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I quit my job, bought an army truck, and spent 19 months circumnavigating Africa

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Re: I quit my job, bought an army truck, and spent 19 months circumnavigating Africa

#21

Post by overcast »

codeduck wrote: post #6
overcast wrote: post #3

I envy this sense of adventure, but a lot of Africa is such a volatile place. The countries there are consistently in the top 20 most dangerous places to visit, and placed on do not go lists. Definitely takes a special person to deal with all of that, on top of all of the obstacles they ran into. Looks like they could have avoided most of the transportation issues, by investing in a true land rover type vehicle, inst…

An old truck is a vastly more practical vehicle in Africa than a landrover - LRs need a lot of maintenance, whereas trucks generally just keep going. The only major mechanical issue they had was caused by dirty diesel, and if they'd had some sort of pre-filtration setup they could have probably avoided this. Their major issues were simply down to the weight of the vehicle and poor route selection.

So all of those national geographic shows I see, where they are tearing through the jungle in land rover type vehicles, they should trade it in for a giant military diesel?

Re: I quit my job, bought an army truck, and spent 19 months circumnavigating Africa

#22

Post by overcast »

point78 wrote: post #14
overcast wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I will agree the media like to blow a lot of things out of proportion. But you can not deny Africa has some serious problems that outsiders just aren't exposed to in any form daily. I'm glad you had a positive experience, but downplaying things has the opposite effect.

With your methid of thinking the US should never be visited because of Detroit, Baltimore and Chicago.

To quote Jules from Pulp Fiction.

"ain't the same fuckin' ballpark, it ain't the same league, it ain't even the same fuckin' sport."

Re: I quit my job, bought an army truck, and spent 19 months circumnavigating Africa

#23

Post by donquichotte »

estefan wrote: post #11
donquichotte wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With this type of adventure, you can get your cost down to maybe 5-10k/year if you travel light (bicycle, motorbike) and camp out a lot. Source: Quit my job and rode a motorbike from Central Europe to Mongolia. One of the best decisions I've ever made.

What sort of bike did you take? A shitty 600CC that was knackered to start with, or did you go for a BMW tourer a la Long Way Round?

KLR 650, it is pretty heavy in the mud but easy to work on. Many adventure bikers start taking light, modern, powerful fuel injected bikes for long range trips now, like the WR250 and the KTM 690 Enduro. I saw some guys struggling hard with GS1200s in sand and mud. If you know you're going to drop the bike a lot, it's probably worth going for a lighter option.

Re: I quit my job, bought an army truck, and spent 19 months circumnavigating Africa

#24

Post by CPLX »

wil421 wrote: post #16
point78 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With your methid of thinking the US should never be visited because of Detroit, Baltimore and Chicago.

Right, because those cities have genocides and civil wars going on from time to time.

Well... I mean...

Re: I quit my job, bought an army truck, and spent 19 months circumnavigating Africa

#25

Post by Spooks »

overcast wrote: post #21
codeduck wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An old truck is a vastly more practical vehicle in Africa than a landrover - LRs need a lot of maintenance, whereas trucks generally just keep going. The only major mechanical issue they had was caused by dirty diesel, and if they'd had some sort of pre-filtration setup they could have probably avoided this. Their major issues were simply down to the weight of the vehicle and poor route selection.

So all of those national geographic shows I see, where they are tearing through the jungle in land rover type vehicles, they should trade it in for a giant military diesel?

Well I am not sure how comfortable they would be to live in for 19 months...

Re: I quit my job, bought an army truck, and spent 19 months circumnavigating Africa

#26

Post by ythl »

wil421 wrote: post #16
point78 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With your methid of thinking the US should never be visited because of Detroit, Baltimore and Chicago.

Right, because those cities have genocides and civil wars going on from time to time.

The USA is a police state where gun deaths exceed the rest of the civilized world combined.

Re: I quit my job, bought an army truck, and spent 19 months circumnavigating Africa

#27

Post by codeduck »

overcast wrote: post #21
codeduck wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An old truck is a vastly more practical vehicle in Africa than a landrover - LRs need a lot of maintenance, whereas trucks generally just keep going. The only major mechanical issue they had was caused by dirty diesel, and if they'd had some sort of pre-filtration setup they could have probably avoided this. Their major issues were simply down to the weight of the vehicle and poor route selection.

So all of those national geographic shows I see, where they are tearing through the jungle in land rover type vehicles, they should trade it in for a giant military diesel?

I'm willing to bet that those shows have logistics teams, tooling and engineers on site.

Re: I quit my job, bought an army truck, and spent 19 months circumnavigating Africa

#29

Post by georgeg »

I live in Africa and I am pretty envious of this trip. I plan for something close when my son gets 16 if he agree to that is. It would be wonderful! I think you will agree with me that what the western world reports of Africa is largely skewed and not representative of such a diverse continent, culture and landscape! Kenya is amazingly beautiful!
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