My Route, Your Comments
 

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

Theres no route showing on the link

Hmm, I'll try again...

Google Maps

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

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.

I cant see any route either

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

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?

Great Map on that link.

I want to go to Japan, I guess from there I will ship to the U.S. I'll also have to look into shipping from New Zealand. If that's possible, I might as well to Australia & New Zealand from Japan.

Perhaps it would be more interesting to get a Carnet and go through India, Thailand and south towards India. Might be better than Kaz & Mongolia...

I may be wrong, but i thought the Georgia-Russia border was closed?

Get a carnet and take insurance out against it if you are worried about putting up the deposit. Also shipping/flying is going to work out expensive and cost you alot more than the carnet. And if this is you first plan of your trip try not to use ships use air freight. At first it seems more expensive but its alot more reliable and works out the same or even cheaper.

We met a Italian guy who was not allowed into Pakistan like us and like us he had gone to Bandar Abbas to get the bike round pakistan. WE got the ferry (costing 200 dollars) to Dubai (my sister had just had a baby) and then flew the bike and ourselves to Nepal which cost £900.00 - we cleared customs in Nepal quickly and after touring Nepal went back into India. The Italian guy (Miano) Created his bike up and shipped it from Bandar abbas to India it cost him about $600 but once he got to india the bike never showed up, infact it didn't turn up for 3 weeks and noone new what was going on every day he had to travel 80 km to see if it had turned up, then when it did the fees he had to pay where as much or more than the costs of the shipping - this is without bribes which are not an optional extra. I would imagine this would be the same in most places. SO in the end we paid the same but he was forced to live for 3 weeks in a port town in india but we spent those 3 weeks on the road.

There are lots of shipping reports on here so make sure you have a good read.

Good luck!!

Rixxy

I presumed the Georgia-Russia points would be open. Further research says not. All I've found, from LonelyPlanet is;

'Also it is possible to travel from Georgia to Abkhazia to Russia. While the Georgians don't like this, they can't really prevent it. OTOH you cannot travel in the reverse direction because that would be entering Georgia illegally. '

So, looks like it's up and around through Bulgaria, Romania and onto Russia, or I go all out on the 500% Carnet & VISA and go through Iran.

Another potential is Greece to Israel then Saudi. I've not heard of people doing this route before.

Andy

...And maybe there´s a clear reason for that?


The Mondo Enduro boys went through Saudi-Arabia coming up from Africa. But that was back in the Nineties, and they probably just got lucky. Under normal circumstances, I think that unless you work there, Saudi visa could be very tough to get. Wanting to go with your own vehicle certainly doesn´t make it easier.

The last time I looked, you could only get a 3 day transit visa for Saudi unless you had a valid business reason.

A carnet isn't such a big deal either - you get the money back when your bike comes back.

Birdy

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.

?? 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