West Africa
 

I’m working up to a long open-ended trip down thw West Coast of Africa from Tangier to wherever I get, in 2023.
Maybe even Cape Town, I have no time constraints.
Has anybody done some or all of that, or know anyone who has.
My initial research suggests getting to Guinea-Bissau should be feasible enough, but after that I’m struggling to find much useful recent info.
My current concerns are:
- are the main coast roads between Senegal and Ghana paved and passable on a touring bike?
- same question for the stretch between Ghana and Angola.
- are there any long stretches where it may be difficult to find petrol?
- is it relatively straightforward to get local bike insurance at the border crossings?
- are any of the borders likely to pose a problem to someone traveling on an EU (Irish) passport?
But no doubt I will find plenty more things to worry about!

There are a number of threads on UKGSER about the travels of a couple of gentlemen of the Irish persuasion around Africa.

I think this is the first one for West Africa.

The whole series are interesting and have a good blend of photos and text - it may not be as up to date as you might wish but it will whet your appetite for the journey.

I´m researching for a similar attempt during this winter. Procastrinating for ages.

I hope this thread on Africa without a carnet is still somehow usefull. I´d follow this guide roughly in terms of visa and TIP, but would cross check with recent reports.

Road conditions can be choosen to suit touring bikes, I guess, for most of the way. If it gets too tough, throw it on a lorry and take a lift. Your milage may vary, most overlanding bikers take a fuel bladder for the longer legs. ioverlander gives a good listing of fuel stations.

Insurance is still a topic, I need to research deeper, too.

Hopefully, this thread brings up to date info.

Thanks Both,
All very useful, and has helped get me off to a flying start.
I’m starting to get some traction and am accumulating quite a lot of information from different sources already. Steadily building confidence that this could be an adventure rather than an ordeal.
I may do a small dummy run: fly to Ghana this November, hire a small trail bike locally (with insurance) and try a couple of border crossings in both directions. Just to build confidence and hopefully make some contacts. There would be nothing lost if I decided to abandon the border crossings and the experience would be useful.

A trial run to someplace relatively quite easy--Ghana or Senegal--sounds like a good plan. I don't hold with the mystification sometimes attached to travel in Africa--it's not "The Dark Continent," really. But it definitely doesn't suit everyone, not least because much information collected in advance turns out to be inapplicable by the time you arrive. That requires a degree of flexibility which some find harder to summon than others.

Your original questions seem to lump long, varied sections by geography alone, like Senegal through Ghana or Ghana through Angola, but this doesn't make much sense on the ground. Ghana paralleling the coast is easy, as are Togo and Benin, but Nigeria along the coast is problematic at best, and not because of the roads. DRC, Nigeria and Angola have presented some serious visa issues in addition to sometimes-difficult roads, and the border of Cote d'Ivoire has been officially closed for quite some time now. Et cetera.

All of these countries and routes have been discussed at length, both here and elsewhere--I'm not sure why you're having difficulty finding information. There are people traveling this route right now, and some are posting in exhaustive detail as they go. In my view, you'll do best researching existing accounts first, before asking broad, general questions--your research will establish the key contexts for understanding the answers to later, more-specific questions. But that's just me.

I've rented quite a few times in Ghana, but I'm unaware of any functioning rental agencies at the moment. If you go this route, posting what you find and how it works out would be a real service to other travelers.

Hope that's helpful.

Mark

Thanks very much Markharf. Some helpful bits there.

Africa per se doesn’t faze me. My wife’s from Somalia/Uganda, our son is married into a big African family, and we have spent quite some time in Ethiopia. I‘ve travelled widely in E. Africa, including from Cairo to Cape Town overland.

W. Africa is much less familiar: I’ve been many times to Morocco where we’ve got family connections (one in the travel business) and I’ve ridden through the Atlas and deep into the Sahara. I know Senegal fairly well by car, but everything south of that is unknown (except Ghana) - and that’s precisely why I want to see it. As you quite rightly say that leaves two large regions - where specific answers and tips from recent travellers could be useful.

I negotiated early retirement to be able to travel and so far I have been to 85 countries. I have done motorbike journeys, solo trips and group tours in South and Central America, E. Africa, Nepal and S.E. Asia, 10 horse treks all around the world, and a lot of overlanding - mostly alone. Two of my kids lived in malarial areas and brought home exotic partners. So developing countries aren’t a worry in general, but preparation and informed advice has often been useful and is always reassuring.

My concerns here are about practicalities. I’m picking up that E. Africa might have spoiled me a little, and that the infrastructure, bureaucracy and logistics in parts of W. Africa can be more challenging. So I’d value some direct contact with people with recent experience who can maybe answer specific questions - mainly under the headings in my original post. As you say, there is no shortage of discursive anecdotes of travels in the region, but too much and too wordy to digest easily - and mostly done on different bikes to my first-world sports tourer. Most of it is pre-Covid and I have found few answers to specific issues. It has been very difficult to tease out much practical up-to-date information. Even the latest AMH is prone to wandering off into generalities, and as you say things are constantly changing.

I’m sanguine about possible delays, cost overruns, hassle, petty scams and theft. But at my age I will probably only get one crack at this, so I would be disappointed to have to turn back or to have my bike impounded. Especially if better preparation - perhaps a single piece of elusive advice - could have avoided it.

The Overlanding West Africa and Morocco group on Facebook has a decent amount of recent info, along with plenty of members currently travelling.

Sadly I think a lot of travellers prefer social media and a source of info rather than forums which are much easier to search for info.

Thanks for the tip. I consciously try to minimise my internet profile and left Facebook many years ago for reasons of privacy (it's a long story). But if I can't find enough here I might give it another go.

There’s a yank posting on Travel Stories here, doing it right now. Currently in Senegal on a Tenéré, and travelling with a couple on an R1200 GS (which eases my concern that my F800 GT might be too heavy). They’ve had no insoluble problems so far. One or two useful facts half-hidden amongst all the anecdotal stuff.

https://new.horizonsunlimited.com/ts...cape-town-2022

Research so far: Côte d’Ivoire seems to be open, but Nigeria still looks like a stumbling block. Few things in life are impossible though, and more research might clarify that. I’ll see how the yank gets on.

Meanwhile I have found a well-recommended charity worker in Togo who will rent me his Chinese 125 for a couple of weeks for my initial reconnaissance. I’m going there on 6th November to see how easy/difficult it will be to get into Benin, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire and give details on here.

He has also offered his services as a (paid) companion-guide from Lomé to Nigeria when I do the proper trip next year. That may be useful - I have had good experience with amateur local guides fending off hustlers.

Time to draw down a chunk of my pension fund? Fortunately it is only 10% exposed to the UK.

Pretty much all set for an initial 3 week recce starting 6th November.
Flights booked, rental bike booked, visas issued or approved. Hopefully I can manage other practicalities out there (insurance, customs etc).
One of the great things about Africa is that most problems can be solved - at a price.
Plan A is to start in Togo and travel west through Ghana to Côte d’Ivoire and back. If that goes well, eastwards to Benin and back to Togo again. About 1,150 miles.
There’s no Plan B.
My big trip is now scheduled for next April. I’m not authorised to start until after my wife’s birthday.
If I learn anything useful I will post the findings on here. If there is a better place to post on HU perhaps somebody could point me in the right direction.

A couple of random thoughts:

Tracks4Africa is highly recommended - much more input from Southern and Eastern Africa, however worth having.

Join www.4x4community.co.za if you're not already a member - once again most traffic is for Southern and Eastern Africa however there are discussions for West Africa, Central Africa, and North Africa and members with good advice for all of them.

Thanks. Those look like two excellent leads. It’s proving time consuming to sift out any practical information from all the “travellers’ tales” though.

It seems “Wanted’s” 2016 detailed guide to logistics (referred to in one of the replies above) was actually updated in 2018, so is probably even more relevant than it seemed at first:
https://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hu...-without-89519

Chrisallsop: I'm interested to know how you get on.

I set off from the UK in October 2022 and rode solo down through Morocco, WS, Mauritania and into Senegal. Looked at onward options and visas in Dakar and that's where progress stopped.

Guinea visa can be obtained same day in Dakar, Ivory Coast should be available in Dakar too.

Problem was Ghana. They said NO, you have to apply in your home country. Without a Ghana visa the trip South would not be possible as I'm not going into Mali and Burkina Faso.

I'd like to attempt the trip from UK to SA again. I'm following the American post and note they got Ghana visas in Abidjan (I think), the Nigerian visas needed a local Nigerian citizen to write an invitation letter. Seems they got lucky and by chance met someone en route willing to do that for them. What if they hadn't though?

Let us know how you get on or if you want to ride down there together.

I have the email address of a Nigerian prince who asked for my help if that helps.....

Yeah, I think I know him, had his assets frozen and needed your help in moving his money out of the country!!

I think it may be the same guy. Spooky.

I'm now doing detailed planning and gearing up for my London-Cape Town trip, starting in mid August 2023.

I did a trial run in West Africa last November on a small local bike I rented in Togo. https://www.polarsteps.com/Christoph...01251-togo-etc
I learned a lot from that. I reached the border of Côte d'Ivoire but didn't manage to get in. I had a visa and customs clearance, but I had been given duff information by the embassy in London about where and when I could get the necessary laissez-passer - all fixable if I had enough time.

So I turned back towards Nigeria (I hadn't planned to enter this time) where I got arrested for taking photos at the border - all sorted out with much good humour and back-slapping.

My route was: Togo, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Togo - with some excursions inland. 2,400km. One mishap: walking in Accra after dark, I fell into an open sewer and fractured my leg (fibula), but was able to continue.

I realised that my first-world sports tourer will not be the right bike for Africa. So I am looking for a light local-type bike with readily available spare parts and tyres. The kind that any kid on the street can fix.

Now deciding whether to take a UK-registered bike and go North to South. Or to buy a bike in Cape Town, come South to North and pay duty and VAT to import it into the UK. That's more complicated than it sounds though.

Has anyone without South African residency successfully bought and registered a bike there?

BTW. Regarding visas:
- Ghana: I got a 3 month multi-entry visa from the Embassy in London, valid for 3 months. Bit of a rigmarole. £100
- Nigeria: I have been advised to apply in London. I have a Nigerian friend who can get me an invitation letter.

I may be beating a dead horse here (in which case I beg your pardon), but it’s not clear to me whether you’ve drawn the necessary conclusions about your experiences.

First, don’t believe anything you hear unless confirmed repeatedly on the ground; lots of embassies will give incomplete or incorrect information like this, but the need for (and difficulty obtaining) the necessary laissez passer for C.I. entry was well-known and widely discussed. I believe this rule has just recently been rescinded, but see “confirmed on the ground” above.

Second, don’t take photos at borders or near other similarly-sensitive locations. This will get you in trouble at, for example, US borders too—and it can’t necessarily be fixed by applying “back-slapping.”

And last, try to limit wandering around at night in dimly-lit, Developing World cities. Falling in an open sewer is one not-unlikely outcome, but there are others even less pleasant. Carry a headlamp, and possibly a spare. Actually, I’d suggest the same in my own hometown, while acknowledging that the hazards are far fewer, and the ditches not as gross.

There have been at least a few threads about purchasing bikes in South Africa, which I presume can be found with a site search. Importation into the U.K. is not something I know about, but if you were asking about, say, buying in South America and importing into the USA I’d point out that this is virtually impossible, so proceed with caution.

Hope that’s helpful, but if not please disregard without a backward glance.

I've imported a couple of vehicles into the UK (and exported one of them later to Canada). As long as you do what's necessary to meet UK regulations (e.g., lights) it's no problem, although if the bike/vehicle has been owned less than 6 months you'll pay tax on the value. You pay duty either way, as I recall.

The Overlanding West Africa and Morocco Facebook group has a constant feed of upto date border and visa issue on the west side.

There also a very active WhatsApp group

Thanks Warden,
I’m closing in on this now. Taking a UK registered bike to Casablanca in June where a friend has secure storage. Route: through France to Sète. Ferry direct to Tangiers, cutting out Spain. It will stay there while I’m on an extended holiday in Japan (with ‘er indoors) returning 7th August.
14th August fly to Casablanca and start.
Meanwhile I’m in touch with a guy called Gordon who is currently in Guinea and wrestling with the formalities to get into Côte d’Ivoire (and equally important: to get out again). He posts on HU but I haven’t been able to find him here - we are communicating via WhatsApp.
I don’t do Facebook any more (and never intend to again). So if you can give me any details of the WA group you referred to I would be glad to join.

Here’s my loose and very flexible plan. (I have lots of contingency ideas). Sanity check comments welcome.
It’s the easiest way for me to do it (with regard to medical/repatriation insurance, and customs):

JUNE:
- start from London on a bike registered to me in UK (that means no insurance limitation on engine size*).
- store bike in Casablanca until mid-August.

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER/NOVEMBER/[DECEMBER]:
Fly back to Casa 14th August.
- provisional route to Cape Town:
Morocco, Western Sahara, Mauritania, Senegal, [maybe Gambia, and Senegal again], Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, [maybe Gabon], Congo, DRC, Angola, Namibia, South Africa.
- distance 13,500km
- target average mileage: 1,000 km a week (5 days x 200km, allow 2 days a week for rest/visas/border delays/repairs/general admin etc.)
- target end date 16th November (94 days)
- “way points”: cumulative distance from Tangiers, target dates:

Nouakchott: 2,719 km, 2nd Sept
Cd’I border: 3,753 km, 9th Sept
Abidjan: 5,456 km, 21st Sept
Lagos: 6,471 km, 28th Sept
Kinshasa: 9,445 km, 19th Oct
Cape Town: 13,500 km, 16th Nov

NOVEMBER (or DECEMBER):
- Clear RSA customs (bike exit stamp) and send the bike back to London by sea freight.

*if I start from any other country, my insurers would limit me to a 125cc bike.

Just spotted this and by now OP may well have finished his trip> Anyway I am one of the gentlemen of an Irish persuasion and this the eventual path I followed.