Hi OverLanders
As desert virgins... we've got many questions. A girl friend and I plan on driving down to Nigeria (London – Lagos). As we’ve never done such a trip before we need loads of advice and tips to survive.

Advisable Route:
1. Route 1: straight through the Sahara: Morocco – Algeria – Niger – Nigeria (considering I plan on using a 2 wheel drive Peugeot 505)
2. Route 2: across the North/West African coast avoiding the conflicts areas in West Africa: Morocco – Mauritania? – Mali – Burkina Faso - Benin – Nigeria
3. Is GPS equipment absolutely necessary or is it possible to get by with road maps only?

Vehicle:
1. Peugeot 505 saloon, 4 or 6 Cylinder?
2. Diesel or Petrol?
3. Is an Automatic transmission ok?
4. Injector or Carburettor?

When:
Which is a better time, December 2003 or February 2004?

Visa:
Is it possible to apply and obtain all the necessary visas before leaving Europe or is it advisable to do this as we pass through each country?

Miscellaneous:
1. Excluding the Vehicle, approximately how much is a reasonable amount to budget for? i.e: fuel, food, visa, GPS, express fees (bribery), sleeping bags, tents, sand ladders etc.
2. Approximately how much time (days) should we plan for either route?
3. We’ll be flying back to Europe.

Do pardon me if I have overlooked some other important questions, and sounded ignorant of what I plan on putting myself through. Looking forward to your responses. Thanks in advance.

Novices Tunde/Germany and Morinade/London

Hi Tunde,

There's loads of info on the board here. start with browsing around I would say, and get a copy of Chris' book.

Marocco-Algeria is not possible.
An option for route 1 would be Tunisia-Algeria-Niger. But read the treads on Algeria in this forum!

Route 2 will be the easiest, and should be possible in a 2wd and without GPS. At least if Mauritania stays cool.

I'm not familiar with the 505, but out of guts feeling I would say all are ok but avoid the injection.

I think the pictures will look better in december, but both december and february are OK.

We will look for most of our visas on the road. just because we'll have more time then.

Budget is pretty much what you want to spend I guess, depending on how long you're on your way, where do you sleep, ... .
Some will be able to pass by on less then 20€ while others think they're traveling low budget with 70€ a day (you'll be inbetween there).

lot's of fun!

Rob

Have a good day...

What about the political problens conceernings Nigeria??? Haven't you reed some about?
It seems to be a lot of troubles between the North (Islamic) and the South (Catholic)

Also, beware of Lagos... as told by some friends, that city is very dangerous...

Look for updated news on www.allafrica.com

Enjoy!

HI TUNDE ; THERE ARE PLENTY OF TRAVELLERS
GOING DOWN THE ATLANTIC ROUTE DEC/FEB , PLYMOUTH DAKAR RALLY FOR ONE , ALSO THERE IS A WORLD MUSIC FESTIVAL HAPPENING NEAR TIMBUKTO 9/1/04 ISH CHECK ANDY KERSHAW MESSAGE BOARD /BBC.CO.UK /RADIO 3 /WORLD MUSIC , YOU COULD HACK DOWN ON VARIOUS SLIPSTREAMS , CONVOYS ARE BEST FROM DAKLA /
NOUAKSHOTT , AND USE A GUIDE ON THE OLD SPANISH ROAD , 50 EUROS PER CAR TO .
VISAS EN ROUTE , MAURITANIA/RABAT , MALI / BLAG AT BORDER ,
BENIN , BLAG AT BORDER , NIGERIA / HAVENT A CLUE .
ENJOY .

Atlantic route is probably the best bet at present, given the serious security problems in Algeria with the various kidnappings and the unknown timescale for security to return.

The bombing in Morocco look isolated. Its no different to going to the US after 9/11. The country in general still looks fine. There has been an attempted coup in Mauritania but this has been stopped and you should have a good indication as to whether it is settled by the time you go.

A note re the advice in the log above, whilst convoys may form as travellers meet up, there is no longer a formal convoy from Dakla down to the border and over. On the positive side, this means you can go straight down to the border, do the paper work there and continue without having to spend a couple of days in Dakla. On the downside, the requirement to form a convoy at Dakla used to be a good place to meet other travellers to continue south with but thats life. Now you will need to try and meet up in Camping grounds etc if you are looking for other vehicles to travel with - a good idea given your choice of vehicle.

We met several other travellers in two wheel drive vehicles - ford escort, old fairly long mercedes, etc, they all made it though arbeit a bit battered.

Re visas, you can get them in advance, or as we did go to Rabat for 5 days and getting a number of West African ones from there.

RE Nigeria - whilst there are religous problems there, I'm not aware of them being any worse now than for example a year ago. Plenty of travellers go through Nigeria, it can be a bit dodgy but there is also a large expat community in Lagos. So providing your aware its a reasonably tough country to be in, I'm not aware of any pariticular reason for further concern.

Have a good trip.

Will be in Cologne on the 8th, might have some suggestions. Can contact me via the FJE website (esetleg magyarul is ?!)

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Happy Travels,
Andras

FJ Expeditions

You can sell the 505 diesel anywhere, the petrol is a bit more difficult to sell. As a rule Africans dont like automatics. You can get the Mali visa on the spot and very cheap in Nouakchott, the Burkina 7 day transit visa was until recently available at the border, try to get the Nigerian in advance (Europe), doesnt matter when you leave, winter is a good time.

Have you ever tryed to push start an automatic?