Road trip
Hello there!Here comes the toughest question the man can ask.
I'm planing a driving journey from Western Europe to Estern Africa, to visit the worlds newest nation (South Sudan). And that is going to happen this December, just a few days before Christmas.
The plan is to drive my Range Rover from Denmark to (*Algeciras,Spain*) And than sail to (*Ceuta Spain*) from there I hit the road to Morocco, Algeria, Niger, Tchad or Chad, Cental African republic and down to South Sudan
Does anyone knows how likely it's to cross these countries?
1
Morocco to Algeria...Nope. No open borders between those two countries.2
Even if you got the ferry from Spain to Algeria, then onto Niger it's going to take a LOT longer to organise some of this than the time you have! Getting south through Algeria will require govt. permit & guide, crossing into Niger could be tricky. Chad/CAR - think the border has problemsThe list goes on ...... why not fly? What will you do with your Range Rover when you get there?
Kira
3
Your route is a non-starter I'm afraid.You could drive to Turkey and get a ferry to Egypt (Iskendereum to Damietta is the only one operating for now). Then (in theory) you could put the car on a barge and take the ferry across Lake Nasser and drive to South Sudan (though I've no idea what entry formalities are for a car or even if it is possible for a private individual).
BUT...
1) to take a car into Egypt you need a carnet. This takes time and money to arrange. I don't know exactly what the requirements are in Denmark but to bring a UK registered car into Egypt we had to put up a deposit of 8 times it's value.
2) Even apart from the carnet (which you have to sort out in your home country) importing a car into Egypt is highly stressful, expensive and time consuming.You then have to negotiate more bureaucracy and corruption to get it on the barge across Lake Nasser as there is no road open.
If your plan is a year long trip to South Africa there is no choice but to go through this pain but just to get to Sudan? Almost certainly not worth the time and hassle of bringing your car.
4
I Hello again everybody! I thank you all for your advice!I know there're many ways of taking cars to Africa if that's the cause. I could also simply fly and spare myself time, money and energy, but the only reason I want to drive is that it has always been one of my greatest desires to cross many African countries by car.
I might sounds somekind of mad person, but it is the reality I have to pace.
5
The best place to get info on that sort of trip is on this forum:http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hubb/sahara-travel-forum/.7
The route given by the OP is not possible. If he cares, he'll do the research and learn the many reasons why this is true. Even if it becomes possible in the near future (extremely doubtful, but you never know) it will remain terribly unwise for the inexperienced.There is a fairly straightforward route down the west coast of Africa, and there's a route down the east coast. Either way (or as a round trip), far more advance research is necessary, and Horizonsunlimited.com is the best place to do it. However, don't go over there and start asking silly questions (c.f. the op); lurk and search first and you'll figure most of it out before asking a select few intelligent questions on the forum.
Kira, you had a bad experience there which involved Grant's antipathy towards anything he sees as "commercial." Most people don't have that issue, and the site is the best source of information going. Another good resource--particularly for North Africa and the Sahel--is the Chris Scott empire, including books and website.
Hope that's helpful.
Mark
9
OP - wanting to drive across Africa doesn't make you mad at all. Lots of people do it, ; I've done it myself. However, it does take a lot of planning if you are taking a car and it is not cheap.So don't give up on it but put some time and energy into the planning stage first. It took us a year to plan our trip (and many years before that to save the money).
Or here's an idea - if you are itching to get going why not go on a test trip to Morocco for starters?
10
Once again thanks a lot guys!I'll look myself around other websites and see if there're possible ways of doing so. Until than the plan is put on brake by now.
Giving it a test trip to Morocco or Algeria could be absolutely a good start. There's a ferry that goes from Almeria Spain to Oran Algeria and then drive to either border neighboring country, Niger or Libya and ask local residents if there're possibilities of crossing over to Tchad/Chad. Because I believe there's an open road from Tchad/chad to Central African Republic and from Central African Republic down to S-Sudan there's also a road. But I must give myself quite alot of time to be pretty sure that this is going to be possible.
Arclies
12
The border between Morocco and Algeria is closed so you can't cross overland accross it. However, you can take a ferry from Morocco to Spain and another one from Spain to Algeria.To get from Spain to Algeria isn't a problem because there are ferries from several cities in Spain to several cities in Algeria.
I think the main focus of your research should be legal requirements and safety. For example, Where do you plan to get your visa for South Sudan? Can you enter Niger overland from Algeria or is it forbidden due to safety reasons? Do you need to meet some requirements/get a permit in order to travel through some areas of Niger? Will be Eastern CAR safe enough for you? and Northern Niger? ...
13
I would suggest checking eastern CAR conditions very carefully; it can be seriously dangerous. A while ago the Lords Resistance Army was active there, I don't know if they still are.Many roads in south Sudan are not passable at certain times of year.
