Gael warning in Liberia

[simondippenhall]

Some of you may recall that I toyed briefly with the idea of selling my CRF250 Rally following my ride down to The Gambia last November: https://www.ukgser.com/community/threads/honda-crf-250-rally-2017-in-gambia-£1-500.508336/

Fortunately sanity prevailed and I kept it stored at a secure location near Banjul which I have used a few times before.

So my plan is to fly down to Banjul at the beginning of November, hoping the rains have passed, and make my way in a leisurely fashion through Guinea to Siera Leone and onward to Liberia. Beyond that not a clue, although I won't be going further East as I spent this February travelling throughout Cote D'Ivoire (the next country along) with the missus, and won't have a Carnet de Passage en Douane which is now required for Ghana and possibly Nigeria.

The route might look like this...or there again it might not.

As Clausewitz(?) said, no plan survives first engagement with the enemy although I tend not to think of AFrican moto travel in such bellicose terms as everyone has been very friendly in my experience, even the dangerous kind who wear uniforms!

And you can ignore the timing...the distance is around 1600 kms one way and based on my foray on Guinean 'roads' last November it will be a looooot longer...

 

[twizzle]

Have fun, be safe.

 

[gspod]

Looking forward to a hat purchase

 

[simondippenhall]

Hopefully the CRF will start again (it is a Honda, after all!). The battery has been kept on a charge whilst in sorage and I have bought an ebay jump starter as back-up.

I have got online visas now for Guinea and Sierra Leone, obtained very easily. In fact I have two Guine visas as I idly put in my middle name rather than surname on one of my attempts to load the various documents on the very rickety Guinea evisa platform which kept rejecting my uploads (well that's my excuse anyway!).

The Liberia visa involved an in person visit to the embassy in Fitzroy square, London. I hate to queue (and was hoping for a same-day turnaround if I submitted early) so I got up at sparrow fart and rode my Transalp in the rush hour into central London. I got there an hour early so had a pricey boho-style coffee in a nearby cafe and returned at 10. No reply to my knocking at either visa office or front door. Eventually I got a response and someone let me in, then explained they were the cleaner and "the visa lady's train was delayed'.

The TV was put on full blast for my entertainment (as so often in Africa) and soon the visa lady arrived, took my cash and went to work, telling me to return at 1:30 to collect the visa as is their published procedure. So I wandered toward the door saying 'see you later' when she called me back - in a spurt of diligence and because there was literally no-one else, she had already completed it!! My world record embassy visa at 19 minutes...beating even my Iran visa of 2017 which took 45 minutes!

So I don't think many people travel to Liberia...could it be the roads?



So I am all visa'd up, appropriate malaria and other medicine in hand, and fly via Casablanca courtesy of Royal Air Maroc whom I have used a few times now and found satisfactory.

The plan is deliberately sketchy as I am reliant on (amongst other things)
-the bike running OK
-the variable quality of the roads
-working out what to do with the bike when I am done in Liberia.

Packing will be done next weekend - I find if I pack too early I end up overpacking (and I really need very little on my travels). I have some Honda spares and some more down there and the bike has fresh oil/filter/recent tyres. And no doubt my buddy @Drumacoon Lad. will reminfd me of any potential omissions...

Packing will be done next weekend as

 

[simondippenhall]

And here is the bike as I last saw it...hopefully not looking dissimilar when I arrive there . Might have to ditch the ropey Mauretanian desert petrol in the "Rotopax" though...

 

[Treb]

Taking AdvOsm map with you?
Assuming you have a garmin that is??

 

[Santa-2512]

Stay safe Simon,

lots of pics and reporting please

 

[G&T]

Only here once Simon....go crazy...enjoy

 

[jasp]

My prediction is she'll fire straight up....safe journey down there.

 

[Oldrat]

Have fun Simon, fingers crossed that the legendary Honda reliability persists.

Best wishes

 

[the woodster]

God's Speed, Simon. What a wonderful adventure. I look forward to you telling us about it in person.

 

[landmarkjohn]

Hey Simon have a great safe trip.

I wonder if there is a reason for the lack of applicants for a Liberian visa

If you hang around there till January you might catch the DAKAR.

 

[paul08]

I went to Liberia back in the early 2000’s. It was a work trip and we flew into Roberts Field Int’l Airport and stayed in the city centre of Monrovia. That was shortly after the end of their civil war and anything that could have ben looted had been. Even the airfield ground landing lights.

Not unusual to see women standing at the kerb holding up a couple of brown bananas or a smal child’s white shirt or dress, in the hope that someone would stop to buy them. But never the men. They seemed to spend their days horizontal, sleeping.

The general population had nothing. Real hand to mouth stuff.

There was a former 5* hotel on the headland. It was derelict and even had squatter families encamped in the pool!!

At that time there were roadblocks everywhere, usually manned by 15 year old kids with assault rifles.

But nice people once you got below the elite ranks who had clearly profited from the civil war

 

[Berin]

I went to Liberia back in the early 2000’s. It was a work trip and we flew into Roberts Field Int’l Airport and stayed in the city centre of Monrovia. That was shortly after the end of their civil war and anything that could have ben looted had been. Even the airfield ground landing lights.

Not unusual to see women standing at the kerb holding up a couple of brown bananas or a smal child’s white shirt or dress, in the hope that someone would stop to buy them. But never the men. They seemed to spend their days horizontal, sleeping.

The general population had nothing. Real hand to mouth stuff.

There was a former 5* hotel on the headland. It was derelict and even had squatter families encamped in the pool!!

At that time there were roadblocks everywhere, usually manned by 15 year old kids with assault rifles.

But nice people once you got below the elite ranks who had clearly profited from the civil war

And the daughter of one of those robbing elites is now Minister of State for Energy in Britain, from which platform she's agitating for reparations

 

[The Other PaulG]

Have a brilliant trip Simon, that will be fascinating.

If we're having a sweep, I'll put my fiver on the Honda starting first time, and running faultlessly for the entire trip..!

Go well.

 

[simondippenhall]

Thanks Paul I hope you are right. But just in case, the tool set is repacked and a few extra spares thanks to @Drumacoon Lad. …a filter some bearings and a clutch cable. These will supplement what I left in the top box of the bike
Plus a disk lock to supplement the bike cover …

 

[simondippenhall]

Taking AdvOsm map with you?
Assuming you have a garmin that is??

Thanks for asking. I tend to rely on maps.me running on an old iphone bought on this site, although I also use Tracks4Africa running on my 10 year old Nav V (which no longer communicated with the mother ship...). Seems to work for me plus a good opportunity to ask locals for directions and have a chat.

 

[ChasMill]

Looking forward to our meet up in Decemebr even more now!

Safe travels!

 

[Jockser]

Yay, a simondippenhall Africa trip
Looking forward to travelling along vicariously

 

[Gavla04GS]

Yay, a simondippenhall Africa trip
Looking forward to travelling along vicariously

Me too….safe travels etc and thanks in advance for sharing