Planning a long-distance trip overland

I recently spent some time humphing over the popularity of companies such as OzBus and the newly launched Buddha Bus over at Gadling — personally not understanding their popularity or people’s motivation to opt for such trips. There are other better options (in my opinion), and who better to take pointers from than long-distance overland travel guru Peter Moore.

He has a new travel-feature in the Guardian where he summarizes his — eight months, 25 countries, 13 boats, 34 buses, 16 trains, 21 minivans, six car rides — trip from London to Sydney, and reinforces the glory of land-based travel by public transport. Other than the obvious environment-friendly status it holds, Moore says:

The beauty of traveling overland is that all you need is a point A, a point B and a rough idea of how to get between them. How you do the journey is entirely up to you. I decided to do the 28,000km trip by public transport, figuring that it would be easier to strike up a conversation with the locals with one of their goats on my lap than pass by cocooned in my car or motorcycle.

Other advantage of using public transport on long journeys include no need to organize car-insurance carnets and no need to lug around spare parts. The main disadvantage of such travel is how impossible it is to do in ideal climatic conditions the whole way. But as Moore rightly says, any mishap or delay on the road if taken positively in your stride can be most rewarding aspects of your journey.

The article also cites four overland travel-options worth considering:

• Capetown to Cairo
• London to Cape Town
• The Silk Road
• The Pan American Highway

You can read the full piece here.