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North Africa Topics specific to North Africa and the Sahara down to the 17th parallel (excludes Morocco)
Photo by Andy Miller, UK, Taking a rest, Jokulsarlon, Iceland

I haven't been everywhere...
but it's on my list!


Photo by Andy Miller, UK,
Taking a rest,
Jokulsarlon, Iceland



Trans Sahara Routes.

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  #1  
Old 9 Dec 2002
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Morocco down to South-Africa
If you guys could help I would really appreciate some good advice.

Morocco down to SA, what are the best options (route wise) to get down on two motorbikes. We arrive in N Africa mid to late 2003.

Thanks
Simon T
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  #2  
Old 9 Dec 2002
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Hi Simon

Are you hoping to reach SA via the West or East Africa?
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  #3  
Old 9 Dec 2002
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The only normal route to drive right the way through would be to cross central Africa via Chad / Sudan. There are enterprising travellers crossing via CAR / Congo (both of them), even Angola but these woud all rate as far more serious. (could be a great adventure through if your up for the risk). 5 of the 8 major overland trucking companies sent trucks last year and they all went Chad / Sudan.

We travelled down in a Landrover and went Morrocco, Western Sahara, Mauritania, Mali, Cote D'Ivoire (not a good choice at present), Ghana, Burkina Fasu, Niger, Chad, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, SA. We went round lake chad from Niger to Chad - challenging on a bike - we only met one other bike going that way, lightly loaded KTM and even that went on the back of a 4x4 for a stretch. Other bikers we met all went via Nigeria / Cameroon to avoid the sand. Perfectly possible though - just harder work.

Lots of options - can go for the more risky routes in central africa, could ship from most of the coastal west African countries such as Ghana / Togo / Benin / Nigeria / Gabon - SA or Namibia and then head back north. Good luck.
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Old 10 Dec 2002
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damandaz

We hope to get down to SA via the East Coast.

We were already looking at Chad-Sudan then Ethopia and down. But we thought that getting from Sudan into Ethopia might be a problem?

Any Routes or current info on the above idea would be appreciated.

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Simon T
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  #5  
Old 10 Dec 2002
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Sudan - Ethiopias a cruise - not a problem at all unless there have been some developments I'm not aware of. Nice drive - about 400kms on tarmac then out next to a new road that is being built to the border, then start climbing all the way to near Gondor. Lots of scenery, very enjoyable and pretty straightforward.

The harder part is getting into Sudan. (Seems to be an unclear picture on status re visas although we got straight in early in the year) - there is a fairly extensive sand drive to cross western Sudan following tyre tracks as there is no proper track for quite a distance.

I haven't been through the other ways but I think you would find CAR / Congo roads much worse, and security / safety would be a more significant issue. Even people running down the East Coast - Egypt down cross Sudan - Ethiopia.
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