Preparing for the trip
Questions, questions, questions...
Where to go?
When to go?
How long to go for?
What visa's are required?
What jabs do we need?
How much will it cost?
What training do we need?
Where to go?
When to go?
How long to go for?
What visa's are required?
What jabs do we need?
How much will it cost?
What training do we need?
Where to Go?
Initially we wanted to return to Africa to visit new countries and revisit favourite countries spending a bit more time in them. Many of the initial modifications to the Scarlet 4x4 were done with North African deserts in mind, but the majority of these mods still proved their worth on the rough tracks and Silk Road routes we encountered.
We checked out our proposed North and West African route with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office travel advice website, and found that most of the countries we had visited in 2001/2002 were now just too dangerous...
We plotted recent kidnappings and murders of on a Michelin map of the Sahara and stared, dismayed, at the crescent of red pins stretched across our carefully considered route.
Now, you could say that if I plotted all the murders and kidnappings in say, London, then I would never take the train to Euston again? However "domestic" murders encompass a wide range of socio-economic groups, and my plot was of Western tourist casualties, i.e. conspicuous white folk in their even more conspicuous vehicles...
We decided that Africa, regretfully, would have to wait this time, and after sitting down and watching Charlie Boorman's and Ewan McGregor's "Long Way Round" we decided to explore the some of the old Silk Road routes, through the Central Asian "Stans", Russia and Mongolia.
The route has changed quite a bit throughout the planning stages and continued to "evolve" on the road.
We had initially planned to go through Turkey, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, take the ferry across the Caspian Sea and then a transit across Turkmenistan into Kazakhstan.
Although possible, and we met quite a few people who had done and loved this (more difficult) route, we opted for the simpler route through Eastern Europe, Ukraine and Russia.
Timescales, for both entry and length of stay, in many Central Asian countries have been dictated by Visas.
Visa planning and sourcing is potentially the biggest headache for this trip East.
We used Real Russia so sort ours out. It cost a few pounds more, but it was money most definitely well spent.
They sorted the lot, including the GABO permit required in Tajikistan on the Pamir highway.
We applied for visas 2-3 months prior to departure.
This left us free to concentrate on our vehicle prep and squeezing far too much crap into an already heavily loaded vehicle!
When to go?
We left the UK in May 2013 and took a month to travel across Europe.
This was dictated by to some degree by Marks work contracts, but mainly down to our levels of (over) preparation, it was late Mid May before we felt that the vehicle prep was ready enough.
Ideally we would have left a month earlier, but 2013 was a cold spring.
It snowed on the day we drove down to Dover, and our first few North Europe campsites were surprisingly cold!
This was dictated by to some degree by Marks work contracts, but mainly down to our levels of (over) preparation, it was late Mid May before we felt that the vehicle prep was ready enough.
Ideally we would have left a month earlier, but 2013 was a cold spring.
It snowed on the day we drove down to Dover, and our first few North Europe campsites were surprisingly cold!
How long to go for?
We had decided to make this an overland round trip and also complete the drive back to the UK.
As the entire trip is in the Northern Hemisphere, there is winter to consider
(In Africa, our trip South chased milder weather all the way).
This effectively meant that the approaching bad weather ended our trip and we had to be back in the UK by Autumn at the latest. Had we decided to ship the vehicle in a container from Vladivostock, we would have been able to travel further East, but the combined factors of Siberian road conditions and costs of shipping made us decide against it, pretty much from the outset, and reinforced by our 2nd clutch failure in Mongolia. By then we just wanted to get back in one piece!
As it was we had some freezing nights in Mongolia and Siberia in September and October, and wisely purchased additional sleeping bags and blankets in Ulaan Baatar.
Below is a brief timetable of our route.
May Europe including, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Moldova
June Ukraine, Russia and Kazakhstan
July Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan
August Kazakhstan, Russia and Mongolia
September Mongolia and Russia
October Russia and Europe
If you are planning something similar and would like to ask us a question or get some advice please get in touch through the Contact Us page or Facebook.
As the entire trip is in the Northern Hemisphere, there is winter to consider
(In Africa, our trip South chased milder weather all the way).
This effectively meant that the approaching bad weather ended our trip and we had to be back in the UK by Autumn at the latest. Had we decided to ship the vehicle in a container from Vladivostock, we would have been able to travel further East, but the combined factors of Siberian road conditions and costs of shipping made us decide against it, pretty much from the outset, and reinforced by our 2nd clutch failure in Mongolia. By then we just wanted to get back in one piece!
As it was we had some freezing nights in Mongolia and Siberia in September and October, and wisely purchased additional sleeping bags and blankets in Ulaan Baatar.
Below is a brief timetable of our route.
May Europe including, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Moldova
June Ukraine, Russia and Kazakhstan
July Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan
August Kazakhstan, Russia and Mongolia
September Mongolia and Russia
October Russia and Europe
If you are planning something similar and would like to ask us a question or get some advice please get in touch through the Contact Us page or Facebook.
Visas and visa costs
In total we spent about a £1000 on visas. A breakdown of the costs by country will follow (2013 prices)
Costs.
As we were camping and hoping to do a lot of bush camps we budgeted on $50 per person per day, we'll give a more detailed cost breakdown when we've done the sums...