travelling till Australia - Questions
 

Hi,

New to this forum and hope I am posting the question in the right place!
I am currently saving up for a long time travelling my motorcycle 2-up and before building a lot of castles I am examining the possibility of travelling from Italy through europe, iran pakistan southeast asia, Indonesia and Australia. I would do this in say a period of 9 months.

What would be an average budget given that I will camp as well?
What documents are a must have?
Is it possible to sell the bike in Australia?

Thanks

Hi, welcome to the HUBB.

Firstly I think your question is better suited in the 'Route Planning' section mainly because you will get a wider response, and secondly its worth having a look at some threads of people who have done similar trips.

For what it is worth, here are my thoughts.

If you're wild camping you only have to calculate the cost of fuel and food in the various countries. I dare say that you will not have a problem taking your bike through the Euro countries but you may need to check about carnates with countries such as Iran. In my experience traveling through places like Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan etc, you only need to declare that you will take the bike with you when you leave and pay insurance which is between $30 and $50 US for one month in each country. When you apply for visas in the countries that you are traveling through, they should give you answers to your questions.

In terms of selling your bike in Australia........that may be a little tricky because of import duties and the like. If I can get solid information on this I will let you know.

What sort of bike are you traveling on ???

Goog luck with the planning.......sounds like a great trip.

Crude estimate only
 

For very rough planning only! If you plan to camp more than 50% of the time and cook you own food I'd say allow minimum US$50 day for one and $75 for two sharing a bike. If you plan regular cheap hotels say $100 day/$125. Add say $3000 - $4000 for bike and you across Burma and the water bits in SE Asia and emergency money.

Selling the bike in Australia I think will be nearly impossible. You are bringing it in under a carnet that guarantees you will re-export it within 12 months. Unfortunately Australian Customs have a reputation for no flexibility in interpreting the rules. So if you don't export it again your up for paying the value of the carnet. So on top of the above budget you need to allow for cost of shipping it onwards - say another $1500 - $2000.

So all-up for two on one bike for 9 months and shipping it (and you) home my guess - minimum around $20,000 (and with a bit of comfort $25,000).

Hope the castle can be built on these foundations! Remember it can be done on less - but then you really need to realise that you have to camp and cook nearly every day.

Good luck!

Camping from Iran onward will be a problem. Firstly you won't save much between camping and staying in some cheap hotel in those parts. Secondly camping is viewed as unusual. Most people have distant relatives they stay with. Or stay in cheap hotels.

Selling the bike in Oz ... will be a problem. Firstly you have to import it, not just a matter of paying duty ...but more tediously the importation papers. If the bike is old or you are coming permanently to Oz and have had the bike for some time (1+ years?) then that may go well. Then you have to register it here, again if old (@)+ years?) then ok - otherwise it has to go through some design rule checks ($$$). In general it is not worth it.

An alternative is to scrap the bike - check with customs (in the country you plan on getting rid of the bike) before you do this .. but selling the parts may be the best way to realize the most $.

Where you can save money is in the shipping... skip various countries and you save a lot by avoiding those short shipping voyages. Of course you miss those countries.... An alternative is to buy a bike in those parts and sell it before you leave.

travelling till Australia - Questions
 

Another option is to ship your bike to Oz then ride it home. Saves mucking around with leaving it overseas

Just a thought