Cape town to europe by east February?
 

Hi,

I would like to put myself on a big adventure in Africa, my plan is to send my bike to SA or namibia and then going back home (France) by the east coast. I do not have prepare anything yet so I think a good start can be 1st of February for a duration of 4 months ...
So If you want to join me or if you have any advice you are welcome aboard !!

sounds good but, im already half way up the west coast of Africa in Cameroon.

why dont u meet meet here in January and we can ride the rest of the way together?

cheers
Philip

humm that's a big change in my plan maybe too much ! I think I will land on cape town on february maybe see you there ?
What's your plan ?

Happy trails,

you can easily get to Nairoby from Cape Town in three weeks going through Botswana, Zambia and Tanzania. I hear that the bandit road north of Narioby is now paved, and that the Aswan ferry is to be replaced by a road any day now, which will shave off a lot of your time going to Cairo. Two months in total should be enough.

When I shipped my bike to Cape Town, I arrived myself by plane in the morning, and had my wheels rolling by noon.

If the road alternative to the ferry has opened when you go, could you please provide a ride report of it, including all the red tape hassle of crossing the border - there are a lot of us wondering how this will be like, including me :)

Even i will be there in January in cape town,so we have a meet there and fun together,have outing.Well this month end I am Going to Koh Tao Thailand Its an amazing place I will be having lots of fun with Friends,I have been going there just to have a Diving Experience.

i am planning the same trip around the same time so we should coordinate. I live in Dublin. I have done a few cross continent enduro trips, including south america last year. Have you done any big trips before? are you prepared for the amount of unpaved roads in Africa?
I'm 50, Irish and easy company. Brian

:oops2: never done enduro, have done some trips in croatia montenegro and marocco. I have no experience on unpaved road, but open to learn quickly. I don't see many rides report with lot of unpaved road, there are some, but on the east side of africa road seems to be good...

So what's your agenda ? are you going to ship your bike to SA or going down by bike ?

my plan was to ride the bike (GSA 1200) from Dublin to Capetown down the Classic Route and fly the bike back. If the rainy seasons demanded, I would be prepared to fly the bike down and ride back. From what I've read, I think it wise to expect quite a bit of unpaved. When I did South America last year, there was a lot of unpaved and I expect Africa to worse.
I plan to take 3 months
What bike you planning to use?
B

For the unpaved road I expect a ratio of maybe 1/3 of road ... but i am not afraid will see . Concerning the bike I am currently purchasing an xtz 660 (2008), these are cheap, reliable, and already not so bad equipped. I don't know which 'classic route' you are talking about. The only way to go down I've found (whitout corrsing lybia ,no visa info currently, and syria, not so funny today) is to go on turkey take a roro mersin/port said and it seems not to be very easy, a lot of story of custom nigthmare, huge delay, and expensive solution. That's why i am thinking of going up and take a boat israel to italy. Do you any others solutions ?

If you can be patient enough to overcome the paperwork in Egypt, take the roro to Turkey, mersin or İskenderun..(2 lines now) Turkey side is very fast and easy..
All questions about entering Turkey by bike and riding in Turkey always welcome.

Wish you all the best.

mehmet z. avar

thanks for the info ! Do you have any other information about this ro/ro ? company web site ? agenda ? price ? I can't find reliable info about it !

For port Sait-İskenderun,
fax number in Turkey
90-326-6141015.
Tel..: 90-326-6141012

Ask for the agent and name in port sait.

Prices from turkey,
bike.. 270 usd.
passenger...seat 140 usd.
1 bed in cabin.. 285 usd.(4 bedded)
takes 12 hours.
these are the prices we pay from turkey...
Sure they will tell you written whom to meet in port sait.

Mersin Port Sait line
90-324-2335030
36 hours 275 USD.

Sorry if you may not meet english speaking one on phone..

Best Wishes

:clap: Many thanks for the info !! It's not so expensive as i thought, ok so now i have to re-consider my previous plan, the only things that annoy me is if i go down i can not go to israel and jordania to see petra, it must be awesome to go to petra by bike so decision will be complicate !!!

Lets keep in touch..a lot of political crisis, problems,big games and things change so fast in the area as usual..Better get a confirmation/current inf. before you start.
Best wishes
mehmet.

Hi Lamoufle,
I'm planning same kind of trip !
I'm now in Malaysia and will ship my bike to Cape town end of december. Then back to France throught Africa !!
We can talk (in French !) about different options we have and meet somewhere in South Africa.
Bonne préparation
Matt

Bonjour !!

that's sound great !! .... but i really don't yet what will be my timetable, I have to negociate with my boss to be kindly fired... so i hope to be available in cape town around the 15/02.
So what's your plan, have you already choose a route ? we can talk by email if you want (en francais of course !)

:scooter:

Hello,

I'm currently starting a trip down the West of Africa, just about to head into Western Sahara next week, Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, Congo, DRC, hopefully fly to Namibia (no Angola Visa!) then Cape Town for NYE hopefully!

Plan on staying in SA for a week or so then riding back up the East, through Egypt to Jordan, Saudi, Qatar, Bahrain, Israel, Syria (if crisis is over?) then through Turkey, Georgia, Russia and beyond. Big 100,000 iles route (teapotone.com for details).

Would love to meet anyone along the way so drop me a line, 'info at teapotone . com' is the email.

Cheers,

Bruce

Holy sh*t ! your project is awesome !! your choice of bike is terrific !! Right now my plan is to be on cape town first week of february i think you will be already very east but will never know, we keep the contact and try to have a meet somewhere in africa !

Big respect for your trip !

We should meet up somewhere along the way. My husband and I are planing on riding from Ireland through Europe, down to South Africa starting May 2013. Would love to get advice on current conditions.

Beth

We have a vague route planned; starting in Ireland May 2013, weaving our way through Europe and making our way to Turkey. Not sure about the Middle East yet, get into Eygpt and make our way down to Sudan and weave our way down until we get to Cape Town. We are planning 1-2 years depending if I find work/ volunteer along the way (I'm a nurse), or shorter if shit happens or money runs out.

Would love to hear about your travels, do you have a blog? We can definitely keep in touch via email. Ours is bethandirish@gmail.com

Safe and fun travels!
Beth

Things are going well on my preparation, I leave my work 1st of january, the bike is already well prepared I am now trying to find a way to send it to cape town with air freight or sea freight it's a complete nightmare !

Anyway hope the real start in CT wille be around 10 of february........

So whio wants to join ? :mchappy: 4months of Africa how can you say no ?

:thumbup1:

I will be just a ahead of you, leaving Jan 5th from cape to Belgium. Maybe you will catch up to me :)

nick.

cool do you have a blog or a map or something so I can know where you are ?

What route did you choose ?

Hi guys,

my preparation is going well and i am now at one month from departure, bike is gonna take its ferry next week, and i will take a plane on 16 feb,
i have plan a three weeks tour on south africa to start slowly and have some cool vacation, and after i will do a second depart from cape town and go south to namibia...

anyone is more to welcome to join me for a ride or a beer somewhere bier

ferry
 

Hi lamoufle

'm planning a trip Capetown to Europe later in the year. Could you tell me which shipping agent and sea route you used for your bike?

I know there's lots of info on here about shipping but it would be good to get some rally up to date info

David

East Africa
 

I would like to do the same trip, but I have two problems:
1. Getting my motorbike and me from South America, where I am now, to Capetown. I was going to ship from Rio after Carnaval, but it is too expensive to enter Brasil for this American ($200), so I am now going to explore shipping from Buenos Aires. From what I read on here, the shippers in BA are not very good.
2. I don´t know how well my bike would do if there are many dirt roads. I´m now on a Suzuki DL650, commonly known as a V-Strom or Wee Strom. Brian said he had done South America last year and there were many dirt roads. I´m on my third trip through South America in four years and do NOT find many dirt roads. You can find them if you want to go exploring, but on this trip with a heavy more road-oriented bike, I don´t seek them. I also can´t ride standing up for long as I don´t have one foot. This hasn´t stopped me from riding over 150,000 kilometers in the past four years though.

I really need to know how practical my motorbike is for riding up through East Africa. I can do some dirt, but if there are many kilometers, and/or there is lots of deep mud or gravel, I better not try it. Maybe I should ride my DR650, but I´m still not skilled/comfortable with rough terrain, but at least the DR is lighter to pick up when I fall down ... not if I fall. I fell 25+ times on the first day when riding off road in Mexico. My nickname there was, "El Pinche Gringo Loco."

Also, the last I read, it was difficult or impossible to get from Sudan to Egypt. Whenever I do a Google Maps search of a route, it won´t take me through from Sudan to Egypt. This may be more problemmatic for Americans. I just was hit with a $160 fee to enter Argentina early this month. Apparently, the day before I crossed from Chile, a new law took effect just for those from the USA, Canada, and Australia.

Hi motomon,

in fact the east coast is well tarred and if you want to avoid the dirt you can (only one section is bad but it is not a big deal) i have no experience at all with dirt and i am not afraid, maybe I should !
Concerning egypt and sudan there are no problem, we need to take a boat from aswn to wadi alfa, the boat is said to be disgusting but it works...

For your bike, it depends on your confidence on it but i suggest to use the dr !

Africa
 

I agree about the DR being .more flexible and lighter, but if I'm going now, it'll have to be my Wee-Strom,, as that's what I have with me here in Argentina, and the DR is in California for sale. But I'm having serious problems getting a rear tire and front brake pads. I'd also like to start in Africa with a new chain and sprockets. The trouble is that
Suzuki has no presence here. Wonder if I'll Also have trouble getting parts in Africa?
Since me and the bike are already here in Argentina, all we need to is decide on a shipping method,, shipper, shipping point, and shipping date. If not shipping bike & rider together, then we have to work out getting the together at the same time in the place. Then we work out how to meet up with those travelling together.
Your knowledge of east side travel is greatly appreciated and significantly increased my comfort level and excitement.
If we travel together, propose that you speak Francaise, so I can start to re learn what little I once knew and I willsspeak Español or the little Arabic I learned living and working in the Middle East, but my assumption is that you are much multilingual.

Hi Guys, I am living in Midrand, Gauteng in South Africa very close to the N1 Highway.
I cannot join you right now but will start my trip later in the year doing the SADC countries.
If you happen to take a route through Gauteng, some travelers do, call me an may be we can go for a cold beer. +27726367447

Hamba Gahle, (travel well),

Izak Snyman

Thanks ! i keep your number with me and if i take the n1 i call you for some beers normally in one month !!!!!!!!