60 Days to Drive the West Coast of Africa – Am I Crazy?

[MarkoBSRB]

Hi Everyone,

New here and my first post! I’m planning my first major overland adventure and could really use your perspective, especially if I’m totally nuts here.

My plan is to ship a Toyota FJ Cruiser from Vancouver, BC to a port in Europe and then drive from Tangier, Morocco down to Cape Town, South Africa along the west coast of Africa in roughly 60 days.

A little about me: I love the journey as much as the destinations and have done long-distance drives in short periods before, so I feel up for the challenge, but is 60 days for that distance pure insanity? Those who have done this route I am looking for honest opinions on whether this is realistic or if I should seriously rethink the timeline.

I plan to start building an FJ Cruiser in the next few months, with a target start date of December 2027, and I’ll mostly be camping in the vehicle. I’m open to both established campgrounds and safe wild camping.

Here’s where I could use your advice:

1. Route priorities: Which countries are worth lingering in a few extra days, and which are better to just drive through quickly if I’m on a tight schedule?
2. Camping tips: Great campgrounds or safe wild camping spots along the west coast of Africa?
3. Vehicle storage in South Africa: I plan to leave the FJ in Cape Town for about 9 months before continuing through South Africa and lower East African countries. Any tips for secure, long-term storage?
4. Other advice: Anything—from border crossings and fuel logistics to safety and local insights—that could help make this ambitious 60-day plan even remotely realistic.

Am I crazy to think I can do this in around 60 days? I know it’s a lot of ground to cover, but I’d love to hear your thoughts, experiences, or sanity checks.

Thanks so much in advance!

Marko

 

[socialpants]

Hi Everyone,

New here and my first post! I’m planning my first major overland adventure and could really use your perspective, especially if I’m totally nuts here.

My plan is to ship a Toyota FJ Cruiser from Vancouver, BC to a port in Europe and then drive from Tangier, Morocco down to Cape Town, South Africa along the west coast of Africa in roughly 60 days.

A little about me: I love the journey as much as the destinations and have done long-distance drives in short periods before, so I feel up for the challenge, but is 60 days for that distance pure insanity? Those who have done this route I am looking for honest opinions on whether this is realistic or if I should seriously rethink the timeline.

I plan to start building an FJ Cruiser in the next few months, with a target start date of December 2027, and I’ll mostly be camping in the vehicle. I’m open to both established campgrounds and safe wild camping.

Here’s where I could use your advice:

1. Route priorities: Which countries are worth lingering in a few extra days, and which are better to just drive through quickly if I’m on a tight schedule?
2. Camping tips: Great campgrounds or safe wild camping spots along the west coast of Africa?
3. Vehicle storage in South Africa: I plan to leave the FJ in Cape Town for about 9 months before continuing through South Africa and lower East African countries. Any tips for secure, long-term storage?
4. Other advice: Anything—from border crossings and fuel logistics to safety and local insights—that could help make this ambitious 60-day plan even remotely realistic.

Am I crazy to think I can do this in around 60 days? I know it’s a lot of ground to cover, but I’d love to hear your thoughts, experiences, or sanity checks.

Thanks so much in advance!

Marko

Following to see how this goes as I have nothing to offer regarding Africa, unfortunately. I’m thinking about a similar adventure for SouthEast Asia (timing TBD). Good luck and keep us all updated, please.

 

[El-Dracho]

Hi Everyone,

New here and my first post! I’m planning my first major overland adventure and could really use your perspective, especially if I’m totally nuts here.

My plan is to ship a Toyota FJ Cruiser from Vancouver, BC to a port in Europe and then drive from Tangier, Morocco down to Cape Town, South Africa along the west coast of Africa in roughly 60 days.

A little about me: I love the journey as much as the destinations and have done long-distance drives in short periods before, so I feel up for the challenge, but is 60 days for that distance pure insanity? Those who have done this route I am looking for honest opinions on whether this is realistic or if I should seriously rethink the timeline.

I plan to start building an FJ Cruiser in the next few months, with a target start date of December 2027, and I’ll mostly be camping in the vehicle. I’m open to both established campgrounds and safe wild camping.

Here’s where I could use your advice:

1. Route priorities: Which countries are worth lingering in a few extra days, and which are better to just drive through quickly if I’m on a tight schedule?
2. Camping tips: Great campgrounds or safe wild camping spots along the west coast of Africa?
3. Vehicle storage in South Africa: I plan to leave the FJ in Cape Town for about 9 months before continuing through South Africa and lower East African countries. Any tips for secure, long-term storage?
4. Other advice: Anything—from border crossings and fuel logistics to safety and local insights—that could help make this ambitious 60-day plan even remotely realistic.

Am I crazy to think I can do this in around 60 days? I know it’s a lot of ground to cover, but I’d love to hear your thoughts, experiences, or sanity checks.

Thanks so much in advance!

Marko

Hi Marko,

Welcome to Overland Bound.

If you like to introduce yourself to the community you can do that here:

Member Introductions *NEW MEMBERS INTRODUCE YOURSELF*

Hey! New here from North Carolina. Building out our 24 Tundra and hope to get some trips in this year! Mike, Welcome to the OB family. There is a wealth of information and knowledge here.

www.overlandbound.com

Others have already traveled the west coast of Africa in such a short time, but I think that's very ambitious. In the countries you have to drive through, there is a lot to do in terms of red tape, visas, borders, checkpoints, and much more, all of which takes a lot of time, and then you don't have that time to see the beautiful things on such a tight schedule. Add to that weather changes, miserable road conditions, etc. I would take more time, but if it's your dream, then just do it!

Our Africa Ambassador @Get Out GO can help you with tips in southern Africa. Where are you shipping into in Europe? I'm happy to help you with the European part and tips for Morocco and Mauretania if you have specific questions. Also, take a look at the OB Map, I've entered lots of POIs for Morocco and Mauritania, and you'll find also a lot of POIs from Christoff in the map for southern Africa.

Enjoy planning,
Bjoern

 

[socal66]

Doing that route in 60 days is possible just not probable (or at the very least enjoyable).

I came back from an overland rally from Budapest through Freetown, Sierra Leone last month and I would have to say that the one most important thing to bring when traveling in West Africa even more so than money is time. Everything takes longer as Africa has its own pace and speed. West Africa is a place where tight itineraries and schedules go to die.

The "roads" are slow going unless you want to risk damage to your vehicle. When you do damage your vehicle unless you brought all the needed parts and are self-sufficient the process to getting whatever repaired will be slow. One you get south of Morocco you may need to devote extra time in finding fuel including waiting until the next day or so for it to arrive if you have ran out. The road you want to take or the ferry you need to take across a river isn't open or running for some reason when you get there and you have to wait or do a long drive to the next route around. Routes through major population centers are more apt to be open but they can be and usually are jam packed with traffic for hours on end to go just a few miles.

While those things will happen and slow you down they aren't the major source of delays you may encounter. Border crossings suck more time out of a schedule then you can imagine. Some are straightforward but most of them are not. It's not uncommon to take more than 12 hours to get from the Moroccan border across into Mauritania. Some crossings further south are worse. You need to have all of the required paperwork in order and in the format expected for the particular country you're entering. More than just a passport you'll need a visa and immunization paperwork. Some visa's you can obtain in advance on-line real easily others you will need to visit their embassy in the country before and wait through that process. Your vehicle is a whole other set of paperwork. Proof of ownership in the format that the customs agents recognize and accept. Carne de Passage or similar documentation outlining that your using the vehicle as a tourist and not importing it. Potentially emptying all your contents in your vehicle for inspection to ensure you're not bringing in things not allowed. In most cases there isn't one officer or desk that handles this but rather you'll need to go through a series of different officers and officials each with their own waiting lines, attitudes, competencies, understanding of your spoken language, and adherence to the law. After that needing proof of insurance and probably getting insurance at the border because you can't buy it beforehand out of country. Before you do that you need local currency because no one accepts charge cards for what you need to pay for and an ATM isn't there or doesn't work so you'll need to find a moneychanger and go through that process. Etc., etc, etc.

The point here is that there is a whole different way things are done and how fast they are done. If you have the time and aren't pressured to meet a schedule and you have a good attitude it's all part of the experience and the source of many good stories to tell others in the future. If you're on a tight schedule however you will be stressed and whenever you wan't something to happen quicker it usually takes even longer. If you're traveling the whole west side of Africa down to the south I think that's around 17 or 18 separate border crossings. On many border crossings the plan is to get there early in the morning before sunrise to be towards the front of the line and because the process may take so long your planned stay in the next country maybe very close to the border so that whole day is just devoted to getting across the border with anything in addition a bonus. Sometimes border posts close early or aren't open for some reason not known to you so you'll need to wait until the next day.

While there are many other considerations you'll need to research for your planned trip I think your core problem will be the lack of time that you're allocating. I think many that choose to do this same route do it over a period closer to 6 months rather than 2. You'll have some long drives (time wise) to keep to your schedule and may find yourself getting to camp late at night only to need to leave early in the morning and then having to do that same routine day after day.

Another thing to factor in is the time for vehicle shipment so then you can drive it from whatever European port to Tangier. When you setup your shipment and drop off your vehicle you'll be given a date that it will arrive at the destination port. In most cases that won't be the actual date that your vehicle arrives and it will be 50/50 that it arrives a few days sooner or a few days later and then you'll need to deal with that as well and if that is part of your 60 day plan that would eat into your schedule even before you get to Africa.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

Recently finished that very drive. 60 days is doable, but pushing. You can gain the most efficiency through heavy VISA prep, otherwise you can be shut down for days at time waiting on embassies to process. All part of the adventure!

 

[Get Out GO]

I wouldn’t advise 60 days, 90 is more realistic. Even that is bootcamp-type travel.

If you only have 60 days maybe consider a Southern Africa Loop; ship into Windhoek, do Namibia- Botswana-Zimbabwe-South Africa and ship out from Durban again