Jump to: Vaccinations | Medicine | Safety | Passports | Visas | Paperwork
Health
Vaccinations
You will definitely need a Yellow Fever vaccination and have the certificate with you at all border crossings. Although not required, you should definitely be vaccinated against:
- Typhoid
- Hepatitis A/B
- Diphtheria
- Tetanus
- Meningitis
- Cholera
- Polio
- Rabies
What you can/should get if you haven’t been sick from it before:
- Measels, Mumps, Rubella (Free in Aus)
- Chickenpox
In general, preventative measures are the best to keep diseases at bay. Always be aware of mosquitoes and keep them away from you. Steer clear of animals and their raw food products in rural areas. Try not to drink the tap water in most of Africa (that means no ice too). Just general common sense should stop you from getting any nasty diseases. Also, be aware of symptoms and receive treatment as soon as possible.
You should carry your vaccine book with you everywhere.
Medicine
Carrying around medicines could cause a problem in some areas and border crossings. However, the benefits of some of these medicines would outweigh any foreseen problems. Below is a list of extra medicine that should be taken in addition to a standard first aid kit:
- Malaria Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT)
- Loperamide (Imodium)
- Constipation Tablets
- Anti-malarial drugs
- Metoclopramide (Maxolon)
For Malaria, the best tablets for us would be Doxycycline. A daily tablet and costs $5 a week. It’s the one that can cause sensitivity to light though. The others are a lot more expensive. But the other main one suggested is Lariam, which is $7.50 a tablet I think.
Safety
Use your common sense in most places and you’ll be fine. Be polite to people in their country. Ask for photographs, respect their culture and religion, etc. Like anywhere in the world, Africa can be dangerous in the wrong areas. If we stay clear of those, we should have no problems and be in no more danger than if we were in Brisbane. However, sometimes we have to travel through regions that are known to be dangerous, and unfortunately we can’t bypass them without going somewhere more dangerous. For these places, we may get a facilitator or an armed escort for a short period. The main places would be the drive from the Ethiopian/Kenya border to the Equator and in Sudan (mainly as a guide across the desert).
There are a few general tips to help stay safer. Never travel at night. That goes for in the car or outside of it. This is more of a fact in certain places than others. Some places you could be attacked by people, in others a lion could attack you. It’s best to just get drunk and stay put at night. Don’t take pictures of government/military building/personnel. In some countries this can carry heavy fines, jail time, or even lashes. The same goes for pornography, even really soft stuff like Ralph or FHM.
Don’t flash around your valuables or expensive equipment. Buy a cheap watch to take with you. If we use GPS or similar in the car, we should have it covered from plain sight. Have cash stashed away safely and try not to carry it on you if possible. Always try and have the right amount of money on you so you don’t need to count out money from a big wad of cash. Be sensible basically.
Passports, Visas, and Paperwork
Passports
In general, you will have to make sure your passport is valid for at least 6 months for entering AND leaving the country. I strongly suggest your passport is valid for a full year at the start of the trip. A lot of countries don’t recognize dual nationalities and it could cause issues in other countries. If you do take two passports, keep one very well hidden while using the other one and always enter and exit a country with the same passport. You cannot have an Israeli stamp in your passport for some of the countries.
Visas
Some visas can be obtained in Australia via registered post. We can send all of our passports together in registered post and get them all done at the same time. Each consulate takes no more than a week to process the visas. Other visas can be bought at the borders of the countries or are not needed. Visas are always bought in USD at the border, obviously in cash. Most visas are for about 3 months. There are no places where our visas would run out before we wanted to leave. However, these visas are nearly always single entry visas. So if you leave, you’ll have to pay again to get a new visa to come back in. The cost for visas will be around $285 in Australia, then about $130USD in total while travelling.
| Country | Consulate Website | Visa Obtain | Visa Costs | Visa Length | Disease Precautions | Other |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tunisia | At border | 3 months | HIV/AIDS | |||
| Lybia | ||||||
| Egypt | www.egypt.org.au | Online form, via mail | $40 | They said length of stay, but it came back with 6 months from | Avian influenza, Filariasis, Malaria, Rift valley fever, HIV/AIDS | |
| Sudan | Letter of invitation from Australian Embassy in Cairo for EGP141. Take to Sudanese Embassy in Cairo to get visa. | $100US | 1 month | Malaria, Rift valley fever, HIV/AIDS | Need paperwork to be allowed to photograph. Can get when we register at Wadi Halfa. Also need permission to film for commercial purposes. | |
| Ethiopia | www.consul.com.au | Online form, via mail | $55 | 3 months | Malaria, Brucellosis, HIV/AIDS | Avoid photos of sensitive things |
| Kenya | www.kenya.asn.au | Online form, via mail | $48 | 3 months | Malaria, Rift valley fever, HIV/AIDS | No government or military photos. Ask permission before taking photos of people. Non-biodegradable plastic bags and smoking in public are banned in Nairobi |
| Tanzania | www.tanzaniaconsul.org | Online form, via mail | $95 | 90 days | Malaria, HIV/AIDS | Photography around military zones, military assets and/or military personnel is prohibited |
| Mozambique | At border (RSA exempt). For our crossing at Negomano, we will need to get our visas at the Mozambique Embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania | $25US | 30 days | Malaria, Rift valley fever, HIV/AIDS | ||
| Malawi | Protocol Branch @ DFAT | Not needed | N/A | 90 days | Malaria, HIV/AIDS | |
| Zambia | At border (RSA exempt) | $50US | Malaria, Rift valley fever, HIV/AIDS | No government or military photos | ||
| Zimbabwe | At border | $55US (RSA exempt) | 3 months | Malaria, Rift valley fever, HIV/AIDS | Fuel shortages | |
| Botswana | www.botswanahighcom.org.au | Not needed | N/A | 90 days | Malaria, HIV/AIDS | |
| South Africa | www.sahc.org.au | Not needed | N/A | 90 days | Malaria, Rift valley fever, HIV/AIDS | |
| Lesotho | Not needed | N/A | 14 days | HIV/AIDS | ||
| Swaziland | Not needed | N/A | 2 months | Malaria, HIV/AIDS | ||
| SUMMARY | In Aus or at the border | $238, $230US, & EGP141 | Malaria, HIV/AIDS, Rift valley fever (mosquitoes), Brucellosis (raw animal products) | Don’t photograph government buildings, don’t have porn (even soft stuff like Ralph), avoid plastic bags, don’t smoke, ask people for photos, be a good guest in general | ||
Paperwork
Have multiple copies of all of your paperwork. This includes, but is not limited too; plane tickets, visas, passport, carnet de passage, yellow fever certificate, immunization booklet, car registration, etc. Copies should be left with someone back in Australia or South Africa, and multiple copies separate from the originals as we travel. In Sudan you need to have authorized paperwork to be allowed to take photos at all. In many countries, any commercial filming will require paperwork authorized by the government and most likely can’t be obtained at the border.
Back to Top
