Trip Highlights

• The colour, sights and sounds of bustling Gambia. Get to know your new bike and your crew in a friendly, relaxed environment before the trip departs.
• Camping out in the wilds of the Senegalese bush en-route to Mali, listening to nothing but a million crickets in the warm tropical night.
• Negotiating your Africa borders with the Kudu guides - an experience to be remembered!
• Kayes - one of the hottest cities on earth with crowded, colourful markets and that unique Malian atmosphere.
• Negotiating the hectic streets and crowded markets of Mali's capital, Bamako.  A fascinating and hard working city deep in West Africa and far from the tourist trail.
• Go back in time in Djenne and explore its narrow winding streets and ancient mud mosque.
• Riding the causeway to Mopti on the banks of the Niger and Bani rivers.
• TIMBUKTU – tackle the journey north into the Sahara Desert to visit this fabled town where Tuaregs and camels wander the ancient, sandy streets. Take a full day to really get the feel for this historic and fascinating town.
• Discovering Burkina Faso's jewel in Ouagadougou – its people.  Some of the friendliest and most laid back people you will meet anywhere in the world.
• Mole Game Park in Ghana - enjoy a cold beer as elephants bathe in the watering hole below your hotel balcony in this stunning escarpement location.
• Kumasi's teeming central market - a maze of passageways and activity waiting to be explored.
• Arriving in laid-back Accra at the end of an unforgettable West African experience, and realising that you will probably never view your life back home in the same light again!
  

The Bikes

You can only use a Kudu bike on this expedition and we will be using our new fleet of new XT660 Teneres. Named after a remote and hostile region of the Sahara, Yamaha have thankfully now resurrected this classic bike used for many years by desert conquering adventure motorcyclists. You will be riding long distances on both tar and gravel, with a little bit of sand thrown in too. The Yamaha is light enough, powerful enough, and robust enough to cope with it all, especially if you are an off-road novice. The new Tenere is the only option for a trip to Timbuktu!

Pre-Expedition Training and Orientation

We at Kudu take great pride in running thoroughly professional adventures which are open to anyone with a desire to challenge themselves and what they are capable of.  You do not need to be a highly experienced motorcyclist, off-road expert or have a huge amount of adventurous travel experience.  Our training and orientation days are designed to be informal, enjoyable affairs where you can meet your fellow adventurers, and the Kudu team in a relaxed environment.

TRAINING (1 DAY) :

• Meet the Kudu team and each other
• Equipment and route familiarisation
• GPS training
• Ride out and navigation practical
• Motorcycle maintenance and repair

With Kudu's unique expedition and en-route training, all included in the price, you can begin the toughest challenge of your life well prepared for what lies ahead. Due to the significantly increasing number of riders joining our expeditions from all over the world the training day will be held in Gambia on the first day of the expedition itself.

Your Kudu Support Crew

At Kudu we take great pride in our staff and we believe there is no-one out there who can even come close to providing the level of support that we provide on the Timbuktu & West Africa Expedition. We have previously run tours through West Africa and ran our inaugural West Africa trip in January 2010. You will get the same level of experienced and qualified staff to make sure that this unique and challenging expedition is as successful as our previous visits to this rarely travelled region.

Is this trip for me?

The Timbuktu & West Africa Expedition is 80% tar roads and 20% fairly simple rough graded tracks with approximately 60% hotels and 40% wild camping. You don't need to be an experienced traveller or off-road rider to join this trip. What you will need though, is a desire for a real adventure, an ability to work as a team, and an appreciation that you will be travelling into remote and poor regions of the world.

For more information on the nature of this tour please ensure you read through the downloadable Customer Info Pack thoroughly. If you are as inspired by the thought of undertaking such an adventure as we are, but have concerns about how suitable you may be, simply e-mail or phone us, and together we will be able to find out if this kind of adventure is for you – you may just surprise yourself!