basically- is it possible still to go overland from London
to Cape Town? Or is DRCongo still impassable?
[There are 7 posts - the latest was added on Fri 21 May, 15:31]
Use the form at the end of this page to add your own post.
Topics
| Thorn Tree
| Home
If you go down the east coast you will have problems in
Eritrea, Ethopia (border closed), going down from Egypt
into Ethopia bypassing Eritrea, going through the Sudan
(though I have heard that it is opening up now) and in the
Congo.
Good luck and be prepared to fly over.
It is possible to go from Egypt to Eritrea but you have to
fly. The Sudan border is closed. You can then go to
Djibouti and from there by train to Dire Dawa in Ethiopia.
You can fly from Asmara to Djibouti (on an interesting
little airline called Daallo). I have also heard that it
is possible to go across the land border between Eritrea
and Djibouti provided that you are not Eritrean. Get a
Djibouti visa in Cairo because the Embassy is now closed in
Asmara and in December 98 no one else had been assigned to
issue visas. You can't get a plane ticket without a visa.
I have also been told that there is a ferry from Egypt to
Jedda in Saudi Arabia and then onwards to Masawa in
Eritrea. Eritrea is a great country to visit and shouldn't
be missed if you get the opportunity.
It's is possible. There is a couple currently doing the
trip. They obtained a visa for Sudan! Have a look at the
following website for a link to the site called "African
Adventure". The url is
http://oasis.fortunecity.com/pyramids/390/links.html
Another couple is also heading South but via West Africa.
On there site they posted an article stating that they had
heard that there is a route through the Congo. They are two
vehicles called "Viking and Chief"
Enjoy!
Mart
I read your post and was intrigued by the revelation of a
possible route through the DRC for those planning a West
African route. You mentioned there was a reference to this
on the Viking and Chief web site - well unfortunately I
couldn't find it.
Do you have anymore details of where the reference is ?
Cheers - from someone planning a Europe to South Africa
trip.
Its a bloody long way and a LONG LONG time to be travelling
so intensely. Maybe looking into shorter, more manageable
sized chunks at a time? London - CT is about 27 weeks.
But for more info I recommend you check out the following
web site:
http://www.travelinafrica.co.za or that could be .com, I'm
not sure)
or email Jaco directly at wom@mweb.co.za, this guy really
knows his stuff.
Hi Paul,
I think I was mistaken about the Viking and Chief site.
They might have a route through Niger, Mali and Sudan (I
think). When I went through there site again (last update
on Star date) I only saw the east posting.
Let me check some of my other overland URL's for the congo
one. I am sure I read it somewhere....
When do you want to leave?
I've just come back from west Africa after attempting an
overland trip south from London. With a few mates and a
Landrover we abandoned the overland idea in Ghana...having
found out from various embassies and other people that the
Congo was deadly, and the chance of getting carjacked in
Nigeria, Cameroon and Gabon was quite high. That's the
stories we got and we chickened out. My mates decided to
ship their vehicle from Accra to Capetown and fly to Sth
Africa, and do the south and east coasts of Africa that
way. It may be possible to backpack through Congo. But the
dangers are police and army checkpoints, and wandering
bands of bandits from all sides of the on and off civil
war. You'd need lots of American dollars cash to make the
journey, which would take weeks if not months. I hear the
bribes would cost a fortune. That was the state of play two
months ago, and I wasn't game to risk it. But if you could
do it, what an adventure. I know one bloke who is an Afro-
Canadian, who is giving it a go, and he may stand a chance.
Things seem to change quickly in DRC and you never know, it
could become relatively safe again soon. Good luck, I'd
love to hear from someone who's made it overland from Ghana
to, say, Zambia or Uganda, because that means you can now
go all the way south, and I'd like to try it again.