essex to south africa by road

hi
im planning a road trip next year from essex to south africa over land ive had 7yrs driving trucks around europe but i no nothing can praper you for the roads in africa if any one has any advice they can offer i,ve aloud 3months out to do the journey im buying a new motor in december this yr naturally ill be buying a 4x4 im just looking for helpful tips and any advice please
kind regards simon

Hello , I don't know how far along you are with your plans but if you are interested you can contact me . I have done this journey twice , both times on my own , in 2006 and 2011 . In a 1994 land rover discovery..............Good luck , david

Take a look at my last post , I'll have a ford ranger fully kitted out and good to go next year hit me up if you wanna join forces

Hello Ben , iv listed a few things for you ..........1, how are you getting to africa when you set off from the uk......2, which route will you follow......3, I went egypt,sudan, ethiopia, kenya, uganda, tanzania, zambia, namibia, botswana, South Africa .......4, any problems on this route will be very few , most travellers problems are self inflicted such as speeding , no seat belt , drawing unwanted attention to yourself , driving at night . I had to pay 3 fines/,bribes of about 10 pounds each over the 2 trips . 5, there are some great parks from ethiopia right down to South Africa , daily park fees are 40/60$ a day .....6, lots of desert in Egypt and sudan sand dunes you can climb in namibia and salt pans in botswana.......7, have you already bought you car? If not you may want to consider a land rover or Toyota as there are places to get spares , I didn't see any ford dealers ......8, I have info for contacts and also on vehicle insurance you will need in different countries on the route ....9, I am interested in joining up with you and can meet to discuss, or if you want can just help out with info you can contact me at any time ......david

Thanks David for your response that's very helpful , I think I will go the same route Spain , Morocco then along the top and down visiting all the same places I really want to see all the wildlife that I can , I will be taking a 2017 Ford Ranger and I will visit my local Ford garage to have veryhing prepped before the trip also buy a tone of spares I will also be taking a KTM 300 2 stroke for a bit of fun along the way when it's quite and no one around on the Sand dunes yeah of course if you wanted to join more than welcome , what do you drive ? , Also some videos online I see people traveling with armed guards is this a thing ? can it be dangerous when driving can you run into gangs or anything like that ?

Thanks Ben

Hello ben, if you take this route i think Morocco and Tunisia will be safe , not so sure about Algeria and I don't think you will even be allowed into Libya at all . If you go south from Morocco you may have problems in West Sahara and Mali is a definite no, as is Niger and Chad .......I believe Morocco is one of the few , if only , country in afric a where you don't need a vehicle Carnet. The cost of a carnet is based on the cars value in some countries with the highest in Africa being Egypt who use a value of eight times market value , you may find yourself paying a few thousand pounds for the Carnet on a 2017 car ......you can , as a visitor , only get third party insurance in most countries in Africa so if you take the ranger you should get fully comp insurance from a special broker in the UK .....I won't feel safe crossing North Africa but don't let me put you off going , just be carefull, don't drive at night and find a secure place to stop each night .............if you then then intend to travel South from either Egypt or sudan i would always meet up with you there ....david

Hello Ben , you will also need a carnet for the ktm motorcycle............david

IIRC a ranger is a pickup truck.
If you don't have one already, I'd get a hardtop for the back as advertising you've a truck and bike may be a little too much for people with wealth re-distribution thoughts (thieves).

"Morocco then along the top and down" you'll need to do an awful lot of research about the custom documents/visas/costs for each and every country you intend to travel through. I'd also suggest you have a rough idea of the same thing for the neighbouring countries in case there's problems going on your intended route.

It's a journey I'd consider in any other continent but I'm not brave enough to try that across Africa.
The political instabilities and the extremely cheap value of life there make me very wary...

[ Edit: Edited on 06-Aug-2018, at 07:50 by Andrew Mack ]

Ok thank you for the great advice,

David can you tell the exact route you would recommend, starting from England please ?

thanks

hello ben, your only problem will be getting your vehicle to Africa , you will have to search the net to find the current situation . there are only 2 ways to get there when going cairo to cape town that I know of ..........put the vehicle in a container from Felixstowe to Alexandria or port said , Egypt........try and find a ferry across the med, try piraes , Greece or from turkey, cant remember the port, again to alex or port said. it will take a bit of searching on the net but some time ago I found a shipping company that goes from hamburg , Germany , again to port said .......I would strongly suggest that the only current "safe" route , and the only route I would take confidently would be..........Egypt,sudan,ethiopia,kenya,tanzania,zambia.botswana, Namibia ,south Africa . this route gives access to a lot of game parks and also borders other countries that you can divert in and out of as you like ........hope this helps , contact me again any time...........david