Transafrica Expedition: 4x4 Western Route to Cape Town

After the crossing, you will traverse the green northwest region, known as Morocco's vegetable garden. In Marrakech, a full day remains for the old town, souks and tanneries. In the Djemaa el Fna, you will immerse yourself among jugglers and spices. The next day, you will head over the Tizi-n-Test Pass into the Atlas Mountains and continue south along old Dakar tracks. Overnight stay in a kasbah amid the desert sand, with a starry sky instead of Netflix.

Next, you go south towards Dakar, the namesake city of the legendary rally. You cross the border into Senegal on a small river ferry and pass through the charming colonial town of Saint-Louis, where the Senegal River meets the Atlantic. You are now in the Sahel zone, the transitional region between the Sahara and dry savanna, and enjoy an evening meal by the sea under palm trees.

Through a small border post, you reach Guinea, a country full of challenges, traditional villages and scarce gas stations. At the Fouta-Djalon plateau near the Tinkisso River, a fuel depot awaits to cross the country. Guinea fascinates with rainforest in the south and dry savannas in the north. The population is young, hospitable and ethnically diverse. Depending on the fuel, you can reach Kankan, the third largest city in Guinea.

Welcome to Ghana. Along the South Atlantic, you drive through authentic fishing villages before heading through endless construction sites towards Accra, a tough stage that challenges you both physically and mentally. In Accra, you stay overnight in a simple accommodation run by "Bella" near an industrial area. Here, you schedule a buffer day for maintenance or repairs, just a stone's throw from a workshop.

At the border to Nigeria, it is said: keep your nerves. In the late afternoon, you reach Lagos, also known internally as "Gateway to Hell". You check into a five-star hotel where the manager organizes the complex transit. Every ten kilometers there are checkpoints with passport and vehicle checks. After that, the route leads through fertile farmland into sparsely populated regions up to the border with Cameroon.

The barrier rises, you reach the Republic of the Congo, also known as Congo-Brazzaville. In the Odzala-Kokoua National Park, one of the oldest national parks in Africa, lowland gorillas still live. With two rangers, you take a boat up the river and after about ten kilometers, you meet a small population of gorillas. Back at the camp, you leave a donation for the rangers after dinner.

You reach the coastal landscape of Angola, passing secluded beaches and quiet fishing villages. In Luanda, the capital, you get fuel and food for the next 1,700 kilometers to the Namibian border. The city is among the most expensive in the world and combines colonial architecture with a vibrant nightlife. Then it's along the coast to the charming port city of Lobito.

In the Etosha National Park, you will take a game drive through the diverse wildlife. The approximately 22,000 square kilometer conservation area is one of the most significant game reserves in Africa. Then it continues to Windhoek, the capital of Namibia and once the capital of German South West Africa. Here, the relaxed part of the journey begins before you continue to the Namib-Naukluft National Park.