The route

The route

We will be travelling through 22 countries.

• United Kingdom
• France
  • Road condition: excellent, expensive toll gates
  • Cost of diesel: EUR1.06 in towns EUR1.32 along the motorway
• Germany
  • Road condition: excellent, no toll gates
  • Cost of diesel: EUR1.16
• Austria
  • Road condition: excellent, vignette must be bought at the petrol station, it's like a prepaid toll fee. 4 day vignette cost EUR7.90 secondary road are windy and slighty icey, the road signs were frosted over making navigating difficult.
  • Cost of diesel: 99 cents/Ltr
• Hungary
• • Road Conditions: Good, we drove on the truck routes which were bumpy and potholed in places.
  • Cost of Diesel: 299 forint about 1,12 Euro 
• Romania
  • Road conditions: poor, big pot holes. Vienette must be bought at the border when you enter the country (EUR 3.35) and again when you leave (EUR 6.3).
  • Cost of diesel: 3.95 Lei about 1.09 Euro
• Bulgaria
  • Road conditions: Very good, except for the roads between Sozopol and the Turkish border along the South coast
  • Cost of diesel: 1.92 Lev about 1 Euro
• Turkey
  • Road conditions: Very good
  • Cost of diesel: between 3.06 Lira and 2.61 Lira. Each garage seems to have their own prices. So shop around!
• Syria
  • Road conditions: good
  • Cost of diesel: 20 Sirian pounds per litre. It cost around £20 (GB) to fill our tank.
• Jordan
  • Road conditions: good, but beware of the unmarked speed bumps
  • Cost of diesel: JD 0.50 per litre.
• Egypt
  • Road conditions: good, some patches of roads accross the Sinai Peninsula are still being built
  • Cost of diesel: E£1.10 per litre. This is the cheapest fuel you'll get on this route, so fill up your jerries!
• Sudan
  • Road conditions: Very good, newly built thanks to the Chinese
  • Cost of diesel: S£1.00 per litre.
• Ethiopia
  • Road conditions: Very good, newly built thanks to the Chinese. Deteriorates between Aswan and Moyale. Roads constantly filled with goats, donkeys, camels, cows, people etc. Plan to go slow in Ethiopia, especially in the villages.
  • Cost of diesel: 10.7 Birr per litre.
• Kenya
  • Road conditions: Very crap between Moyale and Isiolo, shock destroying and bone thumping! Roads are being built between Marsabit and Isiolo.
  • Cost of diesel: KSH 75 per litre. 
• Tanzania
  • Road conditions: Roads between the border and Tanga are poor sand roads.
  • Cost of diesel: TSH1500 per litre. 
• Malawi
  • Road conditions: Good roads, tar all the way. 
  • Cost of diesel: 231 Kwacha. 
• Mozambique
  • Road conditions: Eish! Parts of the road are good , almost newly built. Part of the road is bad tar, so bad that you drive on the sand next to the tar. There is about 50km stretch of bad road between Vilancolous and Maxixe.
  • Cost of diesel: 30Mt per litre. 

With less than 4 months to get to Mozambique, the first leg of our trip will be quite a push. After our wedding, we plan to head North-East to Malawi. There after we plan to travel pole-pole (Swahili for slowly, slowly), take our time and soak in Africa. We plan to end our journey by driving around the South African coast and by ending our journey in Johannesburg.

13.12.09

We have also since decided to include a detour to include Uganda. Don has been in contact with an old friend that lives there and has invited us to visit. This will all be depending on how we are getting on as the first leg of  our journey will be on a tight schedule. Heather has particularly always wanted to see Uganda, so we will be pushing for this.

I will try to get a better map to put on this page. This is our first attempt at a web site, so apologies for the rookie pics.

27.12.09

Finally worked out how to insert a better map. Thanks Tam for your help :)