.: vehicle related

This is a good site to compare various vehicles before you purchase one for your journey. It details various options and weighs up the pros & cons.

Whites Auto has been the garage in charge of Bokkie since we bought her in 2004. Andy (who runs the place) is an incredibly skillful, friendly, helpful and genuinely well priced mechanic. His business specialises in Land Rovers and he is based right in the centre of Edinburgh. I would recommend Whites Auto to anyone anyday!

Simon at the Waxworks runs a small business treating the chassis and underside of all cars. Waxoyl is a rust resistant coating that is sprayed on to destroy existing rust and corrosion and prevent more appearing. As far as I could tell, the Waxworks is the only business specialising in Waxoyl treatment outside of London. Highly recommended to keep your Land Rover from getting eaten away by the wet salty British roads.

Stevenson college is where we did our mechanics course, learning the basics of roadside vehicle maintenence. They offer a 10 week advanced vehicle maintenance course, covering all parts of the engine as well as suspension, brakes, gearboxes and pretty much anything else you need to know. We found this course to be extremely informative and useful! Rob Irvine, who lectured, it is a very knowledgable mechanic and skilled teacher.

.: research

The Foreign & Commonwealth Office provides useful travel advice for each country in the world. They suggest specific places that should be avoided and also provide interesting and useful statistics for every country. We found that our insurers would not insure us for any region that the FCO specifically advises against travel to.

The RAC is the only UK organisation that will arrange a Carnet de Passage for overland vehicles. Paul Gowen is the man in charge and is very helpful when you phone him. Don't bother with e-mails though... he must get hundreds per day!

The South African Department of Home Affairs gives a great overview of which countries require visas for South African passport holders.

The South African High Commission is in London, just off Trafalgar Square. Passports can be renewed at the Commission with prior bookings. You will find all application forms and details on this website. We recommend investing in a maxi passport. It's double the size of regular ones and should be big enough for all those whole page African visas.

Worldata has a fairly relaiable database of fuel costs. We used this and a number of other sources to work out how much the diesel that Bokkie guzzles will cost.

The Edinburgh Travel Clinic gave us advice and did our vaccinations that were required before setting out. They were friendly and are centrally located right near the Commonwealth Pool.

While using a health clinic for this sort of trip is highly recommended, there are still some vaccinations you can get on the NHS. This site provides information on the various diseases and vaccinations.
Well worth it when you consider how much all the vaccinations add up to.

.: other similar journeys

Research into other peoples' experiences helped us a lot with what to and not to do when in certain areas.

.: other useful links

Our travel insurance was through Worldwide Insure. They offered the most comprehensive cover for the best price.

Our church in Edinburgh has been a great help both spiritually and relationally.