RTW-touring & working

[Evergreen]

Hey there,

so I'm planning to ride around the world on a bike; first leg (South America) done, next up is Africa. The idea is to ride around the whole continent following the coast - Morocco to Morocco via South Africa, basically.

Took me 1,5 years to ride South America because a)small bike - a Chinese 150cc; b)money - ran out somewhere in Argentina, had to find a job and continue a few months later.

Now South America is easy - no need to get visas in advance, the whole continent speaks one (easy to learn) language, folks are friendly, dead easy to find a job, work a bit and carry on. Africa seems a bit trickier - most countries require all sorts of fancy stuff like carnet de passage, you have to get your visas in advance, limited stay in pretty much every country, a bunch of different languages; and I find myself wondering if finding a temp job (say,teaching English, working in a hostel reception etc) in Nigeria or Somalia is as easy as in Peru or Chile?..

Does anyone have any experience of travelling & working, especially in Africa?

When I came back from South America I figured I'd just work here in England for some 2-3 years, save some $$$ and then go, but it's driving me mad to be stuck like this and the only other alternative I see is just go and find work somewhere on the way.

Thoughts?

[R1stu]

I hear that Somalia has a roaring trading for sea fairer if you can drive a speed boat well and fast

On a serious note, from watching LWD/LWR and similar programs and Rod on here, Africa is a PITA for just getting into the country, let alone working there.

Personal safety be my 1st issue.
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Current bike 1991 Honda ST1100 Pan European, 1986 Honda cb350sg (Finished)

[mrbox]

I would suggest searching HUBB for the answer
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Current bikes: RE Himalayan, Bandit 12, MZ250ES

[Snowdonia Rider]

Around South America on a Chinese bike? When money runs out you find a job and work until you can move on?

WHAT A BLOKE!

Fair play to you, at least when you're old and you look back at your life you can say "I did that".

In one of the bike mags recently ( can't remember which one, possibly 'Ride') there was a monthly feature about riding through Africa on (I think it was) a TTR250. The jist of it was that riding through Africa was a PITA and a bit scary, although epic at the same time. Personally if it were me I'd have many many contingency plans!

Africa seems to be more dodgy than usual these days, can't you ride another continent and after that, see if Africa has gotten better?!
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I want your clothes, your boots and your motorcycle.
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[Evergreen]

[Undinist]

I would recommend working on superyachts. I had a shitty temp job on one, painting in the engine room while the boat crossed the Atlantic, but I learned a lot about the lives of the permanent crew - they get an incredible deal, and there always lots of vacancies because the staff turnover is high. You could easily spend several years doing 6 months work then 6 months travelling. Compared to other travellers you'd have lots of money to burn. It's hard work. And whatever your job is - deck hand, steward, engineer - about three quarters will be cleaning. The basic idea is that the boat must always be as spotless and shiny as it was when the owner bought it. It's stupid and pointless really. But it suits some people very well.

[Snowdonia Rider]

[Undinist]

[TheDonUK]

Where can I find/Apply for these superyacht jobs?

Evergreen, I think it's obviously going to be more difficult to work as you go in Africa as compared to South America. I don't know what kind of money you are making back home but it's got to be an order of magnitude more than you would on the road no?

My theory on this is and has been it makes more sense to get paid 80-100 quid a day at home than to work for room and board abroad. You just have to suck up the boring bit of being at home.

Am in Peru now and while not as cheap as Bolivia you can still live comfortably for 10 quid a day including a private room and eating out... South America FTW!

Africa just does not appeal to me for most of the reasons mentioned. But that said once I finish this to California/Canada/Alaska I suppose it is the next logical destination when I invariably get itchy feet again...
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[Current Bikes - GSXR-750 K5 & C90-97 ] [Previous Bikes: Runner 125, YBR 125, GS500, Bandit 600, Hornet 600, ZX6R-99, C90-99, R1-99, XT600E-04, GSXR-750 K4, CRF250L '16]

[Evergreen]

I'd appreciate info on those yacht jobs as well!

Don-yes, I'd make more money working here than in some remote farm in Zimbabwe for sure, but the point is, working in the UK and saving=wasting lots of time sat at a desk in front of a computer which I absolutely hate; working in a farm in Zimbabwe=significantly less $$$, but you're on the road/some exotic place. I too survived on 10, in fact usually much less than 10 quid a day in South America (lots of wild camping/cooking own food etc), so I don't need much but as I want to travel for at least 2-3 years or more that's still a lot of money.

As for Africa being unsafe/rough, I guess that's just individual perceptions/media influence and levels of comfort. I'm perfectly fine on sand/gravel/mud roads, camping, and cooking my own food; as for safety, I know at least one other female solo rider who's currently in Uganda and says she's having the time of her life. So that's that. Some folks need five star hotels, fancy meals and tour guides - and that's of course fine too, but...saying 'Africa is scary and unsafe and rough' without even having been there just doesn't make a lot of sense.

Don-yeah, you do get itchy feet pretty soon:) I'm going nuts being stuck in the matrix-hence the idea to get out asap and just sort of wing it along the way.

[linuxyeti]

[c-m]

[Evergreen]

Can you get from Morocco to the south without flying over certain countries?

I don't see why not? Tons of people do just that every year, and turns out most even do it without the carnet or getting the visas in advance which is very reassuring because I can't be bothered with too much planning and paperwork in advance (or rather, I'm just lazy). Most HUBBers say that the DRC, Angola and sometimes Nigeria can be a bit tricky when it comes to getting visas at the borders, but then again if you aim for small border crossings and have loads of time on your hands I'm sure it's ok.

Sure Africa isn't as stable as South America, but again most world travellers will tell you the same: use common sense, ask the locals for advice and you'll be fine. I have zero fear or concerns about my safety in Africa.

C-m: no, I don't have a ride report or blog. But would be happy to have beer and compare notes!

[TheDonUK]

Evergreen, I think you definitely have the right attitude to get it done. I think it's much better to go in time-rich and cash-poor than the other way round, then the inevitable problems and setbacks just aren't such a big issue with time-pressures.

Also I think Africa a solo female is certainly doable, harder than South America for sure, if only for the many different languages (How cool is it that you can speak Spansh from Argentina/Chile to the United Stated!)

In Santiago I met a 70 year old lady, Linda Bick who had bought a YBR125 and did a little 3 month tour around Chile, Peru and Bolivia. And back in the 60's or 70's she rode all of Africa, if not solo then with one other female riding buddy.

Also I considered buying a chinese bike for just over 1000 USD, compared to the price of my CRF i could have bought 4, ride one untill it goes fuck, throw it in a ditch and buy a new one lol.

C-M: How did you get on man, last we spoke there were shock problems? Did you get the pleasure of dealing with South American Aduana?
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[Current Bikes - GSXR-750 K5 & C90-97 ] [Previous Bikes: Runner 125, YBR 125, GS500, Bandit 600, Hornet 600, ZX6R-99, C90-99, R1-99, XT600E-04, GSXR-750 K4, CRF250L '16]

[Undinist]

Superyacht jobs - there are masses of them advertised by employment agencies https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=superyacht+jobs+ But they are mostly for people with experience. Getting your first job can be tricky. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. But I was hired 'under the counter' - no employment agency, no training - so I was stiffed with a terrible pay rate - $80 a day or something. But I only had to work 8 hours a day. Sometimes the rest of the crew would do 100+ hours per week. When the owner or guests are aboard, most of the crew have to be available 24/7. Forget about days off or 8 hours of solid sleep.

If I were starting from square one I'd probably read all the advice on the agency sites and maybe call a few of them and try to get them chatting. Then perhaps I'd go to one of the ports which has lots of specialist suppliers for superyachts - maybe Antibes or Fort Lauderdale - and I'd pay to get some basic maritime safety training so I could get whatever certificate is needed. (It's illegal to employ someone who doesn't have a certificate.) Then I'd walk up and down the berths with my CV, maybe hang around in bars in the evening, looking for a captain who would give me a day's trial as a junior steward or deck hand. It wouldn't be hard - the people who get these jobs are very ordinary human beings.

The pay can be huge - the rule of thumb for a captain is $1000 per annum per foot (of the boat's length). So on the boat I was on https://www.charterworld.com/?sub=yacht-charter&charter=yacht-samar-1342 the captain would be getting something in the region of $250,000 per annum. And he banks almost all of it. The jobs all come with free food and accommodation, and you can't spend any money when you're at sea. Even junior crew earning $3,000 - 4,000 per month spend a lot of their free time on the internet on property sites, looking for rental properties to put their cash into. After ten years they can't stand the life in their floating prisons any more, and they go home rich.

The basic jobs for unskilled people are steward (i.e. waiter) or deck hand (i.e. the monkey who ties up the boat.) Both jobs are at least 75% cleaning. Novice deck hands need a basic bit of seamanship. Just knowing how to sail a dinghy would be plenty. Stewards can make a career out of it - chief steward, then purser. On a big boat the purser would get $100,000-ish. Deck hands can do officer training - bosun, first mate, etc. - and end up as captain.

People with relevant specialist skills - masseuse, hairdresser, helicopter pilot - can get full time jobs on the big boats, and their pay and conditions can be very good.

Often the only way to take a holiday is to quit. Staff turnover is huge. Some of the more enlightened owners like to have a permanent crew of people they get along with, so they give you a 3 months on, 3 months off contract, at full pay all year round. But this is only for those who make a career out of it. If your main focus is travelling, you could work for 6 months, save £20,000, travel for a year or two, and repeat. Easy peasy. If I had my time again maybe I'd do it.

[c-m]

Ah cool.

I've considered Africa, but never looked into it deeply. The problem with going the west route is missing out on Ethiopia and Kenya. Though I guess in the west you only have to deal with two language (Spanish and French), until you reach Angola.

One thing I found about Morocco compared to South America is that even in the Sahara in the middle of nowhere people will just appear as if by magic. Can be handy if you have bike problems, but a pain when trying to camp rough.

A friend of mine wants us to ride down Western Sahara later this year, but I don't see the point just for a jolly. If I'm travelling that far I'd rather continue to Dakar or further, but it seems there's no freighter cruises back from Dakar anymore.

[Evergreen]

Don-hahahahaaaa South American aduanas!! sometimes I thought they were specifically designed to drive the gringos mad:) I got it even worse cause I bought the bike in Peru-was held up for 10 days at the Bolivian border trying to sort out all the real and fake documents because apparently Peru and Bolivia have stricter rules about 'importing vehicles'.

On the other hand I also sorta appreciated the chaos-I lost my number plate in Bolivia and thought the Argentinian border folks were going to eat me for lunch, but it turned out nobody cares if you have a Monster sticker instead of a number plate

Undinist, thanks for such detailed info!! Will definitely look into that.

c-m the more I look into Africa the more I'm convinced it's perhaps a bit more difficult than South America, but not by much. I want to ride around the whole continent, so that will include Kenya and Ethiopa. The only annoying thing is I wanted to do Israel eventually too before coming back to Europe, but apparently they won't let you in if you have a Sudanese visa in your passport

Don't know about freighter cruises from Dakar, but once you get that far why not just continue to South Africa and ship from there?

[MCN]

It is all very adventurous to scoot off on a world tour.
Just don't come crying to us when you get stuffed by the popo at almost any North African check point and they have hundreds because there are a lot of thievists down there. As like South East Asia.

I remember a story in a bike mag where a guy set off from home to 'do' North Africa.
I think he was robbed down to his skidders on day three or four and had to get his family to bail him out to get home.

Not saying it can't be done but why?
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Disclaimer: The comments above may be predicted text and not necessarily the opinion of MCN.

[Undinist]

[TheDonUK]

[c-m]

[TCFA]

Not sure if this will help but an old work mates sister toured Africa solo on a drz. I haven't read her blog but it's called clairegoesbikeabout. Might be some tips there / maybe you can contact her?
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