How not to choose a travel route # 101. Kids don’t try this at home.

Lesson learned – when planning to backpack Africa overland it’s a good idea to do some research. It’s better months, possibly even years before departure as opposed to a leaving it until the last minute. Naturally it’s last minute for us – but hindsight is fantastic.

However, 10 days from arrival on the continent we’ve found some new attractions to keep an eye out for and to spice things up.

When crossing from Western Sahara into Mauritania – features include:
- Fishing Villages
- UNESCO listed natural wonders
- High risk of terrorist attack
- High threat of Western Kidnappings
- Armed smugglers
- Land mines along the Northern border
- High possibility of riots
- Rocky deserts
- Stunning untouched coastline

For Mali and Timbuktu:
- Four UNESCO heritage listed sites
- Supreme Sahara
- Al Qaeda operations
- Banditry and armed groups in the North
- High risk of Western kidnappings by extremists
- Dogon country and it’s uniqueness

From Nigeria we can expect:
- Lagos the biggest city in Africa
- Some of Africa’s most incredible beaches
- High tensions and civil unrest
- Heightened risk of violence
- Unpredictable security situation
- Beach football with locals

We’d list some other countries but that covers the extent of our research to this point. There’s nothing quite like a sense of danger to spice things up. Is there?

For all the details and sensible travel advice please follow the links to the below countries.
Mauritanian advisories
Mali advisories or US travel advice for Mali
Nigeria advisories
For all other African travel advisories, please click here

If you’re heading to Africa we’d strongly advise you not to follow our process and do your research in advance.