Western Africa - Winter/Spring 2018/2019

[matyas hromadka]

Hi there,

we are leaving on a trip to Western Africa (from Prague) in Nov or December up until about June 2019 with a plan to take it slow and expect to go about as far as Benin or Nigeria if we can sort out a visa. I have three questions regarding our trip:

1) is there any paper map or guide that you would recommend? I plan on using the internet most for planning, but prefer to list through paper maps and guides when it makes at least some sense to use them.

2) Our van is a 98 VW T4 transporter. From what I read so far I got the idea that our car should be capable of the trip with us maybe not being able to go everywhere we want - is that correct? The car is FWD but has a fairly high clearance and I used it succesfully to climb a few unpaved high mountain passes in the Caucassus and elsewhere so I am not afraid of better pists or not so good roads, just do not want ford rivers or go through mud.
- I would guess that T4's are not common cars there so probably a good idea to take some spare parts with us, correct?

3) We have 2 bigger dogs travelling with us. Has anyone been there with dogs? I read it should not be an issue, but would like to hear from anyone who has actually been there with them.

Thanks for any help :-)

Matt

[mossproof]

Welcome to the hubb Matt.


For a "wide angle view" Michelin 741 Africa North and West will get your entire trip on one page. For Morocco Michelin 742 is more detailed. The Gizi Map Mauritania is ok for the 3 major roads in that country (OSM maps I found particularly helpful on gps or smartphone) Further south I don't have any paper map recommendations I'm afraid.


A 4wd Transporter will be fine for the trip I think, if you pick your route well. You don't have to leave the tarmac much if you don't want to.

I met a Dutch couple in a truck in Zebrabar N Senegal. They had a Rottweiler and had experienced no problems (of any sort!!) Heat, and keeping the dogs cool, would be my main concern in a small van, but at least you could leave the windows open (with mesh guards) and not worry about security. Be vigilant when they're roaming free for local animals (wild dogs in particular) to avoid a nasty fight, or possibly rabies. That goes for you as well as the dogs;-)
Have a great trip!
Simon.

[roamingyak]

Travelled with a few people with dogs doing long trips, grew up on a farm with 7 dogs and like them, but don't own one now, so from a neutral travel viewpoint:

Advantages:
- Africans are generally scared of dogs, viewing them as wild animals that will attack them and have rabies etc (ie: potentially dangerous), so at borders and checkpoints you generally have less problems as they are keen for you to be on your way! Just mention the dog needs some water and watch them wave you through :-)
- When bush camping they give you a measure of warning and then protection along the lines above.
- Dogs are good company ;-)
- You'll worry about them if they aren't with you(?)

Disadvantages:
- Not easy to buy 'dog food' aka from a western supermarket after Morocco and meat is also hard to find sometimes, so your dogs will need to learn to eat rice, bread etc (noting as some seem very fussy!)
- If they get sick you're unlikely to find a good vet or medicine for them unless in a big city (not impossible, but...). They will be 'attacked' by a wide variety of internal (bacteria, viruses etc) and external things (mosses etc) - like you will be - and not all survive the trip as a result.
Close friends had a healthy Rottweiler, became very sick in Benin/Nigeria, lost about 30% of its weight and never recovered, died about a year later.
So consider that your domesticated dog may not have as strong as a immune system as you do etc.
- It can be quite stressful for the dogs - a lot of new stimulation, potential threats, some never seem to settle and pine for 'home'. I have felt that its been cruel to bring them along in some cases.
- You may not be welcome in some places due to things like: Africans usually don't like them, potential to carry disease into a wild life area, most National parks don't allow them etc etc (Penjari?)
- if they bark, wine and cause a problem you become a social pariah :-)
- when visiting embassies, banks etc where can you leave it each time?
(Do you have a vehicle it can be left in with African heat etc)
- If you have a medical emergency (emergency flight to hospital etc) or need to return home (parent dies etc) what happens to the dog?

Overall, I'd say:
- Definitely don't get a dog specifically to travel in Africa with.
- If you already own them its good to understand the above and then its your educated call.
I'd leave them with people you trust if possible and know they will be safe and healthy when you return - but I appreciate its hard to leave behind part of your life you love and people do travel with them without major problems sometimes

[roamingyak]

Regarding your van, a few thoughts...
- Ground clearance is key ;-)
- Tyres are next most important, take a good brand, ideally with steel ply sidewalls if you van supports those makes and then take 2+ spares and a full repair kit. Depending on your driving style expect a few punctures. Pot holes hit at speed are a common source of busted tyres.
- take it easy, ignore being egged on my others with less to lose or better vehicles, trust your instincts and just drive on the roads where you feel comfortable etc - don't be afraid to turn back etc
I can't comment much more on the van, but perhaps separate your posts next time and ask about the van in the 4 wheels section, plenty of better advice in there from more educated people than I....

PS: What month are you thinking of coming back across the Sahara etc

[roro]

Hi,

I've travelled several times with my dog in Africa (4x4) ,including Sahara.

"Disadvantages:
- you can't buy 'dog food' aka a western supermarket after Morocco and meat is also hard to find sometimes, so your dogs will need to learn to eat rice etc (noting as some seem very fussy!) It's not a
big issue, in your car you can carry a lot of dog food and you can always mix it with bread and also with what you don't eat.

- If they get sick you're unlikely to find a good vet or medicine for them (not impossible, but...). They will be 'attacked' by a wide variety of internal (bacteria, viruses etc) and external things (mosses etc) - like you will be - and not all survive the trip as a result.
Close friends had a healthy Rottweiler, became very sick in Benin/Nigeria, lost about 30% of its weight and never recovered, died about a year later.
So consider that your domesticated dog may not have as strong as a immune system as you do etc.

I understand but when my dog was ill I've always find good vet , never been in Benin/Nigeria but Mali,Niger Senegal
- It can be quite stressful for the dogs - a lot of new stimulation, potential threats, some never seem to settle and pine for 'home'. I have felt that its been cruel to bring them along in some cases.
It dépends of the dog, try with a little trip before
- You may not be welcome in some places due to things like: Africans usually don't like them, potential to carry disease into a wild life area, most National parks don't allow them etc etc (Penjari?)
OK for National Parks
- if they bark, wine and cause a problem you become a social pariah :-)
It dépends of the dog, try withe a little trip before
- when visiting embassies, banks etc where can you leave it each time?
(Do you have a vehicle it can be left in with African heat etc)
You have to find a place with shadow and also some kind of openings to let the air come through, and also some water to drink, it's enough
- If you have a medical emergency (emergency flight to hospital etc) or need to return home (parent dies etc) what happens to the dog?

I've asked to my insurance, they manage the return of the dog but you have to pay his ticket and also the cage in the plane


RR.

[CREER]

I've been in touch with a Russian lady who has driven her Lantra 2WD down the west coast and up the east coast, currently in Lebanon.

She has her dog with her (husky sized, longish fur) who caused a little problem and got the police involved in Yamoussoukro; luckily we were already in touch and she got out of that drama (hotel not wanting a dog in the room, but she had malaria, it was the first time she'd encountered this problem!!)

In regards to dog food, it's fairly easy to get across West Africa, you can buy it in Dakar, Abidjan, Accra and probably Lagos too ... unless it's a very rare brand!

Her dog underwent checks and occasionally needed to see a vet to get a clean bill of health before continuing over a border; often she was lucky that the vet she found had been trained in Russia, so language (for her) wasn't a problem!!

In terms of having to fly home in a hurry, I'm sure there will be someone around to look after your dogs ... If you're in CI, I will!!! But that's hopefully not going to be a problem for you!

Greta the dog is still loving the trip ... personally I don't see a massive problem taking your dogs, better than them pining at home!!!

[matyas hromadka]

Thanks for the replies.

Regarding the dogs I think it should be hopefully fine. We have travelled quite a lot with them in our van (4 months last year Eastern Europe/Western Asia) and they definitely liked it in general and most of the time. For the food we plan to stock up before we leave and carry a supply atleast for a month to two depending on how easy we find getting food. And since one of them lived atleast half a year as a stray dog she is not picky at all, actually likes bread more than proper dog food :-)
Since we already travelled with them I know it closes some doors and not everyone will want to speak to us, hopefully it will not be everybody... Happy to hear we should be able to find a vet if necessary.

Re the van: got it raised already, ground clearance is now better than some of the mondern SUVs. Also got new tires and a repair kit so that should be okay. It's going to the mechanic one last time to sort out a few leftover details from last time and to finally get the AC going after 5 years that I have owned the car, Hurray!

Our very approximate plan is to go down to get to Southern Morocco around New Years and then continue not too fast along the coast. We will move fast or slow depending on how much we like specific places or countries. We expect to probably make it to Ghana and maybe Togo/Benin, but if we do not get so far we will just return and continue in a year or so. We will probably be returning back around May or June depending on when my next work project starts. Less than a month till we are leaving!

And Creer - thanks so much for the offer to take care of the dogs, hopefully we will not need it. If you don't mind I will contact you if and when we get to CI and we can go for a meal or a drink, hm?

[CREER]

Your dogs will get a meal with me, our puppy in Abengourou just saved us from a cobra last week!!!

Be great to be in touch, I know the sub-region very well, if you want assistance, please do ask!!!

[matyas hromadka]

Originally Posted by CREER

Your dogs will get a meal with me, our puppy in Abengourou just saved us from a cobra last week!!!

Be great to be in touch, I know the sub-region very well, if you want assistance, please do ask!!!

Thank you Creer, I sure will do! I also read up a bit on the center you manage and we think we would like to give you a helping hand for some time when we are there. We do not have an exact plan and/or destination, but we expect to go to Cote D'Ivoire during our trip, so I don't want to promise anything, but I think we will stop by :-)

[CREER]

We've just had some Czech journalists over the last week ... so you might hear more about us soon!

PM me when you're in the sub-region!!

[matyas hromadka]

We have just returned after a fantastic half a year of travelling, of which almost all of the time we spent in Africa. By far my favorite trip I have experienced thus far, we had such a great time.

We visited Morocco, Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea Bissau and Guinee. We had previously planned to go further east, but found out we much more enjoyed to travel relatively slowly and spend more time in the places we liked.

As to my questions from before the trip:
I got the Michelin maps for West Africa and Morocco + Reise maps for Senegal and also West Africa. Did not really use them too much for anything practical. Still happy to have them as I like maps but I think just one would have been sufficient. I used mapy.cz which have free offline topographical maps for all the countries I visited. These proved useful even when we went trekking for a week in Guinea into nature (not perfectly accurate, but good enough). I also had maps.me, but found mapy.cz more useful.
We used the Rough Guide to West Africa and found it really good. Never used a paper guidebook before and really liked this one. Though outdated (2008) I found it well written, informative and at time quite funny. Did see the Lonely Planet Africa guide and found it extremely brief on each country and thus almost useless.

Car: Our 98 VW T4 FWD was perfectly up to the task. There was a minimum of roads that we could not pass and would have liked to (though I did raise the car a bit extra so we have a very generous ground clearance). Also helped that we were there in dry season, I imagine the story would be a lot different if we were in Guinee now. Got stuck twice in sand (my fault, not the car, nothing serious though) and visited a mechanic a few times. The biggest problem was getting the pieces (in Guinee I got a driveshaft from a different VW that +- fits as finding an original was proving quite difficult. Actually enjoyed the time with the mechanics as I helped out on the repairs and learned some stuff and was therefore capable of repairing some more stuff later on myself. There are VW T4s in The Gambia and a bit in Guinee so not so difficult to get parts in these two countries.

Dogs: Our dogs had a great time and handled the trip really well. We got them vaccinated and carried some antiparasite stuff with us (not sure exactly what as my wife took care of this) and they never got sick. They managed the heat ok (although they would for sure prefer it to be colder!) and on the hottest days we planned our day so they could jump into some water to cool down. No problems whatsoever with law enforcement/borders, quite the opposite - the first time our car was checked at the border was going back into Morocco - the border guards always either did not want to check the inside of the car because of the dogs or were so interested in them that they did not car to check the car. It is easy to get dog food in Morocco, Senegal, The Gambia in the more developped parts of the countries. I would assume they also sell dog food in Bissau and Conakry though cannot confirm. When we ran out of doog food in Guinee we cooked rice with oil and dried fish and the dogs loved it. We did not have trouble with the dogs not being allowed into specific places other that the obvious (like a museum), the only place we wanted to go and did not was Niokolo Koba where you cannot enter with a dog. Some children (and adults) really liked the dogs so sometimes even the dogs encountred the warmth of the people there.

To shortly summarize our trip: We had a fantastic time and met so many nice and kind and smilling people that it fells unreal after returning to Europe. We liked every country, but we liked both of the Guineas the most. We are sure we want to return, but next time to plan atleast a year and a half to have enough time to circumnavigate Africa.

[matyas hromadka]

Originally Posted by CREER

Your dogs will get a meal with me, our puppy in Abengourou just saved us from a cobra last week!!!

Be great to be in touch, I know the sub-region very well, if you want assistance, please do ask!!!

Thanks again Kira, we did not get to Cote d'Ivoire as it started to rain before we planned to go east from the Fouta Djalon :-(
But we will come next time!

[CREER]

Originally Posted by matyas hromadka

Thanks again Kira, we did not get to Cote d'Ivoire as it started to rain before we planned to go east from the Fouta Djalon :-(
But we will come next time!

Looking forward to welcoming you here, I'm now living here permanently, an update in my blog!

[markharf]

Originally Posted by CREER

...our puppy in Abengourou just saved us from a cobra last week!!!

Lots of households keep dogs in West Africa. They are usually not coddled (although this seems to be changing in affluent areas), but serve utilitarian functions as intruder alarms and snake detectors. A dog barking loudly late at night is taken seriously, since it often signals the presence of a snake, which is dealt with by machete decapitation.

It is not easy being an African dog. A neighbor had one blinded by a column of army ants, for example--not the sort of thing you're accustomed to in Europe.

In Accra or Abidjan, dog food is available in the upmarket supermarkets where the Westerners shop. I have no direct experience in other capitals, but I assume it's the same.

Hope that's helpful.

Mark