Hi there,

we are leaving on a trip to Western Africa (from Prague) in Nov or December up until about June 2019 with a plan to take it slow and expect to go about as far as Benin or Nigeria if we can sort out a visa. I have three questions regarding our trip:

1) is there any paper map or guide that you would recommend? I plan on using the internet most for planning, but prefer to list through paper maps and guides when it makes at least some sense to use them.

2) Our van is a 98 VW T4 transporter. From what I read so far I got the idea that our car should be capable of the trip with us maybe not being able to go everywhere we want - is that correct? The car is FWD but has a fairly high clearance and I used it succesfully to climb a few unpaved high mountain passes in the Caucassus and elsewhere so I am not afraid of better pists or not so good roads, just do not want ford rivers or go through mud.
- I would guess that T4's are not common cars there so probably a good idea to take some spare parts with us, correct?

3) We have 2 bigger dogs travelling with us. Has anyone been there with dogs? I read it should not be an issue, but would like to hear from anyone who has actually been there with them.

Thanks for any help :-)

Matt