has any one travelled with kudu expeditions uk. i have been looking at there trans africa expedition. wondered if anyone on here has done this trip. many thanks.

Hi,

We did not ride with them but met up with them in Ghana. Everyone seemed to be enjoying the venture at the time. Will see if we can get you some contact details of guys that did the trip.

Regards
Frank

Hi,

Just noticed a posting under travellers seeking travellers from one of the guys that just did the UK to SA trip with Kudu. He is offering info to all interested parties.

Regards
Frank

Try searching the forum on "Kudu Expeditions". There is a posting from 28th MAy with personal experience....

Search and ye shall find!

Jens

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BMW R100GS
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Jens is gone, but not forgotten.

Searches are not turning up much. We'd be interested in hearing about people's experiences with this company as well. Thanks...

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Glenn Wakefield

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Glenn,

Are you the Sami nut?

I travelled with kudu for a few days during their trans-africa this year in Central Africa - I was travelling independently and just tagged along for a bit. I wasn't with them for that long, but I have to say my impressions of them were extremely good. They really seemed to have thought of everything and were obviously extremely well prepared before they left the UK (certainly more prepared than I was!). Their staff were very helpful to me indeed and got me out of a right pickle so I may be a bit biased. The riders seemed to be having a fantastic time - a few moans but more along the lines of "I want to stay in more hotels" rather than anything that most of the people on this forum would consider serious. Apparently one guy left the trip half way through who wasn't having a good time but putting it politely he didn't seem to have made a very good impression on the other guys to say the least! That's obviously the downside of group travel like this which you need to carefully think about - what kind of people are you going to end up stuck with?

In summary, they seemed very professional to me and I was very impressed. I have just come back from a solo trans-Africa and with the mechanical, border, visa and other problems I suffered, along with the loneliness of solo travel for weeks across central Africa, with hindsight I would have considered joining their trip rather than doing it on my own. I hope that helps a little anyway - I still have the e-mail addresses of a couple of the guys on the trip, I will try and get them to post here.

brandy x thankyou very much for your reply.very helpfull; its just that i want to get this trip right. and the lad who dropped out [ i found it a bit offputting ] without knowing reasons etc.its just that i want to find out as much as possible before i commit my self. if you could get any others on that trip to get in touch; it would be brilliant. anyway thanks again. all the best regards byron

Hi

I travelled on the kudu expeditions Mar-Aug 2006 Cambridge to Cape Town trip. so could answer any querries you might have but I havent sat down and thought out some great what did I think of them type essay.

They are ok but they have a schedule and a budget to stick to or else they dont make so much money. This means sometimes they make you push on because they are worried about falling behind the plan just when you want to see something spectacular like the Etosha Game Park. Its marked as one of the trip highlights and we only got one evening and one day there before we had to move on which was a real shame. This was often the case on the trip and is a downside of going on an organised trip where you are not in control of the itinery.

Stopping when you want is ok but they often would follow only a couple of minutes behind you on the road. This meant that I rarely felt like I was on an expedition fitting the elements rather I was being nannied. This may or may not seem important but it will if your even slightly adventureous. Their reason was that they didnt want to loose anyone or that if you had an accident you where less far from help. These are valid reasons but didn't fit with my pre trip expectation.

Overall when you get back you can look back on the trip with kudu expeditions and feel good you did it but it could of been so much better if they would of listened to the participants during the expedition rather than just sending us a questionaire at the end once it was to late.

Its easy for me to say this now but after two of the 17 countries I was already confident enough to wish I had just set off with a friend or someone met from Horizons. If you are not good at organising yourself then these guys will get you there and you can tell your friends you did this great journey but I think you miss so much of africa because you just take the best roads possible (they have a schedule and mixed abilities to consider)rather than the most interesting ones.

look I could talk and talk and this is just a tiny part of my feelings today I must right something down and post it onto my web site as its impossible to describe the trip and how you feel about it even in a few pages but for me its still sinking in and dont want to say its all bad as its not but there are a lot of problems with kudu that I hope they do something about. Like the trip to Dakar we did this in much longer time and the road down there is boring then we got a day and a half to cross the sahara this was not quite the advertised three days but you see even this little part of the trip would require a message on its own.

Good Luck

I was very excited about a possible trip with Kudu, well, till I found out the cost.....and had some reservations about going on an "organised tour"

I would love a trip of Africa and the last post has answered/confirmed a lot of my queries, but what are the options as I am not experienced or confident about taking a trip like this alone and know of no-one to do such a trip with?

Phil

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650 Transalp

Hi Shandydrinker,

I am in the same boat as you and after scouring these message boards for info I contacted Kudu for a reference. They gave me a phone number of one of the customers who was on the last trans-Africa expeditions and he absolutely raved about the whole experience and Kudu as well - the exact opposite to what has been written here.

I suggest you get in contact with Kudu yourself like I did. I don't want to travel on my own and I have no great travel experience so they seem perfect to me. Having spoken to this guy and Kudu themselves if I can scrounge the money together and get a holiday pass from the wife I will be on the trip.

All the best mate,
Harry

I'm doing the 'halfway option'. Travelling with Kudu to Dakar (leaving in 4 weeks) and then continuing on my own. Being a relative novice of 'adventure motorcycling', I hope that the 3 weeks from UK to Dakar will be good training and acclimatisation for the continuing tour on my own.

Yes, it's a bit pricey, but they do give you full support for the 3 weeks (they can carry my stuff), get the carnet organised and hold a training weekend.

Kudu did say that there was someone else considering the trip and continuing after, or to do it all alone instead. Not one of you guys?

Martin

I'm going to try and get onto their UK to Cape Town one in the spring but trying to get money together - going to see how much I can get for one of my kids on eBay first. Can't confirm on the trip yet but I'm going to give it a damn good try!

Does anyone fancy joining up for an "unorganised trip", seem's like there are a few of us who'd like to do a trip like this, Ideally I'd prefer NOT to go with an organisation, I could scrape the money together but still baulk at the thought of the cost of it in principal and am reluctant to travel alone for prolonged periods in unknown territory.

Phil

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I guess that would be me.... My company was initially built on parts for Suzukis, but its only a small part of the overall business at this point. Still my sentimental favorite when it comes to 4x4 though.

Also, I just finished a trip with Kudu. Had a great time and would recommend them to anyone who wants to ride Africa and doesn't happen to have a bike on the same continent, is interested in a pretty cool route, and is looking for riding companions. I'm from the USA, so renting a bike and using their trip/guide plan made great sense.

Anyway, anyone have any questions on how Kudu is running things lately, feel free to email me. I did enjoy the trip alot and the route they use thru Mauritania was about as danger-free as you can get in that part of the world despite the cancellation of the rally this year. The route thru the Atlas mountains we ran, even though on tarmac, was some of the most enjoyable paved riding I have ever done. Hundreds of miles of twisty-turneys on deserted narrow roads thru remote villages. The trip doesn't have to be all on dirt to have a great ride.

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Glenn Wakefield

Where the road ends, life begins....
www.rocky-road.com