This winter’s trip promises to be my biggest adventure yet – Morocco to Cape Town overland – 17 countries over 5½ months – most on the dodgy side. Because of all the logistical difficulties of traveling through West Africa, I had always wondered how I could see them. As soon as I heard about this trip, I knew this was for me. As it turns out, the major difficulty is obtaining all the required visas on the road.
I booked the trip with Oasis Overland (www.oasisoverland.co.uk), a British company that specializes in overland trips in Asia, South America and Africa. They use trucks built in their plant in Somerset designed for land travel over any terrain.
African Trails. This overland company has run trips just like ours for many years. But for the last 5 years, they have not had enough participants and simply unloaded them on Oasis. But they gave even more bad advice than Oasis. The five who had booked with them had significantly more difficulties.
This trip would not appeal to many people – most women over 40 and many men too. Few would want to sleep in a tent for this long, cook over fires and have no bathroom facilities when bush camping. Laundromats are unknown in Africa and clothes are washed by hand every few days. Clothes pegs, laundry detergent and a clothes line can be purchased in Morocco.
CARNET DE PASSAGES EN DOUANE. This was organized by Oasis and of no real concern to the participants of the trip. But it is pertinent to any overlander doing the trip individually. Besides all of Africa, a carnet is required if traveling past Turkey in Asia.
A carnet is an internationally recognized customs document entitling the holder to temporarily import a vehicle duty-free. It is in essence a guarantee for payment of customs duties should the vehicle not be exported. It is very important to have your entry and exit stamped on the carnet – if you cannot legally prove you legally imported the vehicle you will have difficulties taking it out. And if you cannot prove you have exported your vehicle you will forfeit your carnet bond (ie. You will be liable to pay all duties and taxes that would normally be required to permanently import the vehicle). As soon as you get home you must send the counterfoils back to the issuing agency or you risk losing your deposit.
Apparently the present cost of a carnet is about $US600 and is best obtained in Germany.
PASSPORTS. Most passports have significantly fewer pages available for stamps than the advertised number. For example the 36-page Canadian passport has only 29 pages available for stamps. Only Morocco, Senegal, Namibia and South Africa offer free visas on arrival at their land borders and only use small stamps. All the rest have full-page visas and then also use up pages for their entrance and exit stamps. Immigration officers are notorious for wanting to stamp a new page or put the stamp in the center of the pages leaving margins that could not be used.
We were advised to have 26 pages for Morocco to Cape Town and 32 if going all the way to Cairo. I specifically did not go to Cairo as 29 pages would not have been enough and renewing a Canadian passport almost impossible in less than 24 days from anywhere in the world. Many countries offer different sized passports and those who opted for smaller passports came to realize that they would have to renew passports along the way. One English woman was told that the smallest, 32-page passport was sufficient (only 29 stampable pages), when a 48-page passport was available.
In Morocco, an influential participant encouraged everyone to hand in their passports as a group. I was the only one who declined. I have ran out of passport pages before and would prefer to deal with mine individually. If you request a stamp on certain areas of certain pages, I have found that many (but not all) immigration officials will do as requested. However on this trip, it has not mattered as the only border where all passports were not dealt with as a group was Morocco. The option to do it individually has not been an option. Only when Steve realized that many participants were going to run out of pages did he make attempts to control where individual stamps go. The most effective way is to cover unstamped pages with post it no notes in French and English and have a post it note on the page you want the stamp.
Some have considered removing visas to make more pages available. But for only a few visas is that possible (as it turned out only Nigeria and Republic of Congo). Many visas are difficult to remove, tear easily, have a lot of glue or have stamps and signatures that extend outside the actual visa.
Oasis should not list a number of pages required but instead should tell everyone to get the largest passport possible. Two passports would be ideal to do the entire 40 week trip. That is possible for Australians and for UK citizens applying to some renewal centres.
VISAS. Oasis should do a better job at advising passengers from various countries about visa issues – everyone about Ghana (other overlanders could get Ghana visas in Dakar, Senegal), Indians about Ghana, Namibia and South Africa, New Zealanders about South Africa. I appreciate they may not have had Indians before, but many nationalities would have issues with these countries. Eastern Europeans need Namibian visas from home. A woman from New Zealand could only obtain a South Africa visa in her home country. She eventually missed South Africa. As visa rules change frequently, it is advised that each traveller determine the exact requirements for their passport.
I have endeavoured to give detailed info in the visa post.
MONEY. Oasis gave poor advice about how to bring money. We were told to bring some small bills especially for the local payment. But that is totally worthless unless you need to change a small amount only. Small bills get a much lower exchange rate and some exchanges (Cameroon) would not even look at 10 and 5€ notes. Plus they are much more bulky to carry.
Only big denomination bills should be bought. There is a significant difference in exchange rates between 100 and 50 denomination notes compared to smaller ones. Possibly a few 20’s could be useful if small amounts were needed before exiting countries. Neither Steve nor the embassies like small denomination bills (I used most of my small denomination bills to pay for visas as exchange rates don’t come into play).
Because we need to arrive in London with huge amounts of cash, it would also be much less bulky to have only large denomination bills.
As a result bring only 50 and 100 denomination notes in both Euros and dollars. To cover the local payment (1350US$), visas (~2000, half in € and half in $ and rising by the year) and individual spending money (~300£/month, 400£/month in Namibia and S Africa), it was necessary to have about 7,000US$ in your pocket when you left home and board the plane for London. If continuing to Cairo, you needed much more (those who didn’t bring the Cape Town to Cairo local payment had to wire money from home and use ATMs much more along the route).
LOCAL PAYMENT
This is the amount paid in half US$ and half euros when you first paid in the lobby of the Gibraltar Airport. For London to Cape Town, it was the equivalent of US$1,350 and for Cape Town to Cairo, it was the equivalent of US$1,300. It is meant to cover all food and camping listed in the official itinerary. For us, it was totally administered by Steve. He bought all the food. If someone stayed in dorms or rooms instead of camping, the cost of camping was returned to the camper. Steve was very conscious of bush camping at every opportunity and paying the minimum amount he could for food. One person left the trip in Guinea, 3 left one week early in Liberia and another left in Cameroon. Many took trips off the truck. And many of us bought our own breakfast. I emailed Oasis asking for the amount of Local Payment returned to Oasis after Cape Town but was refused on the basis that it is simply part of the total cost. Because it is paid in cash, it has a different feel.
I estimate that the amount not spent was close to $5,000. Not included is all the food continuing on the second part of the trip – also paid for my local payment. Steve must be the best employee Oasis has.
TRAVEL INSURANCE. No travel insurance covers acts of terrorism or government upheaval. Every Western country supplies travel advisories about each country in the world. Canada: Avoid all travel to DRC and Mali. Avoid all non-essential travel to Mauritania, Nigeria and both Congos. And travel with a high degree of caution (with some regional exceptions) to Senegal, Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Cameroon, Gabon and Angola. These are significantly different (and categorized in a different way) than the UK advisories).
Before purchasing your travel insurance, make sure of the status of your insurance in countries with travel advisories. It is mandatory (although I don’t think Oasis made this clear) to have travel insurance that covers all travel advisories. Many had purchased insurance for which they were reassured (but not in writing) that they were covered for every country in the world, but weren’t (Down Under Insurance in Australia was the best example). As a result, several did not have the necessary insurance and we spent an hour purchasing an add-on policy in Morocco through Oasis to cover several members of the trip. Of note, this British company (Campbell Irving) covered British travel advisories but did not cover several of the countries on Canada’s list. If passengers left the truck in these countries (Mauritania, Mali and Democratic Republic of Congo), their travel insurance would have been invalid.
Make sure to read all the fine print in your policy. Some simply say “No countries with travel advisories” without qualifying the exact nature of the advisory. Get the exact coverage in writing. Another exclusion of most medical insurance is not following a physician’s advice. That advice would always include anti-malarial prophylaxis. One of our passengers did not take anti-malarials and only used a herbal insect repellent and got malaria in Cote d’Ivoire. I’m not sure about her coverage. I possibly need to reread the notes again, but it was certainly not clear about the need for extra insurance for Mauritania, Mali and Cabinda – especially that is it MANDATORY or you must sign a waiver.
Because we are all from different countries with different levels of security risk, it should be stressed to people to consult their specific countries travel warnings which are often described in different ways from those of the UK’s and then to read the small print of their travel insurance policies to see each individuals needs.
VACCINATIONS. Of course, these are very individual and Oasis must use caution in advising people because of liability issues. I did not have a rabies vaccine or meningitis.
Routine vaccinations appropriate for everyone throughout your life – tetanus, diphtheria and polio all need a booster every ten years.
Yellow fever. This is the only mandatory vaccination required by everyone traveling through western Africa. Almost every country you pass through has it as a requirement to enter the country. They often require the original but sometimes a photocopy suffices. Requires 10 days to be effective.
Cholera. Recommended in rural areas. The current oral vaccine (Dukoral) has 2 doses at least one week and no more than 2 weeks apart taken at least one week before travel.
Hepatitis B. Consider for longer trips of 2 months or more or for those working with children or hospitals or in other situations where working with blood is likely. Three injections are needed for the best protection over 3 weeks. Can be given as a combination with Hepatitis A (Twinrix).
Typhoid. Injectable vaccines last for 3 years with 85% effectiveness. Oral capsues (Vivotif), 3 capsules over 5 days last for about 3 years but may be less effective than the injectable.
Meningitis. Containing Strains A. C, W and Y is recommended for all travellers, especially for trips of more than 4 weeks, especially for children who tend to play with animals and may not understand the implications of being scratched.
Rabies. Endemic in Angola with 500-600 people dying from it each year in Luanda province alone. The death rate is so high because of a shortage of immune globulin. The city of Lubango recorded more than 4,000 cases of bites by rabid dogs n the first five months of 2012. Rabies is carried by all mammals so be very wary of cats, dogs, monkeys and bats. If bitten,scratched or licked on an open wound by amimmal you must always assume it is rabid and seek medical help as soon as possible. Scrub the wound with soap under a running tap, then pour on iodine or alcohol like gin, whisky, or rum as this may stop the rabies virus entering the body. Pre-exposure vaccination ideally are advised for everyone especially if traveling outside Luanda and more than 24 hours from medical help. It is given as 3 doses over a minimum of 21 days as this will prevent the need to have rabies immunoglobulin –RIG which is expensive and hard to come by. If exposed, give post-exposure prophylaxis as soon as possible, though it is never to late to seek help, as the incubation period for rabies can be very long. Those not immunized need RIG. Rabies has 100% mortality.
PACKING FOR A CAMPING HOLIDAY .
Camping. Because we spend virtually every night camping, better advice could have been given. We all have individual needs and preferences but these are the things that worked well be me. I was completely happy with my choices.
a. Sleeping bag. Temperatures vary from near freezing in Morocco to unbearably hot at night making it impossible to bring the perfect sleeping bag. Warm bags are really only necessary in Morocco and taking anything good for less than 0°C is overkill. One guy actually bought a -30° bag, way too warm for anywhere. I have travelled for many years with a great sleeping bag, the Western Mountaineering MityLite with high quality down, but warm to only 4C. In Morocco, I wore long underwear, warm socks, a warm top and a touque to bed and did fine. Once we got to Western Sahara and again after Angola, this bag was perfect wearing normal bed clothes and by Mauritania, I unzipped it completely and used it as a comforter. Having a -15 degree bag or a mummy bag without a full zipper would not have worked well. Once we got to the heat of Guinea, I rarely used the bag and simply slept in the liner. Another trick at night is to go to bed in wet clothes. My +4° bag was perfect. With the highest quality down, it packs very small. It is a barrel bag and unzips completely so that it can be used like a duvet which was useful. Buying a cheap blanket would also have worked well to add to the warmth.
b. Sleep sheet. I always use a liner to keep the bag as clean as possible (my skin never touches the bag) and this adds possibly 2 degrees to the bag. Cotton is preferable as it is cooler than silk. Using a sleeping bag alone is a disaster as they are difficult to clean and they should never be dry cleaned making the liner mandatory. It would have been impossible to wash my down bag before South Africa (down needs a dryer to get all the clumps out). Indeed I have not washed my bag in 6 years as it simply does not touch my skin.
c. Sleeping mat. I have the best, an Exped Down Mat, the ultimate in sleeping comfort. Cheap inflatable mats get punctures easily and often delaminate. A good closed cell foam would have been better but they are way too bulky for me. The Exped is very expensive but well worth it. They are best combined with an inflation system (dry bag with a Snozzle, available from Exped) as hand pumping would get very tiring doing it most every night. Something could be said for not bringing an inflatable mat as leaks are common and can be difficult to repair without a bathtub to find the leak. Bring a good repair kit.
d. Tent. I was the only one with my own tent, that functioned just like the free-standing mosquito nets encouraged by Oasis. It was one of the best things I bought. It is a MSR Hubba (free standing one-man tent) that erects quickly, dries quickly and allows you to sit up in it. It was a tough pack having to bring a sleeping pad, sleeping bag and a tent (or stand alone mosquito net) and everything needed for 6 months of travel.
e. Solar Shower. There are some opportunities to wash in rivers, but showers are not possible in all the bush camps. I bought a MSR 6-litre dromedary bag and the MSR shower attachment from home and then bought a good rope to be able to hang the bag from trees. I filled the bag whenever I had water available and stored it full in my locker.
Pillow. I always carry a small backpacking pillow case that I normally stuff with my down puff jacket and other clothes. I purchased a small pillow in Morocco that fitted perfectly in this pillow case again making camping much more comfortable.
Clothes pegs. As all our clothes washing was done by hand, these are mandatory to hang them up.
CLOTHES. I made terrible choices here and bought very little that was appropriate for the tropical heat and humidity present for most of the trip. I bought too many pairs of long pants and never wore 2 of the pairs once. I should have bought more shorts – strong, dark-coloured, nylon with sewn in inside pockets are much better than cotton.
Mosquitoes were much less of a problem than I imagined and I didn’t use repellants for weeks at a time, no less clothing to cover up (this may not be so for others and some people used repellants and put on long pants, long sleeved tops and wore socks every night, but I don’t react much to bites). They were most problematic in big cities with standing water and were nonexistent when we were at any elevation which was most of the time.
Cotton t-shirts and long tops are terrible in the heat and humidity. Light polyester tops and the lightest merino wool tops are much more serviceable. Merino is especially good as it does not acquire odours. One long-sleeved shirt might be useful. Socks were a waste of time as I only wore flip-flops 99% of the time. A fleece top or puff jacket was useful in Morocco and for early starts when the windows were rolled up. They may be necessary again in S Africa.
MALARIA PREVENTION. It is mandatory to take good malaria prophylaxis. I took Larium (mefloquine) as it is once per week dosing and generally the cheapest anti-malarial. I personally had no side effects although it has a bad reputation as about 10% of people taking it get bad dreams or less often psychiatric complications. My only objection was that the tablet dissolves rapidly and has a bad taste. It must also be started 2 weeks before the start of the trip and taken for 4 weeks after.
Many on the trip took doxycycline once a day. It is a personal preference.
I don’t believe Malarone is necessary especially because of the cost. One person on the trip not only did not take any prophylaxis but also was using non-Deet mosquito repellent. She got malaria in Cote d’Ivoire. Go figure.
Treatment of acute malaria is with Malarone – 4 tablets once a day for 3 days.
Avoid Insect bites.
We all have individual tolerances to insects and the above may be good general advice, but…. On our trip, three of us sit around the fire every night in shorts and no shirt, and have done so for months without applying any repellant. We don’t react much to mosquito bites. There are remarkably few insects in the whole of the west coast of Africa, especially in this the dry season north of the equator and only the beginning of the wet season south of it. One only has to look at the windshield and grill of the truck – there are no bugs splattered on it. I can have my mesh door wide open most nights with my light on reading and have few insects of any variety. But I am not bothered much by insects. On the other hand, 12 of my fellow passengers put on socks, long pants, long sleeve shirts, sometimes mosquito head nets, and slather mosquito repellant all over. We are all different. Apparently from Namibia south, it is malaria-free. We all have individual tolerance to mosquito bites and insects in general.
I bought three pairs of long trousers thinking I would be sitting around the fire in the evenings wearing long pants. Four pairs of shorts, one with zip-off legs would be useful. But, as it was winter, mosquitoes have only been a problem when near the coast and then primarily when close to cities and towns, especially those with open sewers and standing water – Conakry, Guinea was clearly the worst but other places that were problematic were Dakar, Senegal and Big Milly’s Backyard outside of Accra, Ghana. If we were inland and at higher elevations, there were amazingly few insects of any kind. I don’t think I applied mosquito repellent for all of February plus most of January and can’t remember getting one mosquito bite. But I do not react much to mosquitoes.
For those of you sensitive to mosquito bites, the following may be good advice.
Clothing. As the sun starts to go down, don long trousers and long-sleeved shirts and apply repellent to exposed skin. DEET-based insect repellents are best.
Permethrin-impregnated bed net or a permethrin spay to treat bed-nets in hotels. Permethrin treatment makes even very worn nets protective and prevents mosquitoes from biting through the impregnated net when you roll against it and should also deter other biters. Otherwise use air conditioning or burn mosquito coils or sleep under a fan (these latter two reduce but do not eliminate mosquito bites.
Mosquitoes are attracted by light so never put a lamp near the opening of your tent. In hotel rooms, the longer the lights are on, the greater the number of insects will be sharing your accommodation.
KINDLE. This is the only practical way to read when traveling. Tammy had paper copies of Sapiens and Homo Deus that many read, and Toby bought some John Grisham books but the readers on the trip (Tammy, Blake, Chris, Sotoro and me) found our Kindles invaluable. A few of us exchanged Kindles to read what others had. Blake and Chris had pirated many books and I had 89 titles (all legitimately paid for).
I find it amazing that some read nothing or very little. A five-month trip with an often monotonous view out the window provided the best reading opportunity of my life.
FOOD. Basically we are camping and cooking our own meals for the duration. About half the camping is in established campgrounds with showers and bathrooms. But the other half is “bush camping” – that is absolutely no facilities. This would not appeal to many people.
The truck came with a large supply of rice, pasta and canned foods (paid for with our local payment. Fresh vegetables and meat are purchased on the way, often daily. The leader was not a foodie and as a result, ingredients were basic. There are a full range of spices and it is possible to produce nutritious food that tastes good with some effort. The meat purchased on the way was tough and poor quality. Cooking it for several hours in a pressure cooker was necessary to make it palatable for me. I eventually stopped cooking with meat and only made vegetarian meals when I was on cook duty.
All food is cooked over a camp fire and the onboard propane is only for emergencies. Diesel is the fire starter. Wherever we get to our campsite, the first job was hunting for wood in order to save the onboard wood supply. All the pots are covered in soot and you need to be careful how they are handled to avoid getting it all over.
We had no part in food purchasing – 100% was done by Steve. As he would be happy eating dog food, things were Spartan at times. We ran out of mayonnaise, mustard, pepper, vinegar, raisins and sweet chili sauce and at times went without for months. Some of us bought our own mayonnaise causing all sorts of problems when we didn’t share. Anything left on the table was “fair game” which irritated me a lot. I personally bought pepper and donated it but then hoarded my own supply when no one appreciated my generosity. I had my own pepper, salt, mustard and mayonnaise for long periods.
The breakfasts were generally terrible (not everyone would agree with this). The corn flakes were gone in the first few weeks. Weet-a-Bix is awful and turns to tasteless mush within seconds of milk touching it. The muesli was nothing more than uncooked oats. I don’t like porridge and there were no raisins for most of the trip. I bought my own cereal, nuts and bananas and ate this most mornings as did a few others.
I frequently made food requests for my cook nights. But Steve rarely honoured them. I bought ginger, pepper, vinegar, papaya, plantain and a pineapple and donated them for various meals. When I asked to be repaid for the pineapple, Steve said that I had paid too much!
I hated the meat purchased as most of it was so tough and had to be cooked for hours in the pressure cooker to be edible to my standards (this was pertinent only for me as many people however demanded meat and would eat anything). I told him not to buy meat for my cook nights unless it was minced or nice chicken breasts. Once I had mince. Sometimes he insisted on buying meat anyway. After a few months, I did nothing to prepare it and simply boiled the hell out of it in the pressure cooker and served it separately.
THE TRUCK. The truck is an 8 ton, Renault vehicle custom built by Oasis in their facility in Somerset England – a huge yellow things, diesel, 4 WD, with many outside compartments for all the cooking gear, stools, water (10 gerry cans with unsterilized water, 6 gerry cans with treated water and two with spigots for access) and fire wood. Steve has worked building these trucks. Having mechanical skills would be mandatory to be a driver and leader. There are 24 comfortable seats (10 on each side facing each other and four elevated ones at the front known as the “beach”). Unlike in a car, we can stretch out and walk around. The plastic windows roll up and the roof rolls back at the front to make it as airy as you want. Lockers under the seat held all our stuff. The floor boards lift up to reveal large storage areas where all the food supplies are kept. Large stores of food are also behind all the seats but are cumbersome to access.
Locals and other travelerss show huge curiosity about the truck. Most think it odd to be facing each other. But it is very comfortable driving. With the windows rolled up and the front cover off, it is breezy and comfortable in the heat.
Charging system on the truck and electronics. We started the trip with a converter that dropped the 24 volt truck power to 5 volts but it burned out in Sierra Leone. Steve wired the 24-volt directly to the cigarette plugins and 24 to 5-volt cigarette plugins were used to drop the voltage. They slowly malfunctioned and several iPhones and a Go Pro were destroyed. Steve installed a new solenoid but for some odd reason only connected the music system to it. The only way to charge was with some 24 to 12 volt plugins purchased by individuals. Computers, not chargeable by USB could not be used with any of these systems requiring landline hot spots.
It became obvious that the best, safest system, especially with a computer, were solar chargers and a heavy battery pack. One traveler had a small HP computer that could be charged by USB.
OASIS STAFF. The drivers of the overland trips must be very talented people – excellent drivers (I can’t remember him hitting the countless speed bumps at any speed), complete mechanical abilities (Steve does all the maintenance and repairs on the truck including oil changes, greasing everything, he even changed a broken rear springs), bilingual French/English, and with great people skills to deal in a fair-handed way with all the different personalities. Steve was ideally suited for this job. Steve is 61, tall, thin, has a longish grey beard and a typically wry British sense of humour. He has been doing overland trips for 40 years – initially driving a bus from London to India and then for various overland companies in Australia, South America and a few in Asia, but most of his work has been in Africa. I have no doubt that we have the most experienced person in the world for this trip. He also is available for private trips and not infrequently works for individuals who need vehicles moved from odd locations. He once had to rescue 2 vehicles left in Congo. Along with all his experience, his immense amount of common sense make him ideal. He is English, lives in Australia, is married and has a 15-year-old son who he rarely sees. A minimalist, he sleeps on the floor when home. He never develops body odour and has never washed his sleeping bag in 25 years. He seems to be happy eating anything and I believe might be ok with dog food. He is doing all the driving and tour leading jobs. On most trips, the passengers are responsible for buying the food for that day, but we buy nothing. Steve is completely responsible for it all. Unwilling to spend money freely, we have gone significant periods with no mayonnaise, mustard, pepper and now have run out of sweet chili sauce. I doubt we will get any.
A “guide” or assistant would have been useful and normally would be on the trip. The assistant had to cancel because of illness and we had no guide. One was supposed to join the trip in Accra, Ghana but because they were unable to obtain a Nigerian visa, did not join there. As it was, some of the travellers took on the duties of dealing with all the paperwork involved with obtaining visas and collecting money. Oasis saved a great deal of money doing this.
THE PASSENGERS. The group had 21 guests starting the trip with three leaving at Accra, Ghana, four at Cape Town, several in Nairobi and the rest doing the entire 40 weeks to Cairo. The nationalities were Britain – 8, Australia – 3, Canada – 2, India -1, Denmark – 1, New Zealand – 1, Sardinia, Italy – 2, Lithuanian/Icelandic – 1, and Japan – 1. Ages ranged from 19 to 65. Two were retired, several were students between or finishing education and nobody had a job. There were 3 couples. Nobody knew anyone else beforehand. The usual trip consisted mostly of women but our trip had only 4 to start with with one leaving in Accra.
Steve had some observations about our group. We drank less alcohol than any other group. In past groups, it would not be unusual to have 2 dozen beer bottles in the truck every morning. I can’t remember one beer bottle hanging around. We tended to drink at bars.
We were also the best at doing the chores of the truck – keeping the eighteen – 20 litre gerry cans of water full (12 non-treated and 6 treated with one chlorine tablet), the two water cans on the side for easy-access drinking water), gathering fire wood and putting everything away efficiently.
Of interest the women in the group did virtually none of these chores including starting and maintaining the fire, and putting away the tables. I can’t remember any of them chipping in to help with meals (unless their partner was in that cook group; there were many times when people left the trip and the 3-person cook groups were often short).
To be fair, Julia became Steve’s personal secretary and put much energy into filling out visa forms, photocopying and assisting at embassies. Tammy did carry some water but Alice never lifted a finger. But Oasis went cheap with our group by not having a “tour leader”, an assistant to Steve (our original tour leader came as far as Marrakesh but left because of illness; one was to join in Ghana but did not have a Nigerian visa and did not join us).
PAPER
All photocopies must be on full A4 pages. Don’t cut them out.
30 copies of passport information page.
30 passport photos.
10 copies of yellow fever certificate.
2 copies of credit card.
A statement of the itinerary and overland nature of the trip in French and English. Several copies.
Passenger Manifest. Before your trip prepare a passenger manifest using Excel or similar spreadsheet that lists: Name (surname, first and other names), Sex, Nationality, Passport #, Country, Date of birth, Occupation, City of birth, Issue and Expiry date of passport, City where passport issued, Parents first names, Profession and Visa number for country in. Ideally the headings should be in the language of the country traveling through. Make many copies (5-10 per country) as they hugely simplify travel. This manifest is requested at most every police/military checkpoint and embassy so literally hundreds are necessary.
HEALTH
Skin Infections. Any mosquito bite or small nick in the skin gives an opportunity for bacteria to enter. It is surprising how quickly skin infections start in warm, humid cLimates and it is essential to clean an cover even the slightest wound. Use drying anitseptics or soap and water. If the wound starts to throb, becomes red and redness starts to spread, or the wound oozes and especially if you develop a fever, take flucloxacillin 500 4x/day for five days.
If the infection has lymphangitis (red streaks extending up the leg), Streptococcus is more likely. Flucloxacillin is not as effective as normal Penicillin V or cephalosporins.
Fungal infections are also common in hot, moist climates. Ketoconazole cream is effective.
Bilharzia or Shistosomiasis affects the rural poor of the tropics. Assume that stagnant/slow moving water could be risky. Contaminated feces are washed into the lake, the eggs hatch and the larva infects certain species of snail who then produce about 10,000 cercariae a day for the rest of their lives. The parasites can digest their way through your skin when you wade or bathe in infected fresh water. Winds disperse the snails and cercariae. The cercariae penetrate intact skin and find their way to the liver. There male and female meet and spend the rest of their lives in permanent copulation. Most finish up in the wall of the lower bowel but others can get lost and can cause damage to may different organs. S haematobium goes mostly to the bladder. Although the adults do not cause any harm n themselves, after 4-6 weeks they start to lay eggs, which cause an intense but usually ineffective immune reaction, including fever, cough, abdominal pain and a fleeting itching rash called ‘safari itch’. Later symptoms can be more localized and more severe, bu the general symptoms settle down fairly quickly and eventually you are just tired. Although difficult to diagnose, tests are ideally done at least 6 weeks after likely exposure. Treatment is easy.
