Hi Charlie,

How are you doing? Having a great time?
Could you post coordinates for DRC embassy in Lome?

I am in Grand Bassam near Abidjan, and still traveling slowly :Beach:

Ride safe!

Gee

Hi kids!

I've arrived in Abidjan today from Yamoussoukro, that place is bizarre and fantastic. I'll be staying tonight and tomorrow night in Abidjan and then heading for Accra after, so I'll catch you there!

I'm starting to think about Nigeria, anyone keen to convoy?

Gelmi

convoy Nigeria
 

Hi Gelmi,

I'm in Grand Bassam near Abidjan (try to steer away from cities as much as possible), and going to Ghana in a few days. I am teaming up with three German students in a 4xe camper van for Nigeria probably. You're welcome to join us if you want to!

Happy travels,

Gee

Hey Luke!!

Sorry but we are not going to Nigeria. Hopefully we can ship from Accra to South Africa.
We don't wanna drive through Cameroon in the rainy season and want to get to SA sooner than later, need good food and wine hahahaha.

Greets Sita and Steven


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That's cheating! I'll definitely catch you guys in Accra then. Any ideas where you might be staying?

And Gee, I'd be keen to catch up! I might head to Grand Bassam tomorrow if you can recommend a good place to stay? Where I'm at now is expensive and, even then, I feel like I'm a burden... Yeesh!

Spooka
It's true we're cheating but it was never our goal to tic boxes of country's we've been to :-)

In abidjan we stayed at a place on route to bassam called espace bassam. A big orange wall 3000cfa to pitch your tent.
Closer to the border at assini ( assouinda beach)is jardin l'eden. Didn't have to pay anything just eat a meal (very good) at the restaurant. Nice beach!!

We will be in Accra in four or five days. Will go to big Millie's campground. You can find it on google. They have a website.

I can only say you missed out on the most beautiful countries of west africa which are Mali and Burkina :)

Maybe see you soon ;)


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Touché!

I'll see you at Millie's for a photo comparison and we'll see where's best!!

You'll win the photo contest because we suck at taking pictures, got our camera stolen on one occasion and we can hardly pull over with the truck.

Try and stop at ezile bay on your way down to Accra. Supposed to be a very nice beach place. That's around busua.


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screw that! cheaters! I'm calling the Overland Committee of Claims and Dirty Deeds.

Accra - Angola and DRC were both pretty easy. Angola only took 3 days. Have a letter explaining what your doing and bullet point day by day itinerary while in Angola. DRC says you have to be a resident but caves pretty quickly if you nicely tell him your story.

Lome - RO Congo - easy - while you wait! Gabon - pretty easy. but don't wear shorts or open toe sandals or they won't let you in :nono:
I had a very quick shopping trip at the local market. Benin - easy, same day. Lady is pretty grumpy.

Let me know if you need any coordinates!

I'm off to Benin tomorrow and then on to Abuja - sorry to miss the convoy :mchappy:

Ezile bay Lodge is good and then 7 km's further up the road is another Eco lodge type place that is cool too. Party time is in Basua bier Good surf at all three places!

hey guys
 

planing a trip from Ghana to east Africa in july ..
Anyone going this road in July ??
I would be more than happy to join ..
this is my first time but i will not be a liability ..

tschuess:clap:

Ok Garnaro, we'll drive.
We'll see you in abuja and swap your bike for the truck and meet you in Luanda.


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hotel Grand Bassam
 

Hi,

I am staying at Boblin La Mer right on the beach at the Route d'Azuretti. It's clean, with ac, for 20.000 cfa.

Cheers,

Gee

Hi Gee,

I'm in Axim in Ghana now, staying at the pricey "beach hotel" and probably continuing east tomorrow. If you're heading this way come and drop in!

Gelmi

Hi tschuess,

I've got no real plans so I could be easily convinced to go anywhere! Where were you thinking of heading, and on what?

Cheers,
Gelmi

Hey Luke and gee.

We are at big Millie's now. Will be here for two days then we are going to ezile bay for a few days coming back via Cape Coast back to big Millie's in a day or ten.

Steven and sita


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fun in the Congos
 

hey guys - if anyone is behind me headed for the Congos - here is some info on the crossing to DRC from RO Congo:

I heard that folks were having some trouble at both the Boko and Brazzaville crossings for not having their visa issued in their home country, so I went for the crossing near Mindouli.

Firstly, the road leading up to the crossing and thereafter is really gnarly, especaill if its wet at all. I slid down and got stuck in huge ruts a couple of times and other parts I rode when it was reletively dry that I don't know if I would have pulled them all if it was wet. Definitely better not to be alone.

I can't really recommend this crossing anyway since I had some real trouble getting through. The guys there are now savy to the residency requirement for the visa. They are actually pretty nice and it really seemed like they were dealing with a directive from higher up. The only reason I was allowed to pass at all was that I convinced them that I was a resident in Accra when I got the visa, even though I had no documentation. If you can fake up a residency permit for Ghana, that may do the trick. I total I spent 5 hours there while they phoned higher-ups and waiting for return call asking if they could let me pass.

Options are becoming very limited for DRC!

Hi all,

Got the residence permit easy in Lomé. Very important, they said!

Cheers from Mamfe, Cameroon,

Gee

Sweet. I'm planning on picking my DRC visa up in Lome. I know you can become a resident quite easily to get the visa there. I was wondering about the resident permit. Best to get armed with everything you can when you get to the border.

One of my friends has just left DRC too. He also got the visa in Lome. Said there was no problems at all.

Liam and c90 around the World

In Lome, you can get a six month resident's permit from the police/immigration office in the centre of town. I have the coordinates if you have any difficulty or there'll be loads of people at Chez Alice who know the form.
Charlie

Hi guys,

I'm in Lome now, and from the sounds of it it would be a good idea to get the DRC visa here!

Charlie, can you shoot through the coordinates of the DRC embassy and for the immigration office? Also, what are the requirements for a residency permit? It could help me with getting the Angola visa as well...

Cheers,
Spooka

Well, the residency permit for Togo was almost too easy. No proof of residency required, just cough up the dosh and it's yours!

Next is the DRC and Angola visas. Does anyone have GPS coordinates and know what's required for the DRC visa? I think I've got Angola covered.

Cheers,
Spook

Great news!

DRC Embassy in Lome is N06 08 770 E001 12 685. Cost 40,000CFA. Submit application and collect next day. .. I think!! The consular official was friendly but French was useful. If you follow the coordinates you won't believe how grotty the streets look but persist and you'll see a flag and a sign.
I didn't visit the Angolan Embassy.
Good luck
Charlie

Thanks Charlie!

I hit up the DRC today, it was just like you said. No problems making the application but the consular did want to see the resident permit for Togo. Like you say, pickup is tomorrow. I also tried the Angola again but the consular has ducked out to Abuja for the week. Spewin!

So tomorrow it'll be off to Cotonou. Looking forward to it! Anyone got any experience getting the Benin visa at the border? From what I see on the interwebs it sounds pretty common.

Spooka

We were rejected by Benin immigration and had to return to Lome to get our visa... so, beware! C

Sorry... should have been more explicit. . we tried to get Benin visa at border which worked for Sierra Leone, Cote d'Ivoire (just), Ghana, Togo, Cameroon, Gabon and Congo... but failed for Benin on the Lome/Cotonou route. C

Hey Charlie,

I got the 48 hour transit visa for Benin at the border with no dramas. Strange that you got knocked back! Also, I wasn't aware that Lome had a consulate for Benin? Otherwise I would have done that and not chanced it at the border!

Nigeria tomorrow!

Spooka

Good news about the transit visa... although we wanted to stay longer in Cotonou... which turned into an imperative after we failed to get a Nigerian visa at the border heading for Lagos and had to double back.
Good luck in Nigeria. We found everyone (or almost everyone) to be really helpful but we didn't hang around... crossing into Cameroon inside 2 days and 5 hours. Not much tourism!!
Charlie

Arranging visas..
 

Guys, need some advice,

Just arrived in dakar, two pax (argentinian +belgian) each on motorbike, with carnet de passage.

Plan is mali-burkina-ghana-togo-benin-nigeria-cameroon-gabon?-congo-drc-...

In two wks in ghana, end of june in drc..

What are the easiest places to arrange visas?:

-mali: we have
-burkina: in bamako?
-ghana: dakar? Bamako? Ouagadougou?
-togo: at border
-benin: border? Accra? Lome?
-nigeria: dakar? Accra?
-cameroon: dakar? Lagos (?rather not, just transitting nigeria) (abidjan no possibility, as we dont pass)
-gabon: lome? Yaounde?
-congo: lome? Yaounde?
-drc: we have

Arranging everything in dakar, would mean we have to stay for 10d.. Or more

Hakuna matata,
Bart

Hey guys there is a thread called "visa's North to South" with all the necessary info by travelers ahead of you. Waste to write everything down twice.

The link is:
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...nfo-hows-68265

Cheers

Richard (far ahead down in Namibia)

Hey everyone,

I'm in Calabar, Nigeria and I'm looking at what's next. Does anyone who's "been there, done that" have any recommendation of a good place to stay the night near the border with Cameroon? I don't like the idea of a 500km day from Calabar to Douala with a border crossing to boot!! Wouldn't mind splitting it up. Any recommendations would be welcome!

Cheers,
Gelmi

We stayed in Manfe which is an easy distance inside Cameroon if you're crossing on the Ikom-Manfe route. There's a good choice of hotels, although we arrived a bit late and chose badly!
Charlie

Hi
I stayed at the Data Hotel, Mamfe. Friendly, great view of the river, free wifi.

Cheers from Brazza!

Gee

Ahh so there is accommodation at Mamfe! Great to know, thanks lads!

Spook

Hi guys,

Sorry for filling up the thread with inane questions! But, does anyone have any recent experience with picking up an Angolan visa south of Cameroon? There's a tonne of info on the HUBB but it's all dated. What I've come to understand is that it's a crapshoot, so any experiences for this slug of travellers heading south would be hugely appreciated!

Ta!
Spook

We know of two Germans and two Italians that just got it at the border.


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You can get a visa at the Angolan consulate in Dolisie, Congo, or you can risk it at the border. As mentioned above five people got visas at one of the crossings near Matadi, DRC, about four weeks ago.

Issues with Residence certificate
 

Hello. Could you post the coordinates/description etc for the place you managed to pick up the residence certificated. I arrived at the embassy yesterday, went to the police station where they told me to go, but no luck getting the certificate. They said I needed the carte de sejour which is only if you live here I think. Any help/advice much appreciated.

Thanks

I thought chez Alice was the place to get the temp residency for Togo. But even if you got it this way it can still be a nightmare at the DRC border.


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The residence certificate can be purchased at the police/immigration office by the roundabout (with a big decorative installation thing on it) which is midway round the 'ring road' that loops through the centre of Lome. This ring road starts and ends on the main coast road.
I am at an airport right now without access to my GPS data but I can provide more details in about six hours time.
C

The Lome police/immigration office is at N6 08.188 E1 13.308 It's next to the large roundabout where the Ave de la Liberation meets the Blvd Circulaire.

The residency certificates are administered in an office on the first floor... best to ask for directions once you're there

Charlie

Yep this is the same place I picked it up. Keep trying it on with different people. I must've got lucky on the first go!

Thanks for the info about the Angola visa guys. I'm going to go to the embassy in Libreville and try it on there first. I'm not too keen on leaving it to chance at the border or Congo, so much so that I'm considering shipping the problem away(!) What would happen if they just said "No" at the border? I've never been in that situation so I've got no idea what I'd do next!!

Good luck JB!

Spook

Hey guys,

Today I was unceremoniously rejected for the Angola visa at the Libreville embassy.

So it looks like it's going to come down to Dolisie, Congo then.

Does anyone know the details for obtaining the visa here? Paperwork and what-not, how long it takes to issue and how long the visa duration is?

I'm trying to arm myself with info before deciding what to do next.

Thanks again guys, the help is hugely appreciated.
Spook

While drinking in a bar, a converted shipping container, in Dolisie... I met a local bike enthusiast who worked at the Angolan Consulate. He said he could help with a visa... this was 4th April. I don't have supporting evidence for this but he indicated that they are currently issuing visas in Dolisie.

I'll PM you with his name/phone number and I can also give you the phone numbers of some really helpful policemen who can guide you on location. (We had half the Congolese police force trying to trace a missing person... so we made some friends!)

Charlie

Hi Guys,

I'm hanging out in Windhoek for a bit waiting on parts. Anyone in the neighbourhood?

Cheers,
Spooka

LOL, 2 Germans, 2 Italians and 1 South African, me :-)
Easy to get Angola visa on the border.
If any one doing the garden route from Cape Town via Durban to Swaziland and Mozambique and needs a place to stay, I have plenty room.
Cheers
JC