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sub-Saharan Africa Topics specific to sub-Saharan Africa. (Includes all countries South of 17 degrees latitude)
Photo by Lois Pryce, schoolkids in Algeria

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Photo of Lois Pryce, UK
and schoolkids in Algeria



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  #1  
Old 16 Sep 2020
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Mechanical skills

Hiya ADP

If you read my blog (I am the bmw r1150gs rider in Gael earnings) you will see that lack of mechanical skills is not an obstacle to progress. That would be especially the case if you buy a local bike as, as others have said, most roadside mechanics will be able to fix them.

Regards

Simon
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Old 17 Sep 2020
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Originally Posted by simon dippenhall View Post
Hiya ADP

If you read my blog (I am the bmw r1150gs rider in Gael earnings) you will see that lack of mechanical skills is not an obstacle to progress. That would be especially the case if you buy a local bike as, as others have said, most roadside mechanics will be able to fix them.

Regards

Simon
Hi Simon

How often did you break down? I am worried about getting stuck in the middle of nowhere and getting myself into bother!

What Sat Nav did you guys use? I'm having difficulty finding one that covers West Africa
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Old 19 Sep 2020
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Originally Posted by ADP10 View Post
Hi Simon

How often did you break down? I am worried about getting stuck in the middle of nowhere and getting myself into bother!

What Sat Nav did you guys use? I'm having difficulty finding one that covers West Africa

Best read the blog....

But to summarise, the ‘middle of nowhere’ is more a concept of our imagination. In reality people live in these places...for example, when the bike stopped dead towards the mid point of a 300 km dirt road in Rep of Congo, I managed to arrange help and spent the night sleeping on the examination table of the infirmary in a village without electricity or running water. Got this mechanic to come on the back of a small Moto from 25 kms away to try to diagnose the electrical problem

But to find out how it all ended, recommend you check out the full blog...


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  #4  
Old 19 Sep 2020
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Originally Posted by Jim Lad View Post
I used a Garmin GPS and loaded maps from Tracks4Africa(T4A). They are not too expensive and they covered all the roads I used. Also includes info on accommodation, petrol stations, bank etc. Also well worth downloading the iOverlander App to your phone. This has lots of information for travellers in a map format, with comments added by previous travellers. When talking about phones, both Simon and I had 2 phones, our our own phone and an additional one into which we inserted a local SIM. We used the extra phone to generate a WiFi hotspot and then connected our main phone to this WiFi, to gain access to the internet. This meant that one of the first tasks on arriving in a country was to buy a SIM. Best not to buy at the border, but wait to get to the first main town and ask the locals which network is best.

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Sorry if this is a stupid question but can any Garmin GPS download the West Africa maps or is there certain types of GPS that are limited to certain regions?

Quote:
Originally Posted by simon dippenhall View Post
Best read the blog....

But to summarise, the ‘middle of nowhere’ is more a concept of our imagination. In reality people live in these places...for example, when the bike stopped dead towards the mid point of a 300 km dirt road in Rep of Congo, I managed to arrange help and spent the night sleeping on the examination table of the infirmary in a village without electricity or running water. Got this mechanic to come on the back of a small Moto from 25 kms away to try to diagnose the electrical problem

But to find out how it all ended, recommend you check out the full blog...


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

That's amazing, I'll check out the blog in more detail.

Did you always carry cash for situations like this? I am wondering what sort of money should Ihave on hand? Don't want to carry too much if possible but wouldn't want to get stuck for cash if there were no ATMs for miles.
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