There must be many of you out there who have done this classic overland route - so the question is from crossing a border at Turkey, through Iran, Pakistan and to a border in India - what is the quickest and most direct route, how quickly could we reasonably do it, roughly how many miles?

(All paved road please and no sight seeing tours wanted!)

Any comment about what could be the potential hitches for slowing you down?

Probably the best description of the roads you could ask for is right at this very web-site!!
Go to this page
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/tstories
and near the bottom you'll find the detailed trip journal of two English gents who rode a pair of Honda 250 singles from England to India. It describes their route and road conditions in some detail.

Here is the exact address for the journal itself...
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/tst...endtodelhi.htm


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Bruce Clarke
brclarke@islandnet.com
www.islandnet.com/~brclarke

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Bruce Clarke - 2020 Yamaha XV250

Oh yeah: it took those two fellows about 6 weeks of steady plodding along - and I think that even though they tried to take the best route possible, the roads were still terrible in many places.

I've read a couple of trip reports of folks who bought an Enfield motorcycle in India and rode it back to Europe. Here are the two addresses: http://website.lineone.net/~daveandhelen/
http://travel.to/parisbyenfield


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Bruce Clarke
brclarke@islandnet.com
www.islandnet.com/~brclarke

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Bruce Clarke - 2020 Yamaha XV250

Bruce, you missed the newest one!

Two Belgians bought new Enfields in India and rode them home - and I met them at a petrol station about a 100km from their home in September 2000! They have posted a good story about how to buy Enfields in India at: http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/pap...eldindia.shtml
And they did the whole thing in 4 weeks. Ironbutts.

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Grant Johnson

Share the Dream!
at: www.HorizonsUnlimited.com

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Grant Johnson
Seek, and ye shall find.
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Inspiring, Informing and Connecting travellers since 1997!
www.HorizonsUnlimited.com

A friend and I are planning to ride, as far as possible, from UK via India to Aus in 2001. We plan to take 6 months for the trip and I'm just starting to collect route and weather info.

Any ideas, particularly on the optimum time to set off, would be appreciated. Obviously we would like to avoid extremes of weather and rain in particular!



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Sean

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Sean

Hi,
The tough part about Iran is getting the visa but once you've got it is simplicity itself. The country is beautiful, scenery dramatic, monuments splendid, people friendly and food delicious. If you want to rush it though, you could easily cross this gigantic country in less than 72 hours: take a cab from Dogubeyazit to the border at the crack of dawn, formalities should not take long. From there take a minibus or collective taxi or hitch to Maku where buses leave for Tabriz. Jump on the afternoon bus to Tehran and you will be there early the following day. You will most probably arrive at the Western bus station (Garage-e-gharb). Take a cab or to the Southern bus depot (garage-e-janoob) and take the first bus to Zahedan (22 hours trip). Commuting between the 2 bus terminals can also be done by a combination of 2 collective taxis taking you to and from Meydan Khomeyni (earlier Meydan-e-Sepah).
The Zahedan transportation scene is chaotic, try to locate a pick up which fills 4 pasangers and will take you for the 80 km ride the border. NB: long Pakistani siesta from 1:00 PM to 4:30 PM and Pak is in a different time zone.
If you haven't overstayed your visa the border formalities are a breeze. Change roops with the black marketeers but just enough to get you to Quetta where you will find better exchange rates. All transportation from Koh-i-Taftan eastwards leaves as a big convoy around 6:00 PM. You will get to Quetta around 6:00 AM the following day. From Quetta you can take the train to Lahore or leapfrog with buses via Sukkur / Rohri, Bahwalpur, Multan and finally Lahore.
After enjoying Lahore you could take minibus no. 12 from one of the side streets in front of Lahore Rwy Stn. NB: make sure that you take the *right* no. 12, there is confusion inherent to this issue. You might have to change minibus half way. Waga border is also easy as long as your visas are fine.
India. Take a rickshaw to Attari village bus stand and jump on the bus to Amritsar (30 minutes). In Amritsar you are on Indian Railways' national network, India is in the palm of your hand. Enjoy. If you absolutely insist, you could rush the whole trip from eastern Turkey to Amritsar in less than a week. I wouldn't do it.
Any further questions ? feel free !
smiles, yuval.