Long Way up 2017
 

Greetings all,

I am in begging stages of planning my trip from Cape Agulhas to ... well hopefully, John O'Groats.

Plan is to leave around July of 2017 from South Africa.

2011 BMW R1200GSA. Right now no other fellow riders, but i have not put the plan out there on inter webs.

Here's my plan so far, please help me out with few sticky points,
South Africa, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Sudan , Egypt....

Sticky Point #1 - Egypt to Turkey (if possible at all, seems unlikely at this point)
...or Egypt to Jordan to Israel ... then ferry to Turkey (if possible) or Greece
... or Egypt to Israel ... and then ferry

Once in Turkey or Greece, make my way around ... north-ish:)

Sticky point #2 Sudan/Ethiopia Visa. I am British passport holder.
Looks like i'll need a second passport to have time lines for visa match as Sudan allows for 60days validity from date of issues, and i couldn't make it in time on one passport. Ethiopia seems similar, although looks like i can apply for visa in South Africa. Any issues with acquiring second passport or getting Sudanese visa?

Sticky point #3 (perhaps only at this point)
situation around Lalibela , Gondar etc.

Sticky point #4
crossing from Sudan to Egypt.
seems like there is short ferry to Abu Simbel and then straight shot from there.
unless i am mistaken. Perhaps there is an open road now between two countries ?

Sticky point #5
I assume riding all the way through Europe ... UK is not putting me in "danger" of paying some sort of import taxes/duties etc upon entering say UK or any european countries.

Sticky point #6 ...really not an issue now... finding shipping company to ship bike back to SA ... or questions relating registering bike in UK and the selling it.

Thank you all for the initial help.

I'll get back with more details thoughts on bike kit, personal kit, routes, sites etc.

Would love to connect with someone that might be keen on doing some of this journey ... or all... or perhaps someone recommends people to become friends that are near Cape Town so that i can learn from their experiences.

Thank you all once again.

It sounds like an amazing trip. I put out a general 'can you offer advice post' a month or so ago and the response was amazing. While I have no experience travelling in Africa (until next year when I will travel from Sudan to Egypt via camel) the general vibe, as I understand it, is "border crossings are a nightmare".
So I guess at this stage the best piece of advice I can offer would be to research border crossings: are they possible? Do you need a letter of invitation to get into a country? Is it safe? (most trouble happens at the borders I've discovered through my research), how much to get your vehicle across? . Egypt is apparently a paperwork nightmare.

Good luck! Stay safe and happy travels :)

It can be difficult to make to make firm plans for this journey as things change quite quickly, when I left South Africa Brits could not get a Sudanese visa but by the time I got to Ethiopia we could quite easily. It might be best to set off with an idea of what you want to do but keep an open mind to alternatives as circumstances change.

I made this trip a few years ago and with the exception of Egypt nearly all border crossing were fairly easy and if you make them at quieter crossing points sometimes quite pleasant as bored officials were friendly and happy to chat. I was invited to eat with the Sudanese as we had to wait for the chief who was at the mosque.

It can be, even when you know what you are doing it can still take a couple of days at Aswan, they are not messing you around it is just that complicated.

No real sticky points - just a few challenges
 

I Did the route starting Cape Town Nov 15 and ending UK june 16. I did it by myself and I can assure you that you don't need a group - other than the risks of traffic I never felt threatened.

So heres my take on your points:
Sticky 1 - Egypt - Turkey or Egypt - Greece is relatively easy despite what you hear. There is regular Ro-Ro shipping from Alexandria and you can get a ship with a weeks notice. You will lose your bike for 2 weeks whilst it clears and travels and you have to fly. Total cost for shipping my bike was US$900 including all the shipping agent services. For more info search the shipping database on this site where I posted all details - and I put a post on this site with some info as well.

Sticky 2: Consider getting a Sudanese Transit visa instead of a tourist visa - much easier and I found adequate time to cross the country and see the sights. These are valid for 2 weeks and available within 24 hours at the Embassy in Addis Abbaba (where I suggest you also get your Egyptian visa - 3 days). Again I think I posted on this - If you cant find any more detail send me a PM and I'll send you more details.

Sticky 3; Supposedly were security problems when I was in Ethiopia - but I never had any issues (except with street kids in Addis who are more a nuisance than a real threat). Locals in the country are exceptionally friendly and helpful to travellers - especially in the tourist areas where they are keen to politely part you from your money.

Sticky 4: You now have no option but to use the road crossing, the old ferry service up the lake is still running but only for passengers etc - The road crossing still involves a very short river crossing by ferry. The border procedures take ALL day (8 hours) but its the same for everyone and aren't that difficult and there is no need for fixers. Also be aware it is not open Friday (How do I know?)

Stick 5 - Nil Issues

Sticky 6 - I shipped my bike from UK to Cape town at the start of the trip. I used MotoFrieght in London and it cost 700-800 pounds. Again full details are in the shipping database.

Bottom line - I found the trip much more straight forward than I imagined - and it was easy to collect all the info I needed for the next country or border crossing on the road from other travellers. Border crossings are not "a nightmare" despite what might read. With the exception of the Sudan/Egypt one which was slow (but still good humoured) I got through all the other in an hour or so with minimal problems (common problem being finding someone who had gone to lunch)

My blog has more detailed info if you want to trawl through it or PM me if you have something specific you want to ask

Enjoy

Quick bit of additional information on the shipping. If you want to go to Turkey you can ship from Alexandria to Limassol in Greek Cyprus - you then cross the land border to Turkish Cyprus and from there, there are regular ferries to the Turkish mainland. That was my original plan but the ship broke down so rather than wait an extra week in Alexandria I swopped my shipping to next available so such was to Piraeus in Greece. From there I drove round to Turkey.

Last year getting to Israel from Egypt was a problem. At the time I came through the Suez tunnel and the Sinai were apparently closed to motorcycles due to terrorism concerns. This meant I couldn't did around to the land border. I have heard some people have managed it more recently, but i have not been able to confirm it.

Crossing the Sinai to Israelwas actually the plan I started with and the changes I made add I went along emphasises the need to be flexible in this part of the world - remember your plan should be to get to Europe not to a particular port.

I see you say you want to get to North Africa in under 3 months. It is certainly doable in this time, but I think it will feel rushed. Every extra week you can add is worth it and I suggest if at all possible aim for at least 4 months.

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I'd love to get into Jordan and israel somehow...

As far as i can tell so far, it seems difficult to get to Aqaba from Egypt... maybe there is a way ... maybe there isn't - i'll keep looking.

I am not married to going to Turkey :) it would be nice, but not do or die.

If i need to get to Greece, perfect. Still gives me truck full of sightseeing and riding to do.

My immediate plan is to apply for second passport asap , have that ready for snags with Ethiopia, Sudan visas so i am not either rushed from cape to make 60days time frame... or not stuck in Kenya for weeks.


I would love to spend more time on my trip just taking it easy, but i simply don't think i can due to weather changing rapidly in the autumn in northern europe.

I am from Lithuania originally and there is a high chance i'd ride there along the way, would prefer not to ride in potential snow in november or whatever :)

Martin, would you be open to chat privately about some personal gear / packing questions and sites? Hope so :)

thank you in advance for all your help everyone

R

oh :)

and i will bedding much more detailed research on each country for sites etc.

lists , spreadsheets etc :)

if anyone is excited to share with certain locations, sites, destinations, etc etc, i would love to hear your feedback.

working my way through Namibia now. Next up Zambia and Malawi.

Thank you in advance

I look on the web and in guide books, mark places of interest on a paper map and try to join the dots, as simple as that and probably half the places I visit are on the recommendation of someone I have met along the way. Michelin maps have scenic routes marked in green and I try to follow them as much as possible, in my opinion as soon as you click on excel you are overplanning.

No problems. Happy to chat

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Naval Architect/Martin is quite right. It is all a lot easier than you might think. You will meet plenty of people along the way who have first hand experience of the next leg of your trip. What is intimidating is trying to plan the whole trip at once taking into account any number of variables. You will find that a lot of things just fall into place.

The best preparation is getting into the right mindset. Don't assume everyone is out to scam you. Be patient, friendly, treat others as you would like to be treated. There are very few problems you can't work through on the ground. (Although on that note do ensure you have decent medical cover in the very unlikely event of an accident).

One tip though, take your time. I would say you need a minimum of 6 months and ideally a year for this trip. Travel is much, much slower than you think and there will be hold ups along the way that you just can't avoid and may not want to.

I crossed Africa as well and can only advice you NOT to take a BMW. People in Africa are great when it comes to repair vehicles but they dont know anything about computers. Another point is that with the BMW you will look like money on legs and will be treeted this way so rather take a old Honda Transalp / Africa Twin or Yamaha Tenere etc: Adventure experience - motorcycle trip riding across Africa

Thank you ta-rider, i assume you are not referring to Super Tenere ... since it's pretty much the same "look" as beemer.
I don't own Africa Twin or any other bikes, that would mean buying another bike and reacquainting myself with for long journeys.
I guess i can see your point, i just don't know how to get around thousands of miles in reasonable comfort on BMW vs small tenere... rode that and didn't really like it at all from many perspectives like chain drive to begin with.

thank you for sharing though, i appreciate it.

i wonder if other riders feel the same or along the same lines.

p.s.
not that it matters, my bike is NOT new liquid cooled or anything :) but it isn't 10y old LR either obviously.

Thank you itchyfeet38,

thanks for sharing your thoughts. I do really it's going to be one day/week at the time, and it's fine. No worries. I also know that some big "rocks" should be put in place probably before doing certain things... like knowing situation with Sudanese visa and having an option of not sitting in Nairobi for 6 weeks waiting for it :))

there aren't that many sticky points really... just couple that need to be worked through.

I don't know how (and i really can't) take 9-12 months to do the trip. Unfortunately. I cant get into northern europe in april/may when weather is nice :) i would need to complete whatever happens in much shorter period of time, once again - unfortunately. But i;ll do my best to have as much of an experience as possible.

thank you once again

Did you try to ride them offroad as well? I bought the Honda i 2x crossed Africa with for just 700 Euro and im still riding it every day (Honda was able to make liquid cooles bikes 30 Years ago ;-) )

1) Used bikes dont have a big loss of value -> more money left to travel.
2) Old bikes are way easyer to repair in third world countrys
3) Bikes with less nonsense electronics are light weight and better for riding offroad. The real Africa starts were the tarmac ends...

I suppose what I was trying to say is that three years on the road taught me that a lot of the time I spent planning (and it was a lot!) wasn't necessarily time well spent. Things change and often fast. Other people's descriptions of the same experience can be wildly different. It is actually really difficult to get hold of reliable facts. So by all means do your planning, just be prepared for things to turn out differently.

Re the Sudanese visa in Nairobi I would very much doubt you'll have an issue with getting a transit visa within 2 or 3 days (unless you are American).I would drop an email to Chris Handschuh at Jungle Junction in Nairobi and check with him, he will have travelers staying there who are doing this every day and will know the current score.

Have you had a look at the Africa overland network? Following current blogs will give you lots of up to date info.

As regards your time, you only have what you have. Just give it as much as you can, you won't regret it. It's nothing to do with what you get to see, more the pressure you put on yourself. So much of the joy of trip like this is about having freedom and when you have tight timescales and deadlines looming it can get pretty stressful.

ta-rider,

my bike is 5 years old... it depreciate for sure... it's ok...
I read your accounts on your blog about african trip... not like your bike didn't have bunch of issues ... every bike is prone .. obviously single cylinder bare basics will have less issues than say electronically driven BMW.
I've chatted to people , and of course will take more opinions on, at this point i have a bike already ... getting another would mean something else... i tried Tenere offroad... didn't like it... but i am not averse to trying again.

i'd like to pick a bike that has reasonable speed capacity when 500km needs to be done in short time, can carry some weight, maybe doesn't need to be lubricated many times every week ... i guess that was my motivation for getting GSA

I do understand what you mean now.

My biggest issue by far is time ... i just don't have 6-9 months to spend one-two weeks at places , unfortunately ... :)

just have to figure out how to create more hours in 2+ months :) i guess

thank you once again

Itchyfeet38,

thank you for the advice. i'll email Chris and ask what's the situation on the ground.
I'll try to find africa overland network, just google i suppose :) thanks a lot, that's very helpful.

I'll give as much time as i can and take what i can out of the trip. i might move my departing time to earlier so that i don;t get into too much dodgy weather in europe toward the end of my trip :)

I won't sweat the small stuff... just get some bearings in my head and proceed with adjustments as i go along.

thanks once again

I can also recommend Moto Freight from London to Cape Town and their South African counterpart Econo Trans (or Econtrans) in Cape Town. Both are fast, efficient and honest.

quick update

going to apply for a second passport in just about 2 weeks, hopefully that goes smoothly and will open some extra possibilities as far as easy of movement across Africa.

Ordered Track4Africa Maps , so that's ready to go.

Bike got new shoes - Heidenau K60 Scouts, might need to change them before leaving... but perhaps just change them for the newer ones before leaving and save what's left for later.

Got Cardo Packtalk.

Picking up new boots and lid in a week.

slowly getting there.

I used K60s on my KLR. Top tyre for Africa - had them fitted in Cape Town and they lasted the 27,000 km I did to Greece with no dramas. Fairly square at the end but plenty of tread. If you do need to change tyres halfway Jungle Junction, Nairobi, Kenya can organise them for you (no idea at what cost though)

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Little update

2nd passport sorted
new bike gear sorted - sidi boots, bering jacket, held pants and arai helmet

T4A map arrived and installed.

now just need to start looking into camping gear i guess

do some more offroad riding ... actually planning on taking some courses.

oh, and hopefully Ethiopia is not blowing up any time soon... it would be a shame.

Sent you a PM
Im in Cape Town,planning on leaving April 2017
Im on a KTM 990R
Ride up the west coast sand route for practice,after a while its quite easy.

Mate did your route on a LC12,no problems,he is now doing north to south USA

IT all depends on which route you map out and how many main cities you have to go into

What sort of time frame are you looking at?

SteveT,

this is awesome. Sent you PM too.

let's try to meet up sometime :)

Long Way down From Sudan to Cape Town - August 2017
 

https://www.google.com.sg/maps/dir/S...8685!3e0?hl=en

We are planning to travel by motorcycle BMW R1200GS Adventures from Muscat, Oman to Cape Town, South Africa. Our journey starts on 23rd July 2017 until the end month of August 2017. covering an average 500 Km per day.

our route as follow:
Muscat to Abu Dhabi to Jeddah. then taking a ferry to Suakin Port in Sudan. Then from Suakin Port to Metema (Sudan/ Ethiopia border) - We would like to know the road condition this route.

We heard the road condition northern of Kenya is better now. We don't know how true it is. Any idea?

We will continue and entering to Kenya, Uganda via Malaba border.

then to Rwanda, Tanzania, Zambia, Botswana then South Africa up to last destination "Cape Town"
https://www.google.com.sg/maps/dir/S...8685!3e0?hl=en

Please advise if this route is fine.:welcome:

Anyone knows of any further news on crossing from egypt to israel by bike?

Are bikes still not allowed to cross the channel ?

Alternatively , anyone has any clear ideas on going from Port Sudan to Saudi and then transiting it fast to get to Jordan and Israel and onto Europe/turkey .

TIA

Short update again :)

got camping gear - tent, sleeping bag, mattress, multi fuel stove, pots, pans, cups and cutlery.

will need to do a 4-5 day shakedown soon here.

Plan is still to leave mid april from Cape Town.

few questions still outstanding

- anyone has any fresh news on Suez and bikes?
- anyone has any fresh news on Sudan to Saudi ferry and then onto Joran/Israel?

lastly, are Sudanese visas still being issues in Adis? ... anyone :)?

thank you all in advance