One Road One World

Category: Western Africa

Overlanding Africa | Motorcycle trip : First county is Morocco

Overlanding Africa – motorcycle trip is starting! We have no experience to ride motorcycle but who cares we just want to live our dreams!

We have no idea why we choose to start one of the hardest roads in the world. Our plan is turn around Africa so will ride motorcycle west, southern and east Africa. We would like to share all our overlanding Africa journey on our website; African visas – safety- border crossing and bribes, our West Africa, Southern Africa, East Africa trip, all costs, about motorcycle and camping…

Overlanding Africa – Motorcycle trip : 1- Morocco

This is where we start our adventure in Africa! We arrived at Tangier Med port around 9 pm after a 28-hour boat trip from Barcelona, it’s already dark and we didn’t have a place to stay. When we booked the boat it was saying we would arrive at 3 am in the morning, we need to do customs when we arrive at the port so we thought we could go slowly through the process and start riding when the sun comes up. 🙁

Journey just started and we already have a friend

While waiting to board in Barcelona we meet another rider Christopher from Germany, he will be traveling in Morocco for 3 weeks with his motorcycle. We didn’t book accommodation on the boat as we found it was too expensive, but lucky as where Christopher did and invited us to his room for a few hours of sleep. We leaved the boat together and find out our passports need to be stamped on board, we missed this call and need to go back. I took her passport and go back on board with Christopher to stamp our passports and she stayed with 3 motorcycles. We went pretty smooth through customs but took two hours.

We decide to ride together to Asilah.

There we went to a campsite, Christopher to a hotel. But our first night ‘overlandig Africa- motorcycle trip’ wasn’t in the tent because they said that sleep in the tent 4 USD in a room 5 USD. Okay, take the room because it was November and cold outside. and we decided to meet the day after again to walk a bit around the city centre. The next day we get a bit of the taste of Morocco, we are enjoying together and making a plan what road to ride the day after to Fes on of the bigger cities in Morocco.

Asilah campsite, Morocco

Next city is Fez

We found a nice road through the mountains towards Fez and all of us were really enjoying the landscape and mountain roads. Arrived Fez and we tried to find an affordable campsite what is much harder as we expect and eventually we end up in a hotel near the city centre. We walked a bit around the maze of Fez, it was really beautiful to see but all those sellers want something from you. After Fez we decided this is the last city we are visiting in Morocco. We wanted go to the Atlas Mountains to enjoy nature and the local life.

Fez, Morocco

Time enjoy on Atlas Mountain…

From Fes we were heading south and passing some beautiful roads around the Atlas mountains, we were enjoying so much and looking for more challenging roads in the mountains. We found some mountain passes around Tinghir so that’s our destination. From here we crossed into the Atlas Mountains and ride with our motorcycles through the Gorges Toudra (gorges du todra), it’s all very impressive to see and with all the lovely curves it’s a true motorcycle paradise. We took a lot of breaks to enjoy all the amazing views we were seeing, I never expected this from Morocco.

Gorges Du Todra

But it’s amazing we ride all the way to Agoudal where we find a cheap hotel to spend the night. We didn’t try to camping because it was already degrees was below zero. We don’t think so that clever idea camping with summer gears.

During the last hours of daylight we walked Agoudal village to have a better taste of the local life. We spent time with children and the local life. The owner of the hotel was very friendly and maked us the best tajine we ate in Morocco also he played music for us and his friends who were hanging out in the restaurant. We woke up early in the morning for breakfast. The owner warned us would have started snow when we ride. This means the village is not reachable anymore for the outside world. So we need to start riding soon as we have a long gravel road ahead of us.

We ride again through some amazing mountain passes on all the gravel roads, these were the first for me to ride and I was really enjoying. While riding we could see the weather changing and it will start to rain soon, we were not so high anymore so snow will not fall here. We arrived at one the highlights for motorcycles in Morocco the Gorges de Dades, it’s beautiful to see and even more nice to ride it. It was wet so we need to be careful but still we were enjoying a lot. After passing the Gorges de Dades we started to search for a hotel and soon we found one where we can put our motorcycles inside a garage so they could safe. There are some walking trails near the hotel to the mountains where we can visit some very old villages. December is not clever idea to ride motorcycle around Atlas mountain.

Gorges De Dades

Do you think we can ride motorcycle on desert? 🙂 Going Sahara desert.

From here we decided that we want to go towards the desert, the biggest desert in the world the Sahara desert. We were riding through Ouarzazate to M’Hamid where the desert begins and we found a beautiful camp spot at the edge of the sandy desert and we were watching an amazing sunset, in the night we sat outside and watched an amazing sky full of stars.

M’Hamid, Sahara Desert

We wanted to try and pass some part of the desert with our motorcycles; there was a short cut to a gravel/rocky road, which will bring us to the high sand dunes of the Sahara desert. Full of courage we start our adventure the lesson is you need to keep up the gas so you can fly over the sand, this was easier to say then actually do.

She fells of the bike a few times and I need to turn back to help her, all of this under the burning sun (around 42 degrees), after a few kilometers we decided this is not doable for us. So we returned and took a longer way around to find the gravel/rocky road to our destination. We followed the road but it leads to a dead end? I tried to ride a bit more to see if I could find another road but unfortunately I didn’t find anything. So we turned back again to follow a different road, which we could see on our map.

We had about 200 kilometers in front of us, the road started pretty smooth we were enjoying but getting tired as we were riding already 7 hours. When we need to turn right at one point the road get worse and much more rocky so this slows down our speed a lot, also we need to pass some dry rivers with loose sand in it. Night started to fall and we were exhausted so we decided to stop and set up the tent somewhere. We didn’t see a single car for a long time and there were no houses around us so we didn’t need to hide ourselves. This has been one of the most amazing nights so far, between the mountains and the desert with literally nothing around us it was so silent and so pure. We had our own million stars our camping site :).

Bush camp, Sahara

Next morning when we woke up and took a look on the map we saw we have more than 150 km in front of us to reach Sahara desert dunes, we tried a bit more but after 30 km later we decided to turn the road was not getting better, just worse and we were tired of our brain shaking.

We turned our road to Atlas ocean.

We will see a lot more of the Sahara desert in the Western Sahara and Mauritania. We ride through Foum Zguid to Tata where we found a campsite in Tata, as we were here in the mountains it gets pretty cold in the night so the owners offer us to opened our tent in the kitchen, which nobody was using so we had some shelter.

We decided to stay for a few days as we like the city and we wanted to explore a bit around with the motorcycles. We ask around to find some nice roads and quickly we are on the motorcycles and riding in the middle of nowhere was we could make some nice photos from us with the motorcycles.

In Tata we celebrated my birthday as well, we pick a nice road to ride, which brings us through the mountains and some very nice oases. It was a perfect day for riding and we were enjoying a lot, what a beautiful country this is.

After 6 days, we leaved Tata and heading towards the coastline which we will follow all the way to Mauritania. But first we were again riding through the Anti-Atlas mountains (aka Lower Atlas mountains) again this was very beautiful. We did wild camping again at some nice places if we meet someone they didn’t bother us just gave a big smile and asked if everything is fine.

When we arrived at the coastline we tried to find a place to spend the night around Tarfaya, there is only one campsite but they asked too much money for nothing at all so we decided to find a place ourselves and wild camp again. We followed a narrow road along the sea where they actually have small fishermen houses everywhere but in the dunes we could hide our self a little bit we thought. We found a nice place, but it was still pretty close to one of the fishermen houses so we went there and ask permission to set up our tent for one night.

They said it’s ok and we opened the tent, we were watching a beautiful sunset and when it got dark some policemen’s arrived. They didn’t like the idea we were camping there and they wanted us to pack up and go to the campsite about 30 km back, we told them we cannot ride in the dark and we didn’t want to leave here. The policeman asked me to go with him to his post where he can call the chief and explained the situation. It seems the problem that all people living there are refugees and they cannot guarantee our safety in the night but they understand we cannot move anymore. The solution was to move next to the policemen house and spend the night there. There was a small house where nobody is right now, we opened the tent inside there and we need to cover the motorcycles. This was ok for us only this means we need to pack everything again but that’s the way it was. We had a quiet and good night. In the morning we went to the police officer his house and drunk tea with him before we leaved, another special adventure like this 🙂

From here we are riding into the Western Sahara. For us Morocco is a true motorcycle paradise, also the food is amazing and the country is very cheap to travel in.

FS

June 30, 2018
Angola is a beautiful country…

It was one of the country we scare about visa, at the same time We have a friend inside who can help us for visa to send invitation for Angola. Until Congo, which country we asked for Angola visa They said that we cant apply because we don’t have residence from the apply country. Finally we applied in Pointe-Noire, Congo and got it multiply entry for 30 days, which means every time when you enter Angola you have 30 days. So, we could go to Cabinda.

Life was so easy in Cabinda;

We wrote our friends that we got visa and going to Cabinda. Gisela sent us a address from one of their friend who has been living Cabinda. So, we started to write with Jorge in the border to ask about road, exchange… etc. We arrived at his address after dark. Our room was ready which is like five star rooms. We went dinner with Jorge and Arthur. Jorge was already bought a phone card for us as well. Next day we went to their Clinic and meet a lot of doctors, also ate breakfast and lunch. In the evening, we met in Arthur’s house to cook and drink, talk about life and a lot of fun. We also ride around Cabinda to see a little. People were so friendly and so much talkative.

I asked to Jorge what he knows about us. He just said that Antonio and Gisela called him and said, “Our good friend is coming. You need to take care of them.” It was enough for him to hear that. I must say that he did it very well. 😉 We were planning to stay one night and keep continue to DRC but we stayed 3 nights. They were asking to stay one night more but I know Gisela was waiting for us because we couldn’t see each other 9 years. She was one of my best friends from London; we met in the English course.

Enter Second Part of Angola

The border was crazy. We arrived to DRC border, which was so crowded. Soldiers were trying to keep the door that nobody pass it. We passed people and arrived in front. Of course people got angry but we passed it. After show our Angolan visa and motorcycles paper we entered Angola.
First night we stayed Hotel Perola, Nzeto because it was sunset. Next day we hit the road again to go Luanda and see Gisela and Antonio. It was amazing to see them 9 years later again. They got married and have two lovely kids. We didn’t know that Gisela already made a plan for us to discover Angola. After three days later she said we are going to Malanje to see waterfall and we have already a room there. I suppose that she doesn’t want to see us anymore because kick us from the house in 3 days 😉

Around Malanje is nice to see

We started to ride motorcycle in the morning and arrived to Malanje just before sunset. The road was tar but need to be careful wit potholes because you don’t know when you can hit them.

Museleje Waterfall, Angola

When we arrived to address where we stayed They were waiting for us. We had really nice room or like a little apartment. Next day morning, we went to Calandula waterful after that Museleje falls which was hard to find it but we went there. It is peaceful area and also nice for camping. When we were going to the fall we passed three villages, which are nice to see, and tried to talk a little with people. The view was nice; also road was fun to ride. After that we visit Black Rock than we turned back our room and next day we arrived to Luanda again.

Calandula Waterfall, Angola

Gisela and Antonio were waiting for us. We ride 480 km and we were tired. Our plan was sleep early but little boy Thomas who was only 11 months He decided to don’t sleep. We know that They were also tired and go to work next day. We said Antonio to gave us Thomas we can take care. 1 am, 2 am, 3 am no sleep. We almost faint in the sofa. he was just smiling and showing his toys to play. And than Gisela came to downstairs and she took Thomas who got sleep in a second in the mother’s arms 😉 Of course we woke up noon next day…

Black Rock, Angola

We stayed with then total 16 days. They showed us Luanda life and visited a lot of nice area around. But our visa was running out so we said bye bye our friends and started to ride thought Namibia.

Funny thing was that we planned to a nightclub. They asked about closed what we have. Of course we don’t have anything special with us just some t-shirts and outdoor pants. They decided that we can’t go to the nightclub and we need some clothes.

We went to their room to look for their clothes. Gisela and I, Antonio and Ferry wear same size, also for shoes as well 😉 We took what we want and got ready to the night…

Our plan was camping if we can;

First day we ride until sunset, stopped a lot for photos and enjoy with views. We found a nice spot camping and sleep well. Of course, we were sending message to Gisela where we were? She couldn’t wait our second day camping and said that we have already a room in Lobito because she had some phone calls;)

We arrived to Lobito and they showed our house which is so big and next to the sea. They said that we could stay how much we want it. We stayed two nights and enjoy the beach. We were leaving to Lobito and told to Gisela. She said that we have another house already in Lubango. They were waiting for us and we can stay again how much we want. Really!

Kubel River Gorge, Angola

If she didn’t make our life so easy in Angola We are not sure that we could stay 30 days. If you have USD or EURO with you can have crazy exchange rate on the black market but still expensive.

Lubango must to see in Angola;

We went to Lubango from Lobito in a day and took our house key (Gisela already called a places to we stay in a house) which one was amazing. We stayed 4 days there to see around. Lobito has amazing landscape. Worth to see around. We went to Tundavala to see around, little tracking and ride enjoy.

We also wanted to see some waterfall around but some of them dry or it was so hard to go even if with motorcycle.

We went to Leba Pass and passed twice 😉 before started to Leba Pass you need to pay like road tax but we don’t clue for the price look like they were writing a price what they want 🙁

We were in Angola 27 days already. So, it was time to leave. Lubango to the Namibia border was 300 km. And we love to stop everywhere to look around. Therefore, we already decided to we are not going to border same day. Before sunset we found a spot to wild camping and it was look like nothing around. 😉 Just 500 meters in front has a house but no way to see it. We stopped and wait a little to see anybody passing or not. Okay good nobody around, we can start to set up the tent we saw some women and kids behind to trees. They were watching us with very curios eyes. We shake our hands and said “Ola” They started to laugh and than went. In the night, we figure out that we were next to house. 😉

We woke up in the morning but nobody around us. If you have kids around You have no chance to have privacy because they love to look at you. We are so interest for them. We understood that the family didn’t allow to kids. We just left from the tent in 5 minutes the family came.

We were having breakfast. They saw us and didn’t come closed and disturb us. When we saw them we couldn’t eat anymore alone and shared what we have. We tired to talk a little; most we used again body language. They were so nice, friendly and also so shy. We had some cans, jams… etc. we decided to give them all. And than we went to road for pass the border. And all day we told about the family.

We really like Angola so much. It is beautiful country. At the same time, thank you so much our friends Gisela and Antonio who made our life so easy there. I hope that we will see each other again somewhere and This time, I wish not 9 years to wait for that again.

October 25, 2017
It was another adventure to pass from DRC!

Sometimes, we can check everything a hundred times when we are on the road to don’t have any problem. We wish that nothing happens but it always find you!

When we were Cabinda they told us please take a military fly to Luanda from Cabinda or take a boat to Soyo in Angola and follow the road from there. (More info just click and open new page) They can be good option but we want to pass from DRC. We already couldn’t go to Kinshasa. 🙁 Nice to see some village on the road and learn a little their behavior even if it’s only a 330 km ride in DRC. We asked all overlanders who met on the road and they already passed it about information. And we had the visa already.

Before start to read all details of DRC you can watch a short movie where we could make video about the journey;

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We arrived the DRC border and a police came us to help. They were so friendly and helpful more than what we were expecting. One soldier took our Carnet de Passage and showed a building where he was going to get a stamp for us. Another police came next to us and showed us where we need to go for passport stamp. I didn’t want to leave motorcycles alone there, wanted to stay. A police stayed with me if anything happened, the other police went with Ferry. And than we switched it 😉 They were screaming each other to hurry up for “we need to ride again motorcycles as soon as possible and arrive to a hotel before it gets dark” Of course we didn’t understand why we must ride until we get to the road. 😉 I suppose it took one hour to finish all paper works in the border. Any case, we exchanged a little money there as well.

We turned to the road and welcome to soft sand. I have no idea why we didn’t ask details about the road anybody; all info for no mud 😉 First 40 km we were so slow after that we arrived to more hard and easy road and followed to ride on gravel.

They blocked the road for tax which price are so different for tourist. We started to complain about it to don’t pay. General a motorcycle doesn’t pay anything on the road in West Africa. After 10 minutes negotiating they allowed us to pass without any payment. I suppose 50 km later we came another one and same conversation and no pay!

Border crossing, stuck soft sand… etc we knew that we can’t go to Boma to find a hotel. Actually, it wasn’t our dream to go wild camping as well. But I wrote in the beginning sometimes you wish for nothing happened and always something happens. 😉 It was coming dark and we couldn’t find any spot to hide. We really started to worried. Ferry saw a small road what looks like trucks working there to get out sand. We don’t think so they work in the night. We turn there to look and we found a spot just behind a hill and no track from any tires but very close to the road. We can hear everything from the road where people were walking. Must be so silent! We set up the tent and decided to don’t cook because of fire and smell. We slept well in the night. 😉 we collect everything very fast in the morning and followed our road.

The plan was to finish the road fast and don’t stop if it’s not necessary. We didn’t think people were dangerous but when we stop they can come to talk a second and started to say have food or money. DRC is really poor country and they don’t have enough food. We were trying to share something with them if not a lot of people around.

We were very close to Matadi very early. Really!

We just turn one of the main road and came a big village or city. Ferry said ” wait, something wrong. No! I have flat tire again.” Looks like we would have interesting story.

I saw a little place what has a lot tires in front. Let’s go there and try our luck. In the beginning, they said no but help us. Ferry started to work with the guy to get his tire out at the same time the village started to come around us as well. Ferry told me to careful with all our stuff because all his papers and electronics in bags, also money. Do you have any idea how I can do that? We have more than 70 people around and coming more. One group was around Ferry’s motorcycle other group around me. No option to look two motorcycles at the same time just I can keep my eyes there. We saw that people didn’t interest with bags or something else. They were only looking us, some girls touching my hair or hands, trying to talk. I suppose 10-15 min. later one man came who everybody showed respect to.

They said he is chief for the village. He was so helpful to ask what happened, we need more help, we are hungry, want to drink something… etc. and he saw the camera and said that take photo please. Wowwww, it is great to that 😉 They were like watching a live movie, I was making a movie from them. We were so different and interesting for them who behavior were so interesting and different for me as well. After 30 minutes later, we were ready to leave. We said bye everybody to hit the road again.

Of course, we were more comfortable because of the welcoming behavior. We arrived to Matadi around 2 pm. The traffic was so crazy there and so hot; also road is so bad inside to city. But the city view is really amazing. We looked some basic hotel and saw that the prices are crazy. It is still early, let’s go to Songolo and find a place there. Songolo is the border city to Angola. We bought some food and turned back to the road.

Our first break. We just stopped and started to eat something we saw a lot of kids were coming. Where we stopped must be close to a school. We wanted to wait to see their behavior and give some candies to them. We spent time with them a while and enjoy a lot. When I was wearing my bandana they started to scream “Ninja! Ninja!’ Pardon….. Ferry was laughing and saying to I can show something to them. Make kids happy is the best there is.

When we are on the road if we find something, which is so interesting for us we always forget about time and where we are. Yes, it was coming to sunset and we were too far from Songolo to arrive in the daytime. Again, we must look a spot to wild camping. That time, was so hard because no space to hide or no road to leave from the main road.

Water pumps were keep continue all the main road and every 5 km they have a little enter to check pumps, I guess. No option more, so we turned one of them. So hard to somebody see you from the road, should be fine. It was almost dark, we wanted to set up tent as soon as possible. I saw a shadow on the hill, yes looked like somebody was walking. Ferry already saw as well. No idea what we need to do because we saw his rifle. He is a soldier but look like a little drunk soldier. We tried to talk and explain why we were there. Show the sky to dark, show is to no hotel, show motorcycle too dangerous to ride, show tent to sleep there. He said okay and than leaved. Almost one hour later we saw a light where was coming must be soldier again. Yes he was now more drunk and more talkative even if we can’t speak same language. He wanted from us cigarette and than leaved again. We slept a little early because of tired and wake up early.

Middle of the night, a big light was coming close to the tent so I wake up. It was a car. They didn’t stop, just went slow down and then followed to the road. I was thinking we were fine, don’t wake up to Ferry. I saw the car which went to the up hill and stopped there. I was hearing, they were talking. I suppose with the soldier who saw us there before. 20 minutes later, the car turn back and that time stopped in front of the tent to see us. I pushed to Ferry to wake up and I opened the zip so they can see me and talk. Ferry was telling me “Close to zip, mosquitos are coming in!” Really honey, I suppose you didn’t wake up. 😉

4-5 soldiers in the car and one of them must be a commander. They were look like angry until saw a woman. I suppose to be a woman on the road most of time advantage. We tried to explain same what we said the first soldier. He just said that please leave early. Don’t worry, we will….

6.30 am, just alarm ringed, the soldier was screaming “Bonjour, bonjour…” means really wake up time, I suppose. We waved hands and started to collect and get ready. 6.45 am, another man was walking. He got really surprise when saw us there. I guess he couldn’t find a word to say therefore he went. When he turned back we understood why everybody told us to leave early or so serious to check area.

We opened to the tent next to water pipes which goes all the way to Kinshasa. They have one rule: if you get close to the water pipe and any soldier see you there no question why you are there. You are going to prison. And we are there! They were telling us to leave soon because big boss searching around in the morning. If he sees us he can’t be so polite and we can go to a prison. Yes, we leaved as soon as possible. And we need to say all soldiers who saw us and allow to stay there. Thank you!

We ride to the border of Angola and leave the country…

GS

October 24, 2017
I wish we could stay more in Congo, Brazzaville

Any route plan didn’t work in Congo for us. Everything can change so fast in West Africa and we need to follow new rules and don’t be there in rain season by motorcycles.

Where we read or listened a story about Ndende, Gabon to Dolisie, Congo road, which is 280 km off-road dirt road or mud, just a nightmare. If it has rain you can stuck the road and no option to finish in a day. We need to pass to keep continue on Western Africa journey.

Before start to read all details of Congo you can watch a short movie where we could make video fun part of the road journey;

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We stayed a night in Ndende, Gabon and we bought a lot of food and water if we need to spend the night on the road. Our friend Nicholas passed to the road 10 days before us, he stuck there by motorcycle because of mud. 5 days before us, Kevin and Emma passed to the road to less mud with their 4X4. And last five days there was no rain so; we were thinking that Ndende to Dolisie should be ok for us.

First thing in the morning we needed to get our exit stamp from Gabon, we went to the office at 7:30 but nobody was there, we waited half an hour for the guy and got the stamp. Here we meet another rider, Alex from Spain. After a small talk we needed to say goodbye as we had a long day ahead. The Congo border is 50 km far from Ndende. First there is 2 km tar road and than when you see the Congo sign the dirt road starts 😉 When we started everything was fine. We arrived to the Gabon border and got our Carnet stamped and keep continue. After a couple of km. later started to mud. What do you think what happened? I lost to control and fell down 😉 Actually my motorcycle fell down I didn’t but it was a little hard to lift it up because the mud is so slippery.

We arrived to the Congo border, they were so helpful and happy to see tourist. Procedures were slow therefore it took 1.5 hours. It was coming 2 pm and we understood that no option to finish 280 km for us. We just wanted to ride 3 hours more and look for a spot to wild camping before it gets dark. We could manage only 70 km more and started to look a place. In the road we saw a lot of small village but we didn’t sure which one is so friendly and which one is not. Because when we were passing villages some of them was waving hand and so happy to saw us but some of them was just screaming and running behind. We don’t speak same language so, we can’t understand what they say and couldn’t be sure that say good or bad things. It was a decision to go a village and ask a permission to stay there from chief or find a place, hide our self and set up the tent.

We found very small road and leaved from the main road. Just 100 meters and we were behind to bushes where nobody can see you. We don’t make a lot of sound because the spot was just a few hundred meters far from another village. We waited a little to make sure the spot is safe after that we set up the tent and started to cook. The road is bad that’s why no car is passing in the night or it’s so much dark and nobody walking on the road. We just listened the village that kids where playing around and people were singing and drinking.

Next day, we woke up very early to hit the road again. We just went a few km and saw big trucks were working on the road to close a huge pothole. We waited a while and that they allowed to pass us. First a local motorcycle went, nice to see how they were passing after that Ferry passed. It was my time but I didn’t ride 🙁 all workers stopped and got a cigarette to watch how a woman can do that. They were talking and laughing. Just they were giving stress. I said Ferry to ride my motorcycle as well. It wasn’t good feeling for me the behavior.:(

The road was sometimes good or bad. We were just riding and focusing to finish the road. But we need to eat as well. 😉 Also, it’s nice to get rest for a while. We were saying “no rain, perfect” but the sun was burning. Did we complain that moment? Of course not just said “More sun more sun, no problem to burn, just dry mud!”

It was 2 pm and we saw tar road started which means we managed it in 1,5 days to 280 km Ndende-Dolisie road. 😉

The plan was go to Dolisie and apply to Angola visa. It was a dream to the plan works! We connected with our friend James who tried to apply in Dolisie, he only made it to the front gate and got send away from there. He was told to go to Point Noire. It was afternoon and Point Noire is just 170 km far from here, it’s a brand new tar road so let’s go there! We arrived there around 6 pm and went a basic hostel what is close to Angola embassy. It was Monday. You can apply a visa only on Tuesday or Thursday. Perfect time, right! 😉

We applied next days and we saw Kevin and Emma are still there. Also, James and Alex were there. If you have only one place to apply Angola visa you can see all overlanders there who you met on the road before. It was nice to spent time together. Luckily we took the visa in 48 hours. Some of them waited 72 hours some of them a week. Depends on your behavior and how much you can speak French as they are not helpful at all, I guess they liked our smiles and behavior.

We spent a little more time in Point-Noire to relax and went for a ride around the city to see some places, the country is beautiful and as we didn’t ride a lot through Congo we went north on the coast line to see something from the nature, we did just a day trip but it was really worth it. Also we went out for dinner at the beach in Point Noire, here we ordered the biggest pizza ever 🙂

Our Angola visa was 30 days and multiplies entry. 😉 We started to discuss which road we would take it. We wanted to go Brazzaville from Dolisie but we are in Point-Noire, which is 500 km from Brazzaville and also just 30 km from Cabinda, Angola border. If we go to Brazzaville we want to pass Kinshasa, DRC by boat and than go to Angola. But the boat is another terrible story. DRC border looks you visa where you get it. They want to see the visa is coming from your home country. If it doesn’t they sent you back to Congo. (Other way around more okay, which is DRC to Congo.) So, if we can’t pass Kinshasa we have to turn back to here again. We didn’t want to get risk as everything is chancing so fast here. Also, we read news about Ebola north-east of DRC. After talk a little our decision was so clear to go to Cabinda and read more news about DRC.

On Sunday morning, we decided to pass Cabinda with Kevin and Emma. It is just 30 km to the border but we made 10 km in two hours. It was no way to leave from Point-Noire. We didn’t know that Congo has a election very soon and the president was coming here on Sunday. 😉 You can imagine that all roads were close. We waited in a gas station next to the military for a couple hours. After that we could go to the border…

Do you have any idea how much your t-shirt can be dirty in 12 hours on Ndende-Dolisie road? 🙂GS

August 21, 2017
Gabon is another world!

After Cameroon we went to Gabon, the country is less developed then Cameroon but that makes it a more special place as well. This country is one big jungle except for the capital Libreville what is a pretty modern city and extremely expensive to stay in.

When we entered Gabon a bit late because the border crossing took long time. We don’t like to ride dark especially when we just enter and do not know anything about the country. We started to look a place to wild camping. We were lucky again when we found a lake just next to the road but not visible. It was lovely place. In the night only one fisherman came to catch fish. 🙂 But he didn’t disturb us we told a little. When we wanted to hide our self always somebody could see us.

Really, can we see Gorilla’s?

We didn’t had a real plan to what we wanted to do and see, the only thing we knew was that it was a good place to go and see Gorilla’s. This is something really high on my list and I definitely want to do/see in Africa now it’s still possible. We try to get in contact with some people around a national park nearby Lope, this place is far away in the jungle and you get there through a dirt road about 150 km from the main highway. So first we needed to buy some supplies to go there, we went to a village to buy some food. As we still didn’t get in contact with the people from Lope we decided it was a better idea to get some rest before we go and we changed our road to Libreville for the next day (the extremely expensive city to stay).

(Note: Loango National Park is other option to see Gorillas in Gabon but a little expensive than Lope national park and so hard to go there by motorcycle because they don’t have road to you need to take some boats. If the rain season the road is so bad as well. Therefore we skipped it there. You can check Loango National Park where also possible to see elephants as well.)

She never scares before go to wild camping!

As we changed our plan last minute and it was too late to go to Libreville. We looked for a basic hotel and found one, they wanted 65 USD. It is expensive, our daily budget 50 USD L so we decided to look for a wild camping spot again. We found a road to go in and look a place to camp. Unfortunately, nothing! It was already sunset. We looked around and look like the road is not use for a while. We can set up the tent on the road, why not… A couple of hours nobody passed, which is great so we started to cook. “Ferry look! There is a light like a truck.” Yes, it was a truck and carrying more then 50 people to a village, which is 5 km far where we opened to the tent.

One hour later a car stopped they can speak English and invited us the their home to stay but we already open the tent, ate and where getting ready to sleep. Really, it felt like we where next to a main road. We saw three more cars during the evening. Somebody open a tent on the road towards a small village is a little unusual, so everybody wanted to stop and talk with us. I must admit this was the first time She was scared to camp wild. It wasn’t because a lot of people past and see us or that we where close to the village, no because of the jungle. Gabon has real jungle and we don’t know what kind of animal can come face to face with us in the night. This situation is okay for me because I don’t go out middle of the night for pie. 🙂

Next day early, we had breakfast, collect the tent and leave. We passed the Equator line in Gabon. There is just a old sign next to the road, if you wouldn’t now it was here you will easily miss it. We knew and stopped next to the road for some photos and to think a little bit about this special moment. When checking the sign for signatures my eyes fell on some small text. Our friends Nicholas (we met first time in Bamako – Mali) and Olaf (we met in Togo) placed a small hello for us! This was so cool to see, somewhere around the world someone write down your name and saying hello. We where so amazed and happy to see this 🙂

When we arrived early in Libreville luckily we found a place at a church for a bit normal price, it was not cheap but the money is used for a good course so we where happy to pay it (18.000 cfa, 30 euro).

Let’s go! Gorillas are waiting for us…

Here we got in touch with the people to spot the Gorilla’s. After 2 nights we decided to head towards Lope National park and try our luck to see the Gorilla’s, we entered the dirt road got 50 km and camped next to the road we didn’t see any car during the day time that we ride here and in the night several trucks passed us. It was also a rainy night.

Next day morning we headed further on the road, we really enjoyed it because all the beautiful views along the way. After 60 km on the road suddenly the mud started this was not only because of the rain from last night, I passed both our motorcycles through 2 parts of the slippery mud then the 3^rd one showed up. This one was more serious, she walked through it and got half way to her knees in the mud. All this was in 3 kilometers, we talked a while with each other and unfortunately we needed to make the decision to go back. We didn’t know what was coming more last 40 km and if the rain keeps continue next 2 days we never turn back. It was a hard decision but sometimes you need to think about your own safety as well.

A surprise was waiting for us in Lamberene to motorcycles.

We camped again next to the road somewhere and the next day we went to a nice small city called Lamberene, we found a hotel in an old hospital on a nice location at the river. When we were riding to Lamberene first stop on the road, we saw some red points on my arms a lot, which was look like measles. Of course, we didn’t want to think that way. We had a good shower and sleep in a nice and comfortable bed, we really needed this.

Next day, we saw the red points are on my leg as well and she also has some. Now, it was scary and time to think about measles. First, I called my mother to ask about it. My mother told me I passed measles but very light. What does it mean light? Here is nice and next-door is a big hospital so we stayed one night more search about the measles and learn more. If anything happened we can go to the hospital. Next day, we were still healthy and what was writing on Internet about the symptoms we didn’t have. When we met other overlanders again we learned to who passed same road with us they had same thing as well.

Also we had the great idea to change our tires in Gabon, as we are staying a extra night in Lamberene. The reason we choose to do this in Gabon is that we had a new tire and a second hand in Nigeria, which we carried until here . 9000 km to Cape Town from Nigeria. So we needed to wait as long as possible, the road from Gabon to Congo is a muddy dirt road from 280 km so we needed to do it before that, that’s why this was our best option.

The thing we didn’t know was that there are no motorcycles in Gabon. This is some government rule they try to explain us but we didn’t understand why. Now the challenge to find a place to do this, we stopped next to the road at a tire shop to do the job. We told him we would help changing them, so I got my tire of and placed the second hand one on my motorcycle. This went pretty smooth even though I did most of the job.

Now we went for her tire to change, she got the new one. Of course this is more challenging, together with the local guy we managed to change it. He was a bit rough with putting the tire back on what concerned us both a little bit, so I jumped in to do the job. We finished it and put the tire back on, put air in and waited a little bit. Checked the pressure and it was totally gone, we had a hole on inner tube. So we got it off again and repaired the hole, now we put the air in and waited. Again a flat tire, she got really angry and upset as the guy didn’t know what was happening. He called another tire repair place, this guy did do the job before on motorcycles and managed it pretty easy. In the mean time it started to rain, we where not so happy about the whole thing. I placed here fixed new tire on the motorcycle in the rain and we left the place. This was a good lesson for us to not just do this job at the first tire place on the road, next we will do it ourselves or find a proper place to do the job. Do you have any idea how much we paid? When exchange USD maybe nothing but behavior really terrible. We were thinking that we are stupid! He said 5.000 CFA to change both tires. Most worked I did but no problem, he can take it… But end of the day He said that we have to pay 7.000 CFA. Why? Because he repairs her inner tube which he made a hole and other guy came to fix it. Also, we had to pay him. After 5 hours later, we didn’t say anything. We were enough tired to try to fix her tire three times.

Last stop N’ dende before hit the Congo road….

It was time to head towards N’dende and makes our way to Congo (Brazzaville), here is a 280-kilometer long dirt road waiting for us. We learned from some friends who passed here before us there are some bandits on the road, they stopping you with road blocks and want money to pass, luckily our friends didn’t have any big problems but it’s something to be aware of. Also they told us it’s going to be hard, a lot of mud so the road will be slippery.

Our last break on the road before arrived to N’dende one local person came to the road from the jungle. We were surprise to see him who also surprise as well. He waved his hand and pass but he turned back after a few meters, whoa had also a rifle. What happened next? He came next to us, said something but we couldn’t understand. He got some mandarin from his back and shows us. Still, we didn’t sure to he wanted to sell. No! he was trying to say the mandarin from jungle and wanted to we tried. He ate first and than gave last three mandarin. We gave cake to him and She wanted to have a photo with him.

We arrived to N’dende pretty early and went out hunting for shopping, basically water, a lot of water. As this road will be 280 kilometers it will take us 2 or 3 days to pass it. We went to a shop, started talking a little bit with the owner who wasn’t local so we where interested where he was from. He told us he came from Mauritania to Gabon and started a business here, we told him we passed there as well and to what places we have been. This goes all in French what is not our best language but with some body language we always get there. After buying all his water bags total 8 liter (this is not enough for us) he packed a six-pack of 1.5 liter bottles and gave it to us as a present for a safe journey. Sometimes the people can surprise you so much, a wonderful surprise for us and we could really use this.

What we saw in Gabon it was so bad and made us really upset!

The thing we noticed in more countries is that they sell the animals they catch in the wild they sell them next the road by hanging them to show. In most countries we see a lot of different animals hanging next to the road like bush rats, martyrs, small deer’s or some kind of big rabbits. Now in Gabon this is a little different, we did see a lot of monkeys, which are really different kind of we never seen before 🙁

We are always careful with eating the street food in these countries; with the knowledge that Ebola comes from monkeys we decided to only eat meat out of a can. Besides monkeys we also see small crocodiles for sale and some unidentified animals. For the local people this is normal and the only meat they can find to eat.

FS&GS

August 10, 2017
Beautiful Country Cameroon

When entering Cameroon our mouth fell open because of the beauty of the country, it was all green around us. Also we had a perfect new tar road, what was extremely nice after the horrible roads in Nigeria, there was nearly no traffic. Cameroon is one big jungle with a two big cities Yaounde and Douala. The rain season was about to start and the first rain already fell down we could see next to the road.

We had a long and hot border crossing so we really wanted a shower. We went to the first little city, is called Mamfe, to find a hotel, Kevin and Emma came with us. We stayed at a cheap place with just a half working fan in the room, a shitty bed, bucket shower and a lot of animals around us. But in the night we figured out this was the best decision we could make as the raining season showed it self really bad, rain and thunder all night long.

We had a couple hours of sleep and in the morning we decided to go to Lake Awing James recommended this place to us, we had about 10 kilometers off road after the tar road what I really loved to ride, in the middle of the jungle some hills, some mud but nothing to crazy I was having fun and she starts to have more and more fun with riding these roads as well. We arrived at a really peaceful lake and decided to stay there for the night, it was up in the mountains and for the first time since Morocco we felt cold again in the night, we where happy finally a night not so sweaty and rainy.

Next day we went to the d’Ekom Nkam waterfalls, we passed a horrible tar road. This one they forgot to replace I think, after that we came to a mud road luckily for us it didn’t rain the day before and when we where riding there. This road brought us through a lot of small villages we stopped at some places to have a taste of the local life what was amazing to see, all people are very friendly and welcome you with open arms.

We ride about 50 km through all these small villages, after that we did see Kevin and Emma again and together we ride to the waterfalls. We arrived at sunset so we set up the tent and enjoyed a meal together, next morning we had a small hike to the waterfall and took a well-deserved bath in the small river next to it. Suddenly, the rain started like a shower and didn’t stop until afternoon. So, we leaved here a little late to hit the road.

Now it was time to head towards the coast line, we decided to go to Limbe there is a big volcano next to it called Mount Cameroon, the beach is black and you can see Equatorial Guinea from the beach. From d’Ekom Nkam waterfalls to Limbe was only 217 km. but we couldn’t make it in a day because we started to ride late and rain. We found very narrow road and ride there to find a place to wild camp. We were lucky. We set up our tents with Kevin under the palm trees and just one km. from the main road but nobody could see you and the road didn’t use for local people.

When riding to Limbe I got my first flat tire on the trip. Luckily it didn’t got down so fast so we could ride to our camping spot and from there I went out to find a place to repair it. This is easy in Africa as so many people ride motorcycles and they never change tires, I repaired it together with a local at his shop asked him what I owned him and he gave the best answer ‘what you want to give me’ I know the price is about 500 cfa but I gave him 2000 cfa fro the job (3 euro) we where both happy. We stayed 3 days at the beach to relax a little before we started running towards Gabon, we don’t want to be here when it will be raining all day.

Actually, we were planning to hike Mount Cameroon but the weather didn’t allow to us, was foggy and rainy. Also, we had a plan to go southwest of Cameroon to Mboro. Other two overlanders rider (Nicholas and Olaf) were in front of us. They sent message about to road and crash motorcycles. The road was terrible because of the rain season. Unfortunately, we could want to take risk and skipped it.

We passed Douala without stopping and stayed in Yaounde for one night but we didn’t see the city, we don’t like cities. They are crowded dirty and there is basically nothing to see, also more dangerous than road and villages. Next day we ride towards the border and just before we entered the place we wanted to stay for the night it started to rain extremely hard and we had the full load, we arrived totally wet at the hotel. Good we are heading south and leave the rain season behind us.

Cameroon is a beautiful country what deserves more time to stay in and more to explore, the quality of the country is much better then what we passed before so if you are looking for something else try Cameroon (and Gabon). We had to pass Gabon fast because we got our Congo visa in Togo and when we stayed in Lagos more than two week, because of all problems , our visas were running out.

FS

August 3, 2017
Nigeria road, people, checkpoints are interesting experience

Who we meet on the road or lives in Nigeria said that we need to be so careful when we ride in Nigeria because of roads and traffic are a nightmare. Also, said that be careful to people. Of course, I scared a little after listen all stories. But sometimes people can be lucky or unlucky to meet wrong or right person. We learned about it in Nigeria. The country made us a surprise. (If you looking about visa detail or border crossing&bribe you can click and open another page)

Our first stop was Lagos. So, we leaved from Porto-Novo, Benin on Sunday and ride to Lagos in the less traffic. We passed the Idiroko border to enter Nigeria. We came in front of a building where is passport control and custom service. It is big burned building, broken windows and you need to go behind the building, which is like abandoned building. I was thinking welcome to Nigeria. 🙂 Anyway, police/military were so helpful. We leaved one hour later and started to ride, after 50 km you can understand how much drivers are crazy like they loose their mind or wants to suicide. Some trucks pushed us out the road and we hit some potholes very badly. We saw a lot of checkpoints. They have big wooden sticks to close road and stop cars. Also, some of them were talking a driver with a gun inside their hand ready to shoot. Nobody stopped us; no accident and we arrive to Lagos alive. J We stayed one of FS friends place. Unfortunately he was in a holiday and we couldn’t see him.

Incredible help from a local guy

After got rest a couple of days, we started to search rear tires. We couldn’t find them the last 4 countries but we need them before the Gabon-Congo road. We were thinking what we should do. One couple who we met on the road in Mali, they gave us a name which is Toyin. He is Nigerian and living in Lagos. We contacted him on messenger. He started to search it and gave some number to talk as well but we didn’t have any top up to call at the moment. He sent money on our phone for that. 4-5 days later, he found tires for us, one is second hand other one new. He barged to price and everything. Finally we could meet him but only 10 minutes.

We got the tires and met some other people, went to dinner with them and had a lot of fun. When we came home we remembered that we didn’t pay it. We wrote Toyin to ask how we will pay it. He said that he was happy to meet us and the tires are a gift for us to safe trip in Congo. We couldn’t find words to say.

We had another amazing memory as well in Lagos. We saw that our fork seal is leaking and we didn’t have extra one with us. We asked Toyin and Dele they asked in motorcycle groups how we could find it. Our size of fork seal in or around Nigeria, no way to find it! We got stuck in Lagos. 🙁

Philip, who is from Sweden and living in Nigeria, was in South Africa at the same time for work but he was so busy. He hired a taxi and gave him the fork seal size to look around to find it, 2 days later he found it. We knew that he was flying to Lagos but stayed only 12 hours and going somewhere else. Unfortunately, we couldn’t see him and meet. He gave our fork seal to security and we picked up there. We called him to say thank you and ask how we can pay it. He said that he was so happy to help us. And wish a safe trip for us. It was another surprise for us. He also, traveled by motorcycle and a lot of people helped him on the road and he believe to time to pay for that 🙂

Meeting this kind of people on the road is incredible….

Are you going to hurt/kill us?

2 weeks later, we could leave from Lagos. Our plan was follow the coastline and pass to Cameron as soon as possible. We passed many checkpoints on the road and nobody stopped us. We were happy for that. I suppose that if we don’t have any experience for the checkpoint we can’t leave from the country. They stopped us when we were going to Onitsha. One soldier/police was talking with Ferry; the other two were coming to me. I opened my helmet and said hello. They got surprised to see me because I am a woman. J They were smiling and trying to talk with me. The same time I heard a scream and I saw that Ferry grabbed the soldier by his shoulder. I can’t describe the soldiers face it was so scary. Ferry was telling “take your key from the motorcycle to me and give back my key to the guy. Our engine was on and he got the key because he didn’t like that. I saw his hand was going to the gun. I turned to the two soldiers but I was almost going to cry. I asked them “what did we do wrong? Why is your friend doing this? I am really scared now. The other guy was so angry. Who were next to me they started to talk to the guy to stop it and gave back the key. In the beginning he didn’t listen he was just screaming. And than he got a little calm down, gave back the key and took back his hand from the gun. I was telling two soldiers ‘could we go now, please? I am not sure about to next step now.’ Finally, they allowed us to leave. I am so lucky that it was our first and last experience for the checkpoint. When we were leaving they wanted to take photo with us and we learned that the soldier got angry because Ferry didn’t stop the engine when he was talking to the soldier. And he wanted to show power and took the key. We never stop engine when we stop any checkpoint and we never had problem before 🙂

We went to Onitsha and found a little cheap hotel to stay. We had time to walk around after that and had dinner. In the morning we hit to road again to Calabar.

Terrible road and helpful or so angry people. How much we where lucky?

We arrived to Lagos begin of April but we started to ride again after middle of April. Therefore, we caught the beginning of the rain season. We took the main road to ride but when we arrived in a small village there was no way to pass the road! The road is under the water, deep and muddy; nobody tried to pass. We asked some people which road we need to take. They show us a short cut, which was soft sand. Good thing was just 10 km. 🙂 we arrived to the main road again and it was looking very good. After 50-60 km later the tar road collapsed and only, huge potholes. We saw some motorbikes were passing very tiny road next to it. We tried same thing but with our side bags we couldn’t pass as it was to small. One person came to us and said that he could help us to pass from another road. We didn’t sure to follow the guy or not because no other road around but we didn’t have any option more as well. We told him that we don’t have any money with us just we wanted to go Calabar. He thought a little and said that he could help us just we need to follow him.

He was talking about another road right! There isn’t another road just we have to pass private properties where they grow vegetables or cooking. Who saw us when we were passing they were screaming behind us or running. Believe me, it wasn’t a good experience. We were fighting with mud to ride and angry people running behind you. We managed it and turn back to the main road, which was look like tar road again. Who help us said that ‘no more problem. Just keep continue’ Really, are you serious!

20-25 km later we had to stop. The road collapsed and had one big pothole, which is totally mud, and 4-5 meters deep. We saw local people were passing next to it or inside. They were taking everything from the motorcycle and carrying the motorbike. Get out all bags tried to push motorcycles and than carry bags. Never happened for us because we don’t want to leave the bags or the motorcycles. If we turn back we have to pass again private properties but we never find the road. If we tried to pass from here we have no idea what was next. What should we do? We stopped the motorcycles and start to think about what to do? Of course, again a local guy came and said that I can help. Again same conversation we don’t have money? Are sure after that road is ok? Where will we pass from a private property?

No option more! Kept continue the guy. He was in front, Ferry behind and I was last. I got stuck in the mud. When I was trying to move I heard some sounds from intercom, which were not good sounds. I just opened the gas and went very quick behind. Of course, we were in the middle of someone’s private property and the guy was keeping Ferry’s in front tire between his legs and screaming badly. Ferry was so calm down and trying to explain why we were there. Just we were following a guy who said that he could help us. We didn’t know we were going to his place. We needed to do something but what. At that moment the guy came back and wanted to explain the owner…. Etc. Owner didn’t want to listen but his voice was going calm down, look like. I was just behind Ferry but he didn’t see me just focus him. One old woman was sitting in front of the house. They speak English so we can talk with her as well. I opened my helmet and waved my hand with smile. Yes, she saw me and came. Shake hands and looked inside my eyes, which is very important for them. We saw this in a lot of African countries. They want to see your eyes. I just said ‘ so sorry to disturb you. We didn’t know the place is private. You know the road how much bad. It’s my fault. I couldn’t pass there and somebody offered to help us to pass the hole and keep continue our road. We are not bad people. Please tell us what we can do.’ Anyway it was a sensitive moment and tears came to my eyes, couldn’t keep them. She just smiled and went to talk with her grand son. He was still screaming and not looking around didn’t want to talk anybody. Finally, she pulled his t-shirt and showed me without say anything. Ferry and I got surprise because he stopped to scream. We were so curios for the next step. He came to me and very polite ‘this is private property. You can’t pass it. Look what they did our plantations.” He was right but we didn’t have any change more. I told him the same thing what I told to his grandmother. A minute just silent and he said that “Please, keep continue” Yes we did runaway. 🙂

Finally around 5 pm we arrived to Calabar and found a hotel very fast to stay.

Calabar is a nice green city

The next morning we went to the Cameroon consulate to apply for our visas. Here we met Kevin and Emma from Australia and they were on the road for two years. The consulate said that we could get the visa in the afternoon. So we stay one day more in Calabar. Kevin and Emma came to the same hotel. We walked around the city center during the day and in the night we got dinner with the 4 of us. People were nice and street food was really good. Around the city look like doesn’t belong to Nigeria 🙂 We decided to be together a little in Cameroon. And next day morning we hit to road.

Note: We would like to share a lot of photos like other our articles but Ferry didn’t feel safe, therefore we could’t use camera on the road 🙁

GS

July 31, 2017
The Gambia Time

Our plan changed a lot on the road for The Gambia. We were planning to stay a place around 10-15 days and get rest. But when they had some politic problem and they closed the door for tourists. Everything got ok in 4-5 days. So, we could enter Gambia.

We took the ferry to go to Banjul. He went to the ticket office and didn’t say anything, he gave 2.000 CFA and bought our ticket. The ferry is so busy but for motorcycles there is always place. Actually, the river is not so long but water level is so low. Therefore the ferry is so slow.

We stayed two days in Sukuta camping. They didn’t had electricity and wifi most of the time when we were there but they did charge us for that. That’s why we didn’t want to stay longer. We ride to the south of Gambia to find a nice bungalow to stay. We asked a lot of hotels which are expensive or bad or we didn’t like it. We couldn’t find anything what we were looking for. We decided to ride Kartong and look for the small border. They said it is for local people. We saw a little sign says a hotel. Let’s go to check. ( GPS:13.068632, -16.747039) lovely place next to the river. We stayed two days and so much enjoy. The place is called Stala lodge, when you throw a rock across the river its in Senegal 🙂

And we wanted to follow our road because we couldn’t find a house to stay 10 days and feel we are like in a home. We ride east of Gambia and went to wild camping closed to Soma. People were so friendly and curios what we were doing. It was nice for us to communicate with local people. Because we can’t speak French but can speak English. 😉 Next day, we passed to Senegal again. (Click for border crossing and bribery)

(Click a photo to slide show)

[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”17″ gal_title=”The Gambia”]

GS

April 12, 2017
Our Mauritania Journey

We travel in Mauritania two week, we went to Nouadhibou, Nouakchott, Atar, Chinquetti and Terjit in Mauritania.

First of all, we had a problem to cross the border. We arrived at the border around noon and we left almost 8:30 pm. The border was so busy as there was a German rally crossing as well and the visa office had a problem with their Internet. We waited a lot for that and than fight with fixer. (click more detail and border crossing details)

Before start to read all details of Mauritania you can watch a short movie where we could make video about the journey;
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The bad thing was we needed to ride in the dark, we never want to ride in the dark in Africa and we needed in Mauritania, a new country where a lot of people talking about that it’s not safe. When we left the border we had about 50 km to ride to Nouadhibou, there are a lot of police-military checkpoints and hard to see them in the dark, they don’t have any lights at the road so I needed to stop pretty fast sometimes. Other thing, we were thinking They were really police or somebody trying to stop us. In Mauritania you need a ‘fiche’ (this is a paper with all your passport details and where you coming from, motorcycle plates etc.) we didn’t had it yet so each stop took us a while wait. We arrived there around 10 pm, opened our tent and had a good night sleep, well deserved! The bad thing is, this was her birthday, well she had better ones I can imagine on the other hand we will always remember this one. Hopefully, next year we will make it a nice day. 🙂

The next day we met 2 other motorcyclists who stayed at the same place, a Italian guy who was on a 3 week holiday enjoying riding in the dessert of Mauritania and James who came from England. We traveled with him a little in Mauritania also, we met a lot of countries again with James.

We wanted to go to Atar from Nouadhibou, there is dessert road next to the train rail. A total from approx. 500 km, and no road you need flow train rail. After serach and told some people who did before, we understood that no option to do that for us. Our motorcycles were fully packed. No petrol station and we need to carry extra petrol also food and water. 🙁 The train is still working which is calling ‘’Iron Ore’’ and one of the longest trains in the world.

We started search for how we put the motorcycle on the Iron Ore train and how much the price. The train leaves every afternoon from Nouadhibou to Fderik. ‘‘Iron Ore’’ carries iron so it is a cargo train. If you want to travel with the train you can just jump in. It is free. And the train is empty when go to Fderik so you cant black from iron. And They tols us if you can put your motorcycle to wagon It is also free but no way to do that. They have a platform which you can carry your motorcycle on it. And the platform price is 500 Euros. The price was high for us therefore we skipped it. If you have more people with you, share the price. We didn’t do that but we learned for other rider, who took the train; he shared the price and paid 50 Euros. But he said that the road was terrible from Fderik to main road for Atar. Actually, They have one stop before Fderik, which is called Choum. But Iron Ore doesn’t stop there. Just gets slow down for local people get of.

If you don’t want to ride on the desert and cant put your motorcycle to the train You have only one option to go Atar, ride from main road. So, we needed to ride all the way to Nouakchott and then up to Atar, which is 900 km!

As the fuel is not a thing they sell a lot in Mauritania. Super gasoline is in the block market. They use diesel for their car and almost no motorcycle in Mauritania. Our tank is 7.7 liters, approx. 230 km. We filled up our rotopax, 11 liters. We took extra 8 liters of water bottles to make it to the next petrol station.

The first day went ok, We ride around 300 km after that we found a nice spot for camping next to the road. We were planning go to a national park and camp there. The road, which we choose, was so sand. After James fell down She didn’t want to keep continue.

Next day we passed through Nouakchott. We found a petrol station, We filled up all bottles and the rotopax to make it for the last 450 km to Atar. We went wild camp again somewhere in the middle of nowhere!

Next day, halfway the road there was a city we hoped we can get some fuel for our motorcycles. Unfortunately there was no fuel 🙁 We decided to ride a bit slower to save some petrol so we hopefully we can make towards Atar. We didn’t! My motorcycle was empty about 20 km before Atar, luckily James was with us and he still had fuel.

He went to Atar to fill up a 5 liter bottle and would return to us with that so we can make it as well, darkness started to fall when he came back. So we went in a rush towards the camping, arrived there all 3 totally broken and extremely tired! But we made it. To see the next day it was a lovely place Bab Sahara, a Dutch guy called Justus owns this amazing place. Unfortunately there are not a lot of people coming anymore as the government says Mauritania is not safe to travel.

Atar, itself is nothing really special. We went there because we wanted to see Chingetti and than Terjit. After get rest 2 days in Atar we went to Chingetti which is a beautiful small town at the border of the dessert, the ride is 80 km over a dirt road which is not too bad but so much bumpy.

And last 10-15 km, is a little sandy road, depend on the wind. If the wind is so strong a lot of sand comes to the road.

We passed through some nice mountains and the ride was fun to do, we stayed 2 days in Chingetti walked around in the dessert took some really nice photo’s. This was a lovely place to see, this is where the dessert starts and you can see oases. Also, they have old library to visit and old town center, which is in UNESCO list.

After stayed 2 days in Chinquetti we went to a big Oasis called Terjit, this was 30 km south of Atar on the way to Nouakchott, the place was really cool to see. Just what we expected from a oasis. In the beginning the road and landscape was really nice. When we turn to Terjit we ride in the sand and couldn’t go to inside to oasis with motorcycle because too much sandy. So, we stayed in the village and walked to the oasis.

Now it was time to ride all the way back to Nouakchott, we did this in 1 day it was a long ride of 440 km but we made it! This time we took a extra 25 liters petrol with us. And we survived the crazy traffic. We met James again here as well, who applied for a Mali visa, we said 2 things before we left Europe. We are passing Mauritania as fast as possible and we are not going in Mali. So the first one failed and second one also failed. we got our Mali visa here as well. This is a cheap visa so we wouldn’t loose a lot if we don’t go. They said that we could get Nigeria visa easily in Mali. If we can’t get anywhere we can enter Mali, we have visa. 🙂

We leaved Nouakchott and stayed one night closed to the border of Senegal. Next they it was horrible border crossing! (click for the border crossing info)

For our experiences you don’t have to be scared of Mauritania, you can safely travel in the west part and go to Chinquetti, at that moment.

(Click a photo for slide show)

Chingetti

[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”15″ gal_title=”Chingetti, Mauratania”]

Terjit

[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”16″ gal_title=”Terjit,Mauratania”]

And Mauratania

[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”18″ gal_title=”Mauratania”]

FS

April 12, 2017
Mali, Burkina Faso, Togo and Benin

This are 4 countries we basically passed through, so I will write them together in one article.

Mali

This country is at moment just not safe enough to travel through, it’s ok to go to the capital Bamako and pass through the south. But the nice things to see are up north, we would have love to go to Timbuktu and Mopti but it’s just not safe enough. So we entered from Guinea into Mali early in the morning to make it to Bamako in 1 day.

We stayed at the Sleeping Camel, a highly recommended place for over landers. We did some visa hunting there (Nigeria, Benin and Burkina Faso). When we arrived we met another motorcyclists traveling around West Africa (Luca from Germany) it’s always nice to meet other riders. The next day Nicholas arrived, another motorcyclists this time from Australia he’s already 5 years away from home and has a lot of experience, he taught us some things form the motorcycle as well for the maintenance. He’s definitely a guy we can trust for this! Luca left after a couple of days but showed up new riders, William from French, Ricardo from Argentina, Daniel and Josephine from Germany and of course our friend James 🙂 This must be something really unique in West Africa 8 motorcycles together, 4 individuals and 2 couples. Time for a photo 🙂

Left to right : William, Daniel, Josephine, Ricardo, Nicholas, I and Gulcin, James. Behind: Laura and Cemil

We also met 2 over landing Dutch couples traveling by truck and a German couple in a 4×4 (Laura and Cemil), great place to stay a little and get strong again. We stayed 12 days at The Sleeping Camel it was really a pleasure staying there.

(Click a photo to slide show)

[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”12″ gal_title=”From Mali”]

Burkina Faso

After a nice break in Bamako it was time to hit the road again and we did, we ride all the way to Burkina Faso in 1 day we did 470 km including a border crossing! Next day, we just ride 70 km and we stayed in a nice city called Bobo, we only stayed 1 night but it would have been worth staying a bit longer.

The road conditions where better in Burkina Faso so the day after we had a nice ride, took a long break to make some lunch. Because the weather was so hot and we couldn’t ride motorcycle middle of the day. Asphalt was burning which I could feel from my shoes and when we stopped we couldn’t touch our tires were burning as well.

In the night we finally went wild camping again, we missed this after staying 13 days in a room. We found a great spot in a dry river; the night was nice and cold what is really nice as the temperature gets up to 40+ degrees Celsius during the day. The landscape in Burkina Faso is nice to seen the people are really friendly again, everywhere we stop they come to say hello with a big smile also big smiles when we passing villages.

We went to the capital city Ouagadouga, this was nothing special just another big West African city. We stayed two days there and hit to road again to Togo. The border is around 300 kilometers far from the capital city. Therefore we went to wild camping again before pass the border. It was so hot in the night. Suddenly started to rain a little and than wind. Funny thing was we put tent under the trees and no wind and it was still hot. In the morning we left quickly towards Togo.

Togo

This is a long country but only 50 km wide. The road conditions where only getting better and no speed bumps every 5 kilometres 🙂 Some roads were closed we needed to go a little dirty and sand road. It was easy to ride if we didn’t have like tornados.

We passed a lot of traditional houses and wanted to go to a small Unesco village (Koutammakou) to see some more. They wanted 13.000 cfa from us to go there. And pay extra 6.000 CFA to the guide motorcycle for petrol. He rides only 30 km total how can be like that. They changed price in 30 minutes a lot and his behavior was strange. So, we skipped it. Anyway, we saw similar a lot from the road as well..

We continued our road towards Lome, getting some more visa’s here (Congo Brazzaville and Gabon). Apart from that we didn’t do a lot, just chilling out. We stayed Chez Alice and saw our friend Nicholas here as well. Also, we met an other rider from Belgium who is Olaf. When we were living to Lome our dear friend James arrived. West Africa so small, isn’t it? 🙂

If you have plan to ride motorcycle in Burkina or Togo you should start early to ride and give a little break yourself on noon.

(Click a photo to slide show)

[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”13″ gal_title=”From Togo”]

Benin

We went straight from Lome to Cotonou, finally we did some off road riding again. We went through the sand along the beach to nice place to stay called Chez Rada, we ate the best food in West Africa so far here and the had a swimming pool :).

In the meantime we got our Congo Kinshasa (DRC) visa as well. We did some more practice with riding in the sand on our motorcycles. I like it more and more, she said she didn’t but I saw her eyes and smile seems she liked as well. I can see that she has been getting better and better to ride on the sand.

(Click a photo to slide show)

[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”14″ gal_title=”From Benin”]

FS

April 6, 2017