West Coast
 

We are looking for any information concerning overland morrocco to SA. Has anyone recently done it? (ie last 12 months)

Is it possible without shipping?

Cheers

hi tarisus,

was pleased to see that you and manyothers have made the trip down the west coast. my post asked about roads. we are riding a scooter and can stay on any hard surface but the soft stuff is not good. can you shed some light on road as far as nigeria?

If you went down the west coast on the Atlantic route, now that there is a new road built through Mauritania you could get all the way to Nigeria on tarmac.

Toby2
What is the route like once the tarmac runs out? We are planning to go from the South doing the same journey?

Thanks

We went east across Chad - Sudan - Ethiopia then south to SA. You could get all the way to Chad on tarmac (would limit your options a bit but possible) then you move on to dirt. Tracks across chad have lots of wash outs but if you take it slowly are okay. Once into Sudan, there is a tarmac road from the border to the first town (approximately 100kms), then into heavy sand, no roads or tracks, just tyre tracks next to a railway. However railway in that case might be your way through. Then about 100kms from Costi, you hit really good tarmac again. Roads in Ethiopia are very stoney but okay. From Addis Ababa down to border there is a good tarmac road. Road in Northern kenya has very bad corregations and lots of bikers put bikes on truck down to near Archers post, then good tarmac again. Sorry don't have info on going down the west coast. Haven't done that route yet.

Im interested in your route, couple of years ago we went down the east route, and would now like to do the west route, but get as far as west africa and then cross over to the east through north central frica. I always thought this wasnt possible..but your saying it is!! i have a 4x4 land cruiser...am i reading this right?

Quite difficult. Possible when we did it about 3 years ago but since then the trouble in Darfur has developed. Chad and Sudan have been sabre rattling in recent months and there is apparently a large refugee population floating back and forwards across the border trying to avoid armed groups. There is no official way to cross further north. Tibesti has been dodgy for a while and very few people traverl there, you can't officially cross into Egypt or northern Sudan from Chad. Further south, the odd vehicle has managed to get through CAR, Southern Sudan, Northern Congo, Northern Uganda but given the different conflicts going on in this area, these look like high risk routes. The most viable option appears to be travelling down the west coast - down through Congo, DRC, Angola, Namibia - looks like it could be really interesting and you stay away from the troubled areas of the Congo and DRC. There seems to of been a steady trickle of travellers doing this route where as only the occasional one cutting across.

thanks toby..thats what i thought..