Going back where we started. An African Road Trip 2005...

Preparation - 1

The preparations for an overland Africa tour are complex and time consuming. Not all the actions, however, have to be taken at the same time and a good planning avoids last minute stress. Some preparations we undertook in the early stages, others were scheduled “last moment”.

TRAVEL DOCUMENTS

Road maps and travel guides
Initially we decided not to use GPS and to depend on our maps, our car compass (make sure you buy a good one and learn how to use it properly) and our tongues. However, we changed our minds and bought a Garmin GPSMAP 60C Color Map Navigator. We used it on a number of trips to Austria and the UK, in conjunction with our Toshiba Satellite A100 laptop, and find it a very functional piece of equipment. When buying a GPS in the Netherlands, try to avoid outdoor and sport shops. We found them, occasionally exorbitantly, expensive and their competence generally did not exceed the level of the “quick start” user’s guide. Eventually, we bought ours at Way Point in Notter. Their prices are competitive and the staff has hands on experience with what they sell (www.gps-garmin.nl). How reliable your maps are, you will only discover when you are forced to spend your first night off the road in your roof tent, in stead of in the comfortable guesthouse you planned! Buy maps, if possible, that show way points. It makes it easier to use your GPS. Increasingly there are specialised shops selling road maps and travel guides. In Eindhoven we found one on the Kleine Berg 3 (www.landschapreisboekenwinkel.nl). Travel guides are available in all sorts and sizes. We have good experiences with the Bradt and Lonely Planet Guides. Unfortunately many shops are very keen to sell their redundant copies. So watch out to buy the latest editions only! Internet is a valuable source of information but always do some cross referencing to get information confirmed from more than one source (e.g. www.africaguide.com). Some guys out there in cyber space go very easy on the truth.

Passports
Although our passports are still valid for some time, we applied for new ones with more pages (business type). We need plenty of virgin pages to satisfy all the immigration officers! Make sure you make digital copies of your passport (and all other important documents) and see to it that you can access these copies in Africa (e.g. by hiding them somewhere on your website). Take a few dozen of passport photographs with you.

Visa
The first countries we enter - South Africa, Namibia and Botswana - do not require visa. Almost all the other countries do. Since visa validity is limited and since they usually have to be used within three months after being issued, we will get them at the respective borders or at the embassies or consulates in the capital of the bordering country we are in. For Zambia and Mozambique we pre-arranged visas via the visumdienst (www.visumdienst.nl). It costs some money but saves a lot of hassle. Other relevant visa websites are www.minbuza.nl and www.wereldreis.net.

Tickets
We booked our flight KL 597 from Amsterdam to Cape Town (e-tickets) and are scheduled to arrive in the Cape on Friday 2nd June 2006 at 21.55 hours. Spend some time on orienting yourself on internet to avoid travel agencies pulling the wool over your eyes too easily. Avoid airlines with fancy names and those that fly Antonovs and Iljoeshins. On the road in Africa you will have time and opportunity enough to challenge the Gods! Price wise, air travel has become more and more complicated. Booking far in advance reduces costs considerably but has the disadvantage that your schedule becomes inflexible. Never buy one-way tickets, they are prohibitively expensive. KLM offered us 6 months return tickets for one-sixth of the price of a one-way ticket! If you ship your car to Africa (as we do), do not order tickets long before your date of departure. This we found out too late and to our detriment. Our car is presently still on the high seas and we will be stuck in Cape Town for almost two weeks. Be cool and buy a last minute ticket instead.

Carnet de Passage
Since we take our own car, it has to be temporarily imported every time we enter a new country and exported when we leave it. To facilitate this impossible procedure, there is the system of Carnets de Passage. The Dutch Automobile Association (ANWB) had a specialised desk in The Hague dealing with Carnets de Passage.
We found them very helpful until we discovered that the ANWB had stopped all Carnet applications without even notifying customers who already were in their pipeline (that’s us!). Carnets, from September 2005 onwards, had to be obtained from the German ADAC. On one of our trips to Austria, we visited the ADAC in Munich and found them helpful and competent (www.adac.de). On basis of the value of the car, a deposit was agreed upon (€ 5000) and we decided to transfer this sum to ADAC’s bank account. When we hand in the completely filled in and stamped Carnet at the end of our tour, the deposit is transferred again to our account. When you require information e-mail to karina.stephani@adac.de or give her a telephone call +49 8976766334.

International Driving Licence and International Vehicle Certificate
An International Vehicle Certificate and an International Driving Licence are issued by all regional automobile association (ANWB) branches. You should be aware of the fact that many countries require local endorsement of an international driving licence. Usually this can be done in main traffic police station and often no costs are charged.

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