Hi all -

Due to an upcoming career change I have 4-5 months to do a big moto trip starting in January. I am looking for some advice from riders who have been there & done that.

The two options:

Option 1) fly to Cape Town, buy a bike once I am there, and then head north to Morocco via the west coast route through Namibia, Angola, Congo, Nigeria, Senegal, etc.

- Advantages: more adventurous, not as touched by tourism, radically different cultures, covers a part of the globe I haven't been to yet.

- Disadvantages: flight cost (one-way in, one-way out), bike purchase cost, visa hassles (mainly Angola and maybe Congo?), not likely to find a great bike for my budget ($2-3k), bike cost is probably a write off at the end since I won't be returning to the country where I bought it.

Option 2) Ride out my back door on my own bike, head south from Oregon, spend the time bouncing around South/Central America, ship the bike back, and fly home at the end.

- Advantages: easy, more fiscally responsible, one language to deal with, more relaxing, do it on my own reliable bike, no visa hassles, less planning required, no need to purchase a bike, get better at spanish.

- Disadvantages: Not as exciting to me personally, route is well-traveled, less diversity and interest in terms of cultures/people, and also I have already been to several of the countries i would be crossing.

It may be a long time before I can pull off another trip like this. My GF is cool with the trip and she wants to meet me somewhere for a few weeks part way through. In terms of relevant travel/riding experience, I've done moto trips (mostly solo) in SE Asia, India, Uganda/Rwanda/Burundi, Mexico, Colombia, and Argentina/Bolivia/Chile. I've also spent some time backpacking around Kenya/Tanzania and South Africa. I ride dirt and dualsport in the US, and I much prefer dirt roads and small, off-the-beaten-track towns vs pavement and cities.

I'd like to keep expenses under $15k for the trip including everything (flights, bike shipping, bike purchase, visas/border fees, gas, etc). Definitely no more than $20k.

One the one hand, Africa is definitely calling to me; especially the stretch from Angola to Senegal, crossing lots of different countries and getting out into the countryside and meeting people, experiencing the culture, etc. That kind of stuff really gets my blood pumping. On the other hand, the ease of just riding out my back door with zero planning on a fun, reliable bike also sounds very appealing, and I'm sure I could find plenty of offroad adventures in South/Central America to keep my inner adrenaline junky in check.

Anyone want to weigh in on this? Where would YOU go?? I keep bouncing back and forth between the two and I can't seem to decide.

You forgot: ship your bike to Urp, ride to, through and around West Africa until tired of doing so, ride back to Urp (or make other arrangements, whether legal, quasi-legal, or entirely illegal).

Most riding is similar no matter where you go. If you're looking for "unstable and war-torn," best examine your motivations carefully; lots of people consider Colombia "unstable and war-torn," and you know what that's about. On the other hand, West Africa's fun, and everyone should go there.

Hope that's helpful.

Mark

As always depends on many factors but from what you say, you have the freedom to push your boundaries at the moment and Africa is calling to you. I'd lean toward doing the trip that is hard and far away and that a person may not get to again for sometime, if life has it's way and intervenes.

It's fairly easy to get down to Central and South America from where you are, heck you can just ride out your front door. Africa is another level of logistics and planning and cost as you know. Ride there while you can, so you can be a grizzled old guy showing your kids pictures of you ridng in deepest, darkest Africa. Rare are any regrets.

Right on MountainMan. Thanks for the feedback. Good point about taking this possibly once in a lifetime opportunity to go for the one that is hardest and farthest away while I have the chance. Although the logistics seem daunting right now, if I was to fully commit to that trip and just start putting one foot in front of the other and assembling the stuff and contacts I need it probably won't seem like such a big deal.

Go for Africa. You won't regret it.

Alternatively fly to Cape Town with a return ticket, you will need one anyway, buy a bike there, do a circular tour of southern Africa, you should get to Kenya without a carnet, sell bike in Cape Town, fly home.
No need to ride the same road twice and up to ten countries you can visit.
By the way nearly all speak English except Mozambique where you can get by and all with the adventure of driving on the left!

Thanks for the response Mark.

I changed my original post to remove the phrase "war-torn and unstable." That was a bad choice of words. One reason the western route is appealing to me is that it crosses many countries which have experienced conflict/instability in the recent past, and countries like that are often very interesting to visit. That plus the fact that I haven't visited any of those countries before, as opposed to south/east africa.

There is SE Asia Fly in and rent. Then India Nepal Pakistan.