Overland from Spain to Ghana

hello...

i'm a 20 year old American university student studying at the University of Ghana from August to December.

because i'll be in europe over the summer, i was thinking of going overland from Spain to Ghana, rather than flying there. after some preliminary research, it seemed like the best route to get there would be along the Atlantic coast through Morocco and Mauritania to Dakar, then east to Bamako, then south to Ouagadougou and on to Accra. hopefully i would have the opportunity to stay a couple days in dakar, bamako, and casablanca.

any suggestions would be welcome, but specifically:

- i've never been to africa and i'd be going solo. that considered, would this be an advisable trip to take?
- how long would this take?
- at the cheapest, how much would it cost per day? the travel guide i have says about $10-20 a day. is this right?

thanks! Reply to this

Hey there. I have made this trip partly myself by car. Drove from Holland and then through Marocco, Mauritania, Senegal and sold it in Gambia. It is not easy to move around from western sahara untill Senegal, because there is no public transport available on that stretch (especially from Dakhla in western shara to Nouackchott in Mauritania. I am not sure for the part between Noackchott and Rosso at senegal border because there is more traffic on that road). The only way i suppose is by hitchhiking allthough that is really not recommendable for a woman alone. Maybe you can try to find another overlander who is going by car (there are a lot), some have campers, you could try your luck. In the rest of your trip I suppose there is more public transport available in form of bush taxis and little vans. From dakar to Bamako there is a train (takes abt 35 hours). You can get by for about 15 to 20 euro per day (on lowest budget, i noticed that these countries are quite expensive compared to for example Asian countries). You should atleast have 4 to 5 weeks to travel this stretch. Certainly not less because it is a pretty exhausting trip, especially if you are on public transport. I did it in 5 weeks and had my own car, but i certainly needed my days to take is easy and relax (and still i was tired). I hope you know some French (nobody speaks english in west africa, only in Ghana). Prepare for some frustration. But if you manage to do it, it will be the trip of your life, and certainly this is a huge challenge. But also be aware of the dangers as woman alone in these countries (don't think easy abt it and be alert at all times). Good luck!!! Reply to this

I did that trip as part of a longer trip in 2005. As long as you understand that transport doesn't run to a timetable you won't have a problem. I left the UK on December 5th and arrived in Ghana on the 5th of March. I didn't hurry. I would recommend that you should take about 3 months for that journey. The prices may have changed since I was there, but I suspect the price that chapati is about right. West Africa is not dangerous, except I would recommend that you keep in touch with the news as you travel. Particularly I would recommend listening to the BBC World Service and checking web sites such as the BBC news website and the UN Humanitarian website IRIN amongst others (http://www.irinnews.org/IRIN-Africa.aspx). It's important to keep up to date with current events as things can change quickly in Africa.

Its also important to look after your health - get all the immunisations that the doctor recommends and take precautions against Malaria - drugs, mosquito replant and use a mosquito bed net.

If you want to see how I did the trip look at my blog - www.mytb.org/Stuart. I'd be glad to answer any questions.

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