The Start of a New African Project!

My next African trip looks like it goes to be an EPIC one!  DHL would like me to visit as many countries as possible in Sub-Saharan Africa to promote rugby – by car!

They are keen for me to start in August 4 months away!  That is such a short space of time to plan a trip like this and get all the parties on board.

So with my brief to drive from Cape Town to London visiting as many countries as possible in Sub-Saharan Africa I started working on routes and came up with about 50 different options until I settled on one (and that route still changed along the way!).

Unfortunately, you cannot zig-zag wherever you want through Africa.  I did try to find a way, but could find a quick enough route. In some places, there are no passable roads to drive on, thick jungle, wide rivers, mountains and so on.  Information on driving through Africa is also very sparse and hard to find.

I didn’t feel comfortable going to Somalia, and the Central African Republic was too unstable, so my plans avoided those countries.

So, up East Africa as far as Sudan, and back down a different route. Then we would fly to Reunion, Mauritius and Madagascar while the cars were serviced and rebranded, then come back to South Africa to collect the cars and start driving up West Africa.

Information regarding the roads in some countries is very hard to find. Most people driving up through Africa choose the most direct, safest route to their end point. There are not that many people who have driven in one go through all the countries we were going to or have driven to each capital city, most capitals in Africa are not the nicest part of the countries.

Luckily for most of the trip, I was able to use a programme called Tracks 4 Africa to help me plot my journey, it is especially good for East Africa. West Africa was a bit trickier as Garmin and Tracks did not have much up to date information on the roads as they are changing so rapidly.