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sub-Saharan Africa Topics specific to sub-Saharan Africa. (Includes all countries South of 17 degrees latitude)
Photo by Andy Miller, UK, Taking a rest, Jokulsarlon, Iceland

I haven't been everywhere...
but it's on my list!


Photo by Andy Miller, UK,
Taking a rest,
Jokulsarlon, Iceland



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  #16  
Old 3 Mar 2010
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I don't recall any trouble in Malawi or Tanzania but I imagine the more rural you get the spottier the fuel.

Namibia is fantastic. The roads are well maintained (which can be a bit of a curse on the freshly graded stuff) and the scenery is amazing. You might be tempted to spend more of your time there just exploring and with a three month plan I don't think you would be able to do that. I agree that three months is doable but personally I'm glad we took five. There is so much of the world to see that I'm not sure when I'll be going back to places to see things I might have missed on the first time through.

I think the main reason that travellers don't prearrange visas from home is because of the time committment. A visa is only valid for a certain time (be it 30 days or 3 months) so prearranging removes a lot of the flexibility from a trip. We applied for our Sudanese visa months in advance back home in Canada and we didn't have it when we left on our trip. We still didn't have it when we got to Egypt so we applied again in Cairo. In the end that turned out to be the best way anyway. With a faster trip and more critical time commitments it may make more sense to get them before hand.
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  #17  
Old 4 Mar 2010
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I totally agree, but in my situation and considering past experiences it's just not realistic and feasible, so I'm doing whatever is and just accept it.

The plan is to follow the route from this thread as it really inspired me to go to Africa in the first place. Don't see the point in reinventing the wheel, and it's miles from what we have here in Oz.

The Wife, the Ex and the kid do Namibia - ADVrider

My range is 400km if I throttle it (somehow get better mileage running it hard), and can carry an extra 10l in a fuel bladder. We'll do some stamina preperation here in Oz which is easily done here.

I'm starting in SA, so will have to apply in Ethiopia for a Sudanese. But I reckon I should be able to get within 30 days of the entry date just because of only having 3 months anyway. So am thinking of doing it here.
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  #18  
Old 21 Mar 2010
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I finished my trip in Jan this year from capetown to austria. My Suzuki freewind hads a 18 litre tank and i carried 10 litres extra. I used it once in northern kenya along the eastern side of lake tokanau. I Had problems in zambia, malawi and ethiopia. A lot of the fuel stations had none but i always found fuel on the black market. i think that some of it was blended with kero as it did not look or smell right. the bike ran ok.
Ask a taxi driver with a petrol car. I found that this was the easy way to find it.

Cheers miles
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  #19  
Old 21 Mar 2010
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Taxi drivers. That's a good tip.
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