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.: bokkie

Vehicle Choice

When initially planning this journey, I had no idea what vehicle I would choose or how to even go about the research. However, after discussions with friends and colleagues and many many hours of reading blogs, specs and reviews, I had narrowed the list to two types – the Toyota Land Cruiser and the Land Rover Defender. In the end, both options were so similar that I went with the one that I just think looks better… Land Rover.

My next decision was to choose between petrol and diesel engines. Diesel is marginally more expensive than petrol, but is appears that diesel is more readily available in Africa. There are also many different types and grades of petrol but (generally) diesel is diesel wherever you are in the world. Diesel engines also tend to be less complicated, more fuel efficient and easier to maintain than petrol engines.

So, I was sold on buying a diesel Land Rover, but which model? We have passengers coming along for bits of the journey and therefore require a large amount of packing and seating space. The 110 (long wheel base) provides this extra space over the 90 (short wheel base).

The final decision was how ‘old’ a car I should buy. Bearing in mind that a 100,000 mile old defender is practically a baby, I decided to go for the most recent one my budget could afford. After literally months of trawling through auto-trader and various websites, I found Bokkie for sale on e-Bay. She was a 1995 model, 103,000 mile beauty, which I obviously won the auction for and we had to fly down to the East Midlands to fetch her. We were a bit apprehensive of buying a vehicle on ebay that we would be living in for 4 months and driving through 22 countries in. But the seller assured us that if she wasn't what she was advertised as we didn't have to go through with the purchase. But on seeing her it was love at first sight and in the 3 years that we've been driving her we've not had any major problems... Apart from a slightly bent steering arm after getting stuck in the mud (see our photo album in pre trip photos). But that was mostly self-inflicted as we went down a muddy track to see how far we could drive her on a practically non-existent road.

Modifications

One of the reasons I liked Bokkie so much was because of the number of modifications that had already been completed on her:

      Already fitted

.: vaccinations

We have had to receive a number of vaccinations and preventative medicines leading up to this trip. If you're living in the UK, you're able to claim a few of these free on the NHS. The rest you have to get through a private travel clinic. All prices quoted are indications only and were accurate at the time of writing.


NHS Treatments

We didn't experience any major side effects for the pre-trip vaccinations. After the polio/diptheria/tetanus shot Heather was ready to take on the world with new found energy... she's wishing she could have one of those every week! The first Hep B was pretty painful for Richard, but then not for the second one. And it was the other way around for Heather. After having the last injections (Hep B and Rabies number 3 and Yellow Fever) all at the same time, we both had a bit of stomach upset but only briefly.

.: paperwork

Carnet de Passage

A carnet is required for travel in Africa, the Middle East, Australia/New Zealand, the Far East and is recommended in South America. It is basically a passport for Bokkie, which provides assurance that we will not try to illegally import the Land Rover into any of our destination countries. This allows us to temporarily import the car into countries without paying customs and tax. In order to qualify for a carnet, we need to provide a deposit to the issuing agent (RAC in the UK). The value of this deposit depends on the countries and will be a multiple of the current book value of the car. Egypt is the country which requires the highest deposit at 800%. For this reason alone, many overland travellers try to avoid going to Egypt. In Bokkie’s case, this means we need to have a deposit of around £32,000!

There are two other ways to provide security to RAC other than writing them a cheque (£10,000 max). You can provide a bank guarantee for the sum or you can provide an insurance indemnity. We have chosen to user a combination of providing £10,000 of our own money and getting the rest as an insurance indemnity. The only recognised insurer (RL Davison) charges a 10% premium on the value of the deposit. In our case, this worked out to 10% of £20,000. Only 50% of this is refundable when the completed carnet is returned to RAC at the end of the trip. We would have liked to go for a bank guarantee but the bank will only guarantee money that is actually in your bank account.

The RAC website has application forms and some more useful information about applying for a carnet.


Personal Insurance

There are numerous websites online offering worldwide travel insurance. On average, I have been quoted around £120 per person for four months of comprehensive travel insurance. We went with Worldwide Travel Insurance Services Ltd. They offer comprehensive cover worldwide with the option of having customised repatriation. In our case this means we would be repatriated to South Africa, not back to Britain. There are a few areas where coverage is not offered, which constitute areas which the FCO has advised against all travel (eg Darfur in Sudan).


Car Insurance

Pre-arranged third party insurance is mandatory in European countries and advised in Middle Eastern and African countries. Most British insurers will extend current insurance for a month in Europe. We have existing car insurance with Direct Line and they charged £32 for a green card (European insurance certificate) for one month. When we reach Turkey, a new insurance policy will kick in. Campbell Irvine are about the only UK based insurers who offer worldwide accidental damage, fire and theft insurance. They do not offer third party insurance as this is bought/bribed at borders anyway. Insurance for four months cost us £440.


Drivers Licences

Each passenger will have either a full valid South African or British drivers licence. Along with this, everyone will have an international drivers licence which will be valid for the duration of the trip.


Passports

In preparation for this trip, we have applied for and received ‘maxi’ South African passports. These are full passports and have more pages than regular passports. For a trip of this magnitude we need at least one free page per country for stamps and/or visas.

The application process involved a trip to London after an expensive call to South Africa house (09065-540-799) to book an appointment. All the information on application for a new passport can be found on the consulate's website.


Visas

The daunting prospect of getting permission to travel through 21 countries almost deterred me from planning this trip in the first place. However, on closer inspection, it is not that difficult to travel through Africa on a South African passport and you can get through the majority of Europe on a Schengen visa. In 2008, a number of new countries joined the Schengen agreement and our visas will now cover us all the way to the Romanian border.

I have listed the visa requirements for each of the countries we visit below:

Duplicates

All of the blogs and websites I have read suggest multiple, colour, certified copies of just about everything. We will probably go so far as to create duplicate laminates of our South African drivers licences. We have installed a small safe into the back of the Land Rover and will use this to store a set of copies and the original documentation. A second copy of documentation will be kept elsewhere in the car.

Vehicle Import Documents

In order to import Bokkie into South Africa at the end of our journey, we needed to apply for two crucial documents. An Import Permit can be obtained from the International Trade Administration Commission of South Africa (ITAC) and a Letter of Authority can be obtained from the National Regulator for Compulsory Specification (NRCS). It is advisable to buy the car at least 12 months prior to leaving. South Africa has very strict regulations around importing vehicles into the country. Also, don't buy a left hand drive vehicle, as this cannot be imported into South Africa.

.: kit

This is the comprehensive list of everything else we have had to buy/acquire for the trip: