Africa trip

The shed is in a long que at fabricators to be 'beefed up so thought i's turn my attention to the dull stuff in prep for my jaunt into africa in Oct.
Apart from the obvious source of info ie. Horizons site does anyone have any tips on carnet de passage, visas and jabs regarding above african jolly to the Gambia and back?

cheers

Chris Scotts book on Africa Overland should keep you readin for a while...

Don't forget yer public service .. wot is it .. 'forigin affairs' or some such .. should have some advice. And a list of embasyies or contacts should you need 'em.

RAC should also have some advice.

Have a good one
Frank Warner

cheers frank

.

info for your Africa trip

Hi Alan,

Thought I'd drop you a line...

Lisa (my wife) and I are relaxing in South Adfrica having ridden down from Morocco, so we know you've got a great trip comming up.

As for the dull stuff, this should help...

Carnet de Passsage. Speak to Sue Collins at the RAC, who are the only UK issuers now. Her dertails are tel: 01454 208000 ext33837. E-mail: sjcollins@rac.co.uk

There are several options for getting a Carnet & Sue will go through them with you. We ended up organising ours with help of a cash sum held by HSBC. They charge around £30 a quarter for the admin depending on your trip duration.

Your local GP's nurse should be able to give you a rundown of the jabs you'll need although 'Yellow Fever' will be a must as you'll be asked for this in as you travel closer to the Gambia.

Visa's...

You won't need to pick up any Visa before you leave, in fact we found it cheaper to pick them up as you travel.

If travelling down through Mauritania you'll need to pick up your Mauri' visa in Cassablanca. You can pick up all the GPS waypoints, telephone numbers and/or addresses for the Embassies from our website - [url]www.2ridetheworld.com[/URL]

The info is there both in the diary sections and as downloadable files in Mapsource GPS format and in Excel format, just choose what's best for you.

In fact we've listed the campsite and lodging details we found on the way through as well our route through the Minefield in the North of Mauratania. Hope you find it useful.

If you need any other advice just drop us a line at simonthomas@2ridetheworld.com

Have fun and have a great time.

Cheers Simon T

Simon, you're a star

Looked late last night, nada.
Looked this morning and there is you post. Brilliant!

I haven't even read all of it yet but phoned Sue Collins at RAC and yes they are the only people in the uk issuing vehicle carnets.

What a really nice, friendly helpful woman (sounds a bit sally traffic...!) She explained the various options and my application papers are on their way.
I feel I just compressed a three day paper goosechase into one simple call.

Thanks once again and glad to hear your trip is going well, cheers

alan

your Africa trip

Alan,

here's a few other ideas for you...

If you decide to get your carnet via the Bank gaurantee option, do yourself a favour and use the HSBC. Lisa and I spent almost 12 months talking with our own banks LloydsTSB and most of the other highstreet banks in order to get the gaurantee organised. Most of the so called 'specialist' just don't know enough about the carnet to grasp what your asking them.

Here's the contact details from a great guy at HSBC who understands Carnet's and can organise things for you...he also speaks English and not 'bank speak'!

David Furlong (Relationship Manager) Tel: 01271 396016 fax: 01271 396099.

The other bit of advice for you is simply to value your bike as low as possible. RAC don't send one to you to value it and no one in Africa will know the value of your bike or even question it. They just want to know if you have the Carnet. Thier interest stops there. Only once in our trip to date have the frame/engine number even been checked against the carnet???

We valued both our bikes (R1100GS 99' & F650GS 2002') at £1,500 each. The amount of money you'll be asked to deposit with HSBC will be directly in relation with the listed value of the bike. HSBC then only charge £34 per quarter, I think the minimum time for a carnet is one year? This was the simplest and cheapest way we found to acquire the 'mysterious carnet'.

Hope that helps, good luck.

Simon T

Mention our names to David.