New adventure upcoming: Trans Africa

[Alanymarce]

No road at all - south of In Amenas
View from the falaise

 

[El-Dracho]

Nearly 4 weeks now in Morocco. We had a great time here.

A country so diverse, fantastic landscapes and wonderful people. Friendly, helpful, welcoming, hospitable. We always felt very welcome in Morocco and experienced the country as very modern. Everywhere in the country we saw big infrastructure projects, gigantic fields with wind turbines, water supply projects, most modern roads, yes street lighting solar powered and much more.
And also in small things people are engaged, be it a new water supply or the construction of new sanitary facilities at a campsite or the like.
Cities, streets, sidewalks very clean, we noticed from the beginning. In restaurants, rest stops up to the cafe on the smallest village clean toilets and always an opportunity to wash hands - in Europe not always self-evident.

Schools in the smallest villages, everywhere. Education is the key to success, the way to a modern society and a good basis for the future.
Throughout the country, a good police presence with numerous controls. However, not unpleasant, not at all. Always friendly and courteous. Simply great.

Yes, and of course one or the other would like to sell something, bread, fruit or a souvenir. Nothing is wrong with that. And if we declined with a thanks, we exchanged a few friendly words and that was it.

All the people we talked to are satisfied and happy with the situation as it is. We can understand that very well. All these are prerequisites for a good future.

A great country for overlanding!

Off to Mauretania soon...

 

[Alanymarce]

Watching with interest your time in Mauretania : )

 

[Kent R]

Thank you for the posts, love following allong.
Hope you get to meet up with Christoff @Get Out GO during your trip.

 

[El-Dracho]

Thank you for the posts, love following allong.
Hope you get to meet up with Christoff @Get Out GO during your trip.

Thank you, Kent.

 

[El-Dracho]

Watching with interest your time in Mauretania : )

We are in Mauretania. The bordercrossing was straight forward and nothing to worry about. Out of Morocco with passport check and stamp, x-ray of the rigs, custom control, some admin tasks and a final check in total 1.5 hours. Into Mauretania police check with passport and car documents, custom check of the cars, visa application, passavant, police check with stamping the visa and then getting the vehicle insurance, money exchange in total 2 hours. Very friendly and helpful officials. One of the border police guards asked if it is our 1st time in Mauretania and we said yes. His answer was "You you are very welcome". Wow. There are fixers offering their help at the border. We did without as it is a clear and easy process. Makes it easier when you speak a bit of french, of course. But many of the officials speak also english.

Within the country plenty of checkpoints. Army, gendarmerie, police, customs etc. Friendly officials also here, just asking some questions about the trip. Here you often have to hand over a fiche, a printout of a form with your personal details. So bring plenty of fiche.

Driving through the country is fun. Truckdrivers giving lightsignals, waving, people in the cars are waving and smiling, kids are waving from the roadside when passing villages. Everybody welcomes us. Amazing!

Desert still determines the landscape. But not boring. The desert ist changing every now and then. Sand, dunes, flat, rocks and we see more and more green now again. Yes, also some small trees already.

 

[El-Dracho]

Nouakchott, the capital of Mauretania, is a very busy, crowdy and also interesting and exciting city. Located at the Atlantic Ocean of course with wonderful views over the ocean. A good place to stay some days and relax.

But I became ill in Nouakchott. Three days almost only slept. The body temperature fluctuated again and again which was frightening. In addition, strong diarrhea for days. This fnally moved me to see the ER of the local hospital. Also a kind of experience. However, the examination was professional and I felt well taken care of. A blood test excluded at least a malaria disease, I was glad about that. Otherwise no findings. Probably the heat with temperatures between 40 and 44 degrees Celsius and at night mostly hardly cooling down was a problem for me and knocked me down. Coming more south it will probably be a little cooler, but still quite warm plus very humid. Not a good outlook. High temperatures are not good for us nordic vikings - hehe.

In addition a latent feeling of uneasiness set in some days ago with view of the further journey and also with view of Christmas coming up I longed for home. Felt tired and a bit stressed. I decided to follow my gut feeling as that is always the right and slowly heading north now.

Already now in my mind many great experiences of a beautiful time in the recent weeks. I am still not fully fit as that one was a hard hit. But on the road to recovery and in the coming days I will look at a few more beautiful places and explore Morocco a bit further. Think changing the trip was a smart move. Better safe than sorry. And if you cannot really enjoy there is no point to push forward. New adventures are waiting anyway...

 

[John and Mandi]

Nouakchott, the capital of Mauretania, is a very busy, crowdy and also interesting and exciting city. Located at the Atlantic Ocean of course with wonderful views over the ocean. A good place to stay some days and relax.

But I became ill in Nouakchott. Three days almost only slept. The body temperature fluctuated again and again which was frightening. In addition, strong diarrhea for days. This fnally moved me to see the ER of the local hospital. Also a kind of experience. However, the examination was professional and I felt well taken care of. A blood test excluded at least a malaria disease, I was glad about that. Otherwise no findings. Probably the heat with temperatures between 40 and 44 degrees Celsius and at night mostly hardly cooling down was a problem for me and knocked me down. Coming more south it will probably be a little cooler, but still quite warm plus very humid. Not a good outlook. High temperatures are not good for us nordic vikings - hehe.

In addition a latent feeling of uneasiness set in some days ago with view of the further journey and also with view of Christmas coming up I longed for home. Felt tired and a bit stressed. I decided to follow my gut feeling as that is always the right and slowly heading north now.

Already now in my mind many great experiences of a beautiful time in the recent weeks. I am still not fully fit as that one was a hard hit. But on the road to recovery and in the coming days I will look at a few more beautiful places and explore Morocco a bit further. Think changing the trip was a smart move. Better safe than sorry. And if you cannot really enjoy there is no point to push forward. New adventures are waiting anyway...

You’ve travelled many times and know to follow your instincts but your sharing it in practice is invaluable for others. We hope you get to 100% health soon.

 

[On the Road]

The next big adventure is knocking on the door. With two Defender 110s we will start the adventure Trans Africa! Until then, a lot of things have to be organized, planned and prepared. Many of you are probably asking now, how the exact route looks like. Well, we take the ferry to Morocco and then we just drive on the right side of the road until we are in Namibia, then a few more miles on the left side and we are at Cape Agulhas, the southernmost point of Africa, where I already stood in 2008 with a motorbike.

Of course, it is not quite like that. But an exact route planning is actually not very useful. Much information is outdated because of the C19 pandemic, the last usually from travellers from 2019, which gives clues, but is too old for rapidly developing countries. The situation, politically, economically, socially in many countries in Africa is changing fast. So, we quickly realized that a precise route planning has little added value. There is one direction - south - and a lot of ideas for worthwhile destinations and places. Adventure, that's what it is about.

I happy to give you here in this thread updates on the preparations, gladly share experiences to help other travelers and of course as soon as we are on the road happy to share pictures and travelstories.

Bjoern

Hi Bjoern we are a father & daughter (from Mauritius) who have just returned to Europe in our defender after 2 years through Turkey, Ukraine, Russia etc etc: want to do west coast from Morocco starting early in 2023 as possible: what are your dates for leaving ? Thanks dean & Zoya

 

[El-Dracho]

Nouakchott, the capital of Mauretania, is a very busy, crowdy and also interesting and exciting city. Located at the Atlantic Ocean of course with wonderful views over the ocean. A good place to stay some days and relax.

But I became ill in Nouakchott. Three days almost only slept. The body temperature fluctuated again and again which was frightening. In addition, strong diarrhea for days. This fnally moved me to see the ER of the local hospital. Also a kind of experience. However, the examination was professional and I felt well taken care of. A blood test excluded at least a malaria disease, I was glad about that. Otherwise no findings. Probably the heat with temperatures between 40 and 44 degrees Celsius and at night mostly hardly cooling down was a problem for me and knocked me down. Coming more south it will probably be a little cooler, but still quite warm plus very humid. Not a good outlook. High temperatures are not good for us nordic vikings - hehe.

In addition a latent feeling of uneasiness set in some days ago with view of the further journey and also with view of Christmas coming up I longed for home. Felt tired and a bit stressed. I decided to follow my gut feeling as that is always the right and slowly heading north now.

Already now in my mind many great experiences of a beautiful time in the recent weeks. I am still not fully fit as that one was a hard hit. But on the road to recovery and in the coming days I will look at a few more beautiful places and explore Morocco a bit further. Think changing the trip was a smart move. Better safe than sorry. And if you cannot really enjoy there is no point to push forward. New adventures are waiting anyway...

You’ve travelled many times and know to follow your instincts but your sharing it in practice is invaluable for others. We hope you get to 100% health soon.

Thank you.

 

[El-Dracho]

The next big adventure is knocking on the door. With two Defender 110s we will start the adventure Trans Africa! Until then, a lot of things have to be organized, planned and prepared. Many of you are probably asking now, how the exact route looks like. Well, we take the ferry to Morocco and then we just drive on the right side of the road until we are in Namibia, then a few more miles on the left side and we are at Cape Agulhas, the southernmost point of Africa, where I already stood in 2008 with a motorbike.

Of course, it is not quite like that. But an exact route planning is actually not very useful. Much information is outdated because of the C19 pandemic, the last usually from travellers from 2019, which gives clues, but is too old for rapidly developing countries. The situation, politically, economically, socially in many countries in Africa is changing fast. So, we quickly realized that a precise route planning has little added value. There is one direction - south - and a lot of ideas for worthwhile destinations and places. Adventure, that's what it is about.

I happy to give you here in this thread updates on the preparations, gladly share experiences to help other travelers and of course as soon as we are on the road happy to share pictures and travelstories.

Bjoern

Hi Bjoern we are a father & daughter (from Mauritius) who have just returned to Europe in our defender after 2 years through Turkey, Ukraine, Russia etc etc: want to do west coast from Morocco starting early in 2023 as possible: what are your dates for leaving ? Thanks dean & Zoya

Hi Dean & Zoya,

Just answered in the other thread. Please feel free to drop me a message if you have specific questions regarding that trip. I am always happy to help.

Greetings from Morocco,

Bjoern

 

[El-Dracho]

Just checking in. I got home safe and sound yesterday. Even if this trip has become different than originally planned, I had a great time overall. I was on the road for about two months and got to see such great countries as Morocco including the Sahara Occidental region as well as Mauritania.

I will do some admin stuff and service work on the rig the next few days and then I will do a write-up here with infos about this great travel area which will be useful for other overlanders. I can already tell you this much, Morocco is such a fantastic country for overlanding that I will definitely go there again.

 

[The Deputy]

Great report on what was the makings of a epic journey. Granted, it was cut short...it was still quite exciting to read about your preparation for a trip of such magnitude.