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You are reading about a trip which is the dream of many - but only few chosen ones are actually really doing it!
So this is your chance to ride through the whole African continent from North to South on a Yamaha Ténéré 700 Rallye!
The Pyramids in Cairo - The Beginning of a Mega-Expedition
Egypt - Cairo:
The participants of the motorbike expedition fly into the juggernaut of Cairo, the tour guide is ready at the exit and picks up the motorbike group from Maṭār al-Qāhira ad-duwalī International Airport in Cairo.
The motorbike group rides / crawls in the shuttle to customs, in the centre of Cairo, where the motorbikes are registered in the passports of the expedition participants at the customs office and the riding permits are issued. After the "official stage" we take the shuttle to the starting point in Alexandria, 222 kilometres away, where Ali is already waiting for us to take the motorbikes out of customs.
It is cold, the surf of the Mediterranean is the "backdrop" for our first briefing in the restaurant on the beach.
The sun rises, we start the engines and set off on our 15,555 kilometre expedition through the African continent!
The Mediterranean disappears in the rearview mirror, heading south towards the Atlantic Ocean.
We eat up the kilometres of the connecting leg like fast food in the odometer,
hand on the gas, head ducked behind the windscreen, until the stench of Cairo wafts around our noses. The last required stamp is hammered into the passport and the customs procedure for the enduros is celebrated in slow motion, Egyptian tea ceremony style! Dusk is approaching and we squeeze through the dark, completely filthy and congested streets of Cairo like mustard from a tube.
The madness of Cairo's urban jungle has come to an end and we have the beginning of the adventure.
A last glance in the rear-view mirror at the Sphinx of Giza, which is threatened by the juggernaut that is Cairo.
Behind us lies the Cheops Pyramid, in front of us the "lifeline" of the Nile, which we follow southwards to the desert tongue of Quena, hour after hour, day after day, it gets warmer.
Along the Sahra, the Enduro troop travels through Upper Egypt towards Luxor, which is the last airlift supply base for us.
On the other side of the Nile we spend the night at the Valley of the Kings, and in the evening we take the boat to Luxor to visit the Karnak Temple by night.
Same procedure every day: the sun rises, the engines start, as we do soberly into a new day, into a new adventure. We have tea, a quick grin for a "selfie" at the foot of the statue of Ramses II, which Unesco saved from "drowning" in Lake Nassrsee, which was created by the Aswan Dam, which we cross via the Khazan Aswan Road. We leave the mega construction from the sixties behind us and sleep one last time in a Nubian village before the crossing of the Niels towards Sudan.
In Abu Simbel: Before the first border on the way south
In the morning, the expedition is loaded onto the ship with the Land Rover Defender and the travel enduros. We sail upstream to the Sudanese border where our long-time colleague Kemal Abdul Aziss is waiting for us and, together with his brother-in-law, who fortunately "runs" the border, stamps our papers.
We can plan between eight and forty-eight hours for the border formalities in Cairo, Alexandria and here at the Aswan Dam. On our first trip about ten years ago it took me two days, on the second expedition only one day and tomorrow,,,,, in Shala only three hours.
The border situation between Egypt and Sudan is simply bad, the Egyptian IBM computers and users stand for I-nshalla B-uckra -M-alesh.
That means as much as, God willing today or not, but at some point the barrier into Sudan will also go up for us.... Inshalla.
We drive towards the low sun and follow the "Sudan Express" train line across the Nubian desert.
The Nubian Sahara section was also known to the Copts as "Taseti" (sandy arc land) which we cross and travel over hundreds of kilometres through the former kingdom of Nobatia. The desert area between the third cataract of the Nile and Khartoum is considered to be the high culture of ancient Egypt. In the desert land of the tall Hamitic Nubians, we encounter cultural-historical relics of the pyramids of Merore, burial cities and temple ruins, which arose before our era from the cultural flowering of the kingdom of Kush.
After days in "nothingness", civilisation has us back, we refuel in Karthum and turn left at the junction of the Blue and White Nile to the most densely populated landlocked country in Africa, Ethiopia.
Through the desert past the remains of the pharaohs in Sudan
Ethiopia is legendary, cultural cities such as Lalibela with its rock churches and Gondar, the former royal city of Ethiopia are omitted from this motorbike adventure trip for safety reasons due to the turmoil of war in the Tigrai Highlands.
Ethiopia is one of the poorest countries in the world, due to deforestation and the fall in coffee prices as well as the worshipping war in the Tigrai region, the country has degraded itself to beyond the point of starvation. Is it ethical to travel to a starving country where not even every second Ethiopian has access to clean drinking water?
A clear YES, because individual tourism brings 100% cash in the most direct way to a country, to a population that lives on less than $1.25 a day!
On wild dirt roads typical for Africa, we cross the country's borders "semi-legally" to the area of the Oromos, which are widely known as the Plate Lips.
We cross the region of the Southwest Ethiopian peoples and the area of origin of the Oromo in the highlands until we meet the East Cushitic-speaking groups such as the Afra people, Saho people and Somali people in the lowlands. An exact location here in the rather "nomadic south" is and remains disputed, however, as is the indefinable course of the border where we meet Malcome from Addis Adeba somewhere 200 kilometres east of Omorate.
Malcome had done the first Ethiopia scout tour with me in 2012 and specialises as a top birder, due to old friendship he receives us (if necessary) at a military post where he has arranged our coming with his brother-in-law and the crossing of the "green border".
The next days we follow the tracks of the nomads through the "no man's land" until we reach Lake Tucana and are thus in Kenya!
About 2000 years ago, more than 100,000 San lived in southern Africa until 1652, when the Dutch began exterminating the pygmies in the Cape region. There are still more than 10,000 kilometres to go, but we are already at the northernmost edge of the San, who hunt 4,000 kilometres a year on foot!
We leave the Omo Valley and Mago National Park behind us and cross a nomadic region along Lake Turcana across the Sibiloi National Park with a military convoy.
Time for an ice-cold BEER in Nanyuki, we have reached the equator, from today we take the southern hemisphere past Mount Kenya "under the studs".
The Ténéré has always been worth a picture!
Our "online" guide travels to the group virtually before the expedition and has already announced the motorbike group in Nairobi and had the tyres and inspection material for the motorbikes "flown in" a week before arrival. The motorbike fleet YAMAHA Tenere Rallye from 2022 will be serviced by the mechanics on the next two days! Half time of a motorbike adventure trip!
Here in the capital of Kenya, the participants of the Pharo south Tour will take their helmets and travel back to Europe. The participants of the Equator South Tour will "get on" here in Nairobi and travel on to Namibia with the Trans Africa South participants.
The Land Rover Defender travels with the YAMAHA Tenere Enduro troop past the "heart chamber" of Africa, the lush savannah offers the classic Africa picture with the kitschy postcard image of the setting sun behind the acacia trees.
Kenya is one of the typical cheerful African countries with about 40 different ethnic groups and a diverse wildlife, such as the big five and huge herds of wildebeest, Thomson gazelles, zebras and antelopes, which migrate from the Serengeti over 500 kilometres north to the Masai Mara and back south in spring. A real spectacle is the crossing of the Mara River, where the crocodiles have already "tied their bibs" around themselves and are waiting for the big meal.
We cross the border post from Kenya to Tanzania and travel towards the 5985-metre-high peak of Kibo. We don't take time for a detour to see Kilimanjaro, as we are heading further southwest.
In the north of Tanzania, however, we take the time for a safari in the Ngorongoro Crater, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and boasts about 25,000 large mammals (elephants) and the highest density of predators (lions, spotted hyenas, leopards). Breakfast with freshly brewed coffee straight from the plantation - if not now, when? We will need the push-up effect of the coffee for the ride on the enduros, along the East African Rift Valley far from the asphalt.
These are long, hard Enduro stages that we will cover in Tanzania until we cross the border to Malawi one afternoon. The Enduro group has become a well-rehearsed "border team", so that the border crossings are quick.
There are still seemingly endless African kilometres ahead of us on laterite-like tracks with challenging sections past extinct volcanoes.
Land with tea plantations, mango trees, bananas without end and at sunset we reach Lake Malawi.
Over a cup of coffee we enjoy the sunrise over Lake Malawi. The route leads along the western flank of Lake Malawi, which is about 30,000 km² in size, to the next border, which we will approach "pole pole" (Swahili: slowly).
With the first rays of sun over Lake Malawi, we set off along the lake towards Zambia. Between warm rain showers and sunshine, we will experience unforeseen adventures like those of the previous expedition days in the coming days. The last stage is full of surprises in terms of riding technique! Our enduro trips are known for a "fighting day" and this last stretch at Lake Malawi can become a "surprise stage"! At the end of this stage, jump into the lake, lick your wounds and eat delicious crocodile, with a view of your fellow species at the lake.
Passing the Nkothaka WildliFe Reserve, we reach a small border post between Malawi and Zambia.
The future awaits!
The fertile country (at least for women with 5 children on average) is ranked 141 out of 187 in the Human Development Index. The young Zambia has been independent since 1964!
With around 800,000 AIDS orphans, Zambia is one of the countries with the highest HIV infection rate in the world! English is spoken as the official language, which is very helpful due to the different ethnic groups and languages such as Nsenga, Tumbuka, Ngoni or Bisa.
Along the Lower Zambesi National Park, we make our own trail on the enduros towards the Luangwa and Railroad Bridge at Victoria Falls where we will have a day's break.
The sunrise glistens in the thundering spray of the Victoria Falls, a last look into the gorge and the Railroad Bridge that connects to Zimbabwe.
Along the border to Zimbabwe, we travel on the Zambian side along the now familiar African tracks. Motorbike / enduro trips are rather unusual in Zambia, so the border guards look rather surprised when the "motorcyclists wrapped up like mummies" step in front of the "customs house" in Kazungula at 20 to 25°.
Kazungula is the only border crossing in the quadrangle of Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and the adjacent Caprivi Strip of Namibia, so it is rather busy and a bit tedious.
We cross the border river Zambezi and reach the last landlocked country on our journey across the African continent. Botswana has only about four inhabitants per square kilometre, but with about 130,000 elephants it has the largest elephant population in Africa, which means that we will probably see more elephants than people along the way.
We cross the 581,730 square kilometres of Tswana land (from which the name Botswana is derived) north of the Kalahari on the edge of the Makagaikigadi salt pan, heading for Maun. The district town of Maun is the fourth largest town in Botswana with about 65000 inhabitants and is situated south of the Okavango Delta.
Before crossing the northern Okavango Basin rim towards Namibia, we take in provisions in Maun for the last time and leave Maun, Botswana which is in the rainy season (250 to 500 millimetres rainfall).
Bye, bye Botswana - Namibia, here we go!
Welcome to the last country of the Trans-Africa journey, welcome to Namibia, the land of the San.
About 10,000 kilometres ago we had reached the northern hunting grounds of the San in Ethiopia, now we are in the "heart" of the African natives, in the heart of the country with the endless horizon, Namibia.
After Mongolia, Namibia is the country with the lowest population density in the world, about 2.5 people per square kilometre, compared to 231 people per square kilometre in Germany. On our last kilometres through Africa we cross the area of the Omaheke, Khomas and Erongo where we stay overnight with the SAN in a village before we return to the "civilisation" of Windhoek and Walvis Bay on the South Atlantic, the destination of our 15,000 kilometre long expedition through the African continent.
In Walvis Bay we pack the motorbikes into the container and unpack the champagne bottle at the "Pelican Point" of Walvis Bay.
Time for a review of the adventurous Trans-Africa motorbike trip, which will certainly remain in our memories for another decade.
If you can't take any more, you can relax ;-)
Currently, we are the only motorbike tour operators who not only offer this challenging trip, but have also carried it out for TV and motorbike enthusiastic adventurers and hopefully can continue to do so!
The typical participants of such an expedition are off-road vehicle drivers and motorcyclists / endurists who see the means of transport 4x4 / enduro as a means of enjoyment to an end and see the idea of luxury in the form of a bottle of wine, a rare experience, solitude in nature as an experiential differentiating attribute.
"With well over 100,000 kilometres of African experience by now, I can say with a clear conscience that this crossing of Africa is very, very far from what is called a package tour.
That is to say:
This "voyage of discovery" will be done with the clearly stated vagaries and challenges of the various climates, borders, regulations and conflicts of the people as an EXPEDITION!
A fair amount of travel & enduro experience as well as mental stability are required to participate in this Trans-Africa expedition. "It is and remains for me the greatest adventure and the most eventful tour I have experienced in my life".
Joe Küster Tour guide and jack-of-all-trades
Der Reiseveranstalter OVERCROSS® ist seit über zwei Jahrzehnten mit der Insolvenzabsicherung nach §651r und §651w für den Reisenden abgesichert!
Der Reiseveranstalter OVERCROSS® ist seit über zwei Jahrzehnten mit der Insolvenzabsicherung nach §651r und §651w für den Reisenden abgesichert!