Hi,

i'm the early stage of planning a cape town to europe (in a 4wd sorry) trip. i know is a fairly well beaten path but with a VERY nervous girlfriend i really need to plan the trip well in advance. i'm bascially starting in cape town and reserching and planning the route going north,

bascially i have it all worked out (i think) to as far north as Uganda area. I realise things change, civil unrest weather, border crossing etc meet people along with way and they recommend places to go etc etc, but to reassure her she really wants th rout planned as best as possible. she has been doing her own reasearch and the bit that worries us most is from uganda/kenya to Egypt.

What is the safest route north?
what is the situation with south sudan now? and the road from the nairobi to the ethpioan border? is it safe?

we really want to go to Ugangda to see the gorillas, from there up what would be the safest way north?

I fully appreciate things change and the advice given now may no longer be current in 6 months time but any help would be appreciated, we havent done a major overland trip before.

has anyone got to route take taken available to look at?

thanks again.

I will be on the same route next year from august:
East Africa 2012

As for routes from Nairobi to Caïro, it's very easy, there is basically only one (95 % asfalt) route. Nairobi - Moyale -Addis- Gonder - Gedaref - Karthoum - Wadi Halfa- Caïro.
The Isiolo - Moyale bit seems to be the most dangerous, so do this in convoy.
South Sudan is a big guess for the moment, wait and see, it will probably be no problem when Sudan and the new South Sudan get along at the still contested oil rich border between the 2. But the easy route up bypasses South Sudan.

As for safety, generally the east coast is very safe, but you can always 'be in the wrong place at the wrong time', just as the wrong place can be just outside your home and the wrong time,can be tomorrow morning.
There is no such thing as absolute safety. But I'm very sure that your wife will get at ease after a few weeks on the road, after meeting so much genuinely friendly Africans.

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Last summer, two good friends of mine went the opposite way, from Europe (Norway, specifically) to Cape Town. They didn't even drive a 4x4, just a beat-up Opel Astra '94. They had no safety issues whatsoever, and they even went through South Sudan (Wau - Tambura - Juba). Of course the situation may have changed after 9th of July. Other than that, I agree that the Moyale stretch is probably your biggest worry.

Keep an eye of this forum and others like it to stay up-to-date on the latest developments. Also, consider setting up a Google Alert with "Moyale" and/or other areas of interest as keywords. That way you'll be notified automatically whenever it's mentioned in mainstream news outlets.

If you want to have a closer look at the road conditions up the east coast, you can browse through photos from my friends' trip here

Have you considered the west route, the only obstacles if that is what you can call them are Angola and Nigeria, otherwise a pretty easy and straight forward route with a mix of good and bad roads, the choose is yours

Hi K974,

We are nearing the end of our trip - we started in Walvis Bay, Namibia and are currently in Sinai, Egypt and on our way back to the UK. We've been on the road almost 3 years.

If you'd like to check out our website see below.

Off 2 Africa ...

The diary will tell you everywhere we've been day by day, country by country (I'm afraid we've been round in circles a bit -especially in the early days) but basically we've traveled Cape Town to Cairo. If you click on the links from the Route page this will show you some info about each country eg fuel prices, border requirements etc.

As others have said the one stretch people worry about is the north of Kenya. There are two possible routes - via Moyale and via Lake Turkana. In practice what will almost certainly happen is you will get to Jungle Junction in Nairobi, meet lots of overlanders who have come from the other direction, talk to lots of people, probably agree to hitch up with someone and choose your route with the benefit of lots of up to date info, GPS tracks and tips. Don't worry about it. Also don't worry about Sudan. If you follow the usual route you will only go through North Sudan and will be nowhere near any trouble spots.

Enjoy the planning - and if you have any specific questions feel free.

Itchyfeet

We've just done this route southwards and had no problems whatsoever. We went thru Egypt just after riots, Sudan just before it split, it was all plain sailing. Its not as scary or hardcore as the news makes out. :-)
Good luck!!!

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Ness | two turkeys and a rope | www.greenturkey.co.nz