TRIP PLANNING & PREP
Planning to go to a new place for 2 years, without returning to your home, takes a lot of preparation! 
Imagine thinking about all the things you may need or want that you need to bring with you. And, we only have a small bit of space for personal things like clothes, books and our favorite things--so you have to think very carefully about what you will really need!
But, planning is more than what you pack.
What about planning a trip--do you like to go somewhere when it is hot, cold (snowing), rainy or sunny? Does that affect where you want to go? Do you want to see 'everything' or just take it slow?
Does how much money you have to spend affect what you can do and where you can go? Do you know the different currencies?
CFAF -- Mt --€ -- ¢ -- R |
Currency - where are they from? |
£ -- K Sh --P --$ -- So. Sh. |
In this section, you can read all about what we had to do to prepare for our trip to Africa.
You can check out: Overlanding; Planning; Typical Day on the Road; English only?; Route planning; Travel documents; Gear packing and preparation; Budgeting/Finance; Or go to More info on Travel Prep page
INTRODUCTION
What is overlanding?
Overlanding means traveling long distances across land, or getting from point A to point B exclusively by land. There are many ways to travel overland-in your own car, in a tour group bus, by camel, by foot, by bike.
Why go overlanding?
Since Africa is a huge continent full of diverse scenery, culture, history, climate, and wildlife, an overland expedition allows you the flexibility to determine your own route, and travel in an affordable way. It is not a guided tour, but an experience. Overlanding also allows the adventurous traveler to experience the highlights a country has to offer, and also take the time to experience a country in its day-to-day life.
How do you start planning for an expedition?
It is all about lots and lots and lots of planning!
Expeditions take a lot of time, planning and preparation. Like all big projects, these famous statements are very true:
The more time and effort you put into your planning and prep, the 'better' the trip will be. |
Ever planned last minute for a big trip? Last minute planning and prep are the most common causes of failure and mistakes. |
Think about a trip you would like to take. Let's say you were to go visit someone in the next town over for a week? Or fly to another country? What would you need to think about? What if you went for 1 month? 6 months? Do you want to know what questions you should start with. Click here to find out more.
Any idea how the Tire Tracks team started planning their trip? Do you think it took 1 month? 6 months? 12 months? You can read more about it here.
TYPICAL DAY ON THE ROAD - Is it more than getting up, driving and going to bed?
A typical day on the road will be about 4-6 hours a day. This is what we think a typical driving day would look like: (any idea why we want to get up early? We aren't the biggest fans of getting up early!) What time do you think we plan to get up? Check it out, here.
DO YOU ONLY NEED TO KNOW ENGLISH?
English? Spanish? Swahili? -- Do you know how many languages there are in Africa? What would you do if you went somewhere and you didn't speak the language? How would you be able to buy any food? Ask for directions? Read a short bit on African languages here.
What route to take?
Planning the trip is a lot of work but definitely a lot of fun! There are many factors you need to consider when driving through such a large and diverse continent as Africa. After all, each country (remember there are 53 in Africa) has its own requirements, terrain, climate, danger points, highlights, etc. that you need to consider.
Here are a few points to consider:
| Climate | When is it rainy season? When is the desert freezing at night? Check the temperature (high/low/average) and rainfall. |
| Terrain | Will you be driving through mountains? desert? rain forest? Are the roads paved? How bad are the roads in rainy season? Can I handle the high altitude? |
| Points, countries and events of interest | When is the best time to spot animals in the Serengeti or whale watch in Cape Town? When are there festivals or events that I want to see? What are the famous sites I want to see? |
| Danger points | Are the border crossings open? Is a country in the middle of a war or political unrest? Have there been any tourist kidnappings? |
| Language | What languages are spoken? |
| Visa & entry requirements | Can I enter the countries I want to go to? Does my home country allow me to visit? |
With a good map of Africa and a bit of analysis of your own, you can sketch out potential countries you may want to visit.
How to get to Africa?
Since we live in London, we have to figure out what the most convenient and most economical way (how much money it will cost!) is to get to Africa. We, of course, need to figure out first how best to depart from the island we live on. Here are some options we considered:
Ferry #1- UK to mainland Europe
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Ferry #2 - Mainland Europe to Africa
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Want to check out the routes and travel times? For UK ferry departures, go to http://www.eurocamp.co.uk (Select Getting there; Ferries). For Spain to Africa, go to http://www.trasmediterranea.es (Select Route/Timetables)
How Tire Tracks planned their route
To start our route planning, we started with the most basic information-a map of Africa!
Guidelines
Before moving into country research, we first decided to define a set of guidelines that would help us sketch our initial route plan. Want to see what guidelines we used? Click here.
What Countries to visit
With these guidelines in mind, it was time to determine what countries we could visit. We gathered many books from the library that gave a good overview of African countries, and used many online websites. We investigated many factors about a country. Here are the main factors:
| Interest | Is the nature, culture or history an interesting reason for us to visit? Are there sites or people we wanted to visit in that country? Is the country expensive to live in? |
| Driving | When are the best times to drive in the country, given its climate (rainfall, weather patterns, temperature). We don't want to be getting stuck in the mud or living for long periods of time in major downpours. |
| Safety | Is it safe to drive in the country? Is the country stable (no wars, or political issues)? |
For us, the language of the country did not influence our decision. We have been many places where we don't speak the language and that has never stopped us before! It is best to learn what you can (brushing up on our French and learning some words in Arabic), and knowing that a lot of it is figuring it out as you go. (Hand motions always work in the end or you can get a guide.)
Take a look at the chart we used to help us determine what countries we wanted to go to.
Sketching it out! - Looking at the bigger picture
From this analysis, we took a blank map and a set of markers and rated each country:
Take a look at our initial sketch. Here is what the colors mean:
| Pink | Definitely want to visit! |
| Blue | Consider, if have time and stable situation |
| No color | Consider later, depending on time, and current situation |
| Red | No! (not safe/stable, border crossing not open, or not allowed to visit) |
Climate analysis by country - Determine when we could travel
Using this sketch, we then did some more climate analysis so we could get a better idea of what the rainfall and temperature was like in these countries by month. Check out the spreadsheet we used.
Possible routes across Africa
Want to see what routes we considered? Take a look by clicking here.
Tire Tracks current route
After all this hard work, we have finally decided on a possible route! You can see the route by clicking on the MAP button on the top or by clicking here. (Blue designates planned route. Red designates alternate route.)
- Year 1 - How to go South
Our first option is the Western Coast route, as long as the security situation is stable. If that route becomes too dangerous, then we will drive the West to South, via Central African Route
- Year 2- How to go North
We chose the Eastern coast route from South Africa to Egypt.
VISA & ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
What is a visa? Why do you need a visa?
What is a passport and visa?
| A passport is an internationally recognized travel document that verifies the identity and nationality of the bearer. You need a valid passport to enter and leave most countries. For our trip, we will need plenty of blank extra pages (going to 35 countries means lots of stamps) and our passports need to be valid for at least 6 months after the end of our travels. |
| A visa is an authority issued by the consular officials of a country that permits a traveler to visit that particular country. Visas are usually given as stamps or stickers. Each country has its own requirements for who needs a visa and who doesn't. This is usually based on reciprocal agreements between countries, e.g. an American doesn't need a visa to visit the UK, and vice versa. |
How do you get visas for Africa? Click here.
Do you know any Fun Facts about Visas? Click here to learn more.
What visas will the Tire Tracks team need?
Check out the schedule the team has put together on visa and entry requirements. Since we are also bringing a vehicle into each country, we have started to list what documents we need for the car as well. We will continue to update this document as we plan our trip.
Vehicle documentation
When you travel outside your own country, many times you need special documentation for your car. Key documents are:
- Carnet de Passage en Douane (CDP or carnet)
- International Certificate for motor vehicles
- Insurance
Do you know what they are? If not, you can read all about it by clicking here.
Personal documentation
There are also a few documents you need for yourself. These are:
- International driving License
- Vaccination certificates
- Health/travel insurance
You can read more about these by clicking here.
What do you bring with you?
This sometimes can be the hardest part of preparation- figuring out exactly what you need! It is very easy to find lots of things you want to bring with you, but the key things to keep in mind:
| If you don't really need it, don't take it. |
| Pack less than more. (Guideline: Pack and then remove 1/3 -1/2 of it!) |
| Don't overload your car. The more weight you have = the more gas you use, the harder your car has to work (and maintenance it needs!), and the easier it is to sink in mud and sand! |
| Most of the weight you will carry in the car is water and fuel-not clothes or supplies. This can be more than 50% of the gear you can bring. |
| If you really need it (food, water, gas, clothes), you can probably find it on the road. |
With these in mind, you first need to start with a good packing list. From our research, we have put together a list of potential things we need to bring. Now we have to figure out what we really need and can carry.
Take a look at our packing list, which includes: Spare parts for the car; Repair equipment for the car; Medicine; Camping and cooking gear; Communication equipment; Food; Clothes
What is the Tire Tracks team bringing with them?
Before Jan 1, 2006, we will have packed the entire car with all the gear we need. Watch the website to see what we pack and why!
Why is budgeting important?
This is one of the first things we did! One of the most important factors in planning an expedition is the cost. The amount of money you can spend determines on how you want to travel, the gear and preparations you need, the team and the route you take. Setting out how much you think you will spend and how much money you have helps determine where you can go, what you can do, and what you can buy.
But what do you spend money on? Check it out here.
What about the different currencies? Check it out here.
Want to go to the More on Travel Prep page?
