cash on the road

[noel di pietro]

Guys,

How much cash money and for what period do you need to carry on a 4WD trip through Africa, via Atlantic route, Mali, Chaad, Cameroon, etc down to RSA?
Dollars, Euro's ? Local ? What about availability of ATM's in the cities.

Would appreciate some feedback from anybody on the road or with the experience !

Thanks,

Noel

[Toby2]

Don't need to carry too much. There are ATMs in some of the major cities including in Morocco, Burkina Fasu, Cote D'Ivoire, Ghana. You can get money from the banks but as you get into central africa, they are very basic, the operations all seem to be paper based so it can be quite time consuming. Between the 3 of us, I guess we normally had about £300 - £500, at the time mainly in french francs and dollars, however I think Euros have tkane over throughout alot of north and west africa. Generally its pretty cheap travelling through, its really more if you have problems such as a break down when not near a major city, starts getting difficult to get more funds.

[Gipper]

Hi,
You need to figure out your spending for fuel,(litres needed on whole trip - about 25,000km one way - divided by your vehicles worst fuel consumption figure - kpl)oil and consumable partsfor servicing - take all the filters you will need as they are expensive, food, visas, camping, activities, etc then on top add as much as you can to cover for mechanical or admin problems/delays.
Take Euros - USD are not good in West Africa - you get a really poor rate for them, though if you have some already, take them along for tips etc.
carry as much cash as you are comfortable with (a good safe is a worthwhile mod to your 4wd) - travellers cheques can be a pain to change and you pay a commision generally, (normally a better rate on the black market- everywhere you go people will ask if you want to change money) but they are still handy to have when the atm does not take your card or there isn't one.
Cheers
Grif

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'95 LR 90 300 Tdi
'02 KTM Adventure 640
Ex Rockape, Ex Drago
...and Bloody Nice Bloke!

[ozhanu]

Actually I have a similar question. What about Middle East. Like Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, etc?? Euro, Pounds or USD? Is it possible to use ATM's on Syria, Jordan and Lebanon with my British bank card like Barcleys or Lloyds?

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ride safely
ozhan u.
www.ozhanu.com/gezi