For anyone who gets to this point in this thread in search of info; I found out that shipping air to SA is twice as expensive as shipping to Nairobi. At least with KLM. So if you just need to get to South/East Africa and where is not an issue, consider Nairobi.

Hi,
I shipped from Dublin to Africa a couple of years back, 2002 to be exact.
At the time, I just drained the fuel tank, engine oil and disconnected the battery. Draining your shocks/forks sounds like too much hassle to me.

Draining the fuel tank is not that hard to do: most bikes will have a valve that you can access, or you can use a siphon (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siphon, if you're not sure what that is).

After disconnecting the battery and wrap the cables in insulating tape to stop and accidental contact with the battery terminals during transit.

I have some details of companies, and their costs (in Euro), from 2002. See my spreadsheet on http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/country/. Search for the text "Download it in Zip format" to find the link. In the spreadsheet, look specifically at the worksheet named "Shipping-Air".

There's also some info for sea freight.

It seemed to me that each shipping company had its own set of rules and regulations that all more or less overlapped with other companies. Keep looking and you'll find something that offers you a decent solution. I don't think there's much that can be done to escape the very hefty charges though. If you do find something that's cheap and works, let us know.

Good luck,
Ken.

Hi guys/gals, I'm off to Nairobi on 18 Jan (after spending 15-18 Jan in London- meet me for a pint?). Anyone else headed to Kenya around that time? I have to wait for my Sudanese visa in Kenya and might hang out in Nakuru- a funky little place where one can have some fun and "explore" a beautiful part of the world on a motorcycle. Hmm, I MISS AFRICA! H.