Just how much tarmac is there now?
 

Hello,

Here is a question for fairly recent travellers from UK to Cape Town.

Taking in the 2 predominant routes.

1. West coast, Morocco, Maurit, Mali, Burkina, Benin, Nigeria, Camaroon, then all the way south.

2. Eastern route, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Sudan, then south all the way south.

Pleas input your knowledge/ opinions/experience of the following.

Just rough % 'ages

Tarmac %
Gravel %
Sand %
Soft sand %

or a surface % that you feel is not listed above.

'vette

Hi Vette, it depends on how much of hurry you're in!!

Tunis, Libya, Egypt, virtually all tar, unless you go off into the oases in Egypt, in which case it's a mixture of sand, gravel & lousy tarmac. Sudan is soft sand/gravel from Wadi Halfa to Dongola, and good gravel & tar South through Ethiopia, then the lousy stretch of corrugations from the Kenyan border to Isiolo. Then tarmac or good gravel all the way to CT, except for Moz which has some awesome potholes!

Lucie

Hey Vette,

Percentages depend on a few things but the eastern route from Egypt to South Africa can be done with an unavoidable minimum of 400 km of unpaved road in Sudan (Wadi Halfa to Dongola) and about 1,000 km in Nothern Kenya on the Moyale/Isiolo portion. The rest of the route is some form of pavement, quality ranging from good to poor enough that you wish it was gravel. The main other non paved portion that people choose ride is in Namibia to see Sossuvlei etc. Quality of the road is typically very good. Hope that helps.

Hi Mountainman,

When you get off the ferry at Wadi Halfra, do you have to go the Dongala route, can you not go the road to Abu Hamad, or is that also sand ?

;vette

Tarmac
 

West Coast in 2007/2008 was 90-95% tarmac following the main roads. Mainly pretty good tarmac too.

.
Hello edteamslr,

Thank you for the info.
So one of the sandt bit's is still the Moroc/Western Sahara border? have I got it right, or is it Western Sahara / Maurit. ?

'vette

The latter - all of about 10minutes of riding on sandy dirt between border posts. The first proper bit of rough-road on the main ROUTE was the detour to Diama dam on the way from Mauri to Senegal.

Refer other posts: 2 routes from Wadi = Dongola (fair track) vs Railway (SAND!!!)

Latest I heard was the Wadi-Dongola road is about 60-70% tarmaced (not bad for 1,5 yrs since we past there)

The Japanese are finished tarring the Blue Nile Gorge (hell that road was bad...)

The Chinese have added about 35km tar to the road north of Isiolo

These are hearsay so someone who did it recently please confirm!