In This Section
Route
Our starting point was getting to Australia to visit friends and family. We initially wanted to follow the 'Silk Route' heading through Turkey, Iran, Pakistan and India, then either up to China or ship Mario out of India. The obvious route would have been to drive through Burma, but it is currently only possible to enter and leave at the same border crossing - clearly not an option for us! Driving through China in a foreign vehicle is a bureaucratic nightmare, with the vehicle having to be re-registered there, having to take the Chinese driving test and employing a guide 24/7. With this in mind, we were considering shipping Mario from either India or Bangladesh direct to Malaysia.
However increased terrorist activity on the Iranian/Pakistan border in Baluchistan, in particular the shooting of a Spanish cyclist in early February 2014, made the Silk Route unviable. We decided just to head straight East through Europe, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and take on the challenge of China, into South East Asia and then ship to Australia. Our preferred route to Russia was through Ukraine, but two weeks after making the decision, the uprising started there and we began to wonder if we were jinxed! At the moment, the danger area is relatively restricted so we still plan to travel through Ukraine but keeping to the North.
Reaching Australia would be the end of 'Part 1', we will then need to get the vehicle home. The current plan for 'Part 2', subject to time and money, is to ship Mario to Brazil and explore the Americas and ship home from somewhere on the Canada/USA Eastern seaboard.
With the basic route decided we then considered how long each part of the journey would take, weather conditions in the various destinations and therefore the best time to start our journey. We bought a large world map and started plotting estimated journey times, preferred months to visit countries and also seasons to avoid such as hurricanes, monsoons etc. Although our plan is not perfect - and who can tell what the weather will do anyway? - overall we should be in the temperate regions during their respective Summers and also avoid the worst of the tropical storms. Fingers crossed!
