Planning bonanza

Lots of planning /eating

Chris and I had an epic planning session last weekend - taking off to the Black Mountains in Wales (not exactly altitude training - but we did camp in the ground of the "highest pub in the mountains").

We pitched a tent and, in a planning-meeting "first", we actually did some planning, as proven by the fact we now have content on this website.

Take that Waun Fach

We've worked out:

• when we're going,
• approximately where we are going (give or take -a few thousand kms),
• who we're raising charity funds for,
• put together our driver profiles
• and made a list of things we will need.

On top of the world

 We did all this in an impressive haze of San Miguel (reading the labels doubled as 'language training').
Next morning we felt it would be rude not to walk up Waun Fach (811m), a pretty big looking mountain next to the pub.

Nice.

All in all a very good weekend.

Peruvian Pork

At the weekend I realised, much to my annoyance that it there is still 6 months to go before the big trip. I have, bizarrely, convinced myself that there is very little preparation that can be done up front, in advance of flying out to South America.

This is of course a whopping miscalculation as the following need taking care of:

• Working out how to get to San Jeronimo in Southern Peru - and booking flights etc
• Selecting/finalising charities and doing the fundraising
• Learning Latin American Spanish
• Working out how to ride a motorbike (imagining there to be a sofa welded to the frame rather than a back wheel)
• Poring over maps and plotting some kind of provisional route through Amazon/Andes etc

As ever with these trips, the tangental possibilities are endless, and so it was that this weekend I ended up researching, cooking and eating a rather tasty Peruvian Pork dish instead of doing any of the above.

Navigation, navigation, navigation

Over the last decade Chris and I have navigated approximately 15,000 miles of foreign roads together. With plans afoot to put another 3,000 or so miles of unmarked and unsigned tracks in the Andes and Amazon, you'd expect us to do rather better than we managed last night.

Our attempts to drive Chris from a pub in Bedminster (Bristol) to the railway station (2 miles away) were an incredible feat of ineptitude.

In a hurry to catch the last train home, this was a great test of our teamwork and ability to arrive at places under the pressure of time. Despite having a sat nav device, and both living or having lived locally, we managed to navigate a perfect circle, driving back past the pub where we started 10 minutes after departing.
And so the clock ticked down. We tried route b, pushed the road laws close to their limits (possibly past them if the number of 'Slow down' illuminations are anything to go by), and delivered Chris to the station with barely 10 seconds to spare.

Note to selves, get better at navigation, or plan a circular route :o)

Cliff Face

Okay, so its not a Peruvian road-of-death, but this morning I did my first bit of cliff-edge simulation in advance of the trip; running up the mostly unstable Stonebarrow cliffs on England's South Coast. :O)

Ha. "Plan A" is on.

Silly me for doubting. Plan 'a' is officially a runner. We have secured the use of a legendary mototaxi. This 11bhp beast of a vehicle is a hybrid of motorcycle and sofa; and is so underpowered that the prospect of thraping it over the Andes and through the Amazon is just mouth-watering.

At 2011 draws to a close, Chris and I will fly to the 'lungs of the planet' (Amazon), near the shores of Lake Titicaca to collect our steed. From there we will plot a 3500km route through jungle, desert and mountain to a glorious finish somewhere else.

I literally cannot wait. More on the vehicle and route soon.

Considering "plan B"

Much angst over the past week or so trying to find a way to get hold of a car anywhere in the continent of South America, so that we can actually do the trip.

Whilst we don't want this to be easy, it does need to be possible for us to actually make a start. It's hardly a white knuckle ride to fly to South America, fork out money for a car, spend 3 weeks waiting outside the vehicle registration agency buildings, and then fly home.

On this basis, Chris and I have had to discuss whether there might need to be a "plan b".
We've given ourselves until April Fool's Day to determine a way to make our foolish plan possible. Failing that, we'll come up with another one.

The current plan b is to drive across and around China in a San Lun Che (Greenhouse/Moped hybrid). If that plan is blighted by the same administrative issues then we'll revert to type - buy a wreck off ebay and then drive it South as far as we can go (ideally until we sight penguins). Far more realistic!

Shipping cars is a "no go"

I had hoped that a possible 'Plan B' was to ship a car from the UK to the South American continent. I found a company who would do this for just £575 - which is probably cheaper than it will cost to fly me there!

However, I had not taken into account the dreaded import tax, which basically applies a taxation charge adding up to around 81% of the sum total value of car + shipping costs. This means that a £100 old banger would cost £100 to buy, £575 to ship and then a likely additional cost of artound £800 in tax (cars valued higher in S America) - so around £1500 in total; which is too much to pay for a car that would likely fall to pieces as soon as it hits the first pothole.

Minefield

Much of the week has been spent trying to understand the logistics of buying a car in South America. As in any country there is documentation to take car of, and there is an element of 'waiting game' about it.
What we're finding is that it doesn't look like it is possible to buy a car, hop in, and then tour the continent. We will need to fully register the car and complete the necessary paperwork in order to be able to drive the car at all (understandable) - but also before being allowed to cross borders. This is the stumbling block.
Whilst we will end up with a temporary RUT (which gives us permission to drive the vehicle) upon purchase - we will not be able to exit the country with the car until the permanent version of this document is lodged. This can take up to 1 month. On a 3 week road trip, where we will not be at any fixed abode, this is something of a stumbling block.
As things stand, we are literally attempting mission impossible.
This morning I have emailed the embassy of each and every South American country - to ask if they can help or advise...

Planning session: choosing the adventure

This was the main event. Chris and I occupied a booth in the pub, with a low, underlit table, perfect for spreading out maps and plans. In front of us were cast 10+ A4 sheets, each with an adventure idea on them, a crude map (printed off from google) and a few notes about the positives and negatives of the trip in question. Most of the ideas were given catchy names.

Immediately we were able to discard Australia Anticlockwise (a 20,000km charge around the continent) on the grounds of being too easy in terms of language and roads; we binned the ideas of Project 26 (a frantic charge around 26 European/Baltic countries), the Disaster Tour (historical procession to Chernobyl, Auschwitz, D'Day landings, Berlin Wall, Antioch earthquakes etc) and YllarLognom (Mongol Rally backwards) on the basis they repeated earlier trips too much. The Freedom Fighters idea (hitchhiking across Africa's uprising belt) was canned on the grounds that it didn't seem to have any purpose other than to get ourselves in trouble.

We also had to forgoe the idea of doing research for The Adventurists (basically becoming a travel guinea pig and going somewhere remote to see how possible it is to survive there). Tom, founder of the Advenutrists conceded that our timing was lousy as he has just completed a research mission and already has ideas and adventures coming out of his ears. We shelved the idea of circumnavigating New Zealand by boat (during Rugby World Cup time) on the grounds that this was too much like a holiday.

The next ideas to bite the dust were the Pan-American Highway (North to South America) as this would duplicate a bus trip through Central America that Chris has recently done. This left us with just three contenders. China in a San Lun Che (hybrid of sofa, motorbike and greenhouse); Operation Outbound (to get as far away form home as possible) and the eventual winner Argey Bargey (South America).

South America won because neither of us have been there, we both really want to go, it offers stunning scenery, a mighty challenge in terms of distance and logistics and later in the year will be gloriously hot/wet/muddy.

Planning Session, the first bit

As with all our road trips, they are kicked off with a pub-based planning session. The venue for this one was The Yard in Cardiff – just 5 minutes away from Chris's place. I'd been carrying around a huge Atlas all day, as well as 1 pager summaries of more than 10 possible adventures. The plan for the meeting was to:

- Compare "mission statements" (very businesslike, but actually a good way to check we want the same thing from the trip)
- Check possible timings
- Determine whether anyone else was coming along
- Decide which adventure to take on

A pretty full agenda to get through in just 3.5 hours; but we romped through it with time to spare.
First we established that we both pretty much wanted the same thing from our next adventure. Basically taking on what seems like an impossible or unlikely challenge, traversing a continent in a very bog standard vehicle, making sure there's plenty of mountains, rivers and remote/scary places thrown in for good measure, but also a town or two so we can unwind with a few beers every few days.

Timings wise we settled on September or November this year, with hinderences and benefits of both. We decided to be led by our choice of adventure – basically to go at whatever time it will be hotter in the continent of choice.

In terms of who is involved in the trip, it is just Chris and I at the moment. Our travel-buddy Dave can't make this trip, which is a real shame – both trips I've done previously have been lit up by Dave's company, but he needs to sit this one out. That's the problem with work and restrictive annual leave entitlements – they're the enemy of epic road trip fans (although we have to concede that our employment funds the trips and our employers give us the time off needed, so we can't really grumble). We agreed to make our plans and then if anyone else ends up joining in then fine, but ther logistics are impossible enough as it is, without involving a third party.
So then we got on to the important business. The choice of adventure. That part definitely warrants its own post.