Coast to Coast: Dakar to Victoria Falls with Optional Zanzibar Extension
This is not an expedition for the faint of heart. You don’t need to be some hard core motorcylist but you need to be resilient and to be able to think on your feet. And the toughest one of all, you need to be able to be independent, but when necessary, you need to be able to follow instructions. It is at times going to be very tough, but it is most definitely achievable. You are going to have both your stamina and your patience continually tested but the rewards are going to far outweigh the testing times.
At the end of the day, if it was easy, every one would have ridden a scooter from one side of the African Continent to the other. Eighty four days after we set off from the most westerly point on the African continent, we will arrive in Victoria Falls. For those that want to continue all the way to the coast, it will be another two weeks to Zanzibar. We begin the trip with a sunset over the Atlantic. We will end it with a sunrise over the Indian Ocean. The tough times will now just be stories to regale our friends and family with for a lifetime.
Itinerary
Please see our philosophy on itineraries. Our emphasis on flexibility is true for all of our trips but especially this one.
This Trip is More Than a Bucket List
As the cliché goes, it’s not the destination, it’s the journey. There is not enough space on this page to list the untouched beaches, the kilometers of jungle, salt flats and plains lined with palms and kapok trees, or the countless nature reserves that we will ride through. And while there are certainly some big ticket items on this trip, you may find that your fondest memory is a funny interaction with locals in a village that is nowhere on a map after laboring through a stretch of sand track that was not exactly designed for a scooter.
What to Expect
We have deliberately timed this trip to avoid the intense tropical rains that can typically be expected of a trip that traverses the African continent. With that said, we will be covering an extraordinary amount of latitude on our ride to Cape Town and you should expect everything short of snow on this trip.
We need to travel light, but we need to be prepared. A detailed packing rubric will be provided with the pre-departure guide.
We will be spending time in English, French and Portuguese speaking countries. Don’t speak French or Portuguese? Don’t worry. Many people speak at least a bit of English, and even if you do get stuck, a trip leader will always be close by. Anyway, those are just the official languages. We will encounter hundreds of local languages along the way. Get ready to learn some new words!
This trip will have a mix of bush camps, eco-lodges, and hotels/guesthouses. While we will try to avoid too many consecutive bush camps, you should not come on this trip if you do not like to camp. At the eco-lodges, facilities will be limited but the lodging will be clean and as comfortable as possible. The hotels will have toilets, showers, fans and air-conditioning if we are lucky. Wherever possible, we will stay at hotels and guesthouse that introduce us to the local community. We will always choose a family run place over a chain hotel. All accommodation is included in the trip price.
We will advise you on any camping equipment that you may find helpful depending on your individual needs.
The riding on this trip ranges from easy to difficult to occasionally unreasonable. We will spend as little time as possible on main roads and highways. We love jungle and sand track, and we will get off road whenever we can. The riding is more difficult, but there is little to no traffic and the scenery and overall experience are unmatched. And while we will spend plenty of time on tarmac, it’s important to keep in mind that many of the roads are poorly maintained, unfenced and open to everyone from donkey carts and overloaded station wagons to domesticated and wild animals. At the end of the day, it’s unlikely that you wanted to come on this trip for a monotonous drive on clearly marked and well maintained paved roads. And if that is what you want, you need to find another travel company.
On the first day of the trip we will have an orientation with the bikes to get comfortable with them. While we will offer plenty of guidance, you need to have some riding experience before joining us. Please see the About You page to read a bit more about what we expect in terms of riding skills.
To go on this trip, you must have a driver’s license, and you need to have a DOT or ECE 22.05 certified helmet (more on this on the Health and Safety and What to Pack pages).
When bush camping, we will prepare meals together with ingredients we have purchased in markets and boutiques. In the ecolodges and hotels, we will have freshly prepared local meals. It will be possible to have more western food items in cities and larger towns. We can imagine that you are not going to be coming on this trip for the culinary experience, but eating well is a priority for us and there is much to enjoy about the local cuisine in nearly all of the countries that we will visit.
Breakfast and group meals will be provided but in certain cities and towns where we will dine in restaurants, the food will be at your cost.
Please let us know well in advance of the trip if you have any dietary restrictions.
You need to arrive in Dakar by the evening of the 6th of June. We will spend a few days in Dakar getting oriented with the bikes. Everyone will participate in a mechanics course to get familiar with bike repair and maintenance. This course is included in the trip price. Once the bikes are prepared we will set off south towards the Gambia.
As far as the trip itinerary itself: if you are expecting a by-the-minute schedule that will be respected to the letter, this is not the trip for you. West Africa is a great place for honing your patience and learning how to improvise. It’s important to keep an open mind and be ready for anything. If you have the right attitude, you will learn to love the different challenges that may arise. For more on this, please read about us and our philosophy on itineraries.
Available Dates
Cost and Booking Information
The trip cost is €10000. To secure your spot on the trip, we take a non-refundable deposit of €500. If you are unable to make it on the trip, you can use this deposit towards a future trip at a later date.
As stated above, the trip cost includes all lodging, transport, breakfasts, and some lunches and dinners (when they are included as part of our accommodation). It does not include airfare, visas, optional activities, drinks, and restaurant meals.