My Route, Your Comments

[snoopy]

It's just a mockup of the countries at the moment (no fine detail).

I'll be heading from the UK, Greek island hopping and then onwards. The countries I've selected don't need Carnets (please tell me if I've made a mistake). I believe I should extend into South America and around too.

I haven't even begun to look at VISA requirements which might change the route quite a bit.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF&msa=0&msid= 206428310598675386573.0004b8292c6f44e7f35d7

[colsan1]

Theres no route showing on the link

[snoopy]

Hmm, I'll try again...

Google Maps

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF&msa=0&msid=
206428310598675386573.0004b8292c6f44e7f35d7

[markharf]

You've got a very interesting route planned in the very boring American Midwest. Why double back? And how is it that you appear to be shipping from Western Sahara (Laayoune, perhaps) to Nova Scotia? Never seen that one before.

I don't know whether to take this seriously and offer serious responses, or ignore and assume you'll be back when you get a bit more settled.

Mark

PS: go to South America. Also Africa.

[realmc26]

I cant see any route either

[pecha72]

Originally Posted by markharf

You've got a very interesting route planned in the very boring American Midwest. Why double back? And how is it that you appear to be shipping from Western Sahara (Laayoune, perhaps) to Nova Scotia? Never seen that one before.

Yep, if the OP wants to keep the costs down, then better not plan to stay very long, and do big miles in North America, or especially Europe, which is very expensive! ... and also that shipping from/to West Africa could be a tall order. I guess it could be possible from/to Senegal, but then he could face the carnet-problem (others may be better informed than me, if you can in reality enter Senegal with some other temporary import permit?)

And in the Russian Far East, it is my understanding, that Magadan is the easternmost point, where you can go following some sort of ´road´ ( – though it might be challenging to get there, too!) And it would be extremely tough to go east from there, and anyway impossible to transport the bike over to the US.

So from Magadan, it´s either ride back for quite a bit, or ship the bike to Vladivostok, and fly there yourself, so there are no direct options from Magadan to the US, for example, you´ll need to make the trans-ocean shipping or airfreighting from Vladivostok, or from South Korea, or Japan (someone please correct, if I´m wrong on this!)

Other than those, it seems more or less do-able to me, and probably won´t need a carnet to do that (but personally I would NOT plan a trip like this totally around the carnet-thing, if there´s a direction that I´d like to go, where it is required, then I´d just simply get it!)

And also keep in mind, that when you´re going to be riding a lot in the northern latitudes far away from the Equator, you´ll need to get your timings right, as winter will be very severe in many areas. Eastern Turkey, the Caucasus, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, eastern Russia, Alaska, western or southeastern Canada, and possibly the northern parts of the "lower 48 states" in the US are all such areas, where nice or even tolerable riding weather is definitely not there for 12 months a year. Could only be like 3-4 months each year in some places.

And then when you go into the tropics, you´re more likely to have trouble with the rainy seasons. Heavy rains will make many smaller unsealed roads impassable, and can even cut the main roads sometimes. And you can also have problems with the heat... but you´re actually more likely to run into the heat problem at around latitudes (about) 25-40, in dry or desert areas, during their summer months. Check out for example BBC´s "weather averages" to get some idea about the timing.

Also check out this thread below (...the title´s a bit misleading, and scroll down to Colebatch´s post #11 to get some proper info!)

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...pian-sea-55471

[snoopy]

I should have noted this is very rough, I haven't looked at ferries or anything my query is whether the countries and rough route is decent.

For America, I presumed it would be interesting. The zig zag on the US means 'do interesting cities etc'

I'll certainly add South America to the route.

So, there is no way to go past Magadan and cross into Alaska?

[snoopy]

Three days isn't enough, not at 55mph which is what I'll be doing on the diesel Enfield. If for some reason I couldn't get into Pakistan then I'd be up shit creek.

Seems there are less options than I thought. Looks like its up and around into Russia.

[lbendel]

?? not sure I'm looking at the right map, but if you zoom close enough you'll see that there's no border between Kazakhstan and Mongolia - you have to go thru Russia.

Also I believe there is no road between Guyana and Venezuela.

Looks fun!

Laurent