Tour of Africa

14 months | 55,000 km | 29 countries | 1 motorcycle | 2 people

In January 2010 we decide to tour Africa by motorcycle. A series of accidents gives us the necessary kick in the arse, while delaying the departure by 9 months. We start in June 2011 in Bucharest and end in the same place in August 2012. Some of the expedition setbacks were: being stranded with minimal supplies in a remote Cameroonian community, towing the broken bike, malaria, attacks by a hippo, a scorpion and many Tsetse flies, riding 3000 km off-road in the Congo through torrential rain and mudslides, tackling bureaucrats and military men, and buying a cup of tea in Egypt.
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VEHICLE
Yamaha XT660Z Tenere
Year
2011-2012

Dispatches from this adventure

Maghreb + West Africa

We spend the first month of the expedition in medieval medinas, in the High Atlas and in the pink dunes of Morocco. Then we go fishing in Mauritania‘s Sahara, visit the Dogon people in Mali and discover the Kasena people of Burkina Faso. Later we fall in love with Togo and flee voodoo in Benin. We meet Fela Kuti’s son and take a selfie with the president of Nigeria while volunteering for an incredible primate conservation NGO. This section of our tour of Africa by motorcycle ends with an adrenaline-pumping month in Cameroon, where we hit both rock bottom and the highest summit of our lives.

Mount Cameroon

Climbing Mount Cameroon in one day and a half on the Race Track and having a second attempt at fixin...

Makoko of Lagos

Makoko, a picturesque century old slum on stilts, is one of many shoreline communities threatened by...

Lagos and Abuja

Lagos and Abuja are the two contrasting faces of Africa's largest nation: one is its the economical ...

In Togo

Finding a home away from home in the capital of Togo, where food is amazing, people are friendly, an...
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Dogon Country

In northern Mali, where the Sahel stretches a sandy plain up to Burkina Faso, lies the Dogon Country...

Mauritania

Lonely Planet calls Mauritania “a place apart”, “a Muslim country with a black African twist...

Gabon, Congo Brazzaville & Crossing Congo Kinshasa

We cross the Equator in Gabon, we go off the grid in Congo Brazzaville, then we cross overland the mighty Congo basin, from Kinshasa to Lubumbashi.
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Congo Crossing

Two weeks before Christmas of 2011 and 200 days into our tour of Africa by Yamaha XT660Z Ténéré ,...

Into the DRC

In N’Kundi we were now local gods, so changing money, refueling and finding food was a child’s ...

Southern Africa

 We find a home away from home in Zambia, at Victoria Falls. In Namibia we meet the Himba people, cross world’s oldest desert and second largest canyon, reaching the southernmost point of the journey at Cape Agulhas in South Africa.
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Lesotho Epic

6 1/2 years ago the rocky bends proved a bit challenging for our fully-loaded Tenere. I remember tha...
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Cape to Cairo via East Africa

We ride on the roof of Africa in Lesotho, witness the Okavango Delta in flood in Botswana, revisit Zambia, ride on rails in Mozambique and sail by dhow from mainland Tanzania to Zanzibar. In Kenya and Ethiopia we face inclement weather and discover an African Holy City. After riding in 54°C across Sudan‘s Nubian desert, we end the tour with the Egyptian Pyramids and Turkey’s Cappadocia.

Ramadan In Cairo

Cairo 19 – 24/07/2012 The Tale of the Jewish Physician’ from the ‘Thousand and One Arabian...

Desertaholics

Sudan 06 – 11/07/2012 In climatically harsh corners of the world, access for routine measureme...

Planet Ethiopia

Ethiopia 28/06 – 06/07/2012 There’s a marvelous feeling to enter a fresh territory where, li...
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