Thinking about a big trip!
 

Ok, so where to start!

Myself and my g.friend are thinking of the possibility of doing a cape town to cairo trip next year.

We've only heard the "it's too difficult" feedback from people that never even left their own country etc.

So I was told this forum is the place to come to get some answers.

Basically, we've very little motorbike experince. We did a 1 month trip down Vietnam a few years ago and apart from that, that's it really.

We'd only be able to use one bike if we were serious about this trip as my g.friend would be on the back.

So, a few questions if I may;

1. I keep hearing about this "carnet". What do I need to know about it?

2. Would it be wise to buy a bike in cape town? As you can see, I've zero info about all this :)

3. We work online as travel bloggers, so we'd be under no time constraints. Would we have access to internet for the majority of the trip? I know getting a local sim card is fine, but just wondering in general?

4. If we were to buy a bike in South Africa, what sort of one should we consider and how much would it cost?

I've a bunch other questions but I don't want shoot them all out here at once.

Would love to get some feedback as to whether this trip would be a realisitic possiblity or if we're off our heads.

We've been in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda before a few years ago doing some independent volunteer work and we're well travelled....but Africa is Africa and we know how difficult things can be.

TIA
Carlo

I won't be able to be much help in general, but can at least say that you'd have no issues buying a bike in Cape Town.

My only recommendation (others may disagree) would be to go for reliability if you're planning to arrive, jump on it and head for the hills. That doesn't necessarily mean new, or expensive. I'm personally planning to ship my bike to the start point of my trip but only because I'm really familiar with it and am comfortable maintaining/repairing it - I also know what the condition of all the components are.

There's a South African adventure riding site called Wild Dog that might be good to get on to talk tech and find out where the good dealers and second-hand networkds in Cape Town can be found.

Hi Carlo

I did most of this trip last year. If it helps my blog is here: http://wp.me/P5aiwQ-6

Carnet (passport for the bike): needed for kenya and egypt at least. Can get in South Africa from their AA (check their website) if you use South African registered bike

Bike: buying in South Africa a bit tricky as you need to register personally first.and need time and proof of RSA address. Then need to get the bike tested on transfer. Some good threads on this forum on that.

Bike: for two up KLR650 or XT660z would be good starting points. I bought mine off Gumtree in Cape Town (and am selling it in Jan 2018 in CT).

Great trip!

Cheers
Andy

Hi Carlo and welcome,
As others have said it is entirely possible and a great trip as is buying a bike in South Africa, I would prefer bringing one from your home country as it is easier to do something with it when you finish your trip, it also used to be that a SA carnet was not valid in Egypt.
A medium size trail bike is probably the best choice but this trip can be done on a road bike, there is tarmac just about all the way now. Take a look in the ride reports section for other people's experience and trip paperwork where you will find carnets explained and other useful information, it is helpful to fill in where you are from as this can affect answers to some questions.

Thanks for the info so far guys.

I know there's a lot into this whole trip in terms of finding out info etc.

I'll ask another few questions so that I can get a better idea of a few things I need to know.

1. If I buy a bike in SA, then I need to pay for the Carnet - which I'm told is 200% of the price of the bike?

I would then have to return to SA with the bike (either ride it back or ship it) in order to get my deposit back?

2. If I shipped a bike from my home country (Ireland btw) to SA - would I still need to pay for the Carnet or how does that work?

3. I don't have a motorcycle license, so is that part of the requirements to be able to drive one through Africa?

4. Ideally I would like some sort of road bike as opposed to a trail bike. My g.friend would also be on the back of it.

I've been told so many times that it's a silly idea to try and do this trip with two people on the one bike, but that just makes me more determined to do it :)

TIA lads.
Carlo & Florence

Hi,

you don't have a motorcycle license ?? I suggest getting one. :)

Carnet is 200% of the value for Egypt only... Kenya is 100% ... but if you are not gonna go to egypt ... then it's only 100% of bikes value

You do not have to ship the bike back to get your deposit. You have to ship Carnet book to AA in Johannesburg with all the right entry/exit stamps... especially Egypt.. since that's the sticky point... once they receive that and verify that you exited the country, they don't need to hold on to your money anymore.

If you want to go 2up... then you'd stick to main roads i assume :) but... can you ride well enough for single person? 2up is heavy and all that. But not impossible i assume. I never done it.

I don't know about the bike registered in Ireland, I assume you'd need carnet not matter what, just would have one issues in Europe ... probably ...not 100% sure.

Hope that helps

It definitely does help mate. Thank you.

Yes, I will have to go about getting a motorcycle licence back home in Ireland.

Ideally, I'd like to ride from my hometown in Ireland all the way to SA over the course of 6-8 months. (We have the time to do it).

But if that's not a possibility, then SA to Cairo or vice versa would be fine.

So, why did I read people saying the carnet is 800% of the bikes value and you have to ship the bike back to get the money? So confusing at times trying to work out if the info is legit on some websites. That's why I was told to head to this one :)

Yeah, we'd stick to main roads and we've gone 2up all the way through Vietnam over a month before - so I do have a little experience (not much).

No.3 Apart from any legal repercussions from the police as you will be riding illegally any travel as in medical insurance you take out will probably be invalid, certainly UK insurers want to see proof of a full motorcycle licence before paying hospital or repatriation bills if your claim is a result of a motorcycle accident, no licence and you are on your own.

There is no problem at all in doing this on one bike, just make sure the passenger is comfortable and you will have to cut luggage right down to a minimum, as one of you has to get a motorcycle licence why not both of you at the same time and share the riding?

Get ya Mark! Thank you.

Honestly, she doesn't even drive a car, so she definitely won't ride a motorbike. She's comfortable with me at this stage on the back of a bike (scooter for the most part these days).

So there's no issues there.

Luggage will definitely be down to a minimum, however, we'll be needing our two laptops for work reasons - which will be the heaviest items by a mile.

If you are open to it and have time ... why not ride down from Ireland and fly back? not like it's any harder than return trip :)

same route....whichever one you choose... but since you're talking Egypt ... then it's east coast... ride to italy or greece, catch a ferry and plane... meet your bike in Egypt and ride down? fly back and done?

800% i don;t know squat about.. i called AA and that's what i got. I am planning ride up east coast and into europe in 2 months, so have been sifting through this somewhat in depth :)

Thinking about a big trip!
 

The 800% was the requirement for a UK registered bike using a carnet issued by the RAC in the UK, going into Egypt. And then the RAC want to keep 10% of the 800% as their fee.

Use an RSA registered bike and you can use the RSA AA. Then only needs 200% deposit and you get it all back bar the fee.

For me at least this made cape town north feasible and cairo south not.

Yeah, we'd love to be able to ride from Ireland all the way down for sure.





So, you're saying here that going from Ireland to cape town with an RSA registered bike from Ireland wouldn't be feasible?

Then that would mean buying a bike in cape town and heading up to Cairo?

Not quite. If you have an RSA registered bike in Ireland you might be fine. However that might be hard to sort as i you need to be in RSA in person to carry out the purchase and registration process.

There's a great thread on here on the process but it is basically:

1. Get registered personally in RSA so you can buy the vehicle (need proof of address in RSA)

2. Buy the bike

3. Get vehicle tested (equivalent to UK MOT, but done on change of ownership rather than annually)

4. Register the vehicle in your name (equivalent to UK DVLA) - the registration number changes with ownership so you need a new number plate

5. Get Police permission to take the bike across borders

6. Get the carnet issued with the new reg.

(I skipped step 1 by buying the bike in my brothers name as he lives near Cape Town - i then just got a letter of permission from him which gave no problems).

So in short you could go to RSA, buy a bike, ship it home (but this may cause issues as you are then importing it - at least in the UK there is no period of grace) and them start you trip. Starting in Cape Town may prove easier though.

Other thing to read up on is the latest carnet position. In UK the RAC pulled put of the market i recall which opened up other cheaper options ( ADAC?). Again threads on here on this - i dont know the latest as i used the RSA route

When you say "So in short you could go to RSA, buy a bike, ship it home (but this may cause issues as you are then importing it - at least in the UK there is no period of grace) and them start you trip. Starting in Cape Town may prove easier though."......

buy the bike from where and ship it home? I would either like to buy the bike in Ireland and drive to SA, or buy the bike in SA and drive up to Cairo. Whichever is the easier method overall.

I agree. I was probably confusing matters.

If going via Cairo i'd start in RSA.