Has this been done before? I searched a bit here and at other sites, and haven't been able to find anyone who's done it. I'm sure *someone* has and I'm just bad at searching, and I'd like to do it a few years from now with a friend of mine. I see that many have done London to Sydney (and on to Auckland) and also London to Cape Town, so, in theory, if all other routes fail, that one must be doable, right? I guess one of my main questions here is, should we go along the west coast or the east coast of Africa? Are any border crossings (and overland travel in general) along either of those routes problematic? If we go the east coast route, I think I want to go across Europe, Ukraine, bits of Russia and Kazakhstan (if this is possible), but I'm not sure what direction we'd go from there. If we go the east Africa route, I'm afraid of lots of border troubles in and around the *stans, in particular if the route takes us through Israel. Any advice there?
How much time do you think it would take to do this? Also, we'd like to purchase a vehicle in SA at the start of the trip and sell it at the end. Any recommendations on vehicles? Is this even possible? Are there countries where international driving permits are not recognized?
Reply to this Hi Bryan, there are heaps of people who have done similar routes to that which your planning, I would suggest checking out
Alex and Sarah, they started in Kenya went through Asia to Australia, also
Jabe has just finished travelling through Africa and
LuBarnham did a really interesting trip down the West Coast of Africa.
My brother is about to do this on a motorbike the other way, starting in Australia and heading through Asia. I think he plans to go through Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Syria and Jordan as China has strict carnet rules (at least this is what he has said). I think you'll have a lot less trouble on the East African coast than the west side and it tends to be more travelled than the west.
Reply to this I guess one of my main questions here is, should we go along the west coast or the east coast of Africa? Are any border crossings (and overland travel in general) along either of those routes problematic? If we go the east coast route, I think I want to go across Europe, Ukraine, bits of Russia and Kazakhstan (if this is possible), but I'm not sure what direction we'd go from there. If we go the east Africa route, I'm afraid of lots of border troubles in and around the *stans, in particular.
Olivia
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. I think he plans to go through Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Syria and Jordan as China has strict carnet rules I want to go across Europe, Ukraine, bits of Russia and Kazakhstan (if this is possible), but I'm not sure what direction we'd go from there.
Reply to this We have done most of the trip you are talking about Bryan although in different bits. We have just travelled mainly down the east coast of Africa. We did that on a truck but came across plenty of people doing it in their own vehicles both ways. It was pretty straightforward for us. No problems with borders although we were normally in a group for Africa and that probably helped.
On another trip a few years ago we travelled from St Petersburg through some of Russia, down to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and then up into Kyrgystan. No problem there at the borders but we did have to spend some time reading books in one of the crossings until the officer decided to deal with our documents. We had obtained all of the visas before we arrived although I understand that some people just deal with that at the borders. We were turned back at the China border, but that was due to SARS rather than any other problem.
With trouble in Pakistan it may not be possible to come over the Karakoram Highway and, in any case, it is closed at the moment due to a landslide on the Pakistan side I understand. There is a road and railway from China into Vietnam that is possible to cross if you wanted to go that way.
It is possible to buy pretty good 4WD vehicles in South Africa. We investigated this for a possible return journey. There are apparently also hire companies that do a deal on one way hires for 4WDs through Africa. You would be able to find them on the net.
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