So after having gone to Europe the past couple of years I am looking for something a little bigger and more rugged then the backpack/hostelling thing. I have been looking into this for about 2 weeks now but the amount of info I need is absurd and am just looking for anyone with first hand experience to help me out. I am planning on doing the trip sometime next year.
The trip I am planning (and yes, I know this sounds rather daunting) is to fly to London, purchase a used Land Rover Discovery (Defender would be better but not sure how realistic that is), have it modified in London as needed and then take it all the way down to Cape Town, SA and back to London. What I am looking for is anyone with experience travelling in Africa (particularly overland travel), anyone with experience with overland travel (and properly equipping a vehicle) in general and anyone that can comment (with facts, not hearsay) on the ability for one to travel by vehicle VIA western Africa.
Any help or advice would be great, looking for firsthand experience for the most part as I have already searched the internet fives ways from Sunday.
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"Man, so long as he remains free, has no more constant and agonizing anxiety than to find, as quickly as possible, someone to worship."
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"Man, so long as he remains free, has no more constant and agonizing anxiety than to find, as quickly as possible, someone to worship."
That would certainly help pay for it! But no, I did not. $20k or less is what I am hoping for.
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"Man, so long as he remains free, has no more constant and agonizing anxiety than to find, as quickly as possible, someone to worship."
I am actually a member on that forum and have been following that thread, crazy stuff! I dont quite want to get to that level of trying to journey through the middle of the DRC on dirt paths, that is a bit over my head. From my understanding there is a "highway" or at least somekind of road system that stretches from Cape Town to Cairo with only a few stretches of unpaved road which seems to be the most logical way to come back. What I want to do is head south VIA Burkina Faso, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon..etc and get to SA that way. Problem is I cant find much on the road system on that side of the continent and with that being mostly former french colonies over there, communication might also be a major issue.
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"Man, so long as he remains free, has no more constant and agonizing anxiety than to find, as quickly as possible, someone to worship."
The long way down was a great show. I'd highly recommend it if you're thinking of doing this.
Hmmm never heard of it, will look it up for sure. Thanks guys!
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"Man, so long as he remains free, has no more constant and agonizing anxiety than to find, as quickly as possible, someone to worship."
I've been to S. Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Zambia. Best advice i can give you is avoid Zimbabwe if at all possible. We crossed into and out of Zimbabwe 4 times and was hassled each time by the border guards. Money, personal items, passports were confiscated. Your tag about getting murdered is not out of the realm of possibility
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Have you seen Long Way Down? John o' Groats to Cape Town. I know Charley and Ewan had issues traveling through one country to another and there many months of planning before hand. It may have had more to do with their entourage they had. Instead of a LR, you should look into a Toyota or a Bike.
Edit: Ahhh beaten to the LWD...
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Last edited by GreatWhiteEbola; 12-08-2010 at 02:10 PM.
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I've been to S. Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Zambia. Best advice i can give you is avoid Zimbabwe if at all possible. We crossed into and out of Zimbabwe 4 times and was hassled each time by the border guards. Money, personal items, passports were confiscated. Your tag about getting murdered is not out of the realm of possibility
I have read that same thing now 3-4 times about Zimbabwe, safe to say that is a place I will avoid at all costs, thanks for the tip.
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"Man, so long as he remains free, has no more constant and agonizing anxiety than to find, as quickly as possible, someone to worship."
Have you seen Long Way Down? John o' Groats to Cape Town. I know Charlie and Ewan had issues traveling through one country to another and there many months of planning before hand. It may have had more to do with their entourage they had. Instead of a LR, you should look into a Toyota or a Bike.
Edit: Ahhh beaten to the LWD...
Hey buddy!
A Landcruiser would be great, but you have to pay a kings ransom to get one. A Toyota Hilux would also work well but again, they're pretty rare and fairly expensive. A bike I have ruled out for a few reasons, road conditions, lack of storage ability and no place to camp. I want to rig up the LR with a roof tent so I can sleep off the ground, and wherever I want.
The main reason I have focused in on LR's is because of how cheap you can get them in England and how many shops in the London area that can do the mods.
__________________
"Man, so long as he remains free, has no more constant and agonizing anxiety than to find, as quickly as possible, someone to worship."
I've been to S. Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Zambia. Best advice i can give you is avoid Zimbabwe if at all possible. We crossed into and out of Zimbabwe 4 times and was hassled each time by the border guards. Money, personal items, passports were confiscated. Your tag about getting murdered is not out of the realm of possibility
what were you there for?
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"With a coach and a player, sometimes there's just so much respect there that it's boils over"
-Taylor Hall
I am actually a member on that forum and have been following that thread, crazy stuff! I dont quite want to get to that level of trying to journey through the middle of the DRC on dirt paths, that is a bit over my head. From my understanding there is a "highway" or at least somekind of road system that stretches from Cape Town to Cairo with only a few stretches of unpaved road which seems to be the most logical way to come back. What I want to do is head south VIA Burkina Faso, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon..etc and get to SA that way. Problem is I cant find much on the road system on that side of the continent and with that being mostly former french colonies over there, communication might also be a major issue.
I backpacked Africa Cape Town to Kigali a couple years ago, and I think the #1 issue you'll face is the roads are in terrible shape, even (especially?) major national highways. They are riddled with potholes and limit speeds often to like 30km/hour, and it's constant weaving around potholes for hours and hours. I did not see one nice bit of 'highway' in the dozen+ countries I was in outside South Africa, and I'm sure I traveled the major routes (ie capitol to capitol).
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Planning Massive Trip - Need Help!
