London to Accra
Transport whilst on tour
Cooking and camping equipment – tents & sleeping mattresses on board
Campsite fees
Services of professional crew
The main sites listed in the trip dossier
Food – 2 meals a day whilst traveling (breakfast & dinner)
International flight transfers and taxes
Pre and Post tour Accommodation (can be arranged at time of booking)
Lunches & meals out
Items listed in ‘Optional activities’ section
Items of a personal nature & spending money
Travel Insurance and Visas
Local Tour Payment
Payable in £ English Pounds Sterling cash but you can pay in $US dollars or
Euros cash at the current cross exchange rate on date of departure, check with
the driver for the rate. Please pay this to the driver on departure. Travelers
cheques, cards, Scottish Pounds or other forms of payment are not accepted.
We require the local payment as we are unable to reliably transfer foreign currency required to operate the tour. It is for this reason that we ask for a part of your tour payment to be paid on the first day, directly to your driver.
The tour cost and local payment includes transport in a fully equipped
expedition vehicle, road taxes and tolls, services of the driver-leader, use of
camping and cooking equipment, campsite fees, entrance to game parks as specified
and two meals a day while on the truck. So in towns or places where the vehicle
will be parked up, although the kitchen will be available for you to cook with,
food during this time will not come out of the Local Payment. Generally at
lunchtimes we eat at small cafes or restaurants where you can try cheap and
tasty local food. If no local food is available we eat on the truck.
These Expedition trips are different from other departures and other holidays you may have taken – you will go through areas where no tourists go, the roads can be bad, food can be limited to what can be have stocked on the truck, campsites are few and basic, visas can be hard to get and communication to the outside world limited or unavailable at times. We guarantee that you will break down, that you will have to wait some where you don’t really want to be for visas, spare parts or just for someone to open a closed road and you'll have to dig the truck out of mud and sand. The trip might overrun so finish late; the route can change due to rains, closed roads, visa issues, breakdowns and politics. It’s best not to book your return flights home until you finish the trip.
There are times when there will be long drives in order to cover big distances, but on most days that you travel, you only move for half the day. The African landscape and people you pass are never boring and most find it hard to put their head down and read whilst on the road, for fear of missing something. Most evenings you pull into camp and you and your tent partner will put up your tent, then either relax with a cool drink, or get involved in a local activity. Breakfast is usually cereal, toast, tea, and coffee, with the occasional cooked breakfast. Lunch, if we eat on the truck is cold.
Camping
Tents and sleeping mattresses are provided and all tents have sewn in floors and mosquito netting. You will
need to bring a sleeping bag & sleep sheet. Get a cheap mosquito net in
Africa if you want to sleep outside of your tent. If you start your trip in
Nairobi or South Africa you can buy camping gear at the local department stores.
All campsites have good ablution facilities & bars, and some have
restaurants, shops and internet facilities. About half the campsites have
upgrades to hut or cabins for an extra charge.
Participation
Participation
is essential. A successful and smooth tour depends very much on
everyone taking part in the duties that arise i.e. cooking, vehicle
cleaning and food shopping. With this in mind your crew will organize
groups on a rotating roster. The most successful tours are those where
everyone becomes involved as much as possible. These are not luxury
tours, so join in! In the end the more you put in the more you get out. To join this trip you need to be prepared to
work as part of a team and to share with the others on the trip. Some of the
things you’ll never forget are the satisfaction of getting a 16 ton truck
unstuck, cooking over open fires after collecting the firewood, pitching a tent
and getting it right even when it rains, going to sleep when its dark and waking
at dawn and wanting to get out of your sleeping bag to start another day in
which you have no idea of what will happen, washing in rivers, not washing and
not caring that your dirty, living out side for months, seeing more than you
have ever before, trying to learn French Arabic or Swahili and having people
understand what you say, finding out just how far places are away from where you
started and how different places can be and how unaffected out of the way places
are from the world we normally live in. Most people who do an expedition find it
a lot of fun though of course hard at times.
Spending Money & Currency
As a general rule US$ are the easiest to change anywhere and travelers
cheques are hard to change. Credit cards are good to have for
withdrawing cash but can be problematical.
Flights
Buying your Flight home - when you buy your flight don't go just on price alone,
check conditions and flexibility. Take into consideration that you may be buying
your flight well ahead of time and the nature of your trip you are doing. Its
worthwhile paying more to have a flexible flight with a better airline that
flies frequently to your destination. Although it is our intention to finish the trip on the finishing date, in case
of delays en route you should allow a couple days at the end of the trip before
you fly out.
We can book pre tour accommodation at our departure hotel/hostel for you if you provide us with your arrival details. You will need to pay for your room upon arrival. Post tour accommodation can be booked en-route with the help of your crew.
Bring 25 passport photos with you for visas. If you run out of photos there are
photo shops to get more. Make sure you have enough pages in your passport as each
country uses a page for visas and entry stamps. Your passport must be valid for
9 months from the date of travel. If you don't have enough pages in your
passport it can be troublesome to get one on the way.
Visas are required
for most countries visited. We normally get them all on the way. For most
nationalities the total visa cost will be about $900 to Nairobi and a further
$270 to Istanbul. Passports and inoculation cards with any Israeli stamps must
be replaced.
If you require a Spanish visa/Morocco, get it before you fly
to join the trip in Spain/Morocco. If you do need this visa get it from the
Spanish/Moroccan Consul where you normally live.
For information on the location of your nearest embassy or consulate we
recommend the following website: yahoo.com/Government/Embassies_and_Consulates/ . For current updates on visa
information you can try the website www.visaproject.com
Once you are booked, your deposit and balance (within two months of trip departure) is non refundable. Insure yourself when you book for the full time you are away. You MUST have Travel Insurance. We only carry passengers on the understanding that in most African countries through which we travel no passenger or vehicle liability is available. Take out insurance when you pay your deposit for the tour or for flights so that you are covered for cancellation and bring your policy. If you travel without insurance and you have a problem you could incur massive bills.
Medical coverage is the important part of you insurance, loss of belongings less so. For UK, Australian and NZ residents, we can point you in the right direction for insurance if you contact us. For other nations, it is best to search online - there are some good online insurance companies catering for US, Canadian and European residents.
Inoculations - You have to be vaccinated against
Yellow Fever and will need an International Vaccination Certificate to prove
this when we cross borders. It is also advisable to be vaccinated against
Typhoid; Rabies; Hepatitis A; Hepatitis B; Tetanus; Polio and
Meningitis. If possible start your vaccinations two months, but as late
as two weeks before departure. Your doctor can also inoculate. Medical centres
travel educated doctors can supply up-to-date medical advice and vaccinate
you.
Malaria – There is malaria in the areas
we visit. Malaria tablets offer only partial protection against malaria so avoid
mosquito bites. Mosquitoes come out in the evening, wear long trouser and
sleeves plus socks as mosquitoes tend to bite around the feet and ankles. Use
insect repellent containing Deet. The use of repellents and covering up is as
effective as the use of tablets, so by coupling both methods you should be
malaria free. In Africa buy a can of fly/bug spray to clear your tent.
On most Trans Africa trips, the majority of people use Doxycycline as a malaria preventative. In all, less than 10% of people get malaria. We don’t know why those people do but they tend to be the ones who drink the most – could be pressure on the liver or that they are out at night not feeling bites. Put on long pants at night, use repellant and fly spray your tents before retiring. Doxycycline is available cheaply in most countries.
In Africa buy a malaria cure – standard medical procedure in malarial zones is if you have a fever of unknown origin is to treat it as malaria first to stop it quickly.
Medical Kits - First Aid kits are carried on board for emergency use only. However, the crew is not entitled to recommend or prescribe any medicine. We advise a health check with your doctor and dentist before you start your journey and that you carry your own medical kit with you.