Hello, I'm planning a motorcycle trip from Brussels (Belgium) to Abidjan (Ivory Coast) to discover West Africa, or at least part of it, via Morocco, Mauritania, Senegal, Guinea and the Ivory Coast.

I'm going with a friend and we want to discover as many places as possible, meet new people and take the time to document the trip with photos and videos.

As far as I'm concerned, given the scale of the trip, I think we'll need 3 months to make the round trip and have enough time to really enjoy it, but my friend would like to do it in 2 months maximum...

How long do you think such a trip would take?

Maybe I'll find the right arguments to change his mind.
If that doesn't persuade him, I'm thinking of possibly extending the trip on my own, so that I can get 100% enjoyment out of this trip, which is so close to my heart and which I've been organizing for over a year now.

Thanks in advance !

That's around 10,000 km without much wandering around. This would take us 61 days.

However "we want to discover as many places as possible" so this could easily turn into a 20,000 km trip, which would take us 122 days.

Does your friend have a hard deadline? If not you could suggest planning on 2-1/2 months with an agreement to see how you get on after a month and extend if you're both enjoying it.

What are your experiences as travelers, alone and together?
Are the roads in every country as good as you're used to, or is there a possibility that your daily average drops in less developed areas?
Do you take rest days in between our do you ride every day?
Can you keep up your daily average for two weeks?
If you want to reach a certain destination in a certain time, isn't that a race?
If you wanna race there, how can you discover places along the way?
If you don't care about the places along the way, why not ship the bikes to the destination to discover it in more detail?

My advice: set a direction, not a destination. Go into that direction at a comfortable pace. If I drive ten days in a row, I just wanna go home. Instead, allow yourselves to discover things along the way. I drove 80.000km in 26 months, now I'm in Indonesia. Did I aim for Indonesia? Nope. Just roughly Asia. But had I forced myself to get here, I would have lost the motivation, because every country on the way wouldn't have been where I wanted to be. Go one country, one city at a time. Even if your bike can do the distance, can you do it mentally? I just found out many new things about myself when it comes to riding and staying concentrated and in control.

I met a biker in Iran, he crossed the country within a week, because he wanted to reach India. He missed out on so much, just camping, no time to meet people and get to know the culture. Why not just fly in that case?

But I also met bikers that thrive by riding through countries. I just couldn't imagine it for myself, that's why I advise against it.

Hope it helps

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