unURBAN Adventures - Alaska to Argentina to AFRICA!

unURBAN

Adventurer
Espen,
love your post, as always. Down to earth and honest. Best of luck to you both!
I am just back from an enchanting trip with Swiss clients:
http://carlosnpainter.smugmug.com/T...21912/21802147_m3HV58#!i=1738597634&k=MWVZGr9

Harald!! Long time! Hope your dooing good on Baja. Looks like it from the pics, those brought back some pleasent memories.

If you rememember Georg and Andrea from our visit, they are now in Namibia, and on their way north (www.toyotours.com). The orange WV with Franc and Isabel are back home in Switzerland (shipped from Panama). I'm packing the last bits and pieces, and almost on my way into Zarate. Hopfully there will be some more action in our blogs soon... :)

Take care!
Espen
 
I have read every single post thus far in this thread, with rapt attention and baited breath! Kudos to the both of you for you adventurous spirits! I can only imagine how free and terrified and excited and nervous you must feel to pack up your vehicle, wave goodbye to it, and not worry to death about your ability to pick it up at the other end of your (starting) destination (Florida). Then to drive it clear across county into Alaska! And then to drive from the top of the world to the bottom! SO EXCITING! I LOVED looking at all your pictures and reading about your trip updates...thank you so much for sharing with us all! I look forward to reading of your African adventures... recently finished reading the thread of the Belgian couple that drove the Congo back in 2007 I think it was. You, my friends, are certainly LIVING life. I fear sometimes that is a definite drawback to the North-American way of life...we're so consumed with where we want to go that we over-look the getting there. I myself am guilty of it as well. The two fo you seem to be a lovely couple, I feel like friends despite having never met you...will continue reading for your tales from Africa!
 

landcruising

Adventurer
Hi Espen, Great that you are not letting others and yourself drive you nuts. Relax and enjoy. I know it can be hard sometimes, but there is nothing you can do about it. Hope you will have a wonderful experience in Africa. btw - Are you going RoRo or in a box?

Adventurous greetings,
Coen

p.s. I keep wondering why you didn't bother to visit the Guyana's nor Brazil on your trip?
 

WildTreks

Sassy Moose
Welcome to the Wild Coast!!! We're outside PE doing our skydiving certification during the easter hols, let us know if you need any assistance when your truck arrives, got some good connections on the docks here ;)

mvh
Mandi & Chris
 

unURBAN

Adventurer
Hi Ryan,
Thanks for kind words. It sure has been an adventure, and I have to admit I have some trouble imagining life after this trip. We are really looking forward to explore Africa, even if I doubt that I can wirite a story matching the Congo2007 Adventure. That was an amzing read!

And when travelling we try to remind ourselves that adventure always depend on perspective. Coming from Norway we really enjoyed every day of our 7 month ADVENTURE in North America, even if I suspect most of our readers here on ExPo would think about it as tipical "North Amerikan life".. :)

First post from Africa should be in in about a week.
Espen
 

unURBAN

Adventurer
Coen,

Good to hear from you. We ended up shipping roro. The container would be very expensive unless sharing a 40ft. The roro would be about the same as sharing. It also turned out to be a very simple and easy process in Zarate (an hour from Buenos Aires), but it still remains to see what happens in Port Elizabeth. Shouldn't really be a problem, but I expect it will not be cheap. To take a vehicle South Africa is expensive. Other countries are cheaper, but then the flights, both from Argentina and Norway, are cheaper to South Africa than to i.e. Namibia or Mosambique.

And we would of course have loved to explore the Guianas, Surinam, and Brazil. However, for this trip (or period of time) we have a limited budget, and sooner rather than later we will run out of money and have to go back home to Norway for work. We discussed driving the easern route south to Ushuaia, but we decided that if we had to chose we would do the western route (we also arrived in Colombia in the beginning of the rainy season for the North Coast), and that it would be better for our schedule as we had to be in Punta Arenas in time for Malin to fly to Antarctica. So, the short version of a loooong discussion, is that for our remaing 6-9-12 months on the road we had to chose. East Coast of South America or on of the African coasts.

I keep telling my selv that when we do the OTHER African cost sometime in the future, we will ship back across the Atlantic and do the rest of the East Coast and the Amazon. We'll see, we'll see.....

Espen
 

unURBAN

Adventurer
Hey guys!
We'll be there in a couple of days. It will take a little while before the Patrol arrives, though, but it would be fun to meet up! And it WILL be interesting to see how things turn out when we want the car back on the road. Good to know there are friendly connections :)

E

Welcome to the Wild Coast!!! We're outside PE doing our skydiving certification during the easter hols, let us know if you need any assistance when your truck arrives, got some good connections on the docks here ;)
mvh Mandi & Chris
 
Thanks for the reply, Espen!

I am eagerly looking forward to living vicariously through you and Marin as you traverse Africa...so great of you both to share both your experiences as well as beautiful photography. Be safe!
 

sg1

Adventurer
Hi Espen,
As I wrote in my previous post Port Elisabeth is probably the easiest port in SA. It is surprisingly small and quite laid back. Neither our friends nor we had any problem and were on the road within a few days of the ships docking. Could you tell me which shipping line you used because we are thinking of shipping our car from South Africa to South America next year.
Have fun.
Stefan
 

Kuma632

Observer
Thanks for sharing

Recently found ExPo, and this Adventure thread. Excellent!!! Blessed and safe travels.
 

unURBAN

Adventurer
Hi Espen,
As I wrote in my previous post Port Elisabeth is probably the easiest port in SA. It is surprisingly small and quite laid back. Neither our friends nor we had any problem and were on the road within a few days of the ships docking. Could you tell me which shipping line you used because we are thinking of shipping our car from South Africa to South America next year.
Have fun. Stefan

Hi Stefan,
We're in PE now, and Louis is doing a great job! At least now it looks like we can have our Patrol back on the road maybe the same day the vessel arrives. It will depend on the customs services available as the ship docks during the weekend.
We shipped with MOL. Info on www.molroro.com . The challenge would be that the direct route from Zarate to PE is a "one way" route. I think MOL does a loop including North America when sailing from Africa. I'll ask Louis when I talk to him in the weekend.
Thanks for all the info!
E&M
 

sg1

Adventurer
Hi Espen,

great that you ended up with Louis. He is extremly helpful. Tell him that we (the German couple with the grey Ford motorhome who arrived in December) send him our greetings, that we had a wonderful time in South Africa and that our gas adapter also worked in Namibia (he will know what I am referring to). Have fun.
Regards
Stefan
P.S. Did you get my mail with Louis´ address and the copy of the invoice fort port services?
 

roman1987

New member
Hi E&M

Found this thread last week, has been hooked since!!!
Even got my wife hooked on it. Awesome pictures and very good writing.
I'm green with envy! Good luck and safe travels!
 

unURBAN

Adventurer
NEW www.unurban.no

Thanks for comments!

We have been kind of quiet for the last week (we do send tweets, though, so check our webpage as these are picked up and presented there), and this is because we have been working on our web site along with the administrative challenges of changing continents. The vessel with our Patrol is expected in later this afternoon, so we are of course quite exited. Not sure if the custom will process anything in the weekend, so our guess would be back on the road on monday before lunch!

So. I mentioned our webpage (a couple of times.. :) ). We posted this on our unURBAN-blog last night:

"During the long hours of waiting for the Ro-Ro vessel, we've re-designed our www.unurban.no. It was way over-due for an update, and we hope that these small modifications will allow us to post more info a bit more frequently than we have so far. And, yes, we did put in some google ads. Sorry about. Will be removed if it has no practical "effect".

7074563815_26d3bae391_b_d.jpg


Here in Lungile Lodge in Port Elizabeth, our home the last week.

We have also just started printing our own t-shirts, but there is no pressure.... :) Unfortunately, still no book available from the unURBAN adventures.

Most of the news sections on the front page is updated from our blogs, and the pictures are uploaded from our photostream on Flickr. This could have the effect that it will take a few minutes before everything is updated on the front page after we have published it on the blogs or on Flickr. The idea is that we can update our web site without having to program html. We'll see if it works.... And I don't have a Mac so if Mac users see something funny, please let me know.

(the link to the Argentina - South Africa shipping post will be updated as soon as the boat docks)

Now, CHECK IT OUT!!! www.unurban.no

-----------------

And we will of course continue to publish our travel letters here on ExPo as well!
E&M
 

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