Has anybody considered driving from the UK / Europe to Nigeria, I am thinking it would be quite an interesting adventure especially if we were in a convoy of likeminded people, the larger the better and of course the safer, I remember about 30 years ago hearing about a student returning home to Nigeria by road in a Ford Capri 3.0S, and I have thought about doing the same since.

Hi Siena I respond to your points in blue

Vehicles - The way I see it is a Ford Capri can do it almost any modern day car can, lol

Competent engineers - I would expect that amongst us there would be a knowledge of basic mechanics anything more serious and we would have to tow the car to the nearest mechanic, I am thinking that we would have a couple of towing dollies in the convoy

Competent geographers / navigators - With good maps and navigation systems we should be OK, I was reading about the Paris Dakar rally and navigation issues across the trans African highway and it is relatively straightforward.

Visa's - goes without saying only a few countries to cross depending on what route we take

Vaccinations - again as required, saying that I have never taken any vaccinations to travel abroad even when visiting Naija , lol

contd,

Food and water - should be easy enough

Weather issues - apart from sandstorms I don't think there should be anything to worry about

Security - Well that is the biggest issue, and I think this can be solved with very judicious recruitment of National police for escort which should also help solve some navigational issues. And of course safety in numbers

I think another issue will be meeting the legal requirements for driving through each of the countries, like insurance import / transit permits etc

Driving through some of the more civilised West African countries would take longer but will probably be more fun and safer too, especially having driven in the Gambia and Morocco which was very safe. Western Sahara and Mauritania is a bit of an unknown quantity,
Maybe there are other Nairalanders that would be able to shed more light on the issues,

@Funk Stein


Please tell us you are just messing with us.

You must have a kind of mind-set to do this;

I mean, I watch this kind of stuff on Nat.Geo Adventure and I wonder what goes through the minds of those white people; this is Nigeria for instance, you are still pre-occupied with feeding one's self/family, business, vehicles, home AND someone wakes up to go mountain climbing?

You leave leave all the comfort of your home/hotel and head straight for the desert?, I mean you know how the Israelites prayed to get out of that murderfucker, and now you?

Anyways, those countries you are planning to route through are not particularly the problem, the problem is this Kidnapping thing - Its no joke. PLUS you better get yourself a very good satellite phone and lots of Airtime.

Here in Nigeria there is fuel scarcity, and you want to drive through Morocco?, Gambia?, (Is Libya there too?) well I hear Bin Laden is cooking up something along your route so you might wanna wear a beard or something, and a passport like Al Sayit or something

But seriously though, Are you really thinking of doing this?

Great idea@poster, wish ya luck

I am interested, I think we can start by looking for sponsorship. Santandar group(Abbey), Barclays, lloyds etc may be interested. If we can meet up in Central London, by the time we plan this for 6 months we should be able to come up with something. We may even get BBC involved.

Don't forget these companies will be interested because we are targeting a record. No group of Africans have ever done this(legally),  illegal aliens have done this many times over, but always travelling north. We can be the first Africans to do the journey south.
For those of you fed up with making money, lets get out of the daily rat race and get something exciting going.

And why can't we do it to south africa? To Nigeria is not challenging enough

I have been up for this for the past 30 years and so it will happen, the question is how many of us are up for it, I see is as really living life which is sadly what we are not usually about,
all those who are interested please yahoo message me your phone number so I can make contact ASAP.
Apart from the fact that we would be getting whatever cars we decide to take with us to Naija without having to deal with the usual port wahala,  lol

Well, calling it a dream is a bit of an overstatement but the idea has always been a very attractive one, I have made certain enquiries with drivers involved with the real Paris - Dakar rally who are based in Gambia and who know the rally route through the Mauritania and Western Sahara, however the question of security in Mauritania remains and the more Western sponsorship / involvement the more the risk, I think it should be a solely African Affair to the exclusion of European sponsorship and as such I would not want to have to convince any oyinbo organisation to sponsor any aspect of the run.

As I have said before I have driven across more than half of Morocco before in total safety and sincerely believe Al - Qaida have no beans with us black Africans as long as we keep it that way.

Maybe we should be looking to Africa and its home grown companies for sponsorship starting with all the countries concerned and their security forces etc.

I have brought this idea to the forum now as it is good to talk, the Internet has given us a forum to find likeminded people,  As a people we are more advanced in our spirit of adventure in 2010, and most of us now have the means to realise what some would call trivial pursuits, moreover two or more heads are better than one,

@poster
it is a GREAT idea for an adventure of a lifetime. yesterday i saw some of the cars that finished the Dakar rally and any car can go through it as a great deal of participants are non professionals, the catch is how fast the are going to cross the finish line.

i think one of the catch in this will be visas to be able to cross that many borders with so many cars etc. crossing from UK to 9ja is very possible, just need the right people behind the idea and the right sponsors of course.

i remember back in the days when the Dakar was passed through some countries and got shot at etc so its not safe to say the least but if the people choose a "safer" route(not through the desert) then i guess all will be fairly well.

Life is all about risk, potential n great men took d risk before u can enjoy wat u've gat 2day lyk ur luxury cars aircrafts n all sorts. U can imagine d risk of being d first person 2 fly a plane bt at last it was sucexfl.
Some of ma friends do call me d young gun cox I lov doin things am not expectd 2do.
if dis happens its gonna enter d guinx bk of record n in no time evryone's gonna hipe ur name.
Let no one discourage d poster cox anytn can happen.
Am very much intersd bt am presently in naija n ma return 2d uk will giv me no chance cox i wanna go 4a long term study trip.
Kip d dream if u make it a goal den u gonna achieve it.
Remembr d peak is in U

Although it's an old topic, I only just discovered Nairaland today, hopefully my posting would give you courage that your dream road trip can be done.

@Funk Stein – there is never going to be a perfect time, just hit the road and go. It’s a wonderful life time experience. When you say driving through some of the more civilised West African countries, I hope you did not include Nigeria, sadly in terms of travelling by road, we do not fall into the civilised category.

It’s not necessary that the more the better, I prefer a small group, my first trip, it was just me and a girl friend plus my 505, on the second trip we were 6 plus 3 vehicles.

@Siena – it’s not a massive undertaking, just needs proper planning….and be ready for wahala. (Self imposed wahala can be fun a times)


Vehicle: any vehicle would do it, as long as you don’t go off piste, I did it in a Peugeot 505, once along western Sahara and the second time directly through the Sahara desert, tough but possible.

Competent geographers / navigators: all you need is a road map (Michelin 741 National: Africa North & West) and if you do the desert route a GPS to give you a sense of orientation, to avoid going in circles.

Visa's: this is the part that requires the most planning, your paper work need to be right before you leave, both for you and Vehicle. Border crossing can be a nightmare.

Vaccinations: most countries require certain vaccinations, which they hardly ever control, but just get your yellow card up to date in case they do ask.

Security: Embarrassingly, when searching online for information for my first trip, most people (oyinbos) warned me about Nigeria, advising if possible for security reasons avoid Nigeria, even when your papers are complete, it makes no difference to the police, unknown to them I grow up there, so I thought to myself, if Nigeria is meant to be the worst country along the route in terms of security, then I shouldn’t have any problems. Sadly Nigeria did prove to be the worst. After driving all the way from London to Nigeria, through other African countries without wahala, I don’t even speak French, my Peugeot 505 got impounded by police in my home town Akure, where I went to primary, secondary and university, just because I refused to give bribe at a check point.


Western Sahara (25.Nov – 23.Dec 2004: 29 days) Germany – France – Spain – Morocco – Mauritania – Mali – Burkina Faso – Ghana – Togo – Benin – Nigeria

London/Colonge to Lagos through the Sahara Desert ( 16.Dec.2007 – 10.Jan.2008 : 26 days): England/Germany – Switzerland – Italy – Tunisia – Algeria – Mali – Niger - Burkina Faso – Benin – Nigeria

Dont even think about it,except u want to be buried in the desert.Try going round Europe etc but forget Africa.I u still insist,make sure u come down with a armoured B6 SUV,with 3 trained sharp shooters.Your boot should be full of ammunation

baconline:

Dont even think about it,except u want to be buried in the desert.Try going round Europe etc but forget Africa.I u still insist,make sure u come down with a armoured B6 SUV,with 3 trained sharp shooters.Your boot should be full of ammunation

You should be considerate, if people like him don't take such trips a lot of folks will be hungry.

Think of the thieves, soldiers, villagers waiting out this recession; for goodness sake think of the vultures

sultaan:


You should be considerate, if people like him don't take such trips a lot of folks will be hungry.

Think of the thieves, soldiers, villagers waiting out this recession; for goodness sake think of the vultures

Sorry I did not consider them.Bros prep your body with maggi and salt for the vultures and come unarmed thru the desert.Also give me the contract for a befitting burial.Ask people who have gone that way,u will see enof decomposing corpse a;ong the way(they thought it was safe,but it is too late)

[b]@Poster,
Believe in what you do and do what you believe in.[b]

Siena
I am sure you know the answer to that is , blowing in the wind

Not on your life budd!
Would rather light a stick of dynamite the Al Kaida way and self explode first, taking some "infidels"?
At least I get me some 27 virgins for afters !

;d ;d

This will be real fun! never knew there other free minded Nigerians on this planet. I used to think it was just the whites. If I were in the Uk, I'll definitely be a part of this. Unfortunately, , I dey 9ja!

ATENTION: If there are Nigerians planning to do a cross country drive or ride within Africa or to the UK, I am in!

@ Siena; it doesn’t appear Funk stein ever did his road trip, nor komekn who started a similar tread. (https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-23624.0.html). It appears you are interested in driving down, I’m thinking of doing another drive down with okada along the Western Sahara route to Nigeria come Nov/Dec 2012…In šā Allāh. let me know if you'll like to join.

@ DECOtech: I do know of Nigerians who did the trip in 2008 from Nigeria to London. I plan to do the trip the other way round (Nigeria to London) one day, in a PAN 504, for which I’m searching for one in Nigeria at the moment, which I hope is still in fairly good condition.…. keep in touch, we might do it together when the time comes.

You guys should get in touch with Newton Jibunoh for first hand advice. He has done the trip more than twice, so he'll have a great deal of life-saving tips to give. The Sahara is a dangerous place to cross by road.

@OmoAkerele - I am thinking of making this trip in 2013. I am based in the UK (St. Albans). I appreciate if you can give me some advice privately - tundekale at gmail dot com

It is on O!!!!! All interested parties should please come forward, planned date is July August this year,
all enquiries to orlandocruz@hotmail.co.uk