...just over a year ago a friend and myself did East Africa on our bikes. It's not just Egypt but also Ethiopia and Sudan who insisted on having a Carnet on the border. Fortunately we had one. Others didn't. And couldn't cross...

All other countries between South Africa and the Ethiopian border will issue a Temporary Import Permit and you don't need a Carnet when on a motorbike. Other travelers we met came from Spain all through West Africa, South Africa and into Kenya without having a Carnet. However, they had to DHL one in from Spain in order to be allowed into Ethiopia.

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no risk - no fun

good to know - thanks for the info Marco...

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bugsonmyboard.org
two wheeled wave hunting dispatches

Oops...so much for obtaining an Angola Visa while still at home unless I want to go for a little drive to Houston from California:

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bugsonmyboard.org
two wheeled wave hunting dispatches

Hello,

First of all: I'm going to Cyprus this Saturday (15-06-13) for 10 days (so that makes: till Tuesday 25-06-13) with my girlfriend, of course I'll rent a motorbike there and ride a trans-Cyprus-trail XD most likely to take a day, if anyone is on Cyprus in that period of time reading this? Please response, we can do this together maybe.

Second: I still have some questions. First: Carnet de Passage, I don't really need one, I'm only riding up to Accra, Ghana with you guys, and I saw on a website that it is recommended but not required.
ADAC Reise & Freizeit - Carnet de Passages - Englisch
So that will be no carnet for me.

What do we do with tire's? I have falling in love with “Continental TKC 80's” but the are burned out with something like 3000 km. Are there any plans yet for driving to Southern Spain is it like speeding on the highway or will we do some fun-tracks also? I'll adjust my first set of tire’s. How many km will a normal tire do on the 3000 km from Calais to Algeciras? I guess it will be a good idea to by a new rear tire in Spain or Marokko, as it seems hard to get one in real Africa itself.

OK that’s enough for now I guess. When I'll come back from Cyprus and my other holiday planned the week after I'll send you guys a packing list I am taking, so you can correct me on: “take this to” and “leave it, you won't need it”.

Kind regards,

Jeroen.

Hi All,
We are using Continental TCK80s, but not putting them on till we get down to spain as they do wear out pretty quick on tarmac. Taking a spare set aswell, in the Landrover.
Not bothering with carnets, Id rather pay on the borders, but leaving copies of documents with someone at home just in case we do run into problems and have to get them DHL'd out to us. The potential savings seem well worth the risk in my mind.
The main problem countries for carnets seem to be Ethiopia and Egypt, and we had always planned on leaving Egypt off anyway because of the 800 percent premium. It should be possible to pay on the border for Egypt anyway as they have their own import system where you leave a deposit of 2000 Euros which you allegedly get back when you leave. Even if we dont get it back its still cheaper than paying for a carnet.

If anyone else fancies doing just the Europe part for a leisurely sightseeing ride, we are leaving from Dover on 4th Sept and just taking it easy for a month with no particular route planned, as long as we end up at the tip of Spain on Oct 5th

Oh yeah, Visas, we arent getting any in advance, I like the idea of the challenge of getting them along the way, and it gives us points to head to in each country for embassies

Has anyone else got comms gear on their bikes? We are using Autocom radios which are PMR466 Mhz. Ive got spare radios for use in cars but cant connect headsets to them for using on bikes as they are only cheap ones.
Radios we have on the bikes are Kenwood UBZ units.