...rarely survive the war". However, there is nothing wrong with planning a little bit ahead and trying to anticipate troublespots. Hope I can pick some veteran brains a bit.

A little data, that perhaps will aid you in understanding (and hopefully responding to) my little list of questions: I'm 37, male, veteran biker (but offroad newbie), ride a Cagiva Elephant 900 for the past 2 years, last year I rode15K Km, plan on using a Yamaha XT660 for the trip though, have about 6 months of "spare time", have about 20000Euro to spend on the jolt (bike on seperate budget), have very little mechanical skills (hope to remedy that in preperation), will need to leave either 1'st Nov '07 or 1'st Apr '08, western route from Marocco to SA, starting from Denmark.

Ok, here I go with my newbie questions (please be nice ):

1. My biggest fear is being stranded out in the middle of nowhere because I've run out of petrol. How big an issue is this? Is there any way to get info on petrol availabillity and location in advance before I embark on my next leg?

2. Accomodation. I am no stranger to outdoor camping and "roughing it" for extended periods of time. I will however need to basecamp every now and again under more civilized conditions to renew my traveling strength and stock up on food and other supplies. Is there any way to plan ahead for these places? On this website I've come across one or two names of places that I have diligently written down. Guess I am looking for a "campsites and youth hostels of Africa" pamphlet . Any suggestions?

3. By reading these forums it seems that 6 months allows me to reach SA at a leasurely pace. If I speed it up a little (skip some sightseeing) do I even dare contemplate driving home via the eastern route in this timeframe, or should I allready now be thinking about plans for shipping my bike home from SA? Or in other words, has anyone done the western route down AND eastern route back, in 6 months?

4. Applying for visas is apparently not as big an issue as I had thought it would be. "On the fly" seems to be the way most people in these forums do it. However, depending on how accurate I would be able to plan my trip, might I not be able to save a lot of time by having these in order before I leave? Or would you advise against this because the political and diplomatic situation may be entirely different once I get there?

5. Don't want to start a Yamaha/BMW argument here, but would it be fair to say that Yamaha spareparts are more readily available in Africa (broadly speaking) than BMW parts?

6. Is it overly ambitious to hope to drive to SA on the same set of tyres or should I plan for at least one change on the way (not withstanding blowouts and accidents ofcourse)

These were just 6 of the approx. 5312 questions I have . I realize that one or two of them may belong better in other forums but decided to try them all together here first, since I am in the planning stages of the trip. And before you ask; yes, I have tried getting these questions answered by searching the HUB but find many posts out of date or not specific enough.

Here's hoping for some wise words from the veteran .