I'm driving from the UK to Cape Town in 2010. Who's coming?

[J_S_G]

I think the title says it all, really. I've done the Plymouth-Dakar before, driven to Timbuktu, done the Silk Road challenge across to Azerbaijan, etc. I wanted something a bit more exciting, so the plan is from Blighty to South Africa.

This should explain what we're talking about: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en...

Details/questions I'd expect:

• Planning on setting off around September 2010 - so there's over a year to get everything planned, affairs in order, etc.
• Likely to take ~90 days. It's feasible in 60-70, but only if you never break down
• I'm not going to make this a £100 car death-rally (done that too often). But I do want it to be challenging, so will probably spend ~£1k on a Discovery that needs a bit of welding, or similar
• Distance is approximately 12,000 miles
• Yes, we can donate the cars to charities in South Africa and not pay customs duty if we sort it in advance (I've already spoken to SA customs about this)
• Yes, you can ship the car back to the UK from South Africa if you really want to. Cost is usually about £400.
• Plan would be camping ~70-80% of the time. I'll probably put some plywood in the back of the 4x4 and make a bed there
• 2 to a car is probably the best way to do it
• No, I'm not going to be suckered into doing *all* the planning and arranging while everybody else gets an easy ride of it - this ISN'T going to be an easy ride full stop; there are some difficult bits regardless (Egypt - Sudan border on that dodgy ferry for instance), and so on. Ideally, it'd be good to get people to pick a country each to do all the legwork in advance for. But yes, I will coordinate all this, and be doing a LOT of the planning.

• Finally, am I serious? Yes. I've had the career break approved by work, etc - deadly serious, but it's only fun if you can get a few cars going.

So, anybody on PH up for this? If you know anybody else who might be - please forward this to them.

One more thing - This isn't so much me looking for a co-driver as finding, ideally, 4-6 other vehicles to convoy with. If more people are up for it, great; plenty of ways of working that.

Cheers all!

-JS

Edited by J_S_G on Wednesday 1st July 03:08

[J_S_G]

TVR Moneypit said:

If your planning on a Disco, feel free to stop by and I'll show you were your most likely to find rust. I'm not an expert on many things, but when it comes to rusty Discoverys, I am.

Your still in Chesterfield aren't you? And I think I sent you my number in a previous email?



Oh, and ps; Your a nutter.

I'm in Cheshire at the moment - just south of Manchester. I've just been switching mail accounts this last couple of months, so I'll have a dig through and see what's shuffled around - might have to take you up on that; nice country drive across if nothing else!

[J_S_G]

TVR Moneypit said:

J_S_G said:

So, anybody on PH up for this?

If you ever decide to drive to China then I / we would be.

This Cape Town one's getting priority for now. Long term, I want to do Cape Town to Cape Horn... driving up through Africa, across via China, Bering Strait, down through the US, Mexico, and Latin America. Get a car shipped to CT to start with and fly out there to begin it.

Might also do the "full" Silk Road run and make it out to China/Mongolia before that, though, for a bit of practice out that way. I'll let you know if we do plan one like that; it's been on the cards a couple of times. I've just got a thing for Africa.

[Trooper2]

I'll go, even If I'm just floatation for the ocean crossings!......

[sinizter]

Really wish I could come.

[mechsympathy]

Having done it I would urge you to spend a bit more time over it. 3 months is plenty of time to do the trip in (IIRC the Cairo-CT record is 13 days!), but means you will be constantly on the go.

On Long Way Down they were constantly moaning that they weren't seeing anything of the places they were travelling through and it seems to me to be a great way to ruin what could be an amazing trip. Yes, you'll have done it but there's more to life.

To put it in perspective on LWD they did 15k in 3 months. We did pretty much the same trip and did 23k in 7 months. We did something like 2k desert in Libya. When are you going to get the opportunity to do that again?

[Mattt]

I've floated the idea with a few friends. I've been meaning to take a break from work - this could give me an end goal!

[vteclimey]

Good luck with the trip.

I grew up on a farm in Zambia and we used to get a lot of overlanders stopping at the farm for a day or two on their way to Cape Town. Its a trip I always wanted to do, but have somehow never managed to organise myself to do it.

[Mattt]

Had any responses back JS? Mine are looking doubtful, but I'm still quite keen.