Morocco to Ghana Group Overland Tour

Customer Reviews

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  Anonymous

  · February 16th, 2022
  Here is a candid review of the Madventure Trans Africa tour I regrettably joined in the latter part of 2021. My review may appear unbalanced and overwhelmingly negative so before I start on the detail I would like to say that of course there were many positive aspects and highlights on the trip: I travelled through very difficult regions with a wonderful group of (mostly) grounded travellers, many of whom I plan to keep in contact with; I saw many incredible sights and countries; I met vibrant, friendly locals along the way; I encountered distinctive wildlife and scenic landscapes; and most importantly, I was able to travel quite freely in the time of a global pandemic/COVID. I am an experienced traveller and understand that with the world in the grips of a global pandemic there will be many challenges and aggravations. However, I feel strongly that many of the issues brought to light in my lengthy review (sorry) in fact had little to do with COVID and more to do with the operations and priorities of Madventure themselves. My review is not intended to discourage others from travelling with Madventure. I do not deny that many passengers in the past have had terrific, positive journeys with them. Unfortunately, I was not one of them. My intention with this review is to comment on my personal experience and offer a critical perspective of the things that did not go well on the trip that I was a part of. Border closures and re-routing: Several land borders, in particular the Ghana borders, had been closed since the beginning of the pandemic (nearing 2 years). These border closures were first communicated to our group by the Ghanian embassy in Dakar some 5 weeks into the trip. We were firmly refused both a tourist visa and passage for the vehicle. These long-standing land and sea border closures were later confirmed through a quick and simple search on various consular websites and other web sources. Indeed, Ghana’s official web-site clearly stated that “Ghana’s land and sea borders have been closed to passenger traffic since restrictions were first introduced at the start of the pandemic.” It was made clear to us that there was no prospect of this changing in the foreseeable future. The borders had been closed for 18 months prior to the trip being confirmed by Madventure. Whether they were aware or unaware of this fact remains uncertain; however, either explanation is equally troubling. If Madventure was unaware of these border closures, it doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence in them as an experienced company providing a professional tour service (or “transport service” as they bizarrely claimed to be in documentation sent to us all after we had paid up and flown out to join the truck). In fact, such “unawareness” would seem to me to demonstrate negligence and incompetence. Being unaware simply isn’t an excuse. Any reputable tour/transport service is duty bound to do their due diligence in any region in which they operate in order to ensure the safety and security of everyone involved - never mind the success and smooth running of their trips. On the other hand, if Madventure were aware of these long term border closures, and knowingly sent their customers on this journey anyway, then this would seem to indicate that they were more concerned about taking money from customers (which, you need to be clear about, is absolutely not refundable under any circumstances ever according to their terms and conditions) and would therefore be indicative of a selfish, profit-driven company that cares for nothing more than its bottom line. Once the closures had been discovered, the tour driver dragged the group around numerous Ghana embassies, in numerous countries, trying to find one that would issue visas and permits, but with no joy. Indeed, the situation became even more eye-opening when every embassy pointed out that Ghanian visas could only be applied for in your home country and therefore should have been secured by all travellers prior to departure. Again, if this is the case why did Madventure specifically advise everyone on the trip in writing not to apply for any visas before leaving home? Is this yet another example of lack of experience in this region? Once all other avenues had been exhausted, the driver was instructed by his bosses at Madventure to drive to the Ghanian border anyway – with no visas, no vehicle permits and no PCR tests, in order to ‘test our luck.’ As expected, entry into Ghana was refused and another day was wasted. When pressed for a response on all of this, Madventure replied: “Even without COVID there are problems every year on this trip, problems are simply part of every single West Africa Overland tour, Africa can be unpredictable at the best of times. Our website also explains fully that you should expect problems and be prepared to take alternative routes in the event of any problems such as border closures etc. Everyone who signs up for any of our Africa tours has to agree to all this.” As well as being somewhat patronising, this response appeared to me to suggest that Madventure were attempting to shift the onus of blame from their own lack of planning, knowledge and experience onto their paying customers – suggesting that anyone who complained was simply not ‘up to it.’ Madventure’s proposed solution to these closed borders was to detour through Burkina Faso, a country rife with internal conflict and extremist violence. They claimed: “Neither [our driver] nor we would make any rash decisions and we would not take you into a dangerous area if we thought there was a significant safety risk. The southern Burkina Faso route is deemed safe which is why we suggested that as an alternative route should Ghana not let you in.” With a multitude of reputable agencies declaring Burkina Faso unfit for travel/tourism, and especially unfit for overland travel, I cannot understand from which source Madventure were supposing the route was deemed safe by. Instead, their intention to re-route the truck through that country, putting their driver and paying customers at risk, seemed more to do with a lack of any other option. From my perspective, this proposed detour left everyone involved with an impossible decision: put themselves at risk by journeying with the truck through Burkina Faso, or incur substantial costs to fly over Ghana and pay for their own food and accommodation for 2-3 weeks whilst waiting to meet the truck at an unknown location on an unknown date. Madventure were not proposing to cover any of these costs nor even refund any money for the time the passengers were away from the truck. It comes as no surprise that, despite a price tag in the hundreds, three quarters of the passengers chose not to travel through Burkina Faso, swallowing the exorbitant costs, with only a handful (4 in total) of less experienced, less travelled and budget constrained passengers choosing to stay with the truck. In the event, the truck managed to pass through Burkina Faso without any unduly violent incidents but was then stranded in no-man’s land between Burkina Faso and Togo for 8 days as they had again attempted to enter through closed borders at Togo with no permit. With no way to buy food, obtain water and very little in terms of toilet facilities, one passenger had a break down and had to be watched by the border police in order to keep her on the bus and stop her from violently lashing out at other passengers. Communication and coordination: Communication from anyone at Madventure was sparse. At the time of our trip, both owners of the company were taking part in another exploratory trip (heralded as a success, but rumblings from passengers on the ground indicated otherwise). Therefore regional information or budgetary/re-routing approvals coming from the owners were immensely delayed. This left our driver in a difficult position as he couldn’t make any decisions nor follow any course of action without their express approval. Text messages and emails were left without reply for days and hence delays started to mount up. The knowledge and information communicated from the company with regard to security of the countries visited was minimal, if not irresponsibly inaccurate. When questioned about decisions made, the owners became defensive, demonstrating a lack of care/concern for the health and safety of the passengers. Passengers were told that they were simply creating a fuss, or complaining for the sake of complaining, if they expressed valid concerns for their safety. The owners constantly twisted their own terms and conditions throughout our trip to shirk responsibility for things that went wrong and to avoid a potential payout to travellers. No matter the issues faced by, or the reasons for the failure of, any trip, the owners stand firm in that no refunds will be issued for any unused portions of the trip. Madventure regularly maintain this position and respond with a disregard towards any customer who complains, attempting to railroad them into submission by accusing them of not being of the right calibre to ‘cope’ with overland travel. However, I have heard from other upset customers that once threatened with legal action there is an extensive documented history of Madventure refunding passengers – presumably because their terms and conditions are so draconian as to be unenforceable in court, and they know this. Camping and paid accommodations: I understand full well that this was a budget/no frills trip, but the accommodations ultimately provided were absolutely bottom of the barrel. The quality of accommodation truly left me wondering where the kitty money was going. Many of the formal campsites were dreadful. We were faced with toilets so disgusting it made you wretch, non existent shower facilities, camping on ground shared with rubbish tips, lack of security with thefts from tents, noise and light all night making it impossible to sleep. We even had one campsite which was plagued with flocks of birds spraying so much bird poop all over the tents that some become unusable. Almost all campsites were crammed into towns and cities with no space. Most of the bush camps were ok – not exactly remote or pretty, but ok. Apart from the one that had a pile of dirty diapers in the middle of it and the two which where we were crammed in on someone’s front garden because the driver could find nowhere else to stop for the night - apparently Madventure had not provided him with any guidance on campsites anywhere in that country. Paid accommodations were few and far between. Even when the itinerary explicitly indicated paid accommodations in the form of a hotel or hostel, the driver often had to bush camp instead – often, he said, to save money. Kitty money and food: As advertised, there was a ‘local payment’ to be used for meal shopping, accommodation, public transport and park entrance fees, among other things. We all paid this in cash on the day of departure. No accounting of the kitty money was ever provided, at any point. Of course, on a budget tour, particularly in this region, my expectations were low. But even with lowered expectations, there are minimum standards of nourishment that should be met, but were not. Understandably, this was generally due to a lack of availability in many of the countries. Fresh vegetables were plentiful at first, but as we moved further forwards we were increasingly reliant on the small amount of canned and dried goods provided by Madventure at the start of the trip. A number of these goods were significantly out-of-date and were clearly left over from historic trips. With a lack of fresh ingredients, prepared meals became barely edible. One meal saw the preparation of canned beans soaked in a variety of different out-of-date canned soups and canned stewed tomatoes. Another meal was comprised of roughly twenty onions (and only onions) chopped up and warmed with canned stewed tomatoes. This was served on a bed of pasta. This dish was later termed “onion surprise” and it became a running joke. Does anyone have the recipe? Despite the lack of fresh food, we were often warned by the driver not to ‘overconsume’ the canned goods and cereals as he was instructed by Madventure not to replenish these items when rations became low. Again, this appeared to be a budgetary constraint. Despite knowing that fresh food would become difficult to source (the driver told us this right at the start of the trip, telling us to enjoy it whilst it lasted!) insufficient canned or dried food had been supplied at the start of the trip to last – even counting the out-of-date ones – so options started running low. Eventually the food became of such poor quality and of such small portions that I ultimately fed myself out my own pocket. For what purpose, then, did I pay into a kitty, if not to pay for my meals? According to their marketing literature, Madventure prides itself on eating well: “Eating well is a very important factor on our expeditions and good food is vital for everyone’s health and well-being so we always strive to prepare healthy, wholesome and plentiful meals. Fresh food is generally available daily so we try and eat meat and vegetables for every main evening meal.” This was not at all my experience. Hygiene: On the issue of hygiene, the driver was regularly forced to turn the fridge off to conserve the failing truck battery, especially when we were camped stationary in a location for multiple days. This caused the perishable fridge items to go off, and the fridge to develop a stench that outlasted any cleaning attempts. However, perhaps the most important hygiene issue was that of treating the water supply. Madventure markets itself as a leader in hygiene: “Cleanliness plays an important role throughout this expedition and your crew will make sure an acceptable level of general hygiene is maintained throughout your journey to ensure the wellbeing of the group… We usually carry 500 litres of treated drinking water…” I can personally verify that the driver did NOT treat the truck water supply on a regular basis. Clean/sanitary water sources with which to replenish the truck supply became an issue as we travelled south. In one country, the truck water supply was replenished from a semi-stagnant river. Using jerry cans, we transported the water to the truck. In those jerry cans there was a mixture of mud, bottom plants and even a live fish. After having witnessed the driver’s failure to treat the water supply on more than one occasion, I firmly refused to drink from the truck water supply or consume anything that relied on water from the truck that was not brought to the boil (e.g. milk). However, there was nothing I could do about the fact that all the plates, bowls, cutlery and cooking utensils were washed in this same water – often in wash bowls which were not changed throughout an evening and so contained cold, dirty, black water with bits of food floating in it by the time we came to wash our plates after eating. At no point did anyone from the Madventure ‘crew’ do anything about this. This practice is unhygienic, unacceptable and puts everyone’s health at risk. Indeed many of the group suffered with persistent stomach problems after just a few weeks into the trip. Tour operations and decision-making: Whether through a budget-cutting decision, or de-prioritization of the African tour, both Madventure owners chose to lead an exploratory tour together in the Middle East at the same time as our Trans Africa trip, but did not hire anyone else to act as tour leader for us. We were therefore left in the hands of just one representative of Madventure, the driver. Whilst he was a very good driver, he did not have the leadership or organisational skills required of a tour leader and inevitably struggled to lead a tour as complex and challenging as this one through West Africa – known to be the toughest region through which to overland – entirely on his own. Indeed, many of the group expressed great sympathy for the driver who we felt had been put (and left) in an impossible position. Sadly, due to the pressures he was facing with no support, the driver was forced to rely on members of the group to assist him and this caused a huge number of problems. Some members of the group with more travel and organisational experience initially tried to step in and help, however they all had to give up eventually due to the rather strident (and often unstable) personality of one person who insisted on trying to do everything, but sadly did not have the experience or skills to do so properly. As others backed away, preferring not to get dragged into conflict, she became increasingly relied upon by the driver and was protected and enabled by him despite causing untold issues with visas and other official documentation as well as being a disruptive influence amongst the group generally. Rather than stepping in to resolve the issue and support the driver properly, the owners of Madventure appeared to have no interest at all in the safe and smooth running of the tour but instead allowed a toxic and unhelpful atmosphere to fester. Even when this woman became physically violent and assaulted a more elderly, and very gentle, member of the group she was allowed to remain on the trip with not even a warning. Indeed, the more the other passengers tried to hold meetings to discuss the problem, particularly when her behaviour started impacting everyone both financially and in terms of delays, the more the driver and the Madventure owners blamed everyone else for causing issues. The other passengers came to the conclusion that she was being protected and treated to preferential treatment because it suited Madventure to have her running around doing the administrative work for the driver without payment, as it saved them from having to admit that they needed to hire a tour leader. Organisation of visas: The main issue here appeared to be that the trip was designed at a point in time when all the visas for the whole trip from Morocco to South Africa could be secured in Rabat, the capital of Morocco, at the very beginning of the trip. Indeed, the driver told us all that this was the case. When this changed a few years ago, and visas needed to be secured elsewhere, it is my opinion that Madventure should have reviewed the trip itinerary and carefully planned when and where visas would now be applied for, allowing more time throughout the trip to do so without impacting other activities. However, they did not do this and instead have chosen to take the easier route of leaving the itinerary as it was, and trying to squeeze in visa applications where and when they can. This approach has failed. From Senegal onwards the entire trip was dominated by getting from one city to the next in order to secure visas for upcoming countries. Activities such as waterfalls, national parks etc. were missed out on as, day after day, the group sat on the truck or waited in cities to get the paperwork sorted out. By the time we reached Freetown everyone was well fed-up and it just got worse the further on we went. Furthermore, Madventure does not appear to be maintaining a current knowledge or understanding of the visa process as it changes over time. Examples of this are: 1) The Nigerian visas should ideally be applied for from your home country prior to departure. Failing this, a tourist visa can be applied for from a country bordering Nigeria (Benin on this trip) or a more expensive business visa can be applied for at the border (or applied and paid for online and collected at the border). Furthermore, a visa applied for outside of your home country is only issued with the validity of 30 days. I am not highly experienced in travelling through West Africa, as Madventure claim to be, however I know all this as I have been told by at least three different Nigerian embassies along the trip and it is on the Nigerian embassy website! Madventure, however, instructed the driver to have us all apply for our Nigerian visas in Dakar, some 3 months prior to entering Nigeria. We duly did so, spent a lot of money on them and were delayed in Dakar for 5 days waiting for them to come through. When they finally arrived they were valid for 30 days. When challenged, the embassy said they could only issue visas for 30 days. Nevertheless, the driver was again instructed to have us all apply for new visas in Freetown, 5-6 weeks prior to entering Nigeria. Most (but not all) of the group followed their instructions, paid even more money and were delayed for another 5 days in Freetown waiting for them to be issued. When they finally arrived they were issued with a validity of 30 days…..who would have predicted that? Probably the four members of the group who refused to apply for them as they had lost confidence in Madventure and were faced with intense criticism from Madventure for that decision! Rather than apply for a third set of visas, the entire trip was then accelerated in order to reach the Nigerian border before the visas expired. Consequently, most of the Liberia and Cote D´Ivoire itinerary and activities were lost, along with all of the Ghana, Togo and Benin itineraries. 2) I have already mentioned above the sorry story of the truck and 4 passengers being stranded in no man’s land between Burkina Faso and Togo for 8 days as the relevant paperwork was not obtained before stamping out of Burkina Faso. 3) Madventure were not aware that the Mauritania, Cote D´Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, and Benin borders were all closed. Through pure luck the passengers themselves found out about all of these, albeit very late in the day, just before reaching each border – with no help or guidance from Madventure. Eventually, in Nigeria, some lessons were being learned and the driver looked ahead to find that the Cameroon and Gabon borders were also closed. Only then did he start to plan how to either secure the relevant paperwork or, as far as the Cameroon border was concerned, find a remote border crossing which could be passed with bribes but with no official stamp into the country! It took 9 days of bush camping, with no showers or toilets, to reach that border crossing and needless to say the itinerary and any sightseeing were again dispensed with. Overall impression: Madventure appear to value money and profit over the experience, enjoyment and well-being of their customers. Once money has been paid over they absolutely refuse to give any refunds however badly they have behaved or how little due diligence they have done prior to the trip being run – unless they are taken to court, in which case they know their position is indefensible and they pay up. The comparison between their marketing and the experience they provide is irreconcilable, often laughably so. You should expect poor hygiene, poor food and poor accommodation. You should also not expect any consistency or fairness in their treatment of individuals on a trip, rather the treatment you get will be directly proportional to how useful they perceive you to be to them. The published marketing itinerary is meaningless. They will simply drive you from A to B as quickly and cheaply as they can – if there is time for some sightseeing on the way then great, otherwise the poorly designed and out-of-date itinerary allows little time for anything other than applying for visas and driving from one border crossing to the next. It seems such a shame, and an incredible waste of an opportunity, to have gotten as far as West Africa only to find myself shuttled from one embassy or border crossing to the next and only able to see each country through the windows of a large, badly maintained and somewhat unreliable truck. Will I partake in overland travel again? Certainly I will, but not with Madventure. Happy travelling!
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  Madventure commented on this review

  Dear 'Anonymous', This is William, Director of Madventure ltd. We are sorry to hear you did not enjoy your tour with us. West Africa is the toughest overland trip out there and it is not suitable for everyone. The added complication of covid has made... Show more
  Trip date: September 2021
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  John

  · April 9th, 2012
  This was an amazing trip. You get to experience...
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  Trip date: May 2007