Did London - Cape Town 2002-2003 bike trip via Morocco, Western Sahara, Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Botswana, Namaibia, South Africa.

Amazingly I was never once shot, stabbed, kidnapped or even tortured! In fact for full 8 months of travelling we had a grand total of 2 petty theft attempts (1 in Casablanca, 1 Luderitz - Namibia) - neither was succesful or threatening.

We were stressed going through Nigeria but didn't have any bad experiences (besides hassle from police/military road blocks for small bribes - and there are lots of roadblocks in Nigeria!).

Like anywhere you need to be half alert in the cities and avoid obvious no go areas.

On the whole people went out of their way to help and were very curious about our travels.

As far as routes go ...
The route south from West Africa through Gabon - DRC - Angola is opening up again (there are a couple of threads on horizons covering this http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/ubb...ML/000049.html ).

Not sure what the current status is for crossing Sundan (Darfur) to get from West Africa to East - last I heard this was still difficult. That said most people love Sudan.

Definately the Libya/Egypt - Sudan - Kenya route is open (friends recently did this).

It's amazing how much up to date info you'll get from other travellers, locals and this site.

If you have the opportunity it would be a mistake to let it pass you!

[This message has been edited by tifua (edited 30 August 2005).]

[This message has been edited by tifua (edited 30 August 2005).]

[This message has been edited by tifua (edited 30 August 2005).]