Booking tickets online is not a thing. So at breakfast one day on the patio at our guesthouse in Livingstone, I asked our host about the train. He laughed. I showed him the email address and WhatsApp numbers I’d found online. Not just anywhere online either – right on the TAZARA website. ‘Sure, you can try to book tickets’ said Remy, and laughed again and went back inside.

It would have been faster to go by bus (well, it would have been fastest by air, but that’s no fun). At any rate we weren’t going to get there any faster by relaxing at the guesthouse, so I sent a flurry of WhatsApp messages and emails.

Back at the breakfast table two days later, I smugly announced to Remy that someone had responded to me on WhatsApp. There was a train on the following Tuesday, and we could have two berths on it. Remy seemed surprised, not just that we’d got tickets but that we wanted them in the first place. Most of his guests wanted to bungee jump from the bridge over Victoria Falls and it was obvious Remy thought that was a preferable activity. But we are suckers for unreasonably long train trips, and had been looking forward to this one for quite some time.

Fast forward a week or so and we were aboard the TAZARA train, tickets and all. Good thing we had those tickets, too, unlike a random passenger who boarded without one and got a resounding slap in the face from the conductor for it.

That’s right, this isn’t your average train trip. We thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish, possibly in part because neither of us got slapped in the face.

This post is about our experience aboard the TAZARA train, traveling from Zambia (New Kapiri Mposhi) to Tanzania (Dar es Salaam). It’s a guide to whatever you need to know to take the same journey, and what awaits you along the way. And – if you’re in the neighbourhood, then you should definitely take this journey.

All aboard? Oh well, no rush…

The TAZARA train route

The TAZARA is an international train, running between New Kapiri Mposhi in Zambia and Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. It’s a great way to cross the border and travel between these two countries, but you need time and flexibility to fit it into your plans. Don’t expect it all to go smoothly.

**UPDATE in 2026: the train will resume cross-border services as of February 2026. If you do this trip in February or later in 2026, please feel free to share any other new or changed info regarding schedule, etc, that you might (possibly:)) learn, in the comments on this post or send me an email. As you can see, the train is a bit ‘on again/off again’.

*UPDATE in 2025: the train does not currently run cross-border. You can take a train from New Kapiri Mposhi to Nakonde, the Zambian side of the border. Then you make your own way across the border by bus or taxi and on to pick up another train in Mbeya, Tanzania, to Dar es Salaam (or vice versa). These are separate trains requiring separate tickets, and apparently the arrivals and departures don’t really align well so you’d need even more time to patch it together. Hopefully they’ll resume cross-border services in the future, you never know. Check the TAZARA website and try the contacts there.

There are two trains per week going in opposite directions, the ‘Mukuba Express’ and the ‘Ordinary’ train:

• The Mukuba Express train departs Dar es Salaam on Fridays around 4pm. It departs New Kapiri Mposhi on Tuesdays around 2pm. If it ran according to schedule it would take approximately 46 hours.
• The Ordinary train departs Dar es Salaam on Tuesdays around 2pm. It departs New Kapiri Mposhi on Fridays around 2pm. This one takes an indefinite amount of time. There isn’t even an indication of the schedule on the TAZARA site. It stops at every single station so I think you can just assume it takes ‘a hell of a long time’.

You’ll cross the border on the train. It stops on both sides for everyone to get out and do passport control, visas on arrival, change money, and so on.

Before you go

It was suggested to us by a TAZARA employee on WhatsApp that the train might take about forty hours, or less, or more. It took sixty in the end, so best come prepared.

• You’re going to cross a border, so make sure your nationality is eligible for visa on arrival or visa-free. Entering Tanzania, you’ll need fifty USD for the visa. Bring a pen.
• Tanzania requires proof of yellow fever vaccination so get the shot and bring your international vaccine card. Otherwise, you’ll be getting the jab at the border, anti-vaxxer or not.
• You need cash in both local currencies to buy food on the train, depending which country you’re currently in. There are money changers on the border so you can exchange Kwatcha and Shillings as needed. Know the rate.
• If you plan to be online at all, make sure you have e-SIMs for both countries downloaded. Service is slow and patchy so don’t rely on it.
• The train has a restaurant, bar, and lounge car. They serve meals at set times. Breakfast is a bit ghastly but lunch and dinner were good. They have bottled water, soft drinks, and beer – almost always warm. Bring some extra water and snacks. There was tea available in the mornings but not even instant coffee. We’ve always got an aeropress and coffee with us so we were set – we’d just ask for hot water.
• The train ran out of water on the second day and they never refilled the tanks despite idling for hours at a time in village stations. If you are really set on brushing your teeth and washing your hands, you’ll need to buy extra bottled water for that. Supposedly there are showers on board although I never saw them and since there was no water it didn’t matter anyway.
• The toilets were ok to start and got progressively worse. Bring toilet paper. There is a separate room with sinks for washing up (again, not so useful without water).
• Bedding is provided, on the Express in first class anyway.
• Don’t leave your valuables unattended. You won’t get a key to your compartment, so if you’re sharing with others coordinate that the last to leave locks up. Then, you have to find a conductor to let you back in.

Getting tickets for the TAZARA train

You can’t book this train online. Try to book tickets in person and pay for them on the spot, as paying is the only real guarantee you’re getting onboard. You can buy the tickets directly from the TAZARA offices in Lusaka, Dar es Salaam, and Kapiri Mposhi (but there’s absolutely no other reason to be in Kapiri Mposhi than departing on this train, so going there days ahead of time to buy a ticket would be weird). Note that if you’re picking up this train in Tanzania, Mbeya is also an option.

The trains do sell right out so you should definitely try to get tickets ahead of time – the TAZARA website itself suggests booking two weeks ahead. Waiting until you’re in one of the above-mentioned towns is a bit of a gamble. If you are dead set on a certain date and trying to book the train far in advance or from somewhere else entirely, I think you’d need to get a local travel agency to arrange it and pay up front for you.

But, if you aren’t worried about the exact date you travel and also don’t happen to be in Lusaka or Dar, you can consult the Tazara website for (some) information. Hilariously, the ticket fares page on the website is blank, but there is a list of email addresses and WhatsApp numbers for contacts in the local Tazara offices. To book the train you need to get in touch with one of these people, and make a reservation. Then, once you get to Lusaka or Dar you go straight to the office to pay and pick up your ticket.

We had no luck with the email addresses, but someone responded to one of my repeated WhatsApp calls and messages. I chatted with Agatha for several days, on and off. She rarely sent a clear answer but did say she’d reserved two berths for us.

What Agatha didn’t tell me was that this was not actually a reservation at all; it was more like she was just humouring me. When you book like this what you’re doing is basically putting your name on a list of people who think they might fancy taking a forty-eight hour train trip on that particular day.

We learned this a few days later when we arrived at the Inter-City Bus Terminal in Lusaka and set off to meet Agatha at the office in the TAZARA House building nearby. She informed us that there were exactly two berths still available. Mainly we were just lucky to get there before anyone else wandered in off the street and took the last two spots.

The key thing to remember here is: if you think you have a reservation, you probably don’t. So get the actual tickets in hand at least a day in advance or as soon as you reasonably can.

In general, about tickets:

• We didn’t have a preference regarding the Express or the Ordinary train. We took the next train with availability, which happened to be an Express.
• The tickets cost about 40 USD each, for first class on the Express. The office doesn’t take cards – bring cash. First class tickets on the Ordinary train are about 32 USD.
• Spring for first class. It costs only a little more than second. In first you have four berths per compartment. In second you have six berths, so it’s quite a bit more crowded. Third class is open seating and I’d strongly suggest avoiding it.
• If you want your own compartment you need to book all four (or six) berths. Otherwise, you get a berth in a shared compartment. They are separated by men and women. We would have booked our own compartment but there were literally just two berths left so we were split up, but that didn’t matter.

Livingstone/Lusaka to Kapiri Mposhi

‘TIA’ said Lance the guesthouse manager in Livingstone, when he heard that we’d arranged a ride to the bus station at 5.30 am the next day. Lance put the taxi driver’s number in his phone. ‘I’ll call him at 5 to wake him up.’ he explained. ‘TIA. And I’ll call you at 4.30 Lance.’ I said. Lance slapped his leg and laughed uproariously. And he was right, the driver never showed. But Lance got up and made us breakfast and then we caught our bus to Lusaka.

If you’re leaving from Livingstone, buy your bus tickets to Lusaka in person at the Inter-City Bus Terminal at least a day ahead. It takes about eight hours to get from Livingstone to Lusaka by bus.

When we arrived in Lusaka the first thing we did was pay for our train tickets. The TAZARA House office is near the bus terminal so we walked straight there. Then we booked seats on a bus the next morning to Kapiri Mposhi, and stayed overnight in Lusaka.

It takes about three and a half hours to get from Lusaka to Kapiri Mposhi, so leave early. We took the bus on the same day as the train was departing. This is doable, but since our bus bizzarely spent quite some time off-roading, we cut it close. If your mental health is already hanging by a thread, consider going to Kapiri Mposhi the day before. Counting on public transport is always a bit risky.

From the bus station in Kapiri Mposhi it’s a few kilometers to the New Kapiri Mposhi Railway Station. Lots of taxi drivers were lurking around when we got off the bus.

Aim to arrive at the station at least two hours ahead to be on the safe side.

Moral of this whole story so far, don’t waste time. You’ll do plenty of that later once you’re aboard the train.

Life on the TAZARA train

‘He looks like the guy from The Last of Us’ said The Dancer to me, and he pointed at Oyv. I looked across the table at Oyv, wearing his dark sunglasses and pushing down steadily on the aeropress as the train carriage lurched and swayed. The Dancer was the train employee who’d served all our meals so far in the restaurant car, and when he wasn’t serving up plates of ugali/nshima (depending which side of the border we were currently on) and greens, he was dancing up and down the aisle. It’s a long trip and there was plenty of time to people-watch.

Besides people-watching, since the train goes right through Selous Game Reserve you can do some wildlife-spotting on the way. The railway was built by the Chinese between 1970 to 1975, and runs through tunnels and across rivers and gorges. As the TAZARA website points out, this affords passengers the opportunity to ‘appreciate the awesome and inspirational engineering works of the Chinese’.

The train made lengthy and inexplicable stops of often an hour or more in every single little village we passed.

We’d get out for a look around, and sometimes random people would board and ride in the bar for a stop or two. Although the train ran out of water it never ran out of beer, despite the efforts of a local teacher who’d boarded in reasonable condition only to be incapacitated and physically dragged off the train by the barstaff a few stations later.

Tentatively scheduled to take forty-four hours, in the end it took sixty. As the train slowly chugged along with no particular end in sight, we just clattered around between our compartments and the lounge car. I made us a lot of PB&J sandwiches, Oyv brewed coffee whenever we could convince The Dancer to boil us some water, and we hung out in the lounge car sipping warm beers, talking to whoever else was around, and watching Africa roll by with each clacking turn of the wheels.

The border: Zambia (Nakonde) to Tanzania (Tunduma)

We arrived Zambia’s side of the border late in the afternoon on day two. We were tracking the train on maps.me and saw everyone getting off, so we got off too. There was no announcement.

The train stops very close to the locked immigration building. Eventually some officers came from town, after someone called and told them the train had arrived.

We got our passports stamped, changed money, and got back on the train. When it eventually rumbled back to life we rode a bit further to Tanzanian immigration, housed in what looked like an abandoned building. There we lined up again in front of a table to get our passports stamped and pay for the visas. All very ordinary, right up until a man wearing a white lab coat walked in with a cooler. He produced two syringes and vaccinated a couple of passengers on the spot. Like I said, bring your yellow fever certificate.

Arriving in Dar es Salaam

Although I noticed a door in our carriage marked ‘Broadcasting room’, at no time did the staff broadcast any announcements about delays, sudden departures from remote stations, arrival at the border, or any other useful information. When we arrived in Dar at the TAZARA Railway Station at about three in the morning, the conductor let us know by banging loudly on the compartment doors up and down the carriage.

At that hour of the night walking is decidedly out. If you arrive late and don’t want to take a taxi, then you can stay in the station until morning. I wouldn’t suggest actually sleeping, but it’s partially lit and there were a lot of people around. We took an Uber and went to Kibodya Hotel 6, banking on there being a night-guard out front who’d be able to wake up the receptionist and get us in (there was).

I was sorry to get off the train (not least because it was the middle of the night and I was tucked up snugly in my berth). It’s a long trip but if you like train travel in general, then this is for you. Just remember, maybe most importantly of all: embrace the feeling of ‘It gets there when it gets there. As Lance said, ‘T.I.A’.

Read More

This isn’t the only excellent train trip we’ve undertaken in Africa. We’ve also hitched a ride on Mauritania’s famous iron ore train, and you can read about it here: Extreme journeys: riding Mauritania’s iron ore train.

If you’re in Tanzania, you might want to check out these other posts about traveling in this amazing country.

And for more of our adventures (and misadventures) as we travel from Cameroon to Japan, check out the rest of my stories from the road.

The post Riding the TAZARA train: cross-border from Zambia to Tanzania appeared first on WhirledAway.

Afghanistan is one of those places where things change all the time, so check on the security situation before you even consider going. Following this (or any) post, you should double-check on where and how you can get your visa, and if the border you’re planning to use is definitely/still open (or not).

With that in mind, if you ever wondered how to cross the Panji Poyon/Shir Khan border from Tajikistan to Afghanistan by road, then read on.

I’ve also written a story about what it was like to travel in Afghanistan.

Visas, and where to cross

Our original plan was to cross the Termez/Hairatan border from Uzbekistan to Afghanistan. In December 2023 the Afghanistan embassy in Tashkent was issuing visas, although it sounded like they might be stopping that at any time. Another caveat to check before getting a visa there: although they’ll issue it same day, they set the start date a week ahead so in other words, it takes about a week before the visa is active.

However, we also learned at the Afghan embassy that foreign nationals other than Uzbeks and Afghans, aren’t allowed to cross the border in either direction at Termez.

To sum it up, this meant waiting a week and then flying from Tashkent to Kabul. Boohoo. But wait: enter the Shir Khan Bandar crossing. While we were wracking our brains about what to do next, we thought about land border crossings in Tajikistan. We’ve previously been to the Ishkashim border in the Wakhan corridor but ruled it out for being far away and possibly inaccessible in winter. Then I remembered reading that you could cross at the Shir Khan border and they’ll actually issue you a visa on arrival.

We decided we’d just give that a go, and we traveled by a string of share taxis in one very long day from Tashkent to Dushanbe.

Update in 2025: apparently the Termez/Hairatan border is open again to any other foreign nationals as well (with a visa of course).

Before you go

Bring all the money you’re going to need for the entire time you’re in Afghanistan, in USD. There are money changers in all bigger town centers, and also in the tiny market town on the Afghan side of the border. Money changers will only accept newer currency (2013 series onwards) and that in very good shape. You can change in banks as well but rates are bad. Apparently there are ATMs in bigger cities that will accept foreign cards but I wouldn’t count on this and we didn’t see or use any.

The security situation in December 2023 seemed ok. It felt ‘safe enough’ to be there, but you should think carefully about it for yourself. The Taliban, the previous aggressor is now in control and apparently trying to run a legitimate government. You will see them patrolling the streets, some in uniform but mostly dressed in civilian (traditional Pashtun) clothing. Your government (and probably every person you know) will advise strongly against all travel to Afghanistan. Make sure that you check if your travel insurance is valid in a ‘no-go’ country.

The route

Our route, by several taxis, went like this: Dushanbe > Shir Khan border > Kunduz. All up it took us about ten hours, mainly because processing the visa (and paying for it) took forever. Lots of hang-ups and waiting around.

You can take a private taxi directly or string together minibus rides from Dushanbe to the border. At the border they will transport you over the Tajikistan-Afghanistan Friendship bridge in a mandatory share taxi. After all the formalities are done at the Afghanistan side you can pick up a share taxi to Shir Khan village, then take another share taxi all the way to Kunduz, the first main town on the Afghan side.

We left Dushanbe at six am and arrived in Kunduz around four pm. The border processing took us five hours. Women need to dress very conservatively, and wear a headscarf.

Dushanbe to Panji Poyon (Tajikistan)

The border is open weekdays during the mornings and afternoons, with a lunch break. Considering you’re going to get a VOA from the Taliban, I’d get a very early start.

We took a private taxi directly from Green House Hostel in Dushanbe, to the border at Panji Poyon. The ride was around three hours and cost 800 Tajik somoni.

Or, you can take a minibus to Qurogonteppa and change onto another minibus there, to go the rest of the way to Panji Poyon. This will be cheaper but take longer.

In Dushanbe we stayed at Green House Hostel which does see travelers coming and going to/from Afghanistan, so they are a valuable source of information.

Crossing the border

Note – Tajikistan is visa free for most nationalities, but after ten days in the country you need to register with the authorities. On the Tajik side (Panji Poyon) of the border they hassled us for not having the ten day registration form. We didn’t have it because we didn’t need it, we were only in Tajikistan for five days. We had a lengthy discussion by Google Translate, including some threats about sending us all the way back to the border we entered Tajikistan at to get this form we didn’t even need to have, before they finally let it go and stamped us out. Bottom line: if you stay ten days (or more) make sure you register and bring this form with you to the border. If, like us, you don’t need it in the first place, I guess just cross your fingers you don’t meet the same belligerent and uninformed jerk we met, at the border.

Other than that, it’s the usual passport checks, customs questions, and luggage scans.

Then you go outside and wait for the mandatory shared taxi that takes you over the Tajikistan- Afghanistan Friendship bridge to the Afghan side. You need a little bit of somoni to pay for this.

On the Afghan side it’s a bit confusing – a lot of buildings, not many people, and some running around from one unmarked office to the next.

Where you get out of the car the first building is passport control and customs. You can leave your stuff here – you have to go get your visa, first. There’s a curtained ‘Ladies’ section at the back where a woman searched me and unpacked my backpack very thoroughly. No one checked Oyv’s backpack here.

After that they pointed us to a blue building behind a fence where you can obtain the Afghanistan visa. This took a long time: we filled out forms, the officer filled out forms, the officer typed everything into his computer and printed off forms. They wanted three passport photos, and took our fingerprints the good old fashioned way – blue ink pads.

Next, they sent us to the bank to pay for the visa. It was 70 USD, only accepted in Afghani currency. So unless you happen to have 5000 afghanis, you’ll need to head into Shir Khan village to change money. And that’s how we found ourselves basically roaming passport-less around rural Afghanistan. It’s a quick 1.5 km walk to the village, many cars offered us a lift as well. On the main strip we found moneychangers easily (men sitting behind a table with stacks of currency, it’s quite obvious) and changed our dollars. Then it’s another short walk to the bank to deposit the money and get a receipt. We took the receipt back to the officer in the blue building, and the same officer did some more typing and printing, and issued our visas.

Then we took our passports and returned to the very first building (where by the way, there are some toilets). Inside the building we got our passports stamped and picked up our backpacks.

It took us around five hours to finish all the border formalities including the wandering around and banking.

Bet you didn’t think you’d end up here. Welcome to Afghanistan!

Shir Khan Bandar (Afghanistan) to Kunduz

On the way out of the clutch of administrative buildings around the border, there was one last stop where they made a very perfunctory search of Oyv’s luggage (not that he had anything to hide).

In the same spot there are taxi drivers and interested bystanders lurking around and we got a taxi to take us the 1.5 km back into Shir Khan yet again. From there shared taxis go to Kunduz, about an hour.

We stayed at Kunduz Hotel, which we’d looked up in advance on Google maps. It’s cheap and fine – constant power outages but that’s just something to get used to. There’s also a good restaurant directly across the street. Pulao for dinner while all the patrons (some of whom were armed Taliban) stared at us the whole time – also just something to get used to.

One last thing…travel permits

Once you’re in Afghanistan the issue of travel permits will come up. We never really got a straight answer as to whether they were mandatory or not – nobody seems to know, including the Taliban who issue them. The general idea is that you need them to pass checkpoints and move from one province to the next, also for entrance to certain places. The first thing we did on arrival into Kunduz, the first proper town after the border, was go to the Ministry of Information and Culture and ‘apply’ for a permit for travel to Mazar-i-Sharif. We had to pay for it and got no receipt. Later, we applied for more permits in Kabul and they were free. We did have to show these permits at a couple of checkpoints, and at the Sakhi Shrine in Kabul. Oyv needed to show it to get into the Blue Mosque in Mazar-i-Sharif (as a woman, I wasn’t allowed in there in the first place). It seemed like the Taliban is easing up about the permits, but you never know who you’re going to meet so overall I’d say just get them to be on the safe side, at least until the official line is that they aren’t necessary.

Read More

For more about travelling in these two countries and things to see and do while you’re at it, check out my stories about Tajikistan and Afghanistan.

I’ve also written a story about what it was like to travel in Afghanistan.

And, if you’re planning some travels in Central Asia on the way, take a look at this guide to a wander through Central Asia.

The post How to cross the Shir Khan border from Tajikistan to Afghanistan appeared first on WhirledAway.

So, if you ever wondered how to cross the Torkham border from Afghanistan to Pakistan by road, then read on.

I’ve also written a story about what it was like to travel in Afghanistan.

Before you go

Make sure that you have a valid Pakistan visa and bring a printout of it with you.

The e-visa processing time is totally random. In our case this time it took three months, possibly because in the itinerary they asked for we mentioned southern Punjab and Sindh. Not sure, but given the giant fuss they made when we actually showed up in southern Punjab and Sindh, I get the feeling that it might be a better idea to just stick with listing the more popular northern areas on the itinerary when applying for the visa. We’ve heard in many cases of it just taking a few days or a couple of weeks.

The last time we applied for this visa, in 2019, we supplied a random hotel booking which is all they asked for. Then they came back suddenly and wanted a letter of invitation so we had to buy that as well. Applying from your home country is recommended, since they will sometimes call you in for an interview at your home embassy. I guess if you were already on the road at that point you’d have to try and arrange the interview elsewhere, which apparently is best avoided if possible.

So: give yourself time to get the visa, and when you do get it, print it.

Bring your international vaccination card with you. On both sides of this border, dubious medical (?) personnel will try to force feed you an oral polio vaccine. The Afghan side let Oyv through without it when he argued a bit and produced his yellow card showing that he is already properly vaccinated. I (Sar) was in a tent with women who couldn’t read my yellow card and insisted on the vaccine. On Pakistan’s side we were together and we both showed our cards and I also showed the new ‘yellow slip’ from my recent vaccination fifteen minutes prior. We argued long and hard but they weren’t having any of it and absolutely insisted on it. We have a friend who crossed the border a different day, and he argued apparently for a very long time and avoided it so maybe it depends on who you meet. Either way, it’s a (invasive and ridiculous) formality and both of us spit it out almost immediately, probably within sight of the officers, and nobody said anything.

There are plenty of moneychangers on the Afghan side of the border. There a just a few on the Pakistani side. We didn’t see ATMs on Pakistan’s side.

In the Autumn of 2023 Pakistan was deporting a lot of undocumented Afghans. For that reason the border was very busy and chaotic, sometimes shutting without notice for days. This situation had tapered off when we crossed, but I’d ask in Jalalabad or Kabul about the border before setting off.

The border is open during regular daytime hours. As with any other border-crossing day, just get an early start.

The route

Our route on public transport went like this: Jalalabad > Torkham border > Peshawar > Islamabad. It took most of the day to reach Peshawar. Then, since the police wouldn’t let us stay in Peshawar we had several more hours on a bus (mostly due to traffic) to Islamabad and arrived in the evening.

You can get from Kabul (Afghanistan) all the way to Islamabad (Pakistan) in one very long day. We stayed overnight in Jalalabad the day before, and then set off early the next morning from there. I’d recommend that rather than coming all the way from Kabul in a day. Especially since you don’t know what kind of hang-ups you might face (or not) at the border.

From Jalalabad it’s a share-taxi to Torkham village. From there you walk a short distance to the gates and process all formalities on both sides.

Once you’re through, you can in theory take a share-taxi from Torkham border to Peshawar. However, in December 2023, the police were not allowing foreigners to use the public transport or stay in Peshawar. They sent us in a private taxi with a police guard.

In Peshawar we had to take the bus directly to Islamabad. It’s not like the police followed us onto the bus to make sure we left town: but hotels weren’t accepting foreigners at the time either. I guess if you were determined to stay there you could get around this by couch surfing, but we’ve been to Peshawar before anyway, so we just took the bus out.

Jalalabad to Torkham (Afghanistan)

In Jalalabad, take an autorickshaw to the Torkham share-taxi stand for about fifty afghani. Cars are lined up and filling regularly and we didn’t wait long. From there, it was about an hour to the border and it cost two hundred afghani for a seat. The ride to the border is scenic, past lots of pretty orange groves.

If you are coming the same day from Kabul then get a very early start. Take a taxi to Tangi Kalay bus station which is twenty-three kilometers outside Kabul. There you’ll find cars going to Jalalabad. It takes about three hours to Jalalabad (plus waiting time for the car to fill). Also a very scenic drive through the mountains. Then change cars in Jalalabad and carry on.

In Torkham you can change your leftover afghanis to rupees near where the taxis drop-off. We also changed dollars to rupees on the Pakistani side.

Crossing the border

From the shared taxi stand in Torkham it’s a short walk till you enter a fenced-off passageway. We’d read that groups of kids could be extremely aggressive, swarming and even stealing things from your backpack. We didn’t encounter any.

The first formality we met was the polio vaccination. Women go into a separate tented area for this. You should be able to dodge the vaccine on the Afghan side if you have a valid polio vaccine and show your yellow card.

Then we went to immigration and got our passports stamped and photos taken. There was almost no queue. We’d been advised by locals that if there was a queue, we should just jump it and carry right on. It’s ok because as foreign tourists we’re easy to process and there’s no point queuing up with refugees etc. The entire time, whenever there were local people ahead of us on either side, they ushered us past.

We finished with the Afghan side quickly and before we moved on somebody informed the Pakistani authorities, who sent an officer to meet us. He sat us down and took down all our details, photos, checked the visas and so on, before allowing us to continue. Then he escorted us all the way through the border, which was fairly hectic. There’s a bit of sitting and waiting here and there while they talk amongst themselves.

Then they scanned our luggage and after a bit more walking in the maze, we encountered the next polio vaccine.

Lastly, we handed over our passports at the immigration window and got them stamped. At this point the first officer came back and took us outside, informing us that we wouldn’t be able to carry on alone from the border. He escorted us into a shipping container/office and into the clutches of a taxi driver and the police guard that accompanied us to Peshawar.

It took us around one and a half hours to get through the border, with most of that spent on Pakistan’s formalities.

It’s a good one. Welcome to Pakistan!

Torkham (Pakistan) to Peshawar and Islamabad

In December 2023 a police officer in the car for the ride to Peshawar was mandatory (this could change any time and then you can just take a share-taxi). The guard is free. The taxi took some rigorous negotiation and the driver has you. He wanted six thousand rupees to Peshawar and we ended up paying four thousand.

It’s a nice drive through the famous Khyber pass – enjoy it! Our driver was very sullen at first but cheered up enough as time went by to take a bunch of selfies and video of us on our sunny afternoon drive with the armed guard. It took around two hours to Peshawar.

Since we weren’t staying in Peshawar we got the taxi driver to drop us at Faisal Movers bus terminal in Gulbahar. Daewoo also works. Busses to Islamabad take around three hours and are very comfortable.

Read More

For more about travelling in these two countries and things to see and do while you’re at it, check out my stories about Afghanistan and Pakistan.

I’ve also written a story about what it was like to travel in Afghanistan.

The post How to cross the Torkham border from Afghanistan to Pakistan appeared first on WhirledAway.

A self-driving safari in southern Africa is definitely one of the world’s ultimate roadtrips. Thinking about taking it on? In this post I’ve outlined our twenty-one day self-driving itinerary, and provided some information to help you plan your own ultimate African roadtrip:

Self-driving
On the road: our itinerary
Before you go: planning your trip
Maun, and moving on

In case you’re wondering what you’ll find along the way, I’ve written another post about the very best of what we saw and did. Check it out here: Home is where the car is: a roadtrip in southern Africa.

Self-driving

We’ve taken on large swaths of Africa by public transport and that is no small feat – just have a look at the trips on this blog. But we decided to hire our own car and self-drive in southern Africa. The route we planned would have been impossible with public transport. You can’t get properly into the parks, distances are vast, buses only run between bigger cities, etc. On the limited public transport options available you’d miss out on the experiences that truly make this trip incredible.

Also keep in mind, that when you drive yourself on a trip like this (assuming there are two of you): one person is driving and the other is the animal spotter and photographer. Actually, both of you should be keeping an eagle-eye out for animals bounding around into the road. We’ve safaried by now in pretty much every category possible, and definitely the upside to going with a guide is that you have someone who knows where to look for the animals, and can answer all your questions. An sometimes they’ll even make you sundowners on the savannah.

Self-driving is the most expensive way to get around but you have all the freedom to plan the route yourself. If you decide to hire a car and self-drive southern Africa, here are some things to think about:

• Finding a car. There are a many resources for car hire available. Google is your friend:) We shopped around and chose the quote from DriveSouthAfrica. The price will vary depending on the season. Although you can do parts of this trip with a regular 2WD, you’re much better off hiring a 4WD. A lot of areas will otherwise be inaccessible to you, especially in Botswana.
• Pick-up and drop-off. You can start and end your trip in two different cities or even in two different countries. We picked up in Johannesburg (South Africa) and dropped off in Maun (Botswana). This worked really well for us, and it’s one of the reasons you’ll want to plan your route before finalizing the car.
• Collecting the car. Check it over really carefully in daylight, inside and out, before you sign off and pay up front. Get familiar with all the documents in the glove compartment – these are permits and a passport for the car, which you’ll need at checkpoints and at the borders when you take it across.
• Insurance. The car company should cover all cost up to a deductible as long as you don’t get stuck in the sand on the beach in Namibia as the tide comes in, or hit an elephant (or almost any large animal).
• Kilometers. The distances especially in Namibia are humongous so make sure you have unlimited kilometers.
• Fuel. We topped up the tank whenever fuel was available and tried to stay as close to full as possible.
• Road conditions and traffic (animals). The roads vary constantly from different depths of sand, to loose gravel, to smooth pavement, and so on, but are often a lot better than you think. Traffic isn’t really an issue other than driving in/out of the big cities. We could drive for hours without seeing another vehicle in Namibia. In some places more than others, you really need to keep your eyes peeled for animals. Don’t drive at night.
• Security. Crime is an issue in South Africa, not only in Johannesburg and Cape Town. It is important to be vigilant when stopping at gas stations and grocery shops. Keep your doors locked when driving. Namibia and Botswana are much safer, but even there we had more than one person warn us to be careful, watch out, etc.
• Driving. Last but certainly not least, consider your driving skills. You’ll be driving on sandy roads especially in Botswana’s national parks, and probably off-roading too. Depending on the time of year, you may get all sorts of weather.
• Food. You can’t bring uncooked meat over the borders.
• The Maps.me app has the best off-road maps. We were told by locals to use Maps.me not Tracks 4 Africa.

On the road: our itinerary

This post is about our experience roadtripping from Johannesburg to Maun in three weeks, but you can certainly adapt any part of our itinerary to suit yourself. We’re just trying to help you get started:)

DAY 1 – Johannesburg to Kuruman (South Africa)
DAY 2 – Kuruman to Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park
DAY 3 – Transfrontier Park – Twee Rivieren camp to Mata-Mata camp
DAY 4 – Transfrontier Park (Mata Mata camp) to Aus (Namibia)
DAY 5 – Aus to Sesriem (detour to Luderitz/Kolmanskop)
DAY 6 – Sesriem (daytrip to Soussusvlei/Deadvlei)
DAY 7 – Sesriem to Swakopmund
DAY 8 – Swakopmund (rest day)
DAY 9 – Swakopmund to Brandberg (detour to Cape Cross)
DAY 10 – Brandberg to Etosha National Park
DAY 11 – Etosha National Park
DAY 12 – Etosha National Park
DAY 13 – Etosha National Park to Caprivi Strip
DAY 14 – Caprivi Strip (rest day)
DAY 15 – Caprivi Strip to Kavimba (Botswana. Detour to Kasane)
DAY 16 – Chobe National Park – Riverfront
DAY 17 – Kavimba to Chobe National Park
DAY 18 – Chobe National Park – Linyanti
DAY 19 – Chobe National Park – Linyanti to Khwai
DAY 20 – Khwai
DAY 21 – Khwai to Maun

All the driving times here include our stops to grocery shop, look around, take photos, walk, sight-see, make coffee, or eat lunch.

DAY 1 – Johannesburg to Kuruman (South Africa)

Departed Johannesburg: 11 am
Arrived Kuruman: 6 pm

It’s about 530 kilometers from Johannesburg to Kuruman. The drive is mostly highway and sometimes country roads through flat farmland. Since we had done most of our grocery shopping before we picked the car up, we only had to grab a few of the fresh items in Kuruman. We didn’t want to overstock on meat, since in a couple of days we’d be crossing a border and it could be confiscated.

Roads: sealed, in good condition.

Time: 7.5 hours
Kilometers: 530
Accommodation: powered campsite at Red Sands Country Lodge

DAY 2 – Kuruman to Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park

Departed Red Sands Country Lodge: 9 am
Arrived Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, Twee Rivieren campground: 4 pm

This stretch was mainly just a driving day to reach the park. There is nothing much to see but we made a nice lunch stop in Askham at the Diamond T Coffee Shop.

We had planned to spend only one night in the Transfrontier park before crossing the border to Namibia. However, at the park office we learned that it’s mandatory to stay at least two nights if you want to exit South Africa from the border post inside the park. So at this point we booked the next night at Mata Mata campsite, which is inside the park and next to the Namibian border post.

We had originally booked the next night at Quiver Tree Forest Camp in Namibia, so we had to cancel that.

Roads: sealed, in good condition. After entering the park the road became sandy but not deep sand.

Time: 7 hours
Kilometers: 515
Accommodation: powered campsite at Twee Rivieren campground

DAY 3 – Transfrontier Park – Twee Rivieren camp to Mata Mata camp

Departed Twee Rivieren: 8 am
Arrived Mata Mata: 2 pm

First things first. There is a petrol station at the Twee Rivieren campground where you can deflate your tires before driving on the sandy park roads. Ask the staff about upcoming road conditions and adjust the tire pressure accordingly. We learned this the hard way. We got a flat tire on the way from Aus to Sesriem due to not setting the pressure correctly.

We spent the day game-driving slowly towards Mata Mata. The landscape is unique and beautiful.

Roads: light sandy roads at this time of year.

Time: 5.5 hours
Kilometers (not including short detours): 105
Accommodation: powered campsite at Mata Mata camp

DAY 4 – Transfrontier Park (Mata Mata camp) to Aus (Namibia)

Departed Mata Mata camp: 8 am
Arrived Aus: 4 pm

The border crossing inside the park is pretty straightforward. You’ll pay a small fee for road tax. The drive on the Namibian side towards Aus is on ever-changing and beautiful hilly red roads until Keetmanskop. Just before Keetmanskop is the Quiver Tree Forest which you can stop off at to take a look.

Roads: gravel from the border to Keetmanskop. The rest of the way to Aus is asphalt.

Time: 8 hours
Kilometers (not including detours): 475
Accommodation: powered campsite at Klein Aus Vista

DAY 5 – Aus to Sesriem (detour to Luderitz/Kolmanskop)

Departed Aus: 7 am
Arrived Sesriem: 5.30 pm

We set off early in the morning to have a coffee in Luderitz, about an hour away. There are a few good cafes in Luderitz – we picked the Desert Deli. We went to Luderitz in the first place to check out Kolmanskop, the mining ‘ghost town’ nearby. Check the tour times in advance, you can go in by yourself but the tour is good. You can pay for it online or at the gate – bring cash, paying by card is unreliable.

Can’t stress this enough – check and adjust your tire pressure before driving on to Sesriem. We didn’t and ended up with a flat right before Helmingerhausen. Helmeringhusen on the other hand does have a nice cafe and very helpful staff at a garage.

Roads: sealed from Aus to Luderitz. From Aus to Sesriem is gravel but in pretty good condition.

Time: 10.5 hours
Kilometers: 636 km
Accommodation: powered campsite at Little Soussus Lodge

DAY 6 – Sesriem (daytrip to Soussusvlei/Deadvlei)

Departed campsite: 8 am
Arrived campsite: 4 pm

Little Sossus Lodge is a great spot to camp. Each site has sheltered parking for the car and a little kitchen and bathroom setup.

There will be a queue at the Sesriem gate in the morning. Try to be early, and remember sunscreen (we did not and had to buy some at the garage in Sesriem, you need it). You will get a permit at the park gate. You can pay the ticket when you leave the park, to save time and beat the crowds.

Again: ask at your accommodation or a service station about road conditions on the way to and around Sossusvlei and Deadvlei. Adjust your tire pressure. Once you’re inside the gate drive to the end of the sand river. There’s a car park where you can leave the car to explore Deadvlei (1 on map below). You can climb up (and run down) various huge dunes, and of course see the famous petrified camelthorn trees in Deadvlei. There are also plenty of areas you can set up in the shade and cook or have a picnic at Sossusvlei (2).  We climbed Dune 45 (3).

Don’t get stuck!! If you’re not driving a 4×4 you can leave your car in the car park and get a ride out to the dunes on a wagon pulled by the tractor. Our campground gave us this map, they also advised us about driving conditions, and so on:

Roads: sealed until you get to the sand river. Keep up your speed in the sand, never stop or you’ll get stuck.

Time: 8 hours
Kilometers: 220
Accommodation: powered campsite at Little Sossus Lodge

DAY 7 – Sesriem to Swakopmund

Departed Sesriem: 8 am
Arrived Swakopmund: 2 pm

The landscape changes constantly which makes for an interesting drive. Like literally every single other person there, we stopped at McGregor’s Bakery in Solitare, for their ‘famous apple pie’. It’s ok, but for us the point of the stop was just that we needed lunch.

After Solitare we made a left towards Swakopmund. On the way you’ll pass the sign for the Tropic of Capricorn. After the sign we carried on through Gaub Pass, and the landscape changed again.

There are tons of places to stay in Swakopmund but we opted to stay at a campground just bit removed from the city. No big deal when you’ve got your own wheels anyway.

Roads: unsealed until just outside Swakopmund, but pretty good.

Time: 6 hours
Kilometers: 350
Accommodation: powered campsite at Sophia Dale Base Camp

DAY 8 – Swakopmund (rest day)

After seven days of braaing and cooking we decided to just chill in the cafes and restaurants in Swakopmund. We sampled the German cooking at Swakopmund Brauhouse, and there’s excellent pizza at Gabriele’s Italian Pizzeria.

Accommodation: powered campsite at Sophia Dale Base Camp

DAY 9 – Swakopmund to Brandberg (detour to Cape Cross)

Departed Swakopmund: 8 am
Arrived Brandberg: 3 pm

On way up the coast to Cape Cross we were hoping to see some old shipwrecks but the fog was too thick that morning. The drive to the Cape Cross Seal Colony took around 1.5 hours. It’s a great but fairly smelly expreience – definitely worth a short detour. After the colony we backtracked to the T-junction right before Hentiesbaai and headed towards the Brandberg mountains.

We absolutely loved our campsite at the White Lady Lodge in Brandberg. If you’re lucky you might get elephants walking right through your campsite. The lodge has a pool which campers can also use.

Roads: unsealed until sometime after the T-junction in Hentiesbaai. It was under improvements at the time.

Time: 7 hours
Kilometers: 330
Accommodation: unpowered campsite at Brandberg White Lady Lodge

DAY 10 – Brandberg to Etosha National Park

Departed Brandberg: 9 am
Arrived Etosha Trading Post: 4 pm

This day was mostly just a driving day to reach Etosha National Park. We stopped in Outjo we stocked up on fuel, groceries, and wine. You can buy stuff in Etosha but everything is more expensive and grocery selection is more limited.

We decided to stay just outside the park on the first night, at Etosha Trading Post campground. That was a great decision since the campsite at Okaukuejo is very busy and crowded. The Trading Post is right next to the park has waterhole which is lit up at night. It’s small and the sites are awesome – besides the usual braai and tap you get a little kitchen area and your own open-air bathroom.

Roads: unsealed until Khorixas. The rest of the way to Etosha is sealed.

Time: 7 hours
Kilometers: 350
Accommodation: powered campsite at Etosha Trading Post

DAY 11 – Etosha National Park

We entered the park at Andersson gate and went straight to the main office there to pay park fees and sort out the campsites. Then we headed out for some game-driving.

We spent one night at Okaukuejo camp. It’s the biggest one and has a distinct parking-lot feel to it. It’s busy and ugly and has an extremely non-atmospheric restaurant. But, they have a big waterhole which is floodlit at night and this was busy with elephants and rhinos and made the stay worthwhile. I’d actually recommend it just for the waterhole. It’s convenient as well since it’s just inside the gate but otherwise if you’re exploring that side of the park I’d stay outside, at Etosha Trading Post for example.

Roads: unsealed but in good condition when we were there in the dry season.

Accommodation: powered campsite at Okaukuejo camp

DAY 12 – Etosha National Park

Departed Okaukuejo camp: 8 am
Arrived Namutomi camp: 1 pm

We made our way slowly game-driving from Okaukuejo camp to Namutoni camp. Namutoni is a more peaceful and less crowded and much better than Okaukuejo. They also have a waterhole but it was not as busy as Okaukuejo.

Roads: unsealed but in good condition when we were there in the dry season.

Time: depends on game-driving
Kilometers: 135
Accommodation: powered campsite at Namutoni camp

DAY 13 – Etosha National Park to Caprivi Strip

Departed Namutoni camp: 8 am
Arrived Caprivi Strip: 4-5 pm

We exited the park at Von Lindequist gate. This was mainly a driving day with nothing particular to see or do along the way – just enjoying the road and listening to audio books. We made stops for groceries and petrol in Grootfontein. Again, we were careful not to overstock meat since we had the border crossing to Botswana coming up soon and meat can be confiscated.

Roads: sealed and in good condition. The 3 km from the main road to Ngepi campsite is a sand track, but it is possible to drive there in a 2WD.

Time: 8-9 hours
Kilometers: 640
Accommodation: powered site at Ngepi camp

DAY 14 – Caprivi Strip (rest day)

Ngepi campground along the Okavanga river is beautiful and peaceful. Sites are big and private with lots of shade, strung out along a dirt road. You can see wildlife on the other side of the river, elephants, rhinos, warthogs, buffalo and so on. We just hung out there for a day enjoying the peace and quiet. They have a nice lodge area too if you don’t want to cook and – they have a wood fired bath on a little platform overlooking the river. Especially if you haven’t had one recently – take a bath!

Roads: sand track from Ngepi campground to the main road.

Accommodation: powered campsite at Ngepi campground

DAY 15 – Caprivi Strip to Kavimba (Botswana. Detour to Kasane)

Departed Caprivi Strip: 9 am
Arrived Kavimba: 2 pm

To be on the safe side we wanted to carry a satellite phone with us in the Chobe/Okavanga area. Up until Botswana we weren’t worried about getting stranded roadside or stuck in the sand, but in Chobe/Okavanga you can drive into pretty isolated and remote areas, and on deep sand roads that could be difficult to handle the car on, especially depending on your level of expertise. Theoretically, in low season a few days could go by before you see another vehicle. So, we reserved a phone in advance with a Sat4Rent company (the place we hired the car from recommended them) and arranged to pick it up in Kasane. There was really no other reason to go to Kasane at this point besides picking up a phone, getting cash, or stocking up on groceries.

The border crossing between Namibia and Botswana is straightforward. On the Namibian side we showed the car papers and stamped out. Then we drove across the bridge over the Okavanga river and got our first glimpse of why Botswana is such an amazing safari destination…there are animals everywhere along the river. Before driving up the small hill on the Botswanian side, we drove through a shallow pool of disinfectant – there’s hoof and mouth in Namibia yet somehow they are keeping it out of Botswana. Before we got our Botswana entry stamps we also had to step into some disinfectant to clean our shoes.

Roads: sealed, in good condition

Time: 5 hours
Kilometers: 285 (detour to Kasane)
Accommodation: powered campsite at Mwandi View camp

DAY 16 – Chobe National Park – Riverfront

If you’re planning your trip early enough and can get into the Chobe Riverfront – Ihaha campsite, definitely do that. We ‘only’ booked 4-5 months in advance, and even then pickings were slim for campsites in Chobe and Okavanga – meaning we had to find alternate camps and in some cases juggle days around or change the itinerary to work with what was still available.

In Kavimba we stayed at Mwandi View, which has a pretty view over the Cuando river and its own waterhole. The owner there is really knowledgeable and very helpful with planning our game-drives. He pointed out that it’s better to enter the Riverfront from the northern end than from the very busy southern end near Kasane. Coming from Kasane you get all the crowds of daytrippers from both Kasane and Zambia.

Staying at Mwandi View, we went for both morning and evening drives on the Chobe Riverfront.

Roads: sand and dirt, in pretty good condition in Chobe Riverfront

Time: depends on game-driving
Accommodation: powered campsite at Mwandi View camp

DAY 17 – Kavimba to Chobe National Park

Departed Kavimba: 8 am
Arrived Linyanti: 11 am

After some more useful information from our host regarding the road ahead, we set off to tackle the sand tracks to Linyanti camp in Chobe. In August the road was very sandy and we kept up a good pace to avoid getting stuck. Often the sand was so deep that we could feel the traction underneath the car and thought we were stuck for sure, but it never happened!

Eventually we reached the Linyanti gate where we paid our park fees (we’d already paid for the campsite).

Originally we’d wanted to break up the drive by spending a night in Savuti campsite, which is about halfway to our next campsite at Khwai. Savuti was fully booked so we took two nights at Linyanti instead, and did not regret it. It was amazing. Our site was right on a marshy riverbank and there were herds of elephants all around.

Roads: deep sand after Kavimba town.

Time: 2.5-3 hours
Kilometers: 95
Accommodation: unpowered campsite at Linyanti camp

DAY 18 – Chobe National Park – Linyanti

We absolutely loved our time at Linyanti. We spent the morning and evening game driving, but the main draw for this camp was the elephants along the riverfront right next to our site. We mainly spent two days watching the elephants roaming right past us to and from the water. And we woke up one night to an elephant snacking on a tree next to our car.

Roads: sandy (but not very deep sand) inside Linyanti gate.

Accommodation: unpowered campsite at Linyanti camp

DAY 19 – Chobe National Park – Linyanti to Khwai

Departed Linayanti: 7.30 am
Arrived Khwai: 3 pm

We were a bit worried about this day since it was a long drive though deep sand, but it went better than we thought. We’d been warned numerous times not to drive the direct route from Linyanti to Savuti which is mapped on Maps.me, but instead to go back the way we came and continue from there to Ghoha gate. The road was deep sand all the way to Ghoha gate in August, but after Ghoha gate it was pretty smooth sailing to Savuti. After Savuti we followed directions to go left at Elephant rock heading towards Mababe gate, for a better chance of seeing animals.

Roads: deep sand from Linyanti until Ghoha gate. Less deep sand until Savuti. Fairly good dirt tracks until Mababe gate. Even better road from Mababe gate to Khwai Development Trust.

Time: 6-7 hours
Kilometers: 160
Accommodation: unpowered campsite at Magotho camp (Khwai Development Trust)

DAY 20 – Khwai

Another awesome campsite. We got a secluded site right next to the river. There is an extensive network of game driving roads around the campground. We went for morning and evening drives both mostly just enjoyed hanging around our campsite.

Another bonus to staying at Magotho is that the campground fee is lower than the governmental campgrounds inside the National Park. And, you really don’t even need to go into the park either to game drive, so no park fees then either:)

Roads: dirt track and some sandy roads.

Accommodation: unpowered campsite at Magotho camp (Khwai Development Trust)

DAY 21 – Khwai to Maun

Departed Khwai: 10 am
Arrived Maun: 2-3 pm

On our last day we went for a final nostalgic game drive and then headed to Maun. It was dirt road all the way to Mawana checkpoint. There we went through another round of tire and shoe disinfecting. The rest of the way to Maun is smoothsailing.

Roads: dirt track and sealed roads

Time: 4-5 hours
Kilometers: 140

Before you go: planning your trip

I hate to even say this, but start planning early! Especially if you’re going in the high season (June to September). We started planning 5-6 months ahead, which is extremely early for us but in fact on the late side. Campgrounds book out, in particular the government campgrounds in Botswana’s Chobe and Moremi/Okavanga Delta. We had to tweak our route a bit to work around campground availability. You have to contact the campgrounds, check availability, and plan your whole itinerary. Rental cars will also book out especially in high season.

When to go

Botswana’s dry season largely overlaps Namibia’s, with May through to October being the best time for wildlife spotting in Botswana and also the best time to travel in the Okavanga Delta.

We planned our trip to run from mid August into early September. It’s high season from June to September, which meant that campground rates were a bit higher and the car cost more. That’s winter time, too, and we thought the weather was just about perfect. It was always sunny with comfortable daytime temperatures. It definitely got chilly at night and in the early morning so bring some warm clothes to layer-up. We asked for an extra blanket for the rooftent and we slept perfectly.

Where to start and end

You’d probably start your trip in Windhoek, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Gaborone, or Maun/Kasane (Botswana). We decided to start in Johannesburg.

In the planning stage we debated if we should head from Johannesburg to Maun (Botswana) first and then to Namibia, or vice versa. Since we were travelling onwards to Zambia after the roadtrip, and also wanted the wildlife in Botswana as a highlight at the end, we decided to go west, to Namibia first. So, we went through the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park to Namibia, and ended the trip in Maun.

For us, this was the right choice. It gave us a chance to get familiar with the car and handling it in different road conditions before really going into the bush in Botswana. We also liked the progression from Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park to Etosha National Park to the absolute safari dream highlight, Chobe (really any part of Botswana fits into the safari dream category).

How many days

We wanted to see most of the highlights in Namibia and Botswana. We also wanted some chill days after lengthy drives and to stay extra days in the parks to get the most out of our game driving. We landed on twenty-one days and it felt like a good amount of time to do what we wanted to do without rushing around.

Two nights in both Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park and Etosha was enough. We’d have spent more time in and around Chobe if more campgrounds had availability.

Camping

We hired a 4×4 with a roof tent. Super comfortable, and took literally minutes to set up or pack up camp. You could also just bring a tent and set up camp on the ground too.

We hired a car that came equipped with everything we needed for cooking, kitchen sink included. We kept the water tank on the car filled and carried charcoal for braaing as well as a gas bottle for the stove. We’re coffee lovers so our Aeropress comes with us everywhere we go. No nescafe here, thanks. We also had our manual water filter with us, plus our Crazy Cap UV filter.

We are also food-and-cooking-lovers, so we planned meals for three to four days and went grocery shopping in the bigger towns. If you’re a meat lover southern Africa is your kind of place.

When it comes to camping on this trip, we were spoiled for choice. You can have it as rough and rustic or as comfy and chill as you like. We tried all sorts of sites, from isolated no-frills bush camping to tidy little camps with open-air kitchens and showers. Sometimes there was a fence between us and the unknown, and other times…not so much. Keep in mind that at unfenced sites, you won’t be able to leave your camp after night – so go to the ablutions block before dark!

We often took powered sites with electricity but you don’t have to. If you’re going to drive all day then plugging in the car isn’t such a huge concern but in cases where we planned to chill out in the campsite we needed to keep an eye on the car battery. Many sites will have a braai – bring charcoal. Those sites will often have a tap in the site or nearby for washing water as well. Our sites in Linyanti and Khwai had nothing – we bought firewood and had our own grill etc to put on top.

It depends what you like but trying a mix of sites with different amenities (or none at all) worked really well for us.

It can be a bit tricky to book campsites, especially in Botswana. Some campgrounds are run by private operators, some by the Botswana Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP). We found Ostrich trails to be a good source of information for campgrounds and contacts details in Botswana.

Our top campsites that we just loved the most were:

1. Magotho. Rustic, remote.
2. Linyanti. The same, plus the river’s edge setting and all the elephants in the site!
3. Ngepi campground. Private, beautiful views, and I won’t lie – the woodfired outdoor bathtub.
4. Etosha Trading Post. Handy to Etosha but way more atmospheric than the ones in the park.
5. Brandburg White Lady Lodge. Beautiful setting, very secluded.
6. Klein Aus Vista. Simple site and the lodge it belongs to has a nice terrace and pool.

Costs

Our daily budget included fuel, accommodation, car rental, and food and drinks. Then there are also things like park fees, occasional road taxes, extra things we did along the way.

• We spent around 20 USD per night on campsites in South Africa, around 28 USD per night in Namibia, and just a bit more than that for campsites in Botswana outside the parks. That’s all based on two people in a site. Inside Botswana’s National parks, expect up to 50 USD per person per night for the popular governmental sites.
• Car rental will vary by season but basically – as a ballpark figure, the best quote we got (and took) was 155 USD per day.

Other essentials

• Visas. A lot of nationalities can travel here visa-free. Check your country’s visa requirements. Make sure you declare in advance if you’re planning to take the car across borders.
• Maps.me is indispensable. In addition to the actual route, a lot of detours and good stops are marked on it as well. Many people consider it better than Tracks4Africa.
• Powerbanks. Keep a full one handy just in case.
• Flashlight. For night time bathroom trips, if nothing else. Which reminds me: toilet paper.
• Some warm clothes for the chilly nights and mornings
• Screenshot or printouts of National park and campsite bookings.
• Money. There are plenty of ATMs in any town, and you can mostly pay by card everywhere. In remote areas it is always handy to have some cash for emergency. Most of our campsites we had to fully pay in advance.
• Sim, WiFi. We had an Airolo eSim for Nambia and Botswana. That worked fine apart from in the bush and rural areas. Most campsites in Namibia have WiFi. Campsites in Chobe will most likely not have WiFi or phone signal.
• Satellite phone. We only used it for a short call to the car agency to arrange the drop off….but then again I’d prefer not to need it anyway. It was good to have ‘just in case’ and cheap anyway.

Maun, and moving on

Eventually it was time to return our home on wheels, and get back on public transport. We were headed for Zambia next, but first took a break to rest up in Maun.

We sat in a Nando’s reliving the trip over chicken dinners…at least, a break from red meat. We slept comfortably in our air-conditioned room, and started making onward plans. But there is definitely something to be said for boerewors on the braai and falling asleep in a roof-tent on a chilly night under the stars, somewhere in Africa.

Read More

Looking for some inspiration? Read this post about the things we saw and did on this roadtrip. And there’s this post, about crossing the border from Botswana to Zambia.

Or check out the Destinations page for stories about our other off-beat adventures all over Africa. For a different type of safari, you can always ride the Tazara train from Zambia to Tanzania.

For more of our adventures (and misadventures) as we travel from Cameroon to Japan, check out the rest of my stories from the road.

The post Self-driving safari in southern Africa: itinerary and planning appeared first on WhirledAway.

Most tour operators run organized tours on set dates. However, if you want something more extensive or a bespoke tour just for yourself and your travel mate(s), and you don’t happen to already know everything there is to know about Turkmenistan, then you might find yourself facing a fair bit of research. That’s what we found, anyway, and we were already on the road at the time so it took a while to figure out exactly what we wanted to see and do, and how to do it. Which is why we’re writing it up now – to save you some trouble.

This post is the nine day itinerary we eventually hammered out with our tour operator’s input and a lot of research. It’s about how we arrived at this plan, what we liked the most, and things we’d change in retrospect. Feel free to copy this itinerary directly and shop it around to your top three or four tour operators and see what they can do. Or borrow a few of the days you like best and use it as a base to kick off your own plans.

Organizing a tour
On the road – our itinerary
What we loved, and some things we’d do differently
Other essentials

If you like bizarre and unusual destinations Turkmenistan’s got a lot to offer. In case you’re wondering what you’ll find along the way, I’ve written another post about the very best of what we saw and did. Check it out here: Travel in Turkmenistan: from a city of marble to the Gates of Hell

Organizing a tour

Independent travel is not allowed in Turkmenistan. The transit visa option is off the table at the moment. Right now, the entire time you’re there you’re under the mandatory supervision of a guide or driver, or both.

When we decided we wanted to go to Turkmenistan, we knew we wanted to see more than just the Gates of Hell and some white marble buildings in Ashgabat. A lot of people do exactly that, in a three-day turnaround. Most, or probably all, tour operators offer this as basically the default. If you want a quick trip to see these highlights and maybe tack on a Silk Road ruin or two, it’s as easy as picking a tour operator and browsing their pre-packaged options. It’s true that the shorter and more standardized your trip, the less it will cost. You can also sign onto group tours for that reason.

Bespoke tours and getting the visa

We wanted a private tour for just us. We wanted to choose our own dates and to see most of the country since we most likely are not returning any time soon.

For this, you’ll need to decide your entry and exit points (land borders or the airport) and dates in advance, and the plan for each and every day. Start planning in advance! It’s kind of boring but necessary: you need to work out your itinerary, choose your tour operator, and submit all the details for the visa application process at least a month ahead of time, in order to actually get the visa by the date you’ve set. The visa application process took four weeks in late November/December. Expect a few more weeks’ processing time in peak months.

When you have your itinerary down, send it to three or four companies and get their quotes back.

After you’ve chosen a quote, you’ll need to pay your deposit and send documentation like passport scans, photos, and so on. The tour operator will take it from there, booking everything and getting your visa application process going. So you are at their mercy when it comes to hotels, drivers and most importantly the guide.

Free-spirited? Forget it

Once your tour operator has submitted the itinerary and your passport details etc. to the Ministry of Culture, there’s no going back. You’ll get the visa (or not) and everything is (almost) set in stone. If you planned to enter or exit by land, you can’t change your mind later on and enter or exit at a different border than you originally picked (and are now approved for). But you can change from a land border entry or exit, to a flight to or from Ashgabat airport, instead.

Arriving by air

If you’re flying in to Turkmenistan, you’re going to need a flight. But first, you’ll want to wait and make sure your visa is approved. If you submit your documentation and get your visa last minute as we did, and you’ll need to book the flight on a dime, to make your tour start date. If you prefer booking flights early, then submit your visa application early.

Is Covid still a thing…?

Possibly, but not really.

At the time we were traveling – December 2023 – Turkmenistan still had mandatory Covid testing at the border. They may or may not do that still. It’s only a rapid test and they barely touch the tip of your nose so it seemed to be a formality.

Guides

It’s not strictly necessary to have a guide, just a driver will do. We opted for the guide anyway hoping to get more in-depth knowledge of Turkmenistan plus a translator when necessary. A guide is also more likely to be less restrictive about letting you roam freely around whenever that’s possible, whereas a driver is more likely to act like a minder and follow the rules to the letter.

When to go

It gets really hot in Turkmenistan in the summer (June-August). The most popular times to go are from March to May and September to November. We went in late November into December and daytime temperatures were just fine (fifteen to twenty degrees Celsius). It was sunny and bright and in fact, the weather was not an issue in the slightest.

Costs

The tour cost should include your transportation, driver, guide (if you want one), accommodation, and breakfasts. The rest of your meals, entry tickets, personal expenses, tips, the visa itself, and arrival tax aren’t included.

You need very little spending money in Turkmenistan. Most of our meals cost between ten and fifteen USD for two people. And were pretty fine. Lots of Turkish food. Entry to sites was almost negligible, like two to six USD for two.

On the road – our itinerary

We mainly traveled around by car but also used night trains and a domestic flight to cover some longer distances.

DAY 1 – Ashgabat / city tour by day and night / hotel in Ashgabat
DAY 2 – Drive from Ashgabat to Nokhur / night train to Turkmenbashy
DAY 3 – Daytrip to Yangykala canyon / flight to Ashgabat / hotel in Ashgabat
DAY 4 – Morning freetime in Ashgabat / daytrip to Darvaza – Gates of Hell / hotel in Ashgabat
DAY 5 – Half-day in Ashgabat / train to Mary / hotel in Mary
DAY 6 – Morning free time in Mary / daytrip to Merv / night train to Kerki
DAY 7 – Driving to Koytendag / sightseeing, free time in Koytendag / lodge in Koytendag
DAY 8 – Dinosaur plateau, goat massage / lodge in Koytendag
DAY 9 – Driving to Turkmenabat / drop-off at Farap border to Uzbekistan

DAY 1 – Ashgabat / city tour by day and night / hotel in Ashgabat

We arrived the night before and got picked up by the first of five drivers we would be acquainted with during our Turkmenistan tour. We stayed at Ak-Altyn hotel in the older Soviet part of town. The hotel was fine with an old Soviet feel to it. Also overpriced but budget accommodation isn’t really a thing there.

After a few hours of sleep the guide and driver picked us up for our daytime tour around the city.

At night Ashgabat is lit up like a circus (circuses were banned there under the first President, as a matter of fact). We went for a night drive to see this extravaganza and were dropped of at Yyldyz Hotel for dinner at Turkmenistan’s most elaborate restaurant which was empty apart from us and one other table. It’s ‘expensive’ by Turkmenistan standards, so in other words not expensive at all, and pretty good. They have Georgian wine and brace yourself, they have partially unrestricted internet so bring your phone, you might be able to get onto Instagram there.

Accommodation: Ak-Altyn hotel

DAY 2 – Drive from Ashgabat to Nokhur / night train to Turkmenbashy

It’s a one and a half hour driver from Ashgabat to Nisa, where you have some Parthian ruins. This site is very close to Ashgabat so it almost definitely is going to crop up on every itinerary. It’s worth a visit with a guide. If you don’t have a guide with you see if the the tour operator can arrange a guide to meet you at Nisa. Without a guide, it will look like a pile of dirt and you can see the exact same kind of thing in Kazakhstan (around Turkestan area for example) – by yourself and for a lot less trouble. We had our guide with us, and he made it interesting.

After Nisa we continued to Kow-Alta, an underground sulfurous lake deep inside a cave. Bring your swimsuit. There are yurts here topside, where you can eat some shaslik (assuming you aren’t coming from somewhere else in Central Asia and already sick to death of shaslik).

We carried on to Nokhur, a small village. There is nothing here, they have some interesting cemeteries and that’s about it. However, we were using Nokhur as a stopover to eat and then catch a night train from the nearby town of Arcman to Turkmenbashy, so it worked in that respect.

If you don’t want to go all the way out east to Turkmenbashy, you can easily combine the sights above on a daytrip from Ashgabat instead.

Time: 7 hours
Kilometers: 250
Accommodation: Night train to Turkmenbashy (7pm to 8am)

DAY 3 – Daytrip to Yangykala canyon / flight to Ashgabat / hotel in Ashgabat

We ate breakfast at Arabica cafe in Turkmenbashy and then picked up snacks in the bazaar. Then we set off to Yangykala canyon. For the time being the government has closed Awaza to foreign tourists, possibly due to too much mocking by Youtubers/Instagrammers. The canyon is beautiful but keep in mind, it’s a long driving day – think five or six hours. We brought lunch and tea.

At night we flew from Turkmenbashy back to Ashgabat.

Time: 9 hours
Kilometers: 340 (Turkmenbashy to Yangykala)
Accommodation: Ak-Altyn

DAY 4 – Morning free time in Ashgabat / daytrip to Darvaza – Gates of Hell / hotel in Ashgabat

We had the morning free to explore Ashgabat on our own. You don’t get a lot of time to yourself in Turkmenistan so enjoy it. We ate lunch at Sha Coffee which is a good cafe.

The guide and driver picked us up and we drove around three hours to Darvaza – the Gates of Hell. If you can time your visit to see the crater in both daylight and in the dark, do it. You can stay overnight in the yurt camp there, but we opted to drive back to Ashgabat.

Time: 9 hours
Kilometers: 555
Accommodation: Ak-Altyn hotel

DAY 5 – Half-day in Ashgabat / train to Mary / hotel in Mary

We spent another free morning in Ashgabat going to the bookstore and walking around the deserted streets. In the afternoon we boarded the train to Mary. Train travel in Turkmenistan is very comfortable. We had 4-bed compartments which we mostly only shared with our guide.

Time: 7 hours
Kilometers: 375
Accommodation: Margush hotel

DAY 6 – Morning free time in Mary / daytrip to Merv / night train to Kerki

We had some free time in Mary on our own, as well, and spent it walking to the main bazaar and trying to avoid being blinded by a marble mosque, the theater and other governmental buildings on the way. There’s good coffee at Aladdin cafe and also – WiFi:) Restricted though.

After lunch we explored Merv for the rest of the day. At night we boarded a train for Kerki.

Time: 9 hours
Kilometers: 450
Accommodation: Night train to Kerki (9pm to 6am)

DAY 7 – Driving to Koytendag / sightseeing, free time in Koytendag / lodge in Koytendag

And then there’s Koytendag, or Turkmenistan in a microcosm. This is a seriously remote part of the country, near to the borders with Uzbekistan and Afghanistan, and you get a little bit of everything that makes Turkmenistan so very Turkmenish. Very few tourists go out this way because it’s pretty far.

On our way to Koyten village we made a stop at Kaynar-baba lake to feed the fish. You can swim there as well (it was December though, so we did not). Our guide also let us loose to stroll around the outskirts of the village, once we reached the lodge.

Time: 4 hours
Kilometers: 175
Accommodation: Koyten guest house

DAY 8 – Dinosaur plateau, goat massage / lodge in Koytendag

We spent the next day exploring the Koyten region. Here you’ve got the Dinosaur plateau – dinosaur footprints, preserved in the rock – and some caves, and the Umbar-dere gorge. In addition to being remote, and rugged, it’s beautiful. It’s interesting, and the Dinosaur plateau is awesome.

We were also insanely lucky enough to catch a local game of Buzkashi, aka Dead Goat Polo. We just stumbled on a match in the desert. Yes, that’s right. Dozens of men on horseback galloping towards us at full-speed, fighting amongst themselves over the carcass of a goat. It’s a thing.

And, in the village there’s an old couple who have trained up their goats as massage therapists. Sort of. It’s worth a stop as it’s definitely a quirky, funny sight.

Accommodation: Koyten guest house

DAY 9 – Driving to Turkmenabat / drop-off at Farap border to Uzbekistan

There’s no spontaneity here when it comes to your exit date. You get out on the exact day your visa says you’re going, at the border you specified on your itinerary. We’d picked the Farap border to Uzbekistan, a day’s drive from Koytendag.

The border crossing is straight forward. Your guide/driver will drop you off at the gate. From there you take a minivan to immigration and get yourself stamped out. Then you can either walk or pick up another ride to the Uzbek side. Once you’re through, on the Uzbek side it’s an hour and a half in a taxi/sharetaxi to Bukhara.

Time: 7 hours
Kilometers: 420

What we loved, and things we’d do differently

We were really happy with our tour, and especially with the amount of time we spent in Turkmenistan. We didn’t feel rushed, and the tour went off smoothly without a hitch. But there’s always room for improvement, and we did find a couple of things we’d drop.

What we loved

First, the stuff we loved.

One word: Koytendag. The Dinosaur plateau is amazing and the surrounding landscape is beautiful. To top it off you can even have a goat massage:) It’s far away from everything and takes time – you might need to tack on an extra day or two to get out there, but for us it was the highlight of our Turkmenistan tour. If time were an issue we’d say drop Turkmenbashy and Yangykala canyon to prioritize Koytendag.

Yyldyz hotel restaurant. It’s not the world’s best restaurant but it’s the best in the country, and in Turkmenistan, that means best in the world. Really, it’s pretty good food, great value, and you have a cool view of (mostly deserted) Ashgabat down below to marvel at while you congratulate yourself on just being in Turkmenistan.

Nisa and Merv. Go to them both or choose one or two max, of Nisa, Merv, and Konye-Urgench. Whichever you choose, get a guide. We went to both Nisa and Merv, and really enjoyed both – this was down to our guide, he was good!

Darvaza – Gates of Hell. Unoriginal, but it is the country’s big draw. Try to see it during daylight and at night. It’s actually not so much the sight itself that is impressive as that the story behind it is just so bizarre.

Free time in Ashgabat. It’s good to have an organized tour of the city so you can learn about it, but try to fit in some free time too, since it’s one of the few places you can wander unsupervised.

Things we’d do differently

And, some things we’d drop.

Homestay dinner in Nokur. Our tour operator sold us on dinner at a homestay in Nokur, which was a total waste. In our experience with homestays in Central Asia, you actually eat dinner with a family in their home. In this case we were served a meal by ourselves in a house which was clearly not anybody’s home. Considering you can eat pretty decent food out for a few dollars, paying 15 USD each for some soup and rice in a sterile empty room, is pointless. There is a restaurant just outside Nokhur, some kind of Wedding Palace I’d call it – see if you can eat there or just bring something with you.

Yangykala canyon. The drive from Turkmenbashy to Yangykala canyon and back is five to six hours long. In our opinion, this was not worth it. The canyon is hugely impressive but a train to Turkmenbashy and then a six hour drive just to look at a landscape, was too much. In retrospect we’d drop this day entirely from the itinerary. If Awaza reopened to foreigners and you could stay there for the night, we’d definitely consider adding it back in. Otherwise, you could ask your tour operator about camping at the canyon if you are determined to go.

So, if we were to drop the things we didn’t love, the itinerary might look like this:

DAY 1 – Ashgabat / city tour by day and night / hotel in Ashgabat
DAY 2 – Daytrip from Ashgabat / Nisa, Kow-Alta and Nokhur / hotel in Ashgabat
DAY 3 – Morning free time in Ashgabat / daytrip to Darvaza – Gates of Hell / hotel in Ashgabat
DAY 4 – Morning flight from Ashgabat to Mary / daytrip to Merv / night train to Kerki
DAY 5 – Driving to Koytendag / sightseeing, free time in Koytendag / lodge in Koytendag
DAY 6 – Dinosaur plateau, goat massage / lodge in Koytendag
DAY 7 – Driving to Turkmenabat / drop-off at Farap border to Uzbekistan

This alternate itinerary means a bit less driving around and train travel. And, it makes the tour a little shorter (and a bit cheaper, yay!).

Other essentials

• Bring USD for your costs in the country. Make sure the notes are newer series, and pristine. Your bank and credit cards are no good in Turkmenistan. Your guide/tour operator will help with changing money for good rates. The black market is highly illegal.
• Bring extra cash for your visa which you’ll pay for on arrival, and arrival taxes as well. The Covid test was supposed to be forty dollars but was free (if they even do it still).
• Internet, phones. Some hotels and restaurants or cafes have (restricted) WiFi. But don’t expect it to be fast. Download stuff you need in advance, and don’t expect to be on your social media. Foreigners can’t get SIM cards.

Read More

Looking for some inspiration? Read this story about all the things we saw and did on our Turkmenistan trip.

If you’re planning some travels throughout Central Asia, take a look at this guide to traveling in the region. Or check out the Destinations page for stories about our other off-beat adventures all over Central Asia.

For more of our adventures (and misadventures) as we travel from Cameroon to Japan, check out the rest of my stories from the road.

The post Planning a tour in Turkmenistan: our 9 day itinerary appeared first on WhirledAway.

We wanted to cross the Panitanki border (near Darjeeling, West Bengal), to the eastern part of Nepal. However, an Indian Immigration Officer informed us that foreigners can exit India and travel to (and I assume enter from) Nepal by road only at the Sonauli (Uttar Pradesh) and Raxaul (Bihar) border crossings. This seemed to stack up with our research, although we couldn’t find a lot of information about it. This is also the kind of thing that can change (and has) at any time, so you never know…

The Sonauli border crossing is straightforward and easy. There are plenty of nice places to explore on the way to Kathmandu like Lumbini, Tansen, and Pokhara – so you don’t have to go straight through to the capital unless you want to (I mean, unless you want to ride a bus forever in one go).

So, if you ever wondered how to cross the Sonauli border between India and Nepal by road, then read on.

Before you go

If you’re crossing the border from the Nepalese side and this is the first time you’re entering India (i.e. you started your trip in Nepal) – then you need the sticker visa for India in your passport, as you can’t activate an Indian e-visa entering by road the first time. If you’re entering India the first time (this trip) with an e-visa, you need to fly.

Or, if you’ve already activated your India e-visa and you’re planning to return there after your time in Nepal, then you obviously need dual/multiple entries for India.

Most countries are eligible for a Nepalese visa on arrival. Do check that your country is eligible to be on the safe side. A fifteen-day visa cost 30 USD, a thirty-day visa cost 50 USD, and a ninety-day visa cost 125 USD.

There are money-changers on both sides of the border. We also saw ATMs on both sides.

The border is open during regular daytime hours. As with any other border-crossing day, just get an early start.

The route

Our route from our last stop in India to our first stop in Nepal went like this: Gorakhpur > Sonauli > the border > Bhairahawa > Lumbini. It took about six hours, including a good bit of time spent waiting around at Immigration on Nepal’s side.

The closest train station to Sonauli is in Gorakhpur. We arrived there from Varanasi and stayed a night. From Gorakhpur you can take a bus to Sonauli, stamp out on the Indian side, and then walk or take a cycle rickshaw to the border. You go through a very casual Indian customs and enter Nepal by walking through a big gate. Once on the Nepalese side, it’s a bit of a walk to the Immigration office.

After the immigration formalities you can take a rickshaw to Bhairahawa, from where you can get onward transport to Lumbini, or to Tansen/Pokhara via Butwal.

Gorakhpur to Sonauli

Public busses run from Gorakhpur bus stand straight to Sonauli. They take around three hours and cost about 150 rupees. We tried to book a bus on Redbus but for some reason it wasn’t possible. Not sure if that was the app or that there are actually no private busses running that route. But just showing up and getting the next bus was painless.

Both share taxi and private taxi drivers approached us around the busses as well, so if you’re in a hurry there is no shortage of options. The share taxis quoted 400 rupees per person and told us it would take two hours to Sonauli.

In Sonauli we changed our leftover Indian rupees to Nepalese rupees. We also had one last Indian dinner (we thought it would be harder to find Indian food in Nepal but we were wrong. There are plenty of dhabas).

Crossing the border

Indian Immigration is right next to the bus station in Sonauli, just six hundred meters from the border. It’s well signed and the cycle rickshaw drivers will for sure let you know where it is. The office is open from 06:00 till 22:00. There were no queues when we arrived. We are running out of passport pages so we asked them to stamp on top of our visa since it was about to expire the next day anyway, and they did.

From Immigration it’s about six hundred meters up the road to the actual border and go through India’s big gate. Indian customs officials will take down your details. They didn’t go through our luggage but a dog kind of sniffed our backpacks.

Immediately before the Nepalese gate, you go into the tourist police office on your right. The officer there will take down your details and tell you to go to the Namaste hotel, which is where Immigration is. It’s another walk, a bit farther into Nepal than we expected. We walked straight there, past Nepal Customs – nobody told us to go there so we just kept on walking to Immigration. Everyone knows where it is and will keep pointing the way – if you think you’ve gone too far, you probably haven’t.

The Immigration office is on your right hand side, and oddly enough does seem to be affiliated with the Namaste hotel and bar. Scan the QR code outside the office and fill out the online form. They have WiFi if you don’t have a SIM (they also sell SIMs nearby). Your filled out visa application comes by email as a PDF.

Just to the left of the office, you show the PDF on your phone at the small bank window and pay for your stay with mint USD bills. Then, you go back to the main office for your visa sticker. Individual travelers and small groups are given priority. Don’t join the queue for large bus tour groups, of which there seemed to be many when we were there.

It’s an easy border. Namaste, Nepal!

Bhairahawa to Lumbini or Tansen

You can pick up a rickshaw to Bhairahawa right outside the Immigration office. Bhairahawa is your main stop for onward transport, unless you want to spend the night in a dusty border town. It’s about a fifteen minute drive and cost around 100 rupees per person.

Tell the driver to drop you off at the bus stop for either Lumbini or Butwal. We took the local bus to Lumbini (the birthplace of the Buddha) and stayed there for the night. That took another forty-five minutes and cost around 80 rupees each.

Alternatively, you can take a local bus to Butwal, and from there connect to Tansen or Pokhara.

Read More

Thinking about doing some trekking once you reach Nepal? Read these posts for advice and inspiration:

Trekking Langtang valley without a guide: itinerary and planning

Onwards and upwards: from India to Nepal

The post How to cross the Sonauli border between India and Nepal appeared first on WhirledAway.

The Wagah border is the only crossing-point open to foreigners to travel by land between Pakistan and India. This post is a guide to travelling from Lahore to Amritsar (or vice versa) across the Wagah border.

Before you go

Get your visas ahead of time: neither India nor Pakistan does visa on arrival. In 2019 Pakistan introduced an e-Visa system. Bring printed copies of your e-Visa grant notice.

If you’ve got the double entry e-Visa for India, your first entry to India on that visa has to be through one of the approved airports – you can’t come by land from a neighboring country. So to cross the Wagah border from Pakistan to India with an e-Visa, you must have already entered India the first time on that visa by air and exited at any border, making Wagah your second entry. If you are overlanding from Europe or Central Asia (as we were) don’t get the e-Visa. Instead, get the regular India Tourist Visa. It costs more and you have to get it from an Embassy/visa service ahead of time, but it lasts longer than the e-Visa, is usually multiple entry, and allows entry by land on first arrival.

There are money changers on the Pak side of the border and ATMs in Atari (the closest village) on the Indian side.

The border is open daily from 10.00 to about 16.00. But due to the famous border-closing ceremony that takes place every afternoon in the stadium purpose-built on the border, you can’t cross after 15.00-15.30. Make sure you arrive well in advance of that. In the winter, the border show and closure is a bit earlier, check before setting off.

You can watch the closing ceremony on either side. Rather than trying to cross first and then watch the show, I’d suggest making a separate trip out of it another day. No bags are allowed at the show.

The route

The route is simple and can be done with a combination of public transport and taxis: Lahore > Wagah border > Amritsar, or the reverse.

You can get from Lahore to Amritsar in about 3-4 hours. The border itself is very straightforward and only takes about an hour, depending on how many people are crossing (probably not too many). Having crossed it 4 times, this guide is from the perspective of my latest trip – from Pakistan to India. If you’re going in the opposite direction it’s basically the same procedure in reverse*.

Lahore to the border

To get from Lahore to the border, book yourself an inDrive or flag a rickshaw in the street. The last couple of times we did this, it cost around 1200 – 1500 PKR.

It takes about 45 minutes to get from Lahore to the first checkpoint near some shops, where your ride will drop you.

*If you’ve just arrived from India, there’s usually some kind of transportation from Pakistan Immigration that will drop you off at the car park on the road out of the border area. Taxis and rickshaws lurk there, and you can take one to Lahore.

Crossing the border

Your ride will drop you off at Pakistan’s first checkpoint. The guards will search male travelers and their luggage there – female travelers, you’ll be pointed to a little building further along where you can go in for a totally cursory pat-down and quick glance at your bag.

Walk up the road about a kilometer towards the stadium. Or, wait in the car park on the right side of the road for a ride to take you. Everybody will try to convince you to take a ride so you don’t have to walk another step: your call.

You’ll be pointed into the big Immigration building. They’ll take your details down at a desk right inside the door. You’ll fill out a departure form, and they might x-ray your bags. Everyone is incredibly friendly, it’s practically delightful to cross this border.

After the bag check you’ll queue up (or when I’ve done it, be the only person) at the desk for the final passport check and stamp.

Then out you go, and walk the last bit to the stadium. Show your passport to the soldier at the gates and go on through. Show your passport to the Indian soldier standing on the other side a few metres away.

Immediately after the gates you’ll exit the stadium to the right and go to a building sort of beside it. They’ll check your passport and your bags and then you wait there for the bus service. It’s free and a very short trip, but mandatory.

The bus takes you to Indian Immigration services. One of the first officers you’ll meet is an ancient Golden Retriever (assuming she is still alive. Update in 2024 – we met a young German Shepherd who’d been training for a year. I hope the Golden has retired). After the dog checks your bags humans will check them again. Fill out the arrival card and go to the desk to get your stamp.

After that you’ll be told to load your bags into the x-ray and wait for Customs. If you wait more than a few minutes and they seem to forget about you: go up to the Customs desk and just ask them to process you. They’ll run your bags through the machine, ask you some questions, and send you on your way.

Walk out of the building towards the parking lot. Taxi drivers will be on you in an instant (this is India, after all).

The border to Amritsar

You can take a taxi straight to Amritsar from the parking lot for about 1600 INR (the prices are sign-posted) or, continue walking right out through a couple of checkpoints to the main road. Look for a taxi there or take a rickshaw to the bus stand in Atari where you can catch a bus to Amritsar. It takes about an hour to get to the city.

*There are a couple of ways to get from Amritsar to the border:

• take a bus from the Amritsar bus stand to Atari. Get a rickshaw the last couple of kms.
• take a seat in a share-taxi from around the Golden Temple area for a couple hundred INR per person. The touts will hassle you constantly about this. It’s a good idea if you are just going to watch the show. If you are going to cross you probably won’t make it in time.
• take your own taxi. Again, the touts will find you – just bargain.

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For more about travelling in these two countries and things to see and do while you’re at it, check out my other posts about Pakistan and India.

I also wrote a story about my experience crossing the border the first time: India to Pakistan: Crossing the Wagah Border.

The post How to cross the Wagah Border between Pakistan and India appeared first on WhirledAway.

From our research (and failed attempt) crossing the Changrabandha border from Bangladesh back to India in March 2024, it turns out that foreigners (other than some SAARC country nationals) can only cross by road between India and Bangladesh at the Petrapole/Benapole border.

So, if you ever wondered how to get from India to Bangladesh and back again by road, then read on.

Before you go

Make sure that your nationality is eligible for the Visa on Arrival in Bangladesh before heading to the border. Furthermore, if you’re planning to get the VOA, you can’t take the train that goes from Kolkata to Dhaka. To do that, you need to get yourself a Bangladesh visa ahead of time.

If you’re planning to return to India, then you obviously need a dual/multiple entry visa for India.

There are plenty of money-changers in Petrapole. All the bus companies and other offices change money: know the rate before you exchange.

There’s a half hour time change between India and Bangladesh. The border is open for crossing during the daytime (it’s not 24/7). As with any other border-crossing day, just get an early start.

The route

The basic route which you can easily do in a day (eight hours) with public transport is Kolkata > Petrapole > Benapole > Khulna, or the same in reverse coming from Bangladesh.

You can get from Kolkata (India) all the way to Dhaka (Bangladesh) in one very long day (twelve hours-ish). You can book a bus all the way through. However this could be risky if you are planning to get a VOA in Bangladesh, since it takes up to an hour extra to process the visa and the bus might leave from the border without you.

Kolkata to Petrapole

Buses leave from Marquis street (close to Sudder street) starting from five am until noon. Green Line, Shyamoli, and Saint Martin bus company offices are close together and all run buses regularly with four departures – you can go the day before to check on exact timings. We didn’t book anything, we just showed up and got tickets. It cost 350 rupees per person.

The bus takes around three and a half hours and goes all the way to within walking distance of the border.

Or, you can take the local train (20 rupees) going from Sealdah railway station to Bangaon Junction. From there, you can jump in a shared rickshaw to Petrapole, about twenty minutes.

In Petrapole where the buses stop you can change money in any bus company office before walking the short distance to immigration. Do make sure to bring some taka (Bangladesh currency) with you, since you’ll need it immediately on the other side.

Crossing the border

When we crossed the border there were no long queues. It took us about one and a half hours to get through, it will just depend on queues that day, VOAs, if the server is down…and so on.

Departing India, the officer asked if we had confirmed with the Bangladesh side that we could get the VOA. We knew our nationalities were eligible so we just said yes. He stamped our passports and we walked through the usual luggage and customs checks.

On Bangladesh’s side there was a bit of waiting around despite it being only us. The visa on arrival costs 51 USD and you should try to pay it exactly – in cash, of course. You’ll have to fill out a short form with the usual basic questions. There are two things they want:

• A hotel booking for some logical destination in Bangladesh. We were just going to write down a hotel name and phone number, but that was not enough. The official demanded a confirmation. Luckily we had contacted a hotel by WhatsApp and asked the rate, and the officer accepted a screenprint of this WhatsApp conversation. Save yourself the bother and bring a printed (or screenprinted) booking confirmation (even if you just make the booking and cancel it right afterwards).
• A return ticket. The officer requested a return flight/bus/train ticket. We had no such thing and just showed him our India visas, which are multiple entry so that’s fine too. If you don’t have an India visa, then I’d assume you better have proof of onward travel somewhere else.

After the visa formalities we went to the regular passport counter to get stamped, and then walked out of the building with a quick baggage check on the way. Out in the main ‘Arrivals’ area there is a tourist info desk (which has very little info available), and after that, immediately outside, is a very perfunctory customs check.

Too easy! Welcome to Bangladesh!

Benapole to Dhaka (or Khulna)

Right out the door and people started accosting us for buses and taxis. Just head out into the busy street and to the left, you find bus companies with plenty of destinations and departures available. There are tons of buses parked across the road from the company counters. The trip from Benapole to Dhaka takes about six to seven hours.

Driving through Benapole we saw ATMs and hotels and guesthouses you could stay at if you want to break up the journey.

Rather than heading straight to Dhaka, we went from the border to Khulna. That bus took about three hours and cost 300 taka. For us this worked really well – it’s closer and makes for a shorter day. Khulna is nice, and relatively lowkey. From Khulna, we eventually took a launch (riverboat) to Dhaka and that makes a great trip and I think an easier arrival into Dhaka (or Bangladesh, in general).

Coming back – Bangladesh to India

If this is the first time you’re entering India (i.e. you started your trip in Bangladesh) – then you need the sticker visa for India in your passport as you can’t activate the Indian e-visa entering by road the first time. If you’re entering India the first time (this trip) with an e-visa, you need to fly.

It took us twelve hours to travel back to India, from Dhaka to Kolkata. We took a bus from Dhaka’s Gabtoli bus station to Navaron. That trip took six to seven hours and cost 700 taka. From Navaron you can take a rickshaw or a public bus the last ten kilometers to Benapole. The bus will dump you a couple of kilometers from the border itself so you might need one more rickshaw ride.

From Dhaka there are also night busses going directly to Kolkata from Arambagh bus counter. Those take about twelve hours including the border itself.

Processing the border was pretty quick on both sides, apart from long queues at Indian immigration. We got through around five pm and out into the street in Petrapole. None of the bus companies were running to Kolkata. However, local trains run from nearby Bangaon Junction to Sealdah station (Kolkata). First you take a shared rickshaw from Petrapole to Bangaon Junction for fifty rupees per person, about twenty minutes. Straight inside the station you can buy a ticket for twenty rupees and board the train. It’s about two and a half hours to Sealdah.

How NOT to cross the Changrabandha border

From our research (and failed attempt) crossing the Changrabandha border from Bangladesh back to India in March 2024, it seems that foreigners (other than some SAARC country nationals) can cross by road between India and Bangladesh only at the Petrapole/Benapole border.

So don’t be like us and travel all the way north from Rangpur to Changrabandha, only to get turned back. The Bangladesh officers did let us go as far as the BSF immigration post to pester reconfirm with a disgruntled officer on India’s side. It doesn’t matter if you have the sticker visa (or activated e-visa) with dual or multiple entry for India – this border is closed to foreigners no matter what. Our Bangladesh e-Sim ran out of data and we were also out of taka. The only silver lining in all this was that we were close enough to India at this point that my Indian sim started working and we could get online and start our alternate plans.

In case you happen to be there already (I hope not for your sake), night buses run to Dhaka. We spent twelve hours overnight on the bus to Dhaka and then carried on in the morning from Gabtoli station, to Benapole.

One last thing…

There’s a tiny little stadium in the middle of the Petrapole/Benapole border, you’ll walk right through it in either direction. Apparently they do a ‘Beating a retreat’ border closing show here, like they do at the Attari/Wagah border between India and Pakistan. I assume it’s on a much smaller scale since we were in the vicinity around closing time and did not hear any exuberant screaming and chanting ‘Hindustan Zindabad!’ like you get at the Wagah border show. But if I happened to be on either side for the night I’d definitely check that out.

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For more about travelling in these two countries and things to see and do while you’re at it, check out my stories about Bangladesh and India.

The post How to cross the Petrapole/Benapole border between India and Bangladesh appeared first on WhirledAway.

This post is about our experience taking the overnight ferry from South Korea (Busan) to Japan (Fukuoka).

Before you go

You most likely do not need a visa for either of these countries (check that, according to your nationality). After travelling for so long we were running low on passport pages. If you’re in the same situation no worries, on arrival they only add a tiny sticker to your dwindling space.

On an overnight ferry, the trip is about eight and a half hours long, not counting additional time for checking in, waiting, dis/embarking, and so on.

They might search your luggage when you arrive in Japan. So don’t be carrying fruit, meat, or things like that.

There is a cafeteria onboard which wasn’t selling meals when we sailed. The tuck shop sold snack-type stuff and instant ramen, and beverages (beer). There are microwaves and drinking water dispensers, hot water too. We are very wary of any sort of public transport at this point (one too many trips spent either starving or nibbling on stale biscuits) so we had food with us.

Have an eSim like Airalo already downloaded and ready to go.

Seoul to Busan

You can get to Busan in two and a half hours with the high speed train link from Seoul.

We didn’t want to go right away, so we took the high speed train to Pohang. That’s also two and a half hours. There we changed to a local train to Gyeongju. That’s a nice town to spend a day in, and we stayed a couple of nights just to visit some tombs around town. Not incredibly interesting, if I’m being honest, but since this is Korea we’re talking about, we also had some delicious dinners there and that’s reason enough.

From Gyeongju we caught a bus to Busan, that takes one hour. Then we stayed a night in the Haeundae beach area – also heaving with good food opportunities.

Get your ferry tickets

Try to book the ferry tickets online ahead of time to be on the safe side. We tried just a few days in advance and everything was ‘sold out’ – but actually, not really. When we went to the port offices in Busan in person, there was plenty of availability.

Tickets are sold at a whole slew of offices on the second floor at Busan Port International Passenger Terminal. To get to the terminal, take the metro to Choryang station (fifty minutes from Haeundae). Then walk fifteen minutes to the huge terminal building.

There are several ferry companies. New Camellia and Queen Beetle leave for Fukuoka. Pan Star goes to Osaka and Tsushima. Nina goes to Tsushima. Pukwan goes to Shimonoseki.

We booked tickets to Fukuoka with New Camellia, since they were the only office that was open at the time. Also we weren’t hugely worried about where we ended up, as long as it was in Japan.

We sprung for a first class cabin for two people which was quite nice with a window, two bunks and a bathroom. Even a shower, not that we bothered. It’s not an expensive way to travel – our tickets cost a bit less than 100 USD each (278 000 won for two). You can also get a first class cabin for four people (not sure if as a solo traveler, you could book a single bunk in a shared cabin for yourself). Economy class is big open rooms with sleeping mats in rows along the sides. If you’re a solo traveller that looked like a perfectly fine and comfortable option if you don’t want to buy your own cabin.

Departure, and onboard the ferry

To get to the ferry terminal in Busan, take the metro to Choryang station (fifty minutes from Haeundae), and then walk fifteen minutes to the huge terminal building.

On the day of travel you have to come back early to check in and pick up your boarding card well before boarding actually starts. In our case, we had to check in before 16:00, with our ferry not scheduled to depart at 23.00.

Next we cleared customs in the same building, and then we waited around two and a half hours before all passengers were there and allowed to board the vessel. We boarded around 19.30 and the ferry left around 23:00.

We didn’t mind all the waiting around onboard. As you board you go straight to reception, show your boarding cards, and get your room number and key. So we went to our cabin and made ourselves at home.

Then we wandered around the vessel.

We saw the Economy class dorm-style rooms which looked clean and comfortable (especially in comparison with say, sleeper class on an Indian train). We checked out the cafeteria and the lounge areas where a lot of people were heating up noodles or cracking open a beer.

Since the ferry travels between South Korea and Japan you have the opportunity to get squeaky-clean: there’s a sento (communal bathhouse) onboard.

Of course there’s a games room in case you want to win some plastic junk to add to your backpack, and, ta-dah! Karaoke rooms!

Arriving in Japan

The ferry arrived in Hakata Port International Terminal in Fukuoka around 07:30 the next morning. It’s about an 8.5 hour long trip, not counting checking in and waiting time. There’s no rush to get off the vessel if you want to eat something or wait for the crowds to thin at the exit.

Arriving at the ferry port is like arriving at an airport. Just join the queue for passport control and away you go!

Fukuoka to Nagasaki

There’s a tourist information desk at the Hakata ferry terminal. You can get some amount of help here with local city transport around Fukuoka.

From out front of the ferry terminal building, we took a taxi to the Hakata bus terminal. At the bus terminal we got a bus to Nagasaki which took around two hours.

There’s also a bus from the ferry terminal to the centre of town.

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For more of our adventures (and misadventures) as we travel from Cameroon to Japan, check out the rest of my stories from the road.

We’ve crossed a lot of borders by all sorts of random transport. Have a look at our travel guides and border crossing reports for strange stories and sage advice.

The post Taking the ferry from South Korea (Busan) to Japan (Fukuoka) appeared first on WhirledAway.

But enough about that. First, how did we get from Cameroon to Gabon?

We didn’t find a lot of information about traveling by road from Cameroon to Gabon. But the few reports we read all mentioned a ‘man with glasses’ throwing his weight around at the border. So I’m giving him a mention here, too, although we didn’t end up encountering him when we crossed the Kye-Ossi border from Cameroon to Gabon. Actually we were kind of disappointed about that. Since we spent about a week in Yaoundé sorting out our onward visas, we had a lot of time to speculate about his antics and started looking forward to meeting him IRL.

We also came across a story where an officer swept up a dead bat and threw it at a traveler. But that was at a whole other border so we weren’t worried about him.

The Kye-Ossi border crossing is not an adventurous one but it is not straightforward either. You have to string together a lot of transport and there are tons of checkpoints on the way, particularly on Gabon’s side. Anyway, if you’re heading onwards from Gabon to Republic of Congo via Ndende, plenty of adventure awaits you on that border crossing and you can read about that here.

There are two crossings between Cameroon and Gabon very close together: Woleu Ntem and Kye-Ossi. As far as we know, Kye-Ossi is more convenient and you can find more onward transport on Gabon’s side. So that’s the one we went for.

This post is about our experience crossing from Cameroon (Kye-Ossi) to Gabon (Bitam).

Before you go

You most likely will need a visa for both these countries (check that, according to your nationality). Keep in mind that visa policies around here tend to change, and so do the places and ways you can get them.

Since we started our trip in Cameroon, we needed to get that visa before leaving home. We confirmed everything with our local Embassy and a few days later were on the brink of mailing in the applications and our passports, when they changed the policy and an introduced an e-Visa. The e-Visa portal actually worked, but it was insanely expensive and (at the time anyway) the only way to apply.

We picked up our visas for Gabon in Yaoundé, Cameroon. At the time, it was unclear but it seemed nationals of G20 countries didn’t need a visa. That changed also, shortly after we left Gabon – there was a coup (and that’s a whole other issue). All this to say, I don’t know who does or doesn’t require a visa at the moment.

Either way, we weren’t visa-free so off we went to the Gabon Embassy in Yaoundé. Getting the visa there was really efficient, issued on the spot. They had a camera so we didn’t need to bring passport photos. It cost 75 USD each.

There are money-changers in Kye-Ossi and some right on Gabon’s side of the border, so you can change money on the way. You should definitely be carrying cash (USD) to change as needed since ATMs can be scarce outside big cities.

Bring a lot of copies of your passport. You will have to hand these over at every checkpoint, particularly in Gabon.

At Gabon immigration you’ll have to present at least one hotel reservation, and it should be a real one because there is a good chance they’ll call to confirm it. We made a booking at Benedicta hotel in Bitam. They also asked about bookings for Libreville. As all of us traveling on public transport know, booking ahead can be tricky since you never really know when you’ll actually get there (if at all, tbh). Plus, Libreville’s hotels that you find online are notoriously expensive. So make sure your booking is cancellable. As for Bitam, I don’t think you can even reach any hotels there ahead of time besides Benedicta, which is expensive but will take (cancellable) bookings over email. Print your reservations out before leaving Yaoundé or Ebolowa.

Bring your yellow fever certificate, they ask to see it entering Gabon.

The border is open during day time hours. Get going early.

The route

Our route, on public transport, went like this: Yaoundé  > Ebolowa > Ambam > Kye-Ossi (border) > Bitam

With a very early start you can probably get all the way from Yaoundé to Bitam in a day. If that sounds intense, and it does to me, you can go to Ebolowa first and stay the night there.

From Ebolowa you carry on to Ambam by minibus and then in Ambam, get a taxi to Kye-Ossi.

In Kye-Ossi you’ll do the exit formalities for Cameroon and then get your ride to drop you at the border which is just on the edge of town.

You’ll walk across the border and enter Gabon. On that side of the border, you can pick up a share taxi to Bitam. You get your passport stamped once you’re in town.

From Ebolowa to Bitam took us almost six hours. This is including waiting around on passport-stuff, and for rides – mainly on Gabon’s side.

Yaoundé to Ambam via Ebolowa (Cameroon)

We wanted to break up the journey from Yaoundé to Ambam, so we took a bus to Ebolowa and spent the night there.

Buses for Ebolowa leave from the Mvan area in southern Yaoundé . There are several bus offices. Get your taxi driver to drop you at one signed for Ebolowa. It takes around two and a half hours.

We stayed at Ndancy hotel. Ebolowa does not have heaps to offer but it’s nice to walk around and we ate big plates of Ndole and plantains, and liked it just fine.

The next morning we caught a minibus from the bus station in Ebolowa to Ambam, which takes around one and a half hours.

If you want to go directly from Yaoundé to Ambam, there are most likely shared taxis going from Mvan straight through to Ambam early in the morning.

Ambam to Kye-Ossi (Cameroon)

In Amban the minibus dropped us in the street where there was a share taxi waiting. We got in and it dropped us off in Kye-Ossi, about a thirty minute drive.

The border is a couple of kilometers away from Kye-Ossi itself, so from there we needed yet another ride. No worries, our helpful driver opened the trunk and hoisted our luggage into the next cab before we’d even got out of the first one.

The next taxi took us to the immigration office in Kye-Ossi, where we got stamped out of Cameroon. The office is a two story building and the guy with the stamp was on the second floor. We tried a few doors before we found the correct office – there were no signs and no people around.

Finished with that, we got back in the same taxi and it was just a short ride to the border where the driver left us at a small office. The Cameroonian officers registered all our details there. Get used to this, btw – it never stops.

The border

From the registration point in Cameroon you walk around five hundred meters across a bridge, over the river that divides Cameroon and Gabon.

The first stop is the Health tent where you show your yellow fever certificate. After that it’s another short walk to a tiny immigration office. You wait there for a while. This is where there is apparently a decent chance of meeting the Man with Glasses, if you’re (un)lucky. He’s known to work at both the crossings nearby here, and likes to create a lot of drama by calling the hotels you’ve booked to confirm and hoping to trap you in a lie. But he wasn’t there that day and we got a friendly young officer who asked for our hotel reservations and registered us.

They do not stamp your passport at the border but give you a ‘Fiche de passage’, which you will need to present at the police office in Bitam. Take good care of this document.

After the immigration office it’s just a short walk to the tiny border village/bar.

The border to Bitam (Gabon)

After you exit the border there are a couple of little restaurant shacks on your right hand side. Here you find the shared taxis going to Bitam, and probably a money-changer or two.

We waited in the restaurant for about a half hour for our fellow passengers to finish drinking before we set off. It’s only thirty kilometers from the border to Bitam but it will take longer than you expect due to checkpoints – we counted five or six during the short ride. At the checkpoints you show your passport and your Fiche de passage which you should keep in pristine condition. You’ll also need to hand out a copy of your passport at every stop.

In Bitam the shared taxi dropped us close to the Brigade Gendarmerie. We went inside and showed our fiche and passports to a lot of staff who seemed angry we’d come, and eventually I took our passports into an office in the back where an even angrier officer stamped them.

In Bitam we stayed at Hotel des Voyageurs, which was clean and reasonably priced. The owner was very nice and helpful with information about bus tickets to Libreville. He sent his security guard to walk with us to the bus station in the early morning while it was still dark out.

The next day we took the bus to Libreville. Get tickets beforehand and show up early. It takes about twelve hours mainly thanks to a staggering number of police checkpoints where everyone has to show their ID. You might have to hand out passport copies here, too.

In Libreville we actually stayed at the bus station we arrived at – the bus company runs a hotel on the premises. While that would normally sound like a terrifying less-than-salubrious prospect, in this case it was pretty fine. The upstairs rooms along the back were somewhat grim (the ceiling was noisily infested with something or other) but the downstairs ones were fine. It was convenient, cheap, and there’s a good Lebanese restaurant just up the road. It’s also walkable to the ferry port.

From Libreville we took the high-speed ferry to Port Gentil and then got stranded there waiting for a riverboat to Lambaréné, as I mentioned at the start of this post. But we got there eventually and that’s all that matters, right?

Read More

For more of our adventures (and misadventures) as we travel from Cameroon to Japan, check out the rest of my stories from the road.

Moving on from Gabon to Republic of the Congo? You guessed it…we’ve got you covered.

We’ve crossed a lot of borders by all sorts of random transport. Have a look at our border crossing reports and travel guides for strange stories and sage advice.

The post Crossing the border from Cameroon (Kye-Ossi) to Gabon (Bitam) appeared first on WhirledAway.