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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

#211

Post by sgt »

grecy wrote: post #154

I also quit my Software Engineering job, and I'm driving around Africa right now! I decided I didn't want to sit at a desk for 30 years to pay off a mortgage, so I'm not going to. Dumping my life savings into this likely means I'll never have a new car, big screen TV or new iPhone, but I'd rather have this experience than those things. In 2009 I spent two years driving from Alaska to Argentina too. The details on the…

When you make it as far as Cape Town I'd like to meet up with you and briefly chat, if you don't mind. I've followed your blog so far and I'm very interested in following your process as you're making your way down south. It's definitely going to be a challenge.

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

#212

Post by wehadfun »

grecy wrote: post #209
wehadfun wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you need a drivers license? Are you in communication with the local governemnts about your travel. How do you know what areas are ok to travel to? Do you have to register your vehicle in these countries? Who do you ask for permission to park your car. How are you on the internet right now? How do you communicate with locals, do they know English or do you speak what ever local language there is? Have you hooked up…

Thanks for the questions. I hope you don't mind, I'll use them as the basis for an FAQ on my website. Speaking of FAQ, checkout the FAQ on WikiOverland which covers lots of the basics of driving your own vehicle around the world. wikioverland.org/Overland_Frequently_Asked_Questions > Do you need a drivers license? The one from your home country is enough, sometimes you will be asked for an International Driving Permi…

Lol, thanks for answers man.

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

#213

Post by wehadfun »

grecy wrote: post #209
wehadfun wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you need a drivers license? Are you in communication with the local governemnts about your travel. How do you know what areas are ok to travel to? Do you have to register your vehicle in these countries? Who do you ask for permission to park your car. How are you on the internet right now? How do you communicate with locals, do they know English or do you speak what ever local language there is? Have you hooked up…

Thanks for the questions. I hope you don't mind, I'll use them as the basis for an FAQ on my website. Speaking of FAQ, checkout the FAQ on WikiOverland which covers lots of the basics of driving your own vehicle around the world. wikioverland.org/Overland_Frequently_Asked_Questions > Do you need a drivers license? The one from your home country is enough, sometimes you will be asked for an International Driving Permi…

-There is a lot of infrastructure here - 3G is everywhere

I wonder why Mark is building satellites and custom drones if 3G is allready wide spread

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

#214

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

shitgoose wrote: post #183
mb_72 wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Australian here. What you say is true, but avoid long grass (snakes) when out walking and check under the toilet seat (spiders) before sitting and you'll be fine. More importantly, make sure you look up constantly when around gum trees to avoid sudden and violent drop-bear attacks. The exact number of deaths and injuries caused by drop-bears is keep secret by the Australian government to avoid putting off tourists, b…

i had to google 'drop-bear'... are spiders under the toilet seat also part of australian folklore or they are real?

Considering that I live in rural Minnesota and if my shoes are left outside in summer, I check them for wasps or snakes before putting them on, I'd go for them being real.

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

#216

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

georgespencer wrote: post #69
sam_pointer wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can supply some anecdotally. I own two vehicles with reputations for running after neglected or minimal maintenance: a 1966 VW Beetle and a Land Rover. The more correct way of characterising both would be that they will continue to run and function without ongoing maintenance (the proper level of which is way above a modern vehicle) until they break in a spectacular and often terminal way. To attempt to answer your…

> "old trucks" are designed for high maintenance intervals I find this fascinating. To a layperson like me all combustion engines seem like they must be uniform. Thanks.

Nope. Not even close.

I have a 2001 Nissan Xterra that's been sitting in my driveway for almost 4 years with a blown head gasket because of the combination of lack of spare time, other available vehicles that I could drive, and the complexity of disassembling the engine to remove the heads. The seats and hatch area are now full of engine parts and I still have to finish taking off the passenger side head.

Contrast that with my 1987 Toyota pickup: I would have had the entire job done in a weekend with time to spare.

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

#217

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

noobermin wrote: post #168
sickbeard wrote: post #56

The most dangerous thing in Africa is running into an armed rebel group or corrupt police/army. The vast majority of strangers you meet will mostly be sympathetic to your cause and help you when they can. You'll also be SOL if you are not handy.

That's quite something to be honest. If you break down on the side of the road in the US, the most that will happen is people will call 911, they won't help you pull out of a ditch.

You clearly don't live around here!

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

#218

Post by dwaltrip »

jonstewart wrote: post #70

There have been so many of these self-congratulatory I-quit-my-job-to-travel-the-world posts that the New Yorker published a satirical piece on it: http://www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts/why-i-quit-my-jo... . TFA doesn't even have any geek discussion of build details, design trade-offs, problems encountered on the road and how they were solved, etc.

Perhaps they should have added the customary disclaimer at the top, apologizing for every privilege and benefit that they've received in life, as well as displaying their up-to-date Permission to Experience Joy Despite Unfairly Having More Opportunities Than Others certificate?

P.S. The OP is nothing like the satirical post you linked. It's an imgur album with fairly modest captions.

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

#219

Post by Bulkington »

Msurrow wrote: post #177
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…

I don't care that this is a late and buried reply and most likely only you will read it. I even created an account just to reply to you. I did this because I was you about a year ago and your post is exactly something I could hear myself say or think. I had a good friend that had lived part of their life out in the big world and I was talking to her about it, explaining how I felt, which is just about what you write…

As others have said, the struggle is what will be meaningful, long term. But don't feel compelled to get in over your head, just because you want a cooler tall tale when all's said and done. On the other hand--and I only discovered this after that unplanned sojourn in Turkish prison--there are challenges and adventures to be had in Anytown, USA. You just have to know where to look, or learn to see differently.

"First, I'm going to deliver this case to Marcellus, then I'm just going to walk the earth."

https://youtu.be/Yh-QWKGbm2Q

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

#220

Post by beachstartup »

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.

thieves target tourists.
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