As you may or may not know the Budapest – Bamako is not a simple Sunday drive in the country. Parts of the road are completed daily by individuals, but as a whole the entire journey is full of risks and dangers. Please take a moment to read some of the potential dangers and evaluate whether you want to take the risk. We don’t want to scare you but the following are potential problems or hazards that you may have to face. Most of them could be avoided, but they probably would never happened if you stayed at home.
- Car accident on a European highway at high speeds
- Imprisonment in Africa for hitting a pedestrian or livestock
- Imprisonment if Africa for other reasons
- Dehydration in the desert
- Irreparable damage to your vehicle far from human populations
- Car accident or injury in the desert or on the savanna far from major populations
- Car accident on a paved road and lack of proper ambulance service
- Poor hospital care in Africa
- Highway robbery, theft in Europe or Africa
- Food poisoning
- Contagious tropical diseases
- Insect born diseases (e.g. Malaria)
- Sun stroke
- Corrupt officials who won’t let you travel until receiving bribes
- Lazy officials who will perform their jobs slowly and thus delaying you
- Corrupt policemen who will want to take money from you because you look rich to them
- Dangerously driving Africans
- Dangerously driving Europeans
- Village idiots who jump in front of your vehicle
- Sand storms
- Landslides
- Poor medical treatment in Africa
- Political volatility
- Coups, rebellions, uprisings
- Fuel shortages
- Road closures and diversions
- Lengthy immigration processing
- Cash shortages and unfavorable exchange rates
- General corruption and shake downs.
Although most of these events took place one way or another during one of our rallies we did not have a serious injury that resulted in a fatality until 2018. In 2018 one of our participants suffered a serious injury on a paved road accident outside of Nouakchott. Our medical team kept him alive and he was evacuated to Germany. Weeks after the rally he was taken off life support based on the wishes of the family.
Property had been stolen in Europe. Cars got crashed. People had been detained by Moroccan, Mauritanian and Malian police for brief periods. Cars got confiscated by Gambian customs. Accidents took place in Africa. Several bones got broken.
Please consider that there are serious risks that can result in the loss of property, bodily damage or even death. You enter the rally at your own risk.