IOverlander app lists the correct location in an odd part of town.
We arrived a little late without enough CFAs but they accommodated us and we had our visa within an hour. They take a digital photo but also require 2 passport photos and passport photocopy. The visa is a nice visa, embossed and everything. Looks cool.
The Chef d'Poste laughed when we said we were riding from Kinshasa to Lubumbashi. She said there were no roads and it wasn't possible. Was funny.

Anyway will update on how we fair in Nigeria.

-Anthony


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Well, he's not entirely wrong on the no roads part. Bridges went missing, some roads that are on OSM end in a swamp.

I went from Bolobo, Nioki, Badundu, Kikwit, Gouffre de Loukwila, Tshikapa, Luiza, Sandoa, Kolwezi, Lubumbashi, which seems to be more or less identical to what you have in mind.

I uploaded my .gpx files of DRC to wikiloc.com you will find them and some basic description if you search for herr_buenzli
__________________________________________________ ___

EDIT: Somebody know how I can upload waypoints?

We are through Nigeria and had a great time. None of the hassles we were warned so much about beforehand.

Nigeria entry
We entered Nigeria at Idiroko, just north of Cotonou, Benin. Directed around back of the large immigration building. Parked and left the bikes there. Yellow fever certificate requested, temperature taken for Ebola check. A lengthy (20 mins perhaps so not that lengthy) and ultimately interesting interrogation about our plans by an uninformed gentleman before being handed off to immigration. Officers were great guys. Never even hinted at a bribe. No problem. So much so that we put a Nomadik sticker on their desk.
Customs didn't really exist. I have heard others never had papers for the bikes or vehicles but wanted to be sure. I took our bike registration papers and asked. They said "Sure, what do you want me to stamp?"
There was no procedure so I had them stamp our actual papers just in case.
Then we were off. Very little hustle and bustle at the border compared to many others.

Nigerian roads are another level. Lots of traffic coming into Lagos and plenty of busted trucks on the roads across to Calabar. We even passed 2 trucks in flames. Pretty sure we passed a corpse on the side of the road which was troubling. We hit a good number of check points and just stayed close and kept riding. Usually a wave before they make their mind up resulted is being waved through with a smile. We wouldn't have stopped anyway but never got any stress. You have to feel for the local people that they surely extort.

Calabar we got our Cameroon visa easily. Got it in the afternoon. Passport photos and a fluctuating rate compared to recent prices quoted on iOverlander but because we didn't pay in Nigerian currency and instead USD we negotiated a rate and they took it.

We headed up to Drill Ranch Afi Mountain, a drill monkey and chimp rehabilitation center north of Ikom. Was a real highlight and the road north of Ikom was a motorcycle dream. Jungle, fresh tarmac that runs into dirt with a few friendly stream crossings close to the ranch.

From there we were recommended to cross into Cameroon at Akwaya. This turned into an absolute epic. Do not attempt in the wet season unless you are really up for it. Think 40-50kms per day type stuff and your bike will take a beating. Big GS type riders consider it seriously in the dry season even. Never mind that locals passed us 3 loaded onto little 100cc Chinese bikes with bald tires and not any mud in their shoes but they are on cub another level to we mere mortals.

Between Nigeria and Cameroon we were held up at a substantial river crossing by some pretty animated hustlers trying to squeeze us for money. They kept hitting our kill switches rendering us pretty helpless. We did manage to get out elbows out and get I. The water and get a cross. I gave them a spray of mud as f$&@ you only to get bucked in a rut on the other side and drop my bike. I looked like a twat and they got a laugh. It was all good in the end. A couple of kms later we hit another river, this one much wider and much deeper. It was raining so sure to come up and behind us was our bandit friends and having to re-enter Nigeria. The water was barely below the airbox. We doubled up to wade the bikes across one at a time. From there the road just spanked us. But if you go, you will be rewarded. The most spectacular landscape so far in Africa and if you are into the hard grind then a real challenge with real satisfaction. Tenting has been out of the question in the wet season for us and as such we have been approaching villages if they haven't first offered to take our weary backsides in for the night. Truly humbling hospitality and off the grid.


The hustler river crossing after clearing Nigerian customs.

IMG]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170630/8a97252d0facbfafbc9440714140857a.jpg[/IMG]
Properly stuck






The reward

Entering Cameroon
We got a passport stamp in Akwaya which was not obvious given the trials of just making it to Akwaya but he was a nice guy and no stress. No customs to enter the bikes so that is still unresolved. No insurance either as it was a strike in Bamenda also which made changing money a hassle as well.

We have made it to Yaounde and regrouping. We have started to second guess our plans to ride directly into the Rep of Congo and instead go through Gabon. We missed the Gabon embassy this afternoon, Friday, so will have to wait it out til Monday and get it then to leave Tuesday.

Does anyone have any experience or insight on crossing into the Rep of Congo from Cameroon?

Many have great things to say about Gabon though if possible crossing into Congo sounds like a rare experience and itself a worthwhile challenge. The wet season has definitely humbled us and as such trying to avoid seeking out too much of it and try to protect the bikes.

-Anthony


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The missing photo from above- properly stuck





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I do!

I crossed the Cameroon-Congo border near Mbalam in March 2016. I also met Markus and Walter who crossed the border near Ouesso in April of the same year in a Land Rover 110. Apparently they chose that road because there's more piste there, my route was rather tarmac heavy.

Leaving Cameroon

Leaving Cameroon was a breeze, except I missed the border post at first, OSM sent me to a spot where there is some hut, but it was unmanned. Once finding the right post the people were on lunch break, but welcomed me with smiles telling me they saw me riding past them and I shouldn't trust GPS around here. The whole bureaucracy stuff was handled very swiftly, except that the customs guy was on lunch break a little longer, so I had to wait about half an hour during which one police guy jokingly asked me if I want to sell my bike. Custom guy was a little surly cause I interrupted his break but lightened up later. All in all one of the better excperiences with the law in Africa.

Entering Congo

After a short ride through the jungle I arrived in a village where I had to turn left and after a surprisingly long ride I had to stop at a gate. There where three posts; Police, Migration and Health. The two Police officers were extraordinarily nice, asked some questions where I'm from, where I'm going, what I'm doing, the usual. They also told me that the next fuel station is in Ouésso, which turned out to be true. Top blokes all around.

The sole Migration officer wanted bribes, he started with 50'000CFA, went down to 15'000CFA and remained there while starting to stutter. He insisted that I needed to pay the fee, I insisted that I don't. After about 10min I stopped understanding french, 5min after that I fell silent, after about 3min of mutual silence he started insisting that I have to pay again and so on. It took around half an hour until a police officer showed up and told bribe man to cut it.

I went on to health where a small man with glasses in his 50s wanted 2'000CFA for a livret jaune. I showed him my vaccine card and and my yellow fever stamp in it, he wrote my particulars down in a huge notebook put my yellow card on the table and said that it would be 2'000CFA. At this point I was too slow; I should have taken the card and get out of there, instead I said that I in fact don't have to pay 2'000CFA after which he took my card. Kankerkut. Anyhow, he went on about how he did me a service and this service needs to be paid. He pulled some old photocopy of some document out of his table on which was noted that a livret jaune costs 2'000CFA, I told him that I already have one and he very well knows that since he holds it in his hands and I very much want it back. I also can't pay him because that's not what I do[that's exactly what I said, my French is far from flawless]. This went on for about 15min, then he threatened me by saying he will have to cross out my name from his book, by which I wasn't impressed. He pulled out pen and ruler and told me that he's gonna do it. "Vas-y!" I replied, he set the ruler and pen aside, gave me my card and off I went.

I ran into a military check point after that. They searched my bags and checked my documents.

Road Conditions

I started the day in Djoum and arrived in Souanké in the evening where I found a little Auberge. The road comes in three flavors; Brand new tarmac through wonderful rainforest, OKish red piste with occasional corrugations and construction site with ankle deep mud. there were some heavy storms while I was there, I rode a KTM 690 with Heidenau K60s with around 6'000km on it in the back and 2'000km in front and I had little problems regarding the riding. Take note that this was over a year ago and the road development is crazy around there, I'm almost certain that in 2 years you can ride a Goldwing from Yaoundé to Brazza.

From Yaoundé to Djoum and from Sembé to Brazza it's all good to excellent tarmac.

Fuel

Take note that there are no proper fuel stations between Djoum and Ouesso, a distance of around 750km. It was the longest stretch I ever did on a single filling, I ride with a 14l Safari tank and had an eye on the economy because I knew that after the border crossing. Clandestine fuel dealing on the roadside is very common tough, you will find someone which will sell you fuel out of a yellow canister in almost every village.

I don't have access to my waypoints right now, will add coordinates of the police offices later.

Amazing. Thanks for the info. That is great. We had originally planned the Mbalam-Souanké route but got a little unsure of the distinct lack of info on it. Now I guess we need to decide if we go that route or another type of scenic route through Gabon.

Much appreciated!


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I'd like to know if you guys have any problems entering the DRC with a visa issued outside your own country. Cheers.

You might consider Angola as the road from Kinshasa to Lubumbashi is not safe right now, I was going to do it but had to go through Angola instead.
Best of luck.

Hi Didier. Where did you get an Angolan visa?

What happened? Do you have more info?