I've not done it but that's what I've heard so I imagine it might be a struggle on a Vespa. Easier option: get a Nigerian visa and nip through the NE corner of Niger in a day, depending on where exactly the unrest is up there.

Ch



C1 Nguigmi – Ndjamena (The Lake Chad Route) [620km]
(from 2003)

Description
This route takes an inner course close to the lake with a landscape of savannah with many trees and wadis. You’ll see many small villages, and nomads with goats and camels. A carnet for the car is not necessary. At both customs you can buy a laissez-passer for a couple of thousand CFA. Passing through Bol is not compulsory, although it’s the only place on the route where you can actually see Lake Chad. No one asks for car insurance, like almost everywhere in Chad.
People can be quite nasty, especially in Massakori and Bol. Often kids throw stones at passing cars. Some Germans we met had to pay a lot of money because a small boy asking for a cadeau was hurt when they opened the door of their car. It was not their fault, they said, but the police forced them to pay – ‘a lot’, they said. We heard many similar stories.

Route-finding and markers
Navigation is the main problem on this route, especially around the many small towns between Bol and Nguigmi, where many tracks come together. Looking at the Michelin 741 map, it seems that there are two routes; a main one via Mao and this lesser one closer to the lake via Bol. The Mao route may well exist, but all traffic these days seems to go through Bol and we saw no obvious split in the piste that may have gone to Mao.
All border formalities except carnets are completed in Daboua (not on any map). GPS is only helpful to find the towns. On many parts of this itinerary the main route seems to be changing all the time.

Fuel
Petrol and diesel can be bought at many places, but mostly at high prices. Better to fill up in Nguigmi (or better still, Diffa, nearer to Nigeria and so probably cheaper) or Ndjamena.

Water
Many wells, although the water is not always good. Ask the locals.

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Morocco Overland 4 (2025) • Trans Morocco Trail

I would get an extension on you Benin visa and then focus on the Nigerian visa. Surely it would be a lot easier to drive to Yaounde in a straight line. Have you got experience on piste driving with the vespa? I drove a vespa for 20 years, but the lake chad route I wouldn't even take on with my xt660z with luggage.
Could you explain how you got robbed? This is one of my fears along the way, was there anything you could have done to prevent it?
Be safe, Tony

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http://tony-ontheroad.blogspot.com/

I drove the Lake Chad route ten years ago.

There isn't really a route, there are a lot of tracks but they are totally different then the maps indicate.
I think I drove 400 kms from Nguigmi to Bol, but I had a 40 km detour. It might be wise to prepare for 500kms.
Navigation is an issue, there is a lot of blind tracks stopping at villages. You can drive closer to the lake then it looks on the maps - but don't go to close.

The first part after Nguigmi is very sandy, then there is a rocky part before the soft sandy tracks starts. As I saw it the sandy tracks are the worst because they are deep and most of the time you have to drive in the tracks to avoid the bush with a lot of huge thorns.
I'm not sure if a Vespa has enough ground-clearance to follow the tracks.

Personally I didn't see any fuel between Nguigmi and Bol but I carried enough fuel and didn't look for it. There are quite a few villages but most of them are empty (nomadic people?) and the rest is simply a group of huts and a few people.
I think the trucks drive further from the lake and I just saw one other vehicle. If you get problems you might have to wait for a long time.

There is a road that starts a while before Bol but it's in terrible shape, some of the potholes are more then two meters deep and they will easily swallow both you and your Vespa. From Bol it gets easier but there is a lot of fech fech, covering an extremely bad road. We are not talking soft sand anymore, this is the real stuff! I can't remember where the tarmac starts.

Personally I wouldn't have done it on a Vespa, but I'm not familiar with it's limitations. I would also have carried all my food, water and petrol.
There might be possible to get a ride on a truck from Nguigmi, I don't have any information about this.

I have experiences with piste riding on a vespa which is not a bit problem but if a lot of sand comes into play it can get a little bit wild. Did a lot of sand in the dogon country, and that was pretty hardcore but people told me even guys with teneres had problemes there.

Got robbed in the late evening in cotonou on the street, my fault, caused by a broken down moped of my friend in a dogy area. No need to be affraid about robery here in westafrica more than in Barcelona or Paris, seriously.

Anybody got pictures of the worst parts of that route ? I am always at the wrong place at the wrong time. When I was in bamako, there were no nigerian visas or let me say it was a pain in the ass to get a visa that in the end was not like they promised a 3 month but a 1 month and now in cotonou they behave like the biggest, incompetent dick heads, screw them ...

Anybody know the situation in Niamey for Nigeria Visas ?

greetings chris

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It's a lot of sand and the tracks are deep and soft. I think the Vespa might be to low and will get stuck in the sides of the tracks. The first section is small dunes.
I'm not saying it's impossible to do it, but it was pretty hard alone on a motorbike and I think it will be much harder (to hard?) on a Vespa.

No sorry, my films got confiscated by the army.