Now I know overlanding isn't a race and the more deadlines you have the harder it becomes to enjoy your trip, however something has come up that has made me do mental gymnastics.

We're planning on crossing Russia, The Stans, Mongolia on route to Korea, where we have all but secured work and travel visas for a year to help build funds for our trip.

Now we really want to work the winter in Whislter (it's where we got engaged) and the main recruitment day is the 27th September and due to a Family commitment we know we'll be in Volograd on the 2nd July. Giving us just over 2 and a half months to have ourselves and Idealing our bikes in Canada.

Ideally we want to take in the Pamir Highway in this time however this adds almost 3500 miles to the route rather than the 11000 we would take on our route with out it well be doing 14500 allowing 2 and half weeks rest that's 180miles a day versus 230 miles a day.

Now I don't need to really make a decision on this until we arrive in Istanbul where we need to get our Visas for the Stans.

No there is a slim chance we could end up riding the Pamir Highway in the future even before we return home on this trip.

There are alot of pros to avoiding the Pamir Highway at this point: Save money on Visas, Fuel etc, Spend more time with people and places we like on our journey, more freedom with the route etc.

I'm sure many overlanders have come up against this or similar arguements it would be great if others could help me make up my mind what is right for us.

__________________
http://mudandknobblies.co.uk
http://www.justgiving.com/FMFox

We live in a land of people who tell us what is right for us. The enjoyment of the trip is to figure out for ourselves what is right for us. Having someone with a bloody great arrow saying this way, this time, and this much would take the adventure out of it somewhat. All I know for sure is once you get out there these things seem to sort themselves out. The hard part is getting out there. What's right for you cant be left for others to decide.

Totally agree with the comments above, but often a debate and few words with other overlanders can help the decision making process.

There are many times that I have found the opinion of others helpful with helping me make my own mind up about what is right however there have been an equal number of times when what is right for me is exactly the oppisite from what people are telling me, for example if we had listen to people on internet forums we would never have chosen the CCM as our RTW bike

__________________
http://mudandknobblies.co.uk
http://www.justgiving.com/FMFox

Fair comment, I understand. I'll be at the Ace to see ya off regardless of ya route.

Hi all, it may be a good idea to cut the Pamir Highway out. I was planning on doing it this year but the Foreign Office advise against visiting some of the areas in the 'stans.
I appreciate that it isn't always the way that the FO see it and that some of the adventurers on this HUBB will agree that it's often quite opposite to what the FO say. However, the recent news from the 'stans isn't exactly good.
My reasoning for missing it out is that I can visit there quite easily whenever I want to as it's only a few thousand miles away.
I also decided to run to a fairly tight schedule so I really didn't have the time to do it if I wanted to do all the tricky bits I had already planned.
Cheers

Why? To say you have 'done it'? There are many more roads that you will not have 'done'. Don't worry about it.

In ten+ years time the money won't be part of the memory. What will be in your memory ? Looks like people + places. Make your decision based on that.

Enjoy.

Thanks for your reply,

I admit it it's one of those "chufti badges" for the adventure traveller to say you have ridden the Pamir Highway. personally I like to have goals when I'm traveling as they help with motivation to keep going.

As far as money goes every penny saved somewhere can be spent somewhere else, keeping the cost down will help our trip travel further.

__________________
http://mudandknobblies.co.uk
http://www.justgiving.com/FMFox

We never got to do the pamir last year, it was closed due to fighting. but we did get to ride the other road across Tajikistan and it was very beautiful.

try to get as many visas as you can before you leave. we had to get 2 in istanbul. Tajikistan was easy (dont catch that guy in a bad mood) but Uzbekistan took a week and was pricey. this can delay you a lot especially if time is a concern. Not sure about Kazakhstan, we got it in advance.

I've been doing some sums, basically we have have 10 weeks to go from Volograd to Valdivostok, the must important thing to us is to ride through Mongolia as that is somewhere we both really want to ride.

I hope these calculations help someone else also if any experinced travelers think my calcualtions are well off please let me know



I haven't included the cost of living in the calculations as we will be traveling for the same amount of time which ever route we take so the costs of bed and board will be similar taking both routes, i have only included costs and mileage that I believe will differ depending on which route we take.

I imagine that 157 miles per day will be relitively easy to cover in parts of Russia and maybe Kazahstan and places where there are poor quality tarmac roads, how ever I Imagine that in Mongolia we will be looking closer to 100 miles per day and worse if the weather is bad.

I don't think we'll make our final decisions until Ankara in Turkey (where we'll have to get visas) after we know what sort of mileage we are making on the dirt roads in Albania.

__________________
http://mudandknobblies.co.uk
http://www.justgiving.com/FMFox