60 in Africa (London to Ghana)

Davey Bee

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Well I'm less than a week away from my first overland trip to Africa, indeed my first visit to Africa.
I've got over what I think will be the worst part of the trip, the inoculations. Luckily the Travel Nurse knew her job and I didn't feel a thing.

While I've done a fair deal of motorcycle touring, I've never done an adventure. What's the difference? Well touring in my mind is what you do in Western Europe or North America. You know where you're going and what to expect. There are no real culture shocks, you try to avoid the tourist, trying hard not to be labelled with the same tag, even though that's what you are.

Adventure, going to worlds that have nothing in common with the comforts, expectations of mine. Where there are no tourists, only like minded travellers, that you wake up every morning hoping to meet, so they can advise you on the road ahead.. That's my idea of it, I maybe wrong only time will tell.

So having had the crazy dream, that is now turning into reality, I'm hoping to blog on here throughout the trip. After all, the blogs of others on here have not only inspired me, but also given me the confidence to go through with it.

I hope you'll follow it, and that it may help others to do similar.
 
Well I'm less than a week away from my first overland trip to Africa, indeed my first visit to Africa.
I've got over what I think will be the worst part of the trip, the inoculations.

You are in for a shock if you think the shots are the worst part :augie. My mate has ridden from Morocco . .
Western Sahara. . .
Mauritania . .
Mali . . .
Burkina faso . .
Togo...
Benin. . .
Nigeria. . . .
Cameroon. He says the border crossings & associated paperwork are a pain. He returns to Cameroon next week and will head for Congo & Democratic Republic of Congo . . . . .(that's going to be interesting) and then down to South Africa. :bow
 
Sounds really interesting so I'm in....have a safe and enjoyable trip! :beerjug:
 
Sounds good. I shall be checking in. Good luck, but most of all - enjoy.
 
I'm in, have fun Davey, look forward to reading all about it :popcorn
 
Subscribed. Ride safe and our best wishes are with you Davey Bee. :thumb to people who are focused and work to make their dreams come true.
 
Well I'm less than a week away from my first overland trip to Africa, indeed my first visit to Africa.
I've got over what I think will be the worst part of the trip, the inoculations. Luckily the Travel Nurse knew her job and I didn't feel a thing.

While I've done a fair deal of motorcycle touring, I've never done an adventure. What's the difference? Well touring in my mind is what you do in Western Europe or North America. You know where you're going and what to expect. There are no real culture shocks, you try to avoid the tourist, trying hard not to be labelled with the same tag, even though that's what you are.

Adventure, going to worlds that have nothing in common with the comforts, expectations of mine. Where there are no tourists, only like minded travellers, that you wake up every morning hoping to meet, so they can advise you on the road ahead.. That's my idea of it, I maybe wrong only time will tell.

So having had the crazy dream, that is now turning into reality, I'm hoping to blog on here throughout the trip. After all, the blogs of others on here have not only inspired me, but also given me the confidence to go through with it.

I hope you'll follow it, and that it may help others to do similar.

I look forward to seeing how you go. Can you give us some context? Which way you plan to go? Are you on your own? I've only seen a very small part of Africa and it's an amazing experience. You're in for a treat. Just take care out there.
 
Davey Bee, 'cmon, you cannot just put a teaser there and then vanish. If you don't post before your ride, how you gonna post during. Start practice now :D

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This time next week I should be in Northern Spain, the plan at the moment is to travel through Portugal, as I've never been there before. However nothing is written in stone. The whole idea about this trip is to be totally fluid. I want to be in Accra, Ghana on 6th March, other than that I'll go where the wind blows, or more to the point where it's not blowing.

My weapon of choice, is the BMW G650 X Challenge, with Touratech Rallye conversion. I was lucky that pick this up early last year, from this very parish. It's got low mileage, but they've been hard miles. From what I can work out, it's been to Morocco about 3 times, but has travel through Europe in the back of a van each time. It's also been to Iceland at least once. Cosmetically, (like me) it's a little worn and battered. But like me, underneath, it's perfect with a heart of gold. All I've had to do is replace the consumables, add a set of panniers, have Tony Archer work his magic on the seat and fit a couple of driving lights.
 
Davey bee, Knowing the bike inside out is so important and you seem to have that sorted. :thumb

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Davey bee, Knowing the bike inside out is so important and you seem to have that sorted. :thumb

Sent from my Redmi Note 4 using Tapatalk

My worry is that I know my wife inside out, but I don't understand her. �� Thanks for the encouragement.
 
Take care, will be following your posts.
 
This time next week I should be in Northern Spain, the plan at the moment is to travel through Portugal, as I've never been there before. However nothing is written in stone. The whole idea about this trip is to be totally fluid. I want to be in Accra, Ghana on 6th March, other than that I'll go where the wind blows, or more to the point where it's not blowing.

My weapon of choice, is the BMW G650 X Challenge, with Touratech Rallye conversion. I was lucky that pick this up early last year, from this very parish. It's got low mileage, but they've been hard miles. From what I can work out, it's been to Morocco about 3 times, but has travel through Europe in the back of a van each time. It's also been to Iceland at least once. Cosmetically, (like me) it's a little worn and battered. But like me, underneath, it's perfect with a heart of gold. All I've had to do is replace the consumables, add a set of panniers, have Tony Archer work his magic on the seat and fit a couple of driving lights.

One of Mark's bikes I presume. It will have been ridden hard but looked after properly I'm sure. Good choice.
 
So I finally got on my way, a planned early start had been delayed, due to a gas issue at home, which meant I had to wait for a plumber. Having gone through all the goodbyes with my wife, when she left for work in the morning, I was still there when she got home, so had to go through it again. It wasn't as bad the second time around.
I'd decide to start the trip from the City of London, infact the Lloyds Building, (more on this later). So a ride into town during rush hour, which in London lasts for around 4 hours. As usual, there were one or two cars, that would sooner have you off the bike than let you filter, but in general the traffic was tolerant, a feature that is the norm in the capital.

Having met my son there, who used the train, we took a few photos, said our goodbyes and over 12 months of planing was now reality.
So off over London Bridge heading for the Elephant and Castle and the A3. It was late and getting cold. I wasn't using my sat nav, (I'm a red blooded man after all). I knew the A3 would take me to Portsmouth and then from there on to Southampton, but if memory served me right, the M3 would take me straight there and quicker. It was getting very cold, my maps were in panniers under a roll bag, it was just too cold to stop and start messing about finding that.
The M3 is still a wash with road works and diversions I wish I’d stayed on the A3. By now the temperature was around -2 or less, I'd still got 50-60 miles to do this was becoming a real pain in the @r$$#.
I’d decided to stay in Southampton, as this was my parents introduction to the UK back in the 1950”s. As far as I’m aware they didn’t travel on the Windrush, but they were certainly part of the Windrush generation. I hope it was a little better back then, as when I arrived at 10:15 pm it was closed. I’d booked into The Star hotel, which formally belonged to the White Star, that of “Titanic” infamy. I imagine that the Titanic is in better condition at the moment. At least the sheets are clean. They also wanted £4 to park the bike.
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Have a fantastic adventure.

I'm already hooked.......... :)
 
Here's the catch up on the last few days, these in general are notes that I made on the day. you can also follow my progress on Facebook page 60inafrica, which is more as it happens.

Friday 20-1-2017
Start heading south today. Yesterday I traveled along the Spanish north coast staying north of the Picos Europas, I'd like to come back one day and ride them.
It's still cold, not as bad as Tuesday night, in southern (England -5c), but in low single figures all day. At Gijon, but to be honest I'm just using it as a place to rest, so I won't be having a look around. I was told of a safe car park for the bike not far away. The attendant spoke English which is unusual for the average bloke around here. Turns out he's an Australian, (well kind of). He was born there, came to Spain with his parents at 10 years old, at 15 his parents and siblings returned to Australia, but he wanted to stay in Spain, with his grandfather. He would be in his mid forty's now, very rarely speaks in English, (when he speaks to his parents and siblings, it's in Spanish) so he speaks English, but with Spanish intonations.
I'm trying to keep my costs down, so instead of my normal spend thrift way of just picking a nice hotel, I've elected to stay in hostels and the like. But it's going to take some getting use too. When I was in my 20's this would be a luxury night, instead of my nearly waterproof half a man tent, but like the car park attendant time takes away the exact memory. I'm going to try Airbnb tonight, hoping that that, will be a better balance between cost and comfort.
At least if I go through The Gambia I should be able to get a 5 star hotel at 1 star hostel price.
Sick but true. Which is why it's so important to accept democracy, even if you believe it has thrown up Adolf mark 2! Today is a very sad day for democracy, but if you allow the people to have their say, they won't necessarily say what you want to hear.
Sorry for the delay, just fell off my soapbox. I'll start posting pictures. I should imagine that I'll be taking a lot when I get to Santiago de Compostela later.

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