YOUTUBE LINKS FOR VIDEO CLIPS WE HAVE POSTED:

48 HOURS IN OMAN
China video clip
Vietnam video clip
Marine Expedition in Japan
Morocco scenes
Benin oil rig dive
Senegal underwater fun images
Norway video clip

DRIVING STATS PDF UPDATED: (check out all the fuel costs, kilometers per liter our car has done , BRIBES, POLICE STOPS, CAR WHEEL PROBLEMS…… YOU KNOW THE USUALL ALL IN THE PDF).

Driving and diving statistics (distances, fuel used, fuel cost, km/L etc) and all available on the PDF attached below. For any further details please feel free to contact us directly, it would be a pleasure to help.

DRIVING STATS FOR THE MARINE RESOURCE EXPEDITION

TOTAL DRIVING KILOMETERS:

• 1 year after the start of the expedition, almost to the minute, (departed SA on the 25^th of August 2008 at 10.20am) we crossed the Arctic Circle in Norway (arrived on the 25^th of August 2009 at 10.25 am).
• 51,391km of shipping and countless others on train plane and foot, the final stats of the expedition will be uploaded shortly!!!!

UPDATED: ALL OUR DIVES LOGGED, DEPTHS, DIVE TIME WATER TEMPERATURE, DIVE TYPE ETC ALL ON THIS PDF, HAVE A LOOK AND CONTACT US IF YOU HAVE ANY FURTHER DIVING QUERIES:

EXPEDITION DIVE LOG 2

DRIVING THROUGH RUSSIA

(Please contact us for further details as to GPS maps, printed maps, GPS positions, routes, tracks, hotels, road side camping etc).

Many folks have asked how are we driving through Russia, what are the road like etc. So we will detail each individual leg as we experience it.

We are going to give the best possible details for crossing Russia as when we looked we could hardly find a thing:

One thing to remember, Russians are friendly once the communication gap is broken and as we have found out, extremely hospitable.

Vyborg: Border crossing from Finland into Russia.

The Finnish side was simple, no car checks just the passport stamping, having a South African passport required some extra scrutiny, especially since they did not think that we had driven from South Africa.

The Russian side was very orderly. We crossed on a Sunday at 8am. The border opens at 7 am and there was no traffic. The customs did not know what to do with us, but they were friendly and tried to help. We had 10 customs officials try understand what we were doing. They did have a person who spoke English, so we were lucky. Generally the Russian border folks don’t speak English, but they are helpful. Our car was searched, as expected and our documents organized:

Documents required:

Have your original car papers, they will then issue with a Russian document with your car details on it. This is the document you must not loose (it looks like a certificate) and you must return it to customs when you leave the country with your vehicle. A Carnet does not work for Russia, you do not need it. It can be useful to show them car details on the Carnet, but they will not stamp the document. Once you have this document you are free to go. There will be a second police check about 200 meters down the road, just to look at your passport. In your passport you are given a small white piece of paper, this is to show that you have been registered at the border, don’t loose it, staple it into your passport, as whenever the police stop you it must be present with your passport.  Don’t worry when you hand in your passport the officials prepare the document for you.

So drive about 10 km from the border and there will be a fuel station on your right hand side, just before another police stop. Here you can buy car insurance, which will cost 2300 Rubles for a month. Also next to the insurance kiosk is a money exchange counter with reasonable exchange rates. Once you have changed money, got your insurance and your car document for customs, and have your passport stamped you are free to go. Remember to check into a hotel within 72 hours to be registered and keep your receipts as hotels have stopped stamping registration into passports. They can print your online registration forms for you, and keep them to prove your route of travel.

(Speeds are based on our expedition vehicle, a Toyota land Cruiser with 3 ton approximate weight). Also we are crossing during September and October, so depending on weather speeds and times may change).

Fuel is readily available. Diesel prices range from 13 to 19 Rubles, which is really cheap. Also fill up at larger fuel stations as there is less change of fuel contamination. Certain fuel stations have sleep over truck stops, which are ok, as they are fenced off and have security. Don’t sleep on your own on the road side, the locals don’t.

CHECK OUT THE PDF DOCUMENT OF DRIVING THROUGH RUSSIA, ALL DISTANCES, FEUL, ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW REALLY IN THIS DOCUMENT….

DRIVING THROUGH RUSSIA PDF

A traffic jam after an accident with 3 trucks. On our route we observed  plenty of serious accidents, I would imagine through driver fatigue.

Some of our more stupid moments:

1. Mike catching malaria,recovering, and then a week later linda going down with it. Leaving one person to do the interviews and diving at any given time.
2. Being pulled over by a cop at the very last second, and then being fined a hell of allot of money for not indicating before we had to quickly pull over to avoid running over the cop. in a desert…with no other cars around for miles.
3. Eating camel hump raw…….
4. Not stopping at a stop sign (even though no one else was either) right in front of a cop.
5. using pot plants for a braai
6. Not realizing two men standing on the side of the road with park uniforms on, even though there is no sign of a park whatsoever, might in fact NOT be park officials.
7. Having a shooter with a Beninese Voodoo priest
8. sleeping nexto a mosque with extremely large speakers
9. Driving past a hostel we were going to camp in FOUR times , each time recognizing the road and then continuing driving into an hour long traffic que in each direction with no way to make a U-Turn.
10. A mention must be made of a bright cop we had in senegal who was determined to fine us for having faulty break lights. It was only after we got out of the car and examined the lights ourselves did we, and him,realize that he was checking out or reflector strip instead of our lights.
11. Being mistaken for drug addicts by every drug peddler in sight in Essoueria market ( we had not showered for four days…a clue maybe)
12. Paying 90 euros for a fish in Portugal. there were six of us sharing, but no one remembered to check the price before we all dug in.
13. Attending a “african music night” which turned out to be some poor sap waffeling on about ‘his life’s work’. no music, but he did manage to make a few people sneak out, banged the microphone constantly with either his head or his hand as he tried to explain boring stats, and confused the hell out of the spanish translator by not following his lecture.
14. Arriving at a ‘nudist beach only’…clothed
15. Singing in French
16. Having to pronounce everything with a lisp in Spain, in order to be able to be understood. (ask mike to say ” I need to go to the a6 interchange if you ever get a chance…it’s hilarious!!)
17. Getting bounced from a teenage club in madrid, for wearing flip flops.
18. Arriving for three separate tourist attractions on three separate days, all when they were closed.
19. Driving though Senegal on Mohammed’s birthday. The issues was navigating though thousands of celebrating religious folks… DO NOT EVER DO THIS if you value your sanity.
20. Drinking wine with russian tourists….there mean even outside of their country, you have been warned.
21. Linda for fixing the camera together with the button which controls the shoot function in the incorrect position, on a excellent dive.
22. Mike, Despite having “learnt the hard way” never to drive on the side of a water logged road in Gabon……….did, again, and we got stuck for another 6 hours….again.
23. Linda diving in Benin (3 hour one way boat ride) with gastroenteritis.
24. Having only 1 spade and trying to drive through central Africa in the wet season…… hindsight.
25. Driving through the desert thinking your solar panels are charging, and then when you ask a German for help you discover they are not working… After dismantling the whole electric system, then finding there was a switch next to the light which when turned ON made the solar panels work.
26. Linda deleting all the Cameroon footage off the camera before we downloaded it. Luckily we managed to retrieve it again, after some help from our Mexican friends.
27. Letting a catholic nun charge you 20 US dollars a night for accommodation.
28. Leaving the diesel inlet screw loose after fitting a new fuel filter and wondering why to start the car I had to pump the fuel for 5 minutes before there was enough fuel in the engine to start the car (often done in the rain for more than 3 weeks)… then wondering why we had a fuel leak and where it was coming from.
29. Eating at a fancy Indian restaurant and then spending the next two days with chronic dysentery, with no toilet, camping in a parking lot of a boat club.
30. Not changing local currency before entering Ghana, then having no money for accommodation and having to bribe police to change dollars at a black market price.
31. Nearly letting Mike loose some teeth in a altercation over a cabbage sandwich with a corrupt Russian police official with gold teeth and a knuckle duster.
32. Minus 5 in Siberia
33. Not having a single accident with the vehicle , then arriving in Dubai and trying to squeeze past a truck at a stop street, resulting in the entire side window being smashed and the window frame cut in two pieces with two huge gashes in the frame of the canopy…the day before we were to leave for oman.
34. Arriving in beijing at 11 at night, wearing flip flops and shorts, during a snow storm and minus 8 and then having to run around some back streets looking for our house for the night.
35. eating sushi pork
36. Indian tuk tuk drivers………….headaches…..the first price is always 100 times the real price
37. being held hostage to a tour guide while trying to see the great wall of china, for the entire day and only seeing the wall for three hours of that day.
38. Navigating Japans railway with six bags at peak rush hour
39. Loosing Elise at the airport in Dubai, and all three of us running between terminal 1 and the bus stop in town from 4 in the morning till 7 ,w hen we all found each other.
40. Driving the car into the back of a truck and destroying the window and fiberglass of the modification.
41. Pumping up the air suspension after 7 months of not using it as it was broken, to find it is working perfectly.
42. linda’s tooth falling out in Vietnam.
43. being so exhausted after a mammoth filming sessions in Hong Kong and being so tired that we left a bag , with a tripod, mikes only jersey and a few crafts, in the airport lounge.
44. rain in kenya…for 40 days of our 50 days we spent filming there
45. having to do the linkoni ferry in Mombassa- over 20 times-on foot, with camera bags. Anyone who has done this in summer will be wincing at this point.
46. having the laptop stolen from a moving train in the middle of the night and NOT having some photographs from Oman backed up…..much crying and gnashing of teeth.
47. ponte do oro mozambique, what a hole                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      FINES AND TRAFFIC OFFENSES COMMITTED AS WE HAVE PROGRESSED:

1. Senegal: Not stopping at a non-existent stop sign – 5000 CFA paid to cop.
2. Senegal: Fined for not indication when been pulled over by a cop – 12 000 CFA paid to cop
3. Ghana: Speeding, 4km over speed limit. Fine dropped from 500 Cedi to 100 Cedi, paid to cop. Friend got caught in same trap, she paid 10 Cedi.
4. Norway: Missed automatic tolls in, not understanding what they are – 200 Krowns.
5. Spain: Parking ticket in the first 15 minutes of arriving – 40 Euros, never paid.
6. Norway: Speeding, only just – fine never paid.
7. Russia: many roubles, for turning left down a road that was ‘apparently’ labeled as a no left turn,no way out of it.
8. actually got out of a speeding fine In Russia,played dumb tourist.
9. Nearly lost teeth to corrupt cop in Siberia, over a cabbage sandwich….. getting desperate.
10. Japan, caused chaos parking our huge car in all illegal parking spots…. got out of it though.
11. Just getting through Mumbai traffic…..wow.

Quick tip for paying a fine/bribe at police stops on the side of the road:

1. Always have loose change or small coins available, best place is an obvious one, like on the dashboard.
2. Pick up the small coins or notes and examine them in plain view of every one.
3. Ask the cop what it is and how much it is worth; drag out the process as long as possible.
4. Hand the cop one note or coin at a time, counting loud, pretend you are the worst mathematician ever to have walked the earth.
5. Because you do this as obviously as possible and the cop wants to be paid discretely you most of the time get away with paying literally nothing.
6. Act dumb and remember ignorance is bliss
7. Oh and obviously hand over the cash in sight of everyone, the cop hates that and will want you to leave as soon as possible.
8. The cop is always right, make him feel like the king of the asphalt, then direct the conversation to directions to the next place, they often forget about the fine.
9. Finally always ask for a receipt and cop name and number as proof of payment (they don’t like this), cops on the road side do not have receipts, so often you can be let off.

FOR THE EQUIPMENT ENTHUSIASTS: (WHAT WE ARE PACKING)

List of expedition equipment that we are dragging along with us:

Camera equipment:

1. Canon 20D still camera (with wide angle, fish eye, 200mm zoom and macro lenses), with Ikelite housing and strobe.
2. Canon Rebel XTI camera.
3. 2 x Sony HDSR12 High definition handy cameras with Ikelite housing and light.
4. Sony EX1 high definition video camera (epic camera).
5. Manfrotter tripod for the EX1 camera.

Diving equipment:

1. 2x 12l steel tanks.
2. Halcyon back-plate and Dive rite wings.
3. Oceanic back inflation BCD.
4. Combination of regulators.
5. Scuba Pro dry suite (Tri-lamination)
6. DUI dry suite (Tri-lamination)
7. Weight belts, old school ones.
8. Masks, fins and gloves of various brands.

Computer and backup of media equipment:

1. 2x Mac book Pro 15 inch computers.
2. Final Cut Pro software for editing.
3. Transfer software for the EX1 camera.
4. Triplicate 1TB Lacie hard drives for media back up, which we send back staggered to South Africa.
5. HP Compaq computer and HP printer/scanner/copier for all the documents.
6. 10 million random cables, which we struggle to manage.
7. All the plug convertors, essential.