Passports & Visas

To make sure we had plenty of pages available and that the passports would be valid the entire time we were on the road, at least for Sharikay it was necessary to get the "super size" passport to allow for the pages it would require for each visa. It will still require that she get additional pages at some point during our travels, but starting with a clean booklet helps out! Eric is fortunate enough to have multiple passports, so he wont have the same problem! As for the visas, we decided to forego getting any visas in advance since some of them are only valid for shorter periods of time. If you plan accordingly getting them a few countries in advance is much easier and helps with one less thing to worry about during the planning process!

Carnet de Passage en Douane

Essentially the passport for your vehicle. A necessary document to even consider an overland trip such as ours. Having both UK and US residency between the two of us, we had our choice of who we wanted to work with, either the RAC in England or the CAA in Canada. We opted for the CAA due to the fact that the percentages required for the guarantee of each country were far less and the requirements to execute the document were in our favor financially. Suzanne Danis, International Documentation Specialist took terrific care of us, through out the whole process - fast, efficient and ready to answer any question you might have - she definitely knows her stuff!

International Driving Permit

When you are planning to drive abroad this is a good thing to have in addition to your US drivers license. Though be sure that your state driver's license doesn't expire while on the road or the IDP will not be valid. The only downfall with the IDP is that it is only valid for one year from the date of issue and if you are planning to travel for more then 1 year like we are, you have to find some way to renew it while on the road. We aren't worried about that for now, we'll just cross that bridge when we get to it!

Insurance

While in the UK and traveling through out the EU, we were able to get Liability coverage from Geico International. Unfortunately the policy would not cover us outside of the EU. Looking into additional policies to pick up where this one leaves off, we found them to be extremely expensive or not available. We've read and been told by many that when accidents happen in Africa, trying to get a proper claim processed is a joke! In most African countries it is also a requirement that you buy 3rd party coverage at the border, which would mean having to pay for insurance twice! With all that in mind, at least for the Africa portion of the trip we have decided to forgo vehicle insurance. Once we are getting ready to leave Africa we will start looking into what policies are best for the rest of the trip.