A car journey of a life time by two guys leaving their wives behind for several months to achieve an ambition to explore other cultures while travelling from London to Sydney.
Hi, Two of us are undertaking a London to Sydney by car (a hillman hunter of 1968 vintage) challenge departing UK on 28 Mar 2010. We are both up for a challenge in the autumn of our lives to explore Europe, Asia and teh Far East ending up in Australia and we reckon the trip will take us about 3 months to complete. We will be leaving Europe to travel through Turkey, which is when I think the journey starts getting interesting. What are the issues getting visas and carnets to travel in Iran?
Could someone tell me if it is possible to negotiate Pakistan from Iran travelling by car? And then from Pakistan into India? From India we are considering two alternatives: one to go through Nepal into Tibet and China to drive round to Laos but we are aware that this could be a highly expensive route becaue of the restrictions put onto lone foreign visitors driving their own vehicle through China, so the other option we are wondering about is whether or not we could drive down through India to a sea port on the south eastern coast of India and arrange to have ourselves and car ferried across to either Thailand or Malaysia. Could anyone throw light on this possible means of avoiding China? Could someone also confirm that it is possible to ferry the car across from Penang to Sumatra? I understand that there are local agents and contacts that would be able to help us. We want to then catch a ferry across to Sumatra to island hop to East Timor where we would then ferry across to Darwin some how. I believe Perkins is a shipping company who might be able to help us in this latter journey. Could someone confirm this? It would be great to hear from someone who could give advice on our possible routes. We would also love to hear from anyone of like minds that would be doing a similar journey at a similar time to ourselves so we could consider sharing the China option, to get into Laos and on to Thailand.
Bazza64
Reply to this Hello Barry 😊
Could someone tell me if it is possible to negotiate Pakistan from Iran travelling by car?
I have a couple of friends who travelled from India to Germany on a motorbike, via Pakistan, Iran, Turkey..., so it used to be possible at least. This was 2 years ago.
I dont know how the political situation in Pakistan will affect this. It seems pretty bad there. Maybe somebody can suggest a relatively safe route, if there is one.
That is an amazing trip you have planned, though. I want to travel overland from Europe to SE Asia when I finally have enough time, but I am not so sure I would ever be brave enough to do it in my own vehicle.
Mel
Reply to this Hey Bazza - has the Hillman Hunter got something to do with the London to Sydney car rally of about 1968? It was the winner right?
Reply to this Yes, 'cause we were going into the 40th anniversary event planned to start last Nov until the Aus's put their foot down as they couldn't handle 50 cars flying into Darwin to complete the rally. We had already starting preparing the car as a replica of the 1968 event so have continued to finish making a replica of the original winning car and now connected with the idea of doing the trip ourselves on our own. China seems to be the big issue at the moment. Anyone leaving from Nepal to Laos around May time?
Bazza
Reply to this Seems to me you've overcome the biggest hurdle, and thats breaking free of your normal lives and going for it!
How did you manage it? Jobs, lives and wives...
Reply to this All three!! No, when you get to our age and we are doing this as a way of promoting and raising funds for the man disease that kills around 10,00 of us blokes each year, and we have worked for over 40 years, it is time to realise that dream. This is it. Wives lives and jobs must be put on hold!
Bazza
Reply to this Hi Bazza
Great trip and a great cause!
I can't give you the answers you seek but there are travel companies that do the overland trips, such as Ozbuz, Uktooz, Odysseyoverland to name 3. Maybe they would help you with some of your questions?
Just a thought!
Regards and good luck
Wayne
Reply to this I can imagine going through Tibet into China will be all but impossible. We are planning to go to China via Tibet from Nepal (Not by car) and it's far from simple.
Reply to this Thanks for the info. It is not simple nor cheap so we are now going to do a sea trip from SE India acros to Thailand or Malaysia with the car to continue our trip. Any thoughts about a shipping company that can do this? I have the name of an Australian shipping company that might be able to help us so figures crossed.
Bazza
Reply to this Ok Bazza, this is it, 22hours to go before the off, so make use of this page as we all need to know what you are up to. First stop Ace Cafe and then France here you come. Good luck and keep us up dated.
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