Serious question about a half baked idea!
 

Hello everyone.

Well I have made it to Ouagadougou and now I am trying to work out what to do next.
I believe the Nigeria/Cameroon border is still closed and anyway I have yet to read a really positive thing about Nigeria as far as traveling through it goes. With this in mind I started to look into a boat out of Tema to somewhere south. This is still being looked at but I am a virgin to all this and at the moment I am getting more questions than answers.

So....... whilst enjoying a beer I thought why not just ride east young man, head for Khartoum. Looking at the Map there are reasonable roads as far as Ndjamena, my thoughts are; Niamey, Birnin-Konni, Zinder to Lake Chad. I hope there is a ferry across the lake. Now after this a road is shown to Abeche, El Fasher and ElObeid, al be it a dirt road. At El Obeid that thick red line of reasonable road returns up to Khartoum.

So with the wisdom of not much the map says it is possible. I am in no rush and have no issues with wild camping and roughing it. In fact in some respects I prefer to camp this way, life is just easier. Now the big question. Other than the distance is there a reason not to try? I know of the political turmoil in places but unless I am really advised not to by someone in the area I tend to take the government websites with a pinch of salt. I know they are looking after me but they are sometimes a big heavy blanket over too large an area.

If anyone has anything to say about the plan please pipe up! Information is definitely the name of the game about this.

Cheers Zed.

if you look back far enouth on the hubb you will find one guy who did something like this....the big issue is sudan visa which is real hard to get....and if they let you in...you cant ride across dafor, you need to put your bike in a plane and fly over it...the will not let you ride

as far as i know lake chad you can ride around...there are dirt roads...not much of a lake left aparently, no ferry...but lots and lots of bandits in chad and nigiar aparently...so watch your back...as you will be going within 100km of boko haram strongholds...everything ive heard is that its very unsafe right now, with the french legion running around chasing the bandits....honastly nigeria sounds a lot safer....and if you are 1 guy on a dirt bike you may be able to pay your way into cameroon....or take a back road

The lake Chad route is pretty hard.
The lake is much smaller then it looks on the map, but you need to keep distance from the lake to keep the distance down. On the other hand the trucks drive far from the lake but then the distance increases again.
You will probably not see the lake before you get to Bol.

There are a lot of sandy tracks and most of the way you have to follow the tracks because everywhere else there are a lot of thorns. Deep sandy tracks are hard after a while.

You will probably not get water and fuel between Nguigmi and Bol, most of the driving will be in second gear...

There are a few villages along the road, some without people, some with angry people.
Safety is a concern but it is doable, safety is worse in Ndjamena,

If you decide to take the route I have some more details you can have (I'm in a hurry now).

Someone recently went successfully from Ndjamena to Sudan, there should be a write-up here on the HUBB somewhere.

I think I have to be honest with myself and say this route would, especially at the moment be a bad idea.

With the information on here and with the information I received in Bamako the safety aspect is just too, questionable. As one man, on my own I can see myself stumbling into a problem that I can't easily get out of. A shame but the continent is big enough to provide adventure in other areas. :)

So I guess I am back to the shipping idea. I hope to pick up a visa for Ghana on Monday. It looks as if I am bound for the port of Tema and the challenge of finding a company to organize moving the bike.

if i was a single guy with unlimited time and a tent, i would still consider going to Nigeria and waiting on the border of cameroon to exit nigeria....eventualy they would let you into cameroon...it may take a few weeks waiting....but its better to wait on the border, than wait for a ship to arrive

N'Djamena is only a few hours drive from Maidiguri and the Boko Haram hotspots in NE Nigeria. They move freely across the Cameroon border, dunno bout Niger or Chad. http://www.iltempolastoria.it/index/...wumc_.edu_.jpg