crossing the continent
 

We are planning a trip from England to South Africa. We are planning on leaving the USA on July 1st for London and there we hope to purchase a vehicle (Landcruiser or Rover) and outfit it. If anyone can offer any help on this, please do, as we need it. We are not sure how much time we will need in London to do all of the necessary work purchasing, repairing and outfitting the truck, plus getting all the necessary documents. If you have done this and can give us an approximate time allowance, that will make our planning easier. One thought crossed our mind today which is, how possible might it be to buy the vehicle here in the states and ship it to England. Do you know anyone who has done this or, do you know how difficult the restrictions are?
We especially need info on how to get safely across from West Africa to East Africa. Do you know anyone who is currently doing this? thanks for your time

For a full UK to Cape Town I would suggest a bare minimum of 3 months full time work on the vehicle to equip it for a trip of this length and difficulty. I have just spent the last 4 months making ready a BMW motorcycle for just such a trip, (we leave Monday)
The carnet turned up today, I set the wheels in motion 3 months ago for that, although it only took 5 weeks from the moment I sent the forms off to my bank to authorise a £5,000 deposit ( the bikes worth £1,000...)But I had already got the forms from the RAC and the bank knew all about it as well, so all they had to do was stamp bits of paper.
Where would you do this kind of work? I would think it cheaper and easier for you to buy and equip a vehicle in the US although the extra shipping charges would add some to your budget I don't think it will be anywhere near as much as living in Britain would unless you have a friends house to live in who can supply use of a workshop.
The other option would be to just buy a vehicle and go, work out how to get spares and fix the vehicle as and when it breaks, and it will break in Africa.

Hi guys. I'm in Namibia now and hope to make the same trip backwards come Dec 2003. I'd love to hear how your trip goes and learn from your experiences as this will be my first.

Hi guys! Your question is a tall order to say the least but just do it anyway as they say! I aam in the UK and completed a year long trip last December and took a route down the west coast inc Guinea,Mali, Burkina, Ghana and crossed to east Africa via Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Sudan and then down the east coast-ish! Post me a contact fot more info if you wish. Cheers john.