Miles/Day in Africa
 

I am now in the prep of my next RTW and since my last trip in Africa was a long time ago I would love to hear about the average miles per day you guys ride in the West Africa --East Africa and Sahara.
I will be riding riding 2 up on a 1150GS ADV and will do mainly regular road and jeep road , piste are OK but hard core off road is a no .
I was planning to average 150 miles a day.
Let s see what you guys ride.

For a fairly typical WA trip without strange detours the following is my assessment (Africa Twin, 1Up, fully-(over)loaded).

North west Africa has pretty excellent roads and you can easily do that (e.g. the whole of Western Sahara can be driven in a v.long day, the road is perfect). The problem is not the roads, it's time spent at borders, waiting for visa etc.

The exceptions are nigeria to cameroon where the road is terrible (but challenging) and Gabon/Congo border to Brazaville (same). We drove across Angola in 4 days and that's over a 1000miles, partly because the new roads are excellent and partly because we didn't have any rain to slow us on the detours.

Miles
 

Thanks for the post, did you get your visa in advance or at border only.

The only visa I got in advance was the Mauritanian visa in London (before they shut the consulate). All of the others I got on the way (British passport). I only got Namibia and South Africa visa at the borders (don't need one for Gambia or morocco). I worked out that over a 4month trip I spent 21 days at borders (or driving short days to get to them), in embassies or waiting in cities for visa to be issued.
But that's all part of the "adventure":rolleyes2:

Hendi, just a note on Ed's remark about not needing a visa for Gambia. He didn't because he's British. I'm assuming you're American based on your Florida location, and if so you may need a visa.

How I know ... approached the Gambia border with a Brit, an Irish and a German. They were all cleared thru. But I as an American was held up. It turned out I needed a visa ... none of us noticed that distinction in the guidebook. But indeed it was there. Well, the requirement was "relaxed" with a bribe to the border official ... but FYI.

And -- there may be a distinction whether an American needs a visa based on whether spending night(s) in Gambia or passing through the same day. Dunno -- once I was thru I didn't bother figuring it out.

Agree with Ed's assessment of roads and mileage and visa-chasing time. I had no visas in advance, all obtainable on the road.

Mark

miles
 

I am French but my pillon is US citizen so I guess that will complicate a bit the trip as far as visa and maybe even country where she cannot obtain one .

Thanks all for your help