Ron & Viv at Cape Agulhas, South Africa, the southernmost point of Africa and the beginning of their adventure in 2007. Next the northernmost point of the European mainland, North Cape.

 

Our group at the Artic Circle on our way to North Cape, Norway.

 

Ron & Viv at the northernmost camping ground in the world, close to North Cape.

 

 

 

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To read all about our trip from our articles which appeared in the 4x4 Australia magazine - click on this link.

Introduction


With our vehicle in the UK after a great trip through Africa in 2007 (see our web pages : africaoverland) and our plans in place for our trip across Russia, Kazakhstan and Mongolia for 2008, we headed off once again.

First up though in April we headed back to South Africa for a month to help lead an LOE trip through Botswana, Zambia and Namibia (see www.loe.com.au), which ended in beautiful Cape Town.

For nearly all of May we spent our time in England, first picking up the Patrol, getting it serviced and then spending some time touring the country. We also spent some time organising visas for Russia, Kazakhstan and Mongolia.

We then headed up to Scotland before arriving back in Newcastle to catch the ferry on the 10 th June for our overnight trip across to Norway.

From the middle to the end of June we drove north through spectacular Norway to North Cape, the northernmost point of the European mainland - even though it is an island! From there we drove south through Finland.

We crossed the border to entered western Russia on the 8 th July and headed for St Petersburgh. Then it was off to Moscow and south to the border with Kazakhstan.

We explored Kazakhstan from the 21 st July to 5 th August enjoying the snow-capped mountains of the SE of the country as well as the towns that were built along the Old Silk Road. If anything we would have liked longer but we had only asked for … and got … a 20 day visa – how crazy was that?

From southern Kazakhstan and its border with China and Krygyzstan we went back into Russia for a few days in early August to get us around the China border and into Mongolia (China closed its border to all independent travellers because of the Olympics).

We crossed the Russian/Mongolia border in the western corner of Mongolia on the 9 th August and spent a month exploring this wonderful country - enjoying the Gobi Desert and the history of the Mongols and Genghis Khan.

We exited Mongolia north of Ulaan Baatar and were back once more into Russia near Lake Baikal and Eastern Trans-Siberian Russia. We drove east across to the Russian Far East and our final destination, Vladivostok.

Having successfully completed our journey here on the Pacific coast the vehicles have been loaded into their respective containers and will be shipped back home, while we fly home on the 4 th October.

Neil and Helen Cocks, our travelling companions through Africa joined us for the trip while Neil's brother, Rod and his wife Kate, shipped their vehicle over to the UK and joined us as well. Ron & Viv's neighbour, Gay Ellis, joined them in St Petersburg for 2 months through western Russia, Kazakhstan & Mongolia.

Head to the Trip Diary pages to read all about the trip.

 

Neil & Helen, Gay, Viv & Ron, Kate & Rod in front of the Blood Church in St Petersburg.

 

  

 

 

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Ron & Neil outside the RAC centre in Bristol at the end of the Africa trip, sorting our Carnets.

 

The Mongolian yurt, or ger, is a round, nominally portable, self-supporting structure suitable for camping in comfort.