Are you going on the 70 km Ekok-Mamfe piste?
If you are and it is the rainy season....then....forget Ebola and prepare for battle

yes the plan was january, but the news is not getting any better, and im not realy expecting the camerron border to open soon...ok there is always ways across, but i cant realy sent a truck down with 3 pax and a 50/50 chance of not making it...especaly as boko haram have taken over a lot of the villages and towns near the camroon north south road ( but on the nigerian side of the border)which was our emergancy detour route.

it was a big disappointment, but our company is just to young to send the truck down losing money....and then giving a half refund in nigeria or whatever, my creditcard does not have a high enouth limit to pay everyone off....it was better to cancel now and try again for next year ( at least sky news will be tired of the story then)

but thats the way the cookie crumbles, i was all go, until DRC announced 31 dead,

Sad news Gazza sorry to hear that. We're in the same boat as you know, and most other overland operators have decided to cancel the upcoming season.

It feels awful to do this at a time when these countries need the support, but the logistics have become so risky there's a huge potential for things to go tits up. Just hoping the powers that be get on top of this outbreak soon and it stops spreading.

Haha yeah I think that's been the case in the past but have heard from a few people including another overlander coming the other way that it's now tarmac.

Reading the original blog about the Cameroon crossing it seems like they were only letting people with residency in, and even then they quarantined 60 of them for 2 weeks.

Are you guys at all familiar with shipping options to bypass Nigeria?

My fiancee and I have been planning an african overland trip for the last year. Leaving from Ireland Nov.2 in a 2001 Land Cruiser fully fitted. We are getting married in Mauritania Nov.15. From there, our plan was to down to Sierra Leone to do some volunteer work for a NGO we are involved with, then make our way back up to Senegal and ship the Land Cruiser back to UK from Dakar and fly home. Obviously, ebola has impacted our plans, not to mention the lives and livelihoods most of West Africa.

We have a lot of money and energy invested, including non-refundable airfares, so are trying figure out alternatives.

One thought was to travel through Mali, Burkina Faso, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, and Congo, then ship Land Cruiser back from Pointe Noir or Luanda. This looks possible, except now for the border issue at Cameroon. Can anyone confirm that it is not possible for a tourist to cross? Seems like the only other alternative would be to spend time in Ghana, Togo, Benin, and ship back from Tema, hoping that ebola does not close any of those borders.

Any ideas? I guess we could try for the above and if we can't get through, then back to Tema or Lagos to ship back.

Regards, Rick.

Hmm, seems all plans going from north to south are mostly on hold.....I've been planning quite a while and our tour would have started mid of octobre...

Reading all information, we have decided doing north of africa is adventure, but ebola, closed border of cameroun with nigeria, and local panic situation, this is to much to make this an adventure with fun...

Allthough our original route would never bring us in Ebola countries...but we had to cross Nigeria (comming from mali, burkino and benin) and get into cameroun....and this situation is not likely to change in the very near future.

So last week, we have decided to ship our bikes form europe to Cape town, and do a round trip taking us to namibia, botswana, zimbabwe, zambia, malawi, tanzania en return via mozambique and south africa....

We were able to take this decision as we had no visas yet so our options were still open.....I regret I will miss the north but there is simply no "easy" way around giving the current situation.

keeping in mind it can still become worse as more countries close borders....I don't want to be stuck in Benin.

Watch this thread at the german wüstenschiff forum (probably use google translate):

http://www.wuestenschiff.de/phpbb/we...ch-t51686.html

There overlander report their current experiences about bordercrossings of

Burkina Faso, Benin, Togo, Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire.

Where they have to wash once their hands at the border and once they meter the body temperature, or have to fill a form.

One of them too write an blog: jealousyreloaded.bplaced.net

I guess that it is more relaxed, if you are there, as here if you watch the news and some forums...

If you are too afraid, the east route over egypt seems to be easy again: http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...719#post478612 - a new ferry line is up



Surfy

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Trans-Africa over the west coast

Cameroon reopens border with Ebola-free Nigeria | STANDARD-TRIBUNE

Looks like after a very tedious wait, the border is open again.

I'm heading back this week to continue with my car from calabar. Lost my copilot so if anyone is also doing the route and you're keen to convoy for a bit please let me know.

Cameroon reopens border with Ebola-free Nigeria | STANDARD-TRIBUNE

Looks like after a very tedious wait, the border is open again.

I'm heading back this week to continue with my car from calabar. Lost my copilot so if anyone is also doing the route and you're keen to convoy for a bit please let me know.

Correction. Border not open. There are rumours and articles flying around saying all sorts of stuff but I'm in Ikom- land borders are not open. All air borders are open, and maritime cargo is open but nothing else. Some bikers have sent their motos and flown separately from Benin successfully however.

I did the road from Mamfe to Ekok in early february 2014.
New tared road the first 20 km after Mamfe. Than 20 km very new and very large truck. Was ready to get new tar. All the way they were busy works on the new road which will be tared up to the border (chinese Company)

Just a quick update - there's a cargo ferry which goes from Calabar to Tiko port in Cameroon but it's a duopoly and the guys have cottoned on to the overlanders' plight and are quoting stupid prices in the order CFCA700k and up.

Rumour has it that there is a heap of pressure on Cameroon to open the border for the large number of people who want to travel home for Christmas. I'll be passing Ikok again on Sunday (some have said this is the day earmarked for the opening, but that's just one of dozens of rumours I'm hearing so doesn't hold much weight for me).

If it doesn't open in the next week or two I'll be sending the car by ship all the way to Namibia and avoiding the difficult center for the time being, which I'd be pretty gutted about.

Will send PM Josh.

cheers
appreciate
having a mare with visas as well
bloody joke

Hi Roach,

Is the border still closed? I am now in Accra and would be crossing into Cameroon in about 4 weeks time. I plan to apply visa for Cameroon in Nigeria and hope the border is open by then.

How is the traveling situation in Nigeria, any particular place/city to avoid going to and which way is the safest to take to cross from Nigeria into Cameroon?

Thanks in advance.

Borneoman

I need to get moving so I've driven back to Lagos and am organising to ship my car to Namibia. I can't justify forking out for expensive visas only to have them expire without any clue when the border will open. However I'm still keeping in touch with the guys at the border so I can post any updates on here. No change yet, it seems like Boko Haram is the main cause and that stuff isn't settling down any time soon - on the other hand there's a lot of pressure to open the border so that people can return home for Christmas.

For routes - I'm no expert because I only did it twice but I figure the best way is to go through the Ilara border 100km north of Cotonou (near Ketou), then Abeokuta-Ljebu Ode-Ore-Benin City-Onitsha-Abakaliki then if you want to go to the border continue straight to Ikom but if you want to go to Calabar take the South road to Ugep (couple of turns easy to miss there) and then down to Calabar. Suggest don't go the Aba route - roads are horrible and you can get stuck in traffic in Aba and other large towns (made that mistake the first time). You'll tear your hair out at checkpoints until Abeokuta but then it's good highway pretty much all the way to Onitsha, then smaller but reasonable roads from there to Calabar. I just drove from Calabar to Lagos in 12 hours without stopping at a single checkpoint - I think because I waited until Sunday to do it and left at 5am. Sunday's a good day for driving in Nigeria!