Read about Ron & Viv's pre-trip planning and preparation for the big trip and what they learnt from the trip.
3rd Party Insurance Russia etc
Car Import Permits
Comprehensive InsuranceMaps
Shipping
Courier Services
GO TO PAGE 1 for
PLANNING THE ROUTEPASSPORT & VISAS
RED TAPE & PAPER WORK
COUNTRY & TRAVEL INFO
MEDICAL & HEALTH MATTERS
VACCINATIONS
WATER
OTHER IMPORTANT MATTERS
Money
Currency Conversion
Security - Vehicle / PersonalCOMMUNICATIONS & PHONES
OTHER TRAVEL INFO
PAGE 2 - Pre-trip Planning & Preparation
Practical details for driving thru Russia
Practical details on driving through Russia and Mongolia:
http://dreamers1.com/russia/Practicalities/Russia_Mongolia_Practicalities.htm
Vehicle Matters
You don't need a Carnet for your vehicle for Europe, the Scandinavian countries, Russia, Kazakhstan or Mongolia.
3rd Party Insurance - Europe
For Europe you'll need Green Card Insurance to cover 3rd Party and this is much more expensive in Europe than in Africa!
We could not get Green Card Insurance from anyone in the UK!
We got ours from Mototouring in Milan, Italy. Check out: www.mototouring.com; ph: +39 02 2720 1556; attention: Eligio Arturi.
It is also available from: Knopftours. Email: knopftours@aol.com; attention: Stefan.
Also check out: www.alessie.com.
3rd Party Insurance - Russia, Kazakhstan or Mongolia
Third Party Insurance is compulsory and is available at the borders and is a lot cheaper than Europe.
Car Import Permits - Russia, Kazakhstan and Mongolia
Without a Carnet being required you will still need to obtain a Car Import Permit at the border of each of the countries. These are generally no hassle. However in Russia we found there was a bit of a discrepancy, in that in Western Russia you were hard pressed to get a permit for nay longer than a month. In Eastern Russia a month or two didn't seem to be a problem.
In Kazakhstan and Mongolia the Import Permit was valid for a month!
These are a very important document – don't loose them.
Comprehensive Insurance
We gave up on trying to get even half reasonable comprehensive insurance and we'll just drive really carefully! Check out: www.alessie.com
Fuel
With fuel in the UK and Europe nudging between $2.20 and $3 a litre Russia at around $1.20/litre will be cheap!For up to date prices on what we paid see the front page of our Trip Diary.
Maps
We've found a good range of road maps for Africa, America, Asia, Australia-Oceania, Europe, suitable for OziExplorer (see: www.oziexplorer.com) from
BS Maps based in Germany; see:http://www.b-spachmueller.de/ .
(If you want to see the site in English, use Google Translate - it works well.)
Maps for Garmin GPS units are available from: - https://buy.garmin.com/shop/buymaps.do
A Third Party supplier has some maps for Garmin units that Garmin do not produce for themselves. Check out: - http://www8.garmin.com/cartography/mpc/
For paper maps the the Reise Know-How maps (or Rough Guides, which purchased the rights from Reise Know-How) seem to be very good - if you can get them for the country you are interested in!
There's a good range of maps and a road atlas for the whole of Russia available from:
www.maps2anywhere.com
Another good source is Google Earth: http://maps.google.com/maps
Hema Maps ( www.hemamaps.com.au ) an Australian specialist mapping company with much expertise in 4WD maps has a full range of African maps from a number of map publishers.
What we learnt:
For maps check out: www.smellybiker.com
In the Trip Diary pages of our website on each country there are hundreds of GPS points listed to camps, towns, places of interest, hotels and more. Trip Diary
UK & Europe
There's so many good maps of Europe it is hard to know where to start. Check out Michelin at: http://www.michelintravel.com/
Check out the Michelin Europe Tourist and Motoring Atlas – it's very good.http://www.langenscheidt.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=3368
Kazakhstan
All the sheet maps of Kazakhstan we pretty basic and left a lot to be desired.
We had a CD of maps of Kazakhstan (from some company in the USA) but there was no file directory to these detailed maps so you couldn't find easily the map of the area you were in. We ended up not using them.
Mongolia
The sheet maps of Mongolia were pretty woeful and in some cases
There is now a Road Atlas of Mongolia (available in Ulaan Bataar) which is probably the best maps of the country.
We had a CD of maps of Northern Mongolia but again there was no file directory to these detailed maps. We ended up not using them.
Russia
The Auto Atlas of Russia was by far the best thing we had for our trip across Russia. You'll find having the names written in Russian will help when on the road looking at road signs!
Neil got two CDs which we also found to be excellent – Atlas of Russian Cities, and the Atlas of Russia. These came from Hamilton Global Navigation, Tacoma, WA 98498 USA; ph: 0011(253) 588 4149; email: mktgres@qwest.net; www.mores.com/atlascatolog.
If you could get this to work with OziExplorer (http://www.oziexplorer.com) it would have been great!
The sheet maps of Russia were near useless!
Shipping
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Numerous ferries run from the UK to Norway. Check out:
www.directferries.co.uk/norway.htm
For shipping out of Russia we are using Silverwinds Corporation who have a base in Vladivostok as well as Melbourne.
Silverwinds Shipping
Melbourne:
Contact: Bill Nicoll
Ph: +61 (0)3 9614 6336
Email: silverwind@pacific.net.au
Vladivostok:
Contact: Irene Kazantseva
Email: swind@online.marine.su
Links Ltd - A Great Contact:
We enlisted the support of Yuri Melnikov who is based in Vladivostok (Links Ltd, ph: +7 (902) 524344, Mob: +7 902 524 3447, email: ymelnik@links-ltd.com; web: www.links-ltd.com) to process the paperwork and get our vehicles into the container. He was a great help and can do everything in regard to loading and shipping.
(Yuri stands beside Neil & Rod with Ron)
Courier Services
For sending out stories and getting spare parts we'll again rely on DHL Express. They have offices in dozens of Russian cities right across the country from St Petersburg to Vladivostok.
See: www.dhl.ru
Other Travelling Info
You'll get more idea of shipping, Carnets, Security and health Insurance, etc, from the African Overland section of www.guidebooks.com.au.
See our web site: www.guidebooks.com.au for more details on our vehicles, or for any of our books as well as tips and travel information for traveling remote Outback Australia.
