I’ve been reading travel guides published by Lonely Planet for a while now. Whenever I get an opportunity to go abroad, these books have been valuable treasure of information. I remember last time I impressed my local guy in Kenya when I last visited that beautiful part of the world. He kept asking me if I had been in his country before. It surely prepares you for History, Current events and somewhat future- maybes- of the place. Once you are equipped with this information it is bliss and enjoy the place and plan accordingly without any surprises.I was profoundly pleased when Lonely Planet agreed to loan us the travel guides and phrase books we may need for this expedition. Thank you Lonely Planet. We shall accompany you all the way with us.

I knew that the planning for a trip of this nature was going to be a lot of work, but I had no real idea of what we were going to be getting ourselves into until we really started to get our hands dirty with research.

In planning a trip like this, you start with the obvious things first and then hash out the details as you progress forward.   There is a lot of paperwork and research involved.

First, you have to determine the route and which countries are on the route which then requires a visa and depending on how long you plan on staying and what the cost will be.

Second, you have to see what types of vaccinations are not only required for entry into those countries, but are also very strongly recommended.Third, we will also obviously need health insurance. This must include evacuation. This all requires a lot of paperwork, and is a huge logistical undertaking due to time frames and validity limitations.

As a result, many of the visa applications must be done in person at the embassy of the country we are wishing to enter in a neighboring country. All of this amounts to thousands of dollars, and this does not even include all of the paperwork that the vehicle will require.

As far as our wheels go, we need international driver’s licenses, and also paperwork showing that we do not intend to sell the vehicle while in a particular country. Sort of like a passport for the car. It’s called "Carnet de Passage" pronounced as Carney which allows travelers to temporarily import their vehicles without having to leave cash deposit at the border. It is, in essence, an international guarantee for payment of customs duties and taxes to a government should the vehicle not be re-exported from that country. The cost of this is 100% value of the car deposited in bank escrow account.

Auto insurance is also necessary and for a trip like this, as the risks and potential liability is a lot different than simply obtaining ordinary insurance coverage.  

This is only really the tip of the iceberg. When you investigate one aspect of the planning necessary for the trip, you come away with about 20 others things that also now need consideration and attention. If the route gets changed then start again. I feel like we are making some real progress, albeit slow progress. We now have a general estimate of some of our major costs and coincidently, how many letters and emails we need to write and send for sponsors in order to have sufficient funds in our bank account.

We have finally got the blog up and ready to start keeping everyone updated. This is going to be a great way for anyone to get regular updates of what is going on in the trip.

You will have an unsurpassed view of the world from a realistic view. This is not reality TV, this is not a biased news program, this is not a media outlet going for the highest ratings. We are simply a crew of people that believe there is something out there different than what we all know as our reality.