I was often asked which route I was actually planning to take to drive the landcruiser back. The planning process wasn’t that simple regarding visa issues, entering foreign soil with your own vehicle and numerous other governmental regulations. SThat’s why it took a bit longer to come up with the route. But now I finally want to show you my final route from Australia to Germany.

Original idea

My original plan in January 2018 was to ship the car to Singapore. Colleagues said that I should only ship the car to Indonesia and then take ferries across the islands. But that was too unsafe and adventurous for me. I know Indonesia and know that there are not reliable car ferry connections everywhere. So Singapore. From there I wanted to drive through Malaysia to Thailand. Maybe with a side trip to Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. From Thailand it should go north to Myanmar/Burma, India, Pakistan and Iran to Turkey. Well, and it’s not far from Istanbul to Central Europe. I’ve always loved Southeast Asia! And every country on this southern route has a special charm. And there are still quite some places left that I haven’t been to.

My initially planned route from Singapore through Southeast Asia

That plan was history already in February 2018. In the first conversation with a visa office, I was advised that this is probably not the best route for two reasons. On the one hand, there were currently two cases of travelers being denied entry into Myanmar/Burma by car despite having valid visas. The travelers were forced to drive their cars back to Singapore and have them shipped there. On the other hand, driving through large parts of Pakistan requires police assistance from town to town. And who wants to explore a foreign country being escorted several police cars? Therefore, my original plan had to be rescheduled.

The southern route becomes the northern route

I have completely revised the route from Australia to Germany and will unfortunately not drive through any of the originally planned countries in Asia anymore. But that, however, leaves room for new countries. Therefore, the car will now be shipped to Vladivostok. From there I will drive through Siberia (Russia), Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and possibly Uzbekistan. Then I will cross the Caspian Sea by ferry and head through Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia (i.e the Caucasus) to continue on to Turkey. If there is still time, I would like to make a detour to Greece. To stand on the Acropolis was something I dreamed of when I was a teenager. Crossing South Eastern Europe I will head back to Frankfurt am Main. I am very excited about all the places on this route.

My second planning through North Asia

Car shipping

Shortly after my arrival in Australia I was surprised by bad news via email. My forwarder told me, that the vessel that was booked for my car would be delayed by one week. This new arrival date in Russia wouldn’t have matched the dates of my Russian visa that I had received back in Germany already. My visa is valid for exactly 30 days as of June 5th, which was the ship’s original day of arrival. So my forwarder suggested shipping the car earlier than planned. That way it would definitely be in Vladivostok on time. Big thanks to Daniel and the whole team at CollesYoung. Disadvantage: I won’t have that much time for longer tours here in Australia. Oh well.

The land cruiser disappears – container loading

During the loading process the landcruiser was measures, driven in front of a container and then pushed in. Front, rear and side of the wheels were secured with wooden panels screwed to the container floor and the wheeles were lashed with 4 ropes. Finally, the batteries were disconnected. After two and a half hours I was able to check the seal on the closed container. Thanks to Bill and SQS Haulage for a perfect job! By the way, there is just about 20 cm of space on each side between the car and the container wall …

My travel plans during car transportation

Brisbane skyline

What will I do while the car is on the Pacific ocean, traveling from Brisbane to Vladivostok? I will not board the ship together with the landcruiser. That’s usually not possible with container ships anyway. So my plan is to stay here in Brisbane for a few more days. Then I want to take a look at Tonga and Fiji, it is not quite as far from here. Maybe the Philippines … In the meantime there will be enough to report and take pictures of. 🙂 As always, you can follow wherever exactly I am live here on myRoutes. At the beginning of June I will then pick up the Landcuiser in Russia and the long drive will finally start!

I will visit many countries and see a lot of places on this trip. Have any of you ever been to any of these countries? If so, I’d love to hear your experiences and would be grateful for any tips in the comments or via the contact page. Until then…

Cheers, Rüdiger 😎