Can one drive from London to West Africa and how many miles is it?

Answer 1

In theory it should be technically possible by using the Chunnel, driving completely around the Mediterranean, and coming into western Africa from the east side. Political realities mean there's a slight lack of connecting roads in some places... most notably, you can't really get there without going through Israel, which on the map at least looks like it could be difficult.

It's 2714 miles from London to Yayladagi, Turkey, right on the border with Syria. From there it gets difficult... the map indicates that there are roads, but it won't give directions across the border.

Even between points in Syria, it refuses to provide directions... Aleppo to Hamah, two cities that are clearly connected by a major road identified on the map as "5" (the main reason I picked those two) produces the result "We could not calculate directions", and from that point onward, getting it to cross borders is sometimes problematic even when it happily gives directions within the countries on either side and when it looks like there are actually roads (Egypt/Libya, in particular; I can get directions from cities in Libya all the way to Marrakesh, and between any two cities in Egypt, but it doesn't like crossing that border).

It looks like Yayladagi would be, roughly speaking, the halfway point in driving from London to Marrakesh (you didn't say where in West Africa) meaning the total trip would be on the high side of 5000 miles if you could make it.

If by "drive" you include "a ferry trip of about an hour", you could do a lot better by driving to south Spain... say, Tarifa, a bit under 1500 miles... and crossing to say Tanger, Algeria, about 25 miles away, by ferry. At that point you'd be in west Africa already.