cost of africa trip
 

Hi there!
A quick question;2 people,110 land rover,1 year round Africa;is £10k enough? We will be sleeping in the car,but fuel,food,border costs,unexpected costs I should be aware of etc.Any advice would begreatly appreciated.
Thank you very much,Rob.

yep.

Should be enough. I went down the west side in 10 months, and it cost me less then 10.000€ Don't know how much less though.

Rob

Perfectly possible, depends on how you want to live and what you want to do. Overland trucks go down trans africa on ridiculously small amounts of money. But they do always camp, the majority of time bush camping, even if that means a carpark in a capital city, etc. You shouldn't have to rough it that much with your budget but takes a bit of discipline. Particularly if you need to keep some contingency for vehicle repairs in case something breaks. We lost our complete set of shocks on a 110. By the time we go to to somewhere where it could be fixed, we had also damaged all the coil springs, the bushes, the prop shaft, etc. Something quite simple became quite expensive. Equally a small bearing broke in the alternator in western Sudan, we managed to affect a local repair but when we finally got to Ethiopia where we could get it changed, we needed a new alternator, a new belt and a new set of pulleys because of the damage, the extra strain had done. Part of its luck as to how you get on.

Hi Rob and Toby2,
Firstly,thank you very much for your replies.They have made me feel a lot more confident.Rob,you said your trip,although of roughly the same duration,was only down the west coast.As our trip was to be Morocco,round the west coast and south to South Africa,then north up the east coast to Egypt-is this still possible on this budget? (With due respect to your comments,Toby,with regards to luck!)

Yes you should be ok with £10,000- again down to how much you like roughing it.

Your biggest expense is Diesel - work on 3000 litres of diesel each way @ an average of about 50p ish (coming back through the Middle East will be cheap - last time I was in Syria it was 6cents USD/Litre) + £500 just to be on the safe side = £3500 on fuel alone. Thats why a fuel tank capacity of 200+ litres is a good idea on a 110 to make use of cheap fuel !!!

Next will be a Carnet If you dont have one already

Visa costs mount up - so research current prices.

Then Food and Camping - just bush camp as much as possible to keep this outlay to a minimum.


You are better so invest in a good spares packup here in the UK - a good dealer may give you a sale or return deal - but the availability and price means you are better of taking spares from here.

Dont skimp it will save you money in the long run.

For example a diesel fuel filter in Ghana -$14.

Take Plenty of consumables with you -they are quite light - wrap filters in clingfilm to keep them dust free.

Good oil is available most places, but take 5 litres of engine/atf/ep90 with you to start - I use the 5 litre diesel(black)fuel cans which store nicely and are strong.



------------------
Ex RAF Regt, Ex Dragoman, LRE Instructor,
LR 90 300 Tdi Overlander
Suzuki DR650 Overlander
..and Bloody Nice Bloke!

Toby what shockers were you using - not Old Man Emu by any chance ?
Grif

Gipper,
Hello how are you?I hope well.Thank you very much for your reply.You sound very knowledgeable and experienced in this field so I hope you dont mind me asking you several questions? To put you in the picture about myself-I have toured quite extensively on motorbike throughout Europe and travelled world-wide with work[i.e. seen lots of airports but nothing else!],so travelling overland outwith Europe is completely new,daunting and quite scary!I hope my questions are not too stupid or naive.I am now comfortable with budget,vehicle [althogh I'm not sure where the the best place is to source it-110 Defender],and route.The carnet-how do I go about getting one/where? And visas-should I start to organise them now or get them as we go? Security -basically me and my girlfriend in a jeep round Africa for one year should be nothing to worry about or should there be places/issues that I should be aware of? I've only ever travelled with males.I realise that nothing can be guarnteed but are there any absolute no-no's? Any further advice would be greatly appreciated;then again,maybe I should just shut up and do it?! Thank you Gipper,hopefully will hear from you soon,Rob.

Have a read of Tom Sheperds "Vehicle Dependant Expeditions" it will answer a lot of your questions and no doubt raise other subjects you may not have thought of. Also discusses tool kits & spares etc for a LR Defender which might interest you.

Re carnets and visas your carnet is valid for a year from date of issue (talk to the RAC) and visas are normally valid for a month or two. The visas will either start ticking when you enter the country or otherwise worst case as soon as they are issued. This will determine how far in advance you organise them.

Hi Robak
I budgeted on £10 per day each, which was plenty in Africa, food from the market and fuel is cheap, visas are expensive (£40 in places) but easy to get in the Capital of the bordering country with a few exeptions. This was a few years ago but probably still a good basis.
Happy trails
Bruce

Rob, I think ctc has covered it all in his post, the only 2 bits of advice id give is First dont drive at night in Africa. Second - get on and do it - afterwards you will wonder why you were ever worried, Have a good one.
Cheers
Grif