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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

#71

Post by donquichotte »

estefan wrote: post #39
donquichotte wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Thanks. It's something I've been thinking about doing :-) Edit: Can those lighter bikes take panniers? I guess you're not going a long way with a rucksack?

Yes they can. I used hard cases, for future trips I will change to soft luggage though because everything will be ground to dust in hard panniers if you don't pack tightly and ride hard off-road for days. Walter Colebatch designed the "Magadan" soft panniers after riding the Baikal-Amur Mainline, I personally haven't used them yet but will try them for the next trip. If you're into this kind of stuff, check advrider.com.

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

#72

Post by anbende »

nathan_f77 wrote: post #55

This looks like a nice experience, but I'm realizing that I don't want to do anything like this. I thought I did, but I guess not. That includes driving an RV around America or New Zealand, hiking the Appalachian trail, or any other kind of journey where you travel from A to B and see a few things along the way. I do want to visit Africa, but all of this driving and getting stuck doesn't really appeal to me. I do wan…

This echoes my thoughts about travel. While I love being in transit, the idea of just seeing (or hearing/eating/etc) a bunch of things just isn't all that appealing.

I've lived in a few places in Asia and really liked that. Spending a few months to a year in a place, making friends, getting to know the locals. It felt good, though it limited the kind of work projects I could do. (I was an English teacher rather than a programmer or other independent worker at the time)

In some ways the digital nomad lifestyle, which is related to what I was doing, is very appealing. I know a programmer who has been bouncing around Southeast Asia working on programming projects, some contracted some independent, for the last year or two and learning languages.

Is that or something like it what you're looking for?

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

#73

Post by draker »

gambiting wrote: post #66
robeastham wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You seem to have missed the point here. A Landrover does not a mobile home make. How are they supposed to live in a Landrover comfortably for 19 months?

My dad had a custom-made LR and two people could very comfortably live out of it for any length of time. It even had a water tank with a heated shower head if you were feeling lavish. The tent was on the roof so it should have been safe from most animals: http://imgur.com/a/tUrAX

Is that a Camel Trophy Discovery?

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

#74

Post by donretag »

You want crazy? Try going around Africa via public transportation. I would not recommend it. ;) No matter what kind of bus ticket you get promising a luxury bus, it will be anything but that.

Try getting a small group together and do like the author did. I loved Africa.

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

#75

Post by oska »

sickbeard wrote: post #57
fitzwatermellow wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A much safer alternative would be circumnavigating Australia. By land via Highway 1 (the world's longest continuous road at 15,000 km). Or by sea in a luxury super yacht ;) https://www.roadscholar.org/find-an-adventure/21421/circumna...

I dunno man. The wildlife in Australia scares the shit out of me

There is very little to worry about there. Having your car break down or get bogged in a remote location is a much greater danger, but one that lots of tourists ignore.

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

#76

Post by piaste »

catshirt wrote: post #64
kochthesecond wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just to add anecdotal evidence, I have travelled a lot in Spain and never felt unsafe nor been robbed.

the only thing we can extrapolate from this is that not every single person who goes to Spain gets robbed.

Let's do the black sheep joke:

"There is at least one HN account, used by at least one person, who claims to believe he went to Spain and did not get robbed."

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

#77

Post by pistoriusp »

nathan_f77 wrote: post #55

This looks like a nice experience, but I'm realizing that I don't want to do anything like this. I thought I did, but I guess not. That includes driving an RV around America or New Zealand, hiking the Appalachian trail, or any other kind of journey where you travel from A to B and see a few things along the way. I do want to visit Africa, but all of this driving and getting stuck doesn't really appeal to me. I do wan…

The thing for me is how would you know that you don't want to do it unless you've tried it first?

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

#79

Post by jschwartzi »

codeduck wrote: post #34
georgespencer wrote: post #17

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. This sounds like received wisdom. Is there any evidence to support it? Why would one believe that a land rover's engine requires more maintenance than the average engine found in all the aggregate "old trucks"?

There isn't much direct evidence, no. Publications like https://www.rgs.org/NR/rdonlyres/7A814B01-5B83-4C27-A1F9-8B0... stress types of vehicle which are recommended / not recommended. The reason I made my original statement is that old, frequently ex-military trucks and old busses form the backbone of a lot of central and northern africa's transport networks, and the local mechanics are incredibly ingenious and expe…

I would add that old vehicles aren't built to the same tight tolerances as newer vehicles. This makes it a lot easier to bodge together repairs for them, which makes them more maintainable by said bush mechanics.

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

#80

Post by jnsaff2 »

sumang wrote: post #49
colmvp wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ha! I've travelled to remote parts of South America, Africa, Asia, and the only times I ever experienced getting robbed or deeply fearing for my safety was in Barcelona and Philly.

Barcelona really? I am from Barcelona but never thought people are scared to be in Barcelona. I heard people get robbed in Las Ramblas years back but now its quite safe. You will never get mugged in Barcelona according to my experience.

Years ago I found a foreign hand in my pocket at metro turnstiles in Barcelona, elaborate scheme with 3 people, one covering on the back, one on my right distracting me and one on my left reaching into my pocket.

Something tripped my alarm and I ripped the hand out of my pocket before I lost anything, that dude was gone in a flash, the other two urged me to go through the gates as I would lose my ticket.

Then I remembered the recommendation to swear angrily in Russian at them and came up with a few of those I knew and the other two took a hike very quickly. Apparently they are very afraid of Russian speaking people.

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