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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

#61

Post by de_Selby »

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.

I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic..

Anyone who doesn't look Spanish is likely to get pickpocketed on Las Ramblas. I've heard multiple stories and seen it myself despite having only visited a few times.

I wouldn't feel unsafe there, but the risk of getting robbed is very high.

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

#62

Post by jsaxton86 »

barking wrote: post #36

Is this the 21st century equivalent of big game hunting? Driving around africa in a truck for 19 months isn't exactly environmentally friendly. How many miles to the gallon do those things do?

On /r/travel the OP said 4 km/liter

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

#63

Post by sickbeard »

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?

I don't think you want to bike through a forest if it's going to take days..

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

#64

Post by catshirt »

kochthesecond wrote: post #43
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.

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.

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

#65

Post by DanBC »

donretag wrote: post #60
sumang wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I once had a mugger in a chokehold in Las Ramblas after he tried to get my friend's wallet.

A remarkably stupid thing to do. The wallet is disposable, you aren't.

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

#66

Post by gambiting »

robeastham wrote: post #32
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…

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

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

#67

Post by lasfter »

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…

Perhaps try Doctors Without Borders?

It is more of a long-term kind of travel, but you will be doing real good and definitely living an adventure.

They need people with all kinds of backgrounds, not just medical, so it might be worth a look.

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

#68

Post by imgabe »

lasfter wrote: post #67
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…

Perhaps try Doctors Without Borders? It is more of a long-term kind of travel, but you will be doing real good and definitely living an adventure. They need people with all kinds of backgrounds, not just medical, so it might be worth a look.

There's also Engineers Without Borders - http://www.ewb-usa.org/

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

#69

Post by georgespencer »

sam_pointer wrote: post #40
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"?

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.

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

#70

Post by jonstewart »

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.
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