Impossible Journey 2003
 

Has anyone made an unsupported West to East crossing of the Sahara by Motorcycle? We, Andrew Airnes and Euan Adam, are leaving early November 2003 to retrace the route travelled by Michael Asher and his wife Marianetta in 1986. We have been researching the trip for 3yrs but haven`t found anyone who has completed the journey by motorcycle. Are we really attempting the impossible?

Bureaucracy and fuel range will be your biggest problems. Cant find my copy but I seem to recall the route was fairly southerly and so not too hard.

CS

btw, no, west-east has not been done on a bike

[This message has been edited by Chris Scott (edited 05 January 2003).]

I think Tom Sheppard's done a lot of biking in the area, I know he crossed the desert but that was with 4x4s... not sure how far his bike trips were.

Does not really qualify as 'Sahara' crossing, but two americans, Flood & Wilson made a west-east crossing from Lagos to Massawa (Eritrea) going north of Lake Chad, then through Sudan, along the southern edge of the Sahara in two sidecar cycles, not too far south of Asher's trip. (National Geographic Jan '34, also book by Wilson, Three-Wheeling accross Africa) From their description, that trip sounded easier those days than today...



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Happy Travels,
Andras

FJ Expeditions

[This message has been edited by Andrew Airnes (edited 07 January 2003).]

[This message has been edited by Andrew Airnes (edited 07 January 2003).]

Quite a few bikes doing something similar to the sidecar expedition mentioned above. Most skirting the southern edge of the sahara is fairly straightforward in that there are good roads in Niger, a bit of a challenge round Lake Chad but not that hard, roads in Chad are very poor due to large number of massive wash outs and pot holes but hardpacked tracks so easy enough to drive, just slow going. Then in Sudan there is an easy option. there is a tarmac road after crossing the border heading towards Nyala but then most bikes use the railway line from Nyala all the way towards Costi / Khartoum. Whilst vehicles have to slog their way along the soft sand eiter side of the railway line, motorbikes can ride on it between the rails giving a fairly easy ride. Going further north would be much more challenging. Met a French expat in Chad on national service who had a KTM and was going to ride from Ndjamena north through the desert on a bearing, then cross the border near Blima before heading north into algeria near the Algerian / Libyan border. However he had a mate in a LR110 to carry the fuel. Likewise with another traveller on a KTM who did the Agadez - Blima route and other desert travels in Mali but used a local guide with a landcruiser to carry enough fuel. Think if you stay further north it will be down to fuel capacity as to what is possible but could use local guides to carry extra fuel on the long stages. Good luck.