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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

#11

Post by estefan »

donquichotte wrote: post #9
greenmountin wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He said [1] upfront costs were ~$100k, though recouped ~$30k by selling the truck at the end. [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/53eqlt/i_quit_my_job_... Reddit thread has NSFW tag for source pictures

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?

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

#12

Post by fitzwatermellow »

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…

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...

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

#13

Post by overcast »

jrcii wrote: post #7
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…

As someone who spent a lot of time in Congo -- you also don't get the full picture from the media or even State Department statuses. In the example of Congo, the problem area is limited to a couple towns versus a country that's the size of Western Europe combined, and even there it's pretty infrequent. To go by what you read, the whole country is in constant chaos.

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.

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

#14

Post by point78 »

overcast wrote: post #13
jrcii wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who spent a lot of time in Congo -- you also don't get the full picture from the media or even State Department statuses. In the example of Congo, the problem area is limited to a couple towns versus a country that's the size of Western Europe combined, and even there it's pretty infrequent. To go by what you read, the whole country is in constant chaos.

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.

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

#16

Post by wil421 »

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.

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

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

#17

Post by georgespencer »

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.

> 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"?

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

#19

Post by mtw »

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…

This is in the "adventure" category not in tourism.

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

#20

Post by nck4222 »

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.

>Their major issues were simply down to the weight of the vehicle and poor route selection.

Which could have been solved by using a landrover instead.

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