Riding Africa Advice 2020

A few days ago, Lisa answered an email from a rider asking about the safety of riding the length of Africa (both east and west coasts) with his girlfriend and just yesterday another email came in from another rider with a similar question. it looks like Africa has everyone's attention right now.

In case anyone else is contemplating heading to Africa I thought I'd post up Lisa's reply here.

Africa has a special place in our hearts and is still our favourite continent in terms of riding, sheer beauty and raw experience so we'd love to hear from you, in the comments below if any of our advice is out of date or plain wrong.

Lisa's reply

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Hi,
thanks for your question re riding Africa
At the moment I would not recommend riding the west coast of Africa with your girlfriend.
You would have great difficulty crossing through Mali - Nigeria- etc. A nationwide state of emergency is in place in Mali and has been since Oct 2019.

Morocco- is fine and great to ride but heading further south is currently risky.

The same goes for the north-east. Visas are difficult for Egypt, Sudan and impossible for most countries to obtain for South Sudan- you would be best to check on your countries foreign office advice for these areas. Our UK office advises against all travel to many parts of Egypt and Sudan and advises no travel to South Sudan. Simon and I are not travelling in these areas of Africa due to the current tensions.

Remember if your foreign office advises against all travel and/or all but essential travel, all your insurances, medical etc, would be invalid in those areas.

south of Africa - ie South Africa- Botswana - Tanzania - Kenya (but not the coast of Kenya) Uganda are all do-able but care should still be taken.

Our advice is that it's currently not a good idea. Ride Morocco then ride the south of Africa.
feel free to ask further advice.
kind regards

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Hope this helps.

Ride safe, ride far.