In November 2025 we set off for a six months trip from Eindhoven (Netherlands) to Cape Town in Brave Dodo, our Toyota LandCruiser campervan. Already in 2014 we wanted to travel through West Afrika, but as borders were closed due to ebola that wasn’t possible.
Our journey through West Africa has been a trip filled with unique experiences. Centuries-old desert towns in Mauritania, days of virtually pristine jungle in Cameroon, the Congos, and northern Angola, Voodoo ceremonies in Benin, the monkeys in The Gambia, Nigeria, and Congo Brazzaville, traditional weaving and mud mosques in Ghana, beautiful wild camping spots in almost all countries, and the wildlife parks in Ghana, Namibia, and South Africa.
But also the traditional rural life in all countries from Guinea through Angola, with small huts, women gathering wood to cook, washing in the river, and bumping through the potholes every week, crammed into a van, to sell a basket of their own harvest at the market. A life that does not seem to change, no matter what happens in the world. The cities where men and women try to sell the most exotic goods at traffic lights in the heat and smoke: water and fruit, but also chessboards and toy cars.
We had excellent roads in Sierra Leone and Liberia, but also had to struggle through the potholes in Guinea and Ghana.
Almost everywhere, we encountered friendly, helpful, and usually cheerful people. Nigeria and Congo Kinshasa, in particular, surprised us in that regard. Nowhere were we confronted with serious corruption.
Of course, we also had our stressful moments: the application for an e-visa for Guinea, which simply wouldn’t be accepted by the website, and the one for Nigeria, where the same question, already answered, was asked repeatedly. We knew that there was rarely a plan B for the route: diverting to the interior (Mali, Burkina Faso) was not an option due to terrorism. Because there are few alternatives, we often encountered the same overlanders in multiple locations, frequently places known from iOverlander that every overlander heads to. There are four potential problems that every overlander might encounter: health issues, car problems, issues with the authorities, and crime. We experienced all of them more or less, but nowhere to the extent that they significantly disrupted the trip.
All in all, a wonderful journey with impressions and experiences that we will not soon forget.
The day-to-day blog can be found on PolarSteps (in Dutch)
Days spent and distances (km) traveled per country:
