View Full Version : Road trip - Planning stage
Watching "Long Way Round" with Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman has got me thinking about long distance traveling by vehicle.
If you were planning an extended road trip (greater than 1500 miles, outside the UK, not all on tarmac), how would you go about planning such trip?
What steps would you take to:
Prepare yourself?
Prepare your vehicle?
Prepare your gear?
Tantalus
08-11-2004, 17:09
first is a haynes manual, that way you can at least show the mechanic the pics if you cant fix it yourself
Tant
first is a haynes manual, that way you can at least show the mechanic the pics if you cant fix it yourself
Tant
Top tip! :biggthump
TheViking
08-11-2004, 17:28
Watching "Long Way Round" with Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman has got me thinking about long distance traveling by vehicle.
If you were planning an extended road trip (greater than 1500 miles, outside the UK, not all on tarmac), how would you go about planning such trip?
What steps would you take to:
Prepare yourself?
Prepare your vehicle?
Prepare your gear?
I think I would take my very good friend, comrade and homie, Søren in an old car and drive through the States. :biggthump Drive through the country listening to old road and country music. Just like in Dumb & Dumber you know? :wink: That's my dream.
is it good adi.. i have been thinking of getting it.. the book i mean
i dont know how they went about it but i presume you mean the type of trip where you dont stay in a B+B evey night :yikes:
so first off its water: pleanty of clean water.. and the means to purify it, food: pleantly of carbs at usual as your traveling by vehical weight is not such an issue as it normaly is so you can take a fair bit.. and shealter: again as weight is not such an issue you might want to take a good tent or such like or you might be able to shealter in your vehical depending on what you are traveling in! (and as you are traveling by vehical FUEL also)..
next i guess you want maps and the knolage to use them properly.. and always remember if you going "off the beatern track" let someone know rough details of where your going and how long you aim to take about it..
and as tant says a haynes manual is a good idea and so are some basic tools!
thats my 2p
TheViking
08-11-2004, 18:00
If it must be a bushcraft trip, i guess the answer would be sloght different.
I would probably bring water, shelter, an extra car-tyre and extra fuel. Money and cooking gear.
I started typing a response to this & after the 5th paragraph realised it was getting a bit long. I did a run from Stirling to Athens & back this year (to watch the olympics). Didn't take a haynes manual, and only one spare tyre (which was never used). We DID, however, have 5 litres of engine oil, slick 50 gearbox oil treatment, and about 10 litres of water along with a rugged toolkit (spade/axe/hammer/wrench), aircon, sufficient funds in travellers cheques and a couple of grand credit limit on the credit cards just in case. This, btw, is in addition to the 3 man canvas bell tent & kit to keep us comfortable camping for 4 weeks. The furthest driving day was 540 miles, and the longest driving day was 150 miles - got caught in traffic entering switzerland & spent 6 hours travelling a 10 mile stretch. The German red cross were handing out plastic cups of carbonated water to people stuck in cars. Since we got back I've been meaning to put the whole story together for a blog or something, we even kept notes.
Choose the right car. Suitability is key, theres no point taking a 25 year old vw camper on a trip around the world if you can't tell the difference between a dodgy spark plug and a dodgy timing belt, and old defenders aren't that much fun when you're expecting to drive 500+ miles per day either. We took our Discovery commercial, and it was perfect (if a little slow & cumbersome for the Italian B roads), but I couldn't have managed it without someone in the passenger seat watching my blind spot & navigating for me with the small library of maps we took (GPS fails most often when you need it most, and sometimes it tells lies about the quickest route :yikes: ).
Having done several long trips, foot, bike and landy, in many different climes I agree with all that has been written -
We are looking at planning a long trip sometime in the future and with the whole family.The need to be close to the land, people and nature is overwhelming.
Many of you know that I have my mantra as Less is More - putting that to the test I think we would not rely on any motorised transport - too expensive too remote. (I like the idea that Ewan and Charlie took on but it did have lots of back up..) No , our plan is using horse drawn and foot. A guy called David Grant did a world trip in the nineties - his book
'Seven Year Hitch' is totally insprational and he has a website
www.mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/traceur
Have a look - see what you think. The other option would be by Kayak or canoe.....
Whatever you dream you can begin it...
JeremyH
If you were planning an extended road trip (greater than 1500 miles, outside the UK, not all on tarmac), how would you go about planning such trip?
If you're planning such a trip, the first step should probably be ... telling your wife!!! :o):
TheViking
13-11-2004, 17:27
If you're planning such a trip, the first step should probably be ... telling your wife!!! :o):
Perhaps that's all a part of the plan Kath. :yikes: :wink: :rolmao: :rolmao:
If you're planning such a trip, the first step should probably be ... telling your wife!!! :o):
You're driving!
You're driving!
Think I fell into that one, didn't I? :?:
Think I fell into that one, didn't I? :?:
:o):
Squidders
13-11-2004, 18:18
would this be an all encompasing trip or somewhere hot, cold, wet or what and at what time of year.
would this be an all encompasing trip or somewhere hot, cold, wet or what and at what time of year.
Er... given our current lack of a car, I'd say it's more a hypothetical trip to get people thinking about it. :wink: (At least, I hope it is! :shock:)
I can see that Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman chose motorbikes because part of their journey involved transporting bikes on the train and because they wanted to feel more in touch with the environment as they went. And they seemed to have hit it quite hard at times on the trip too!
If you were doing a trip like that but in a 4 wheeled vehicle what's the best fuel? I would guess you can get petrol and diesel pretty much everywhere ... what about unleaded petrol?
MartiniDave
16-11-2004, 15:04
Kath,
You're quite welcome to borrow my 1976 Series 3 swb Landy pick-up for the trip. :rolmao:
Dave
MartiniDave
16-11-2004, 17:51
Rob,
You forgot to mention "comfy" and "economical" :o): :o):
Dave