Lodzi Personal Preparations

    Carnet de Passages en Douane a document required to permit temporary import of a vehicle into various countries. Dependant on destinations a guarantee of between 100-500% of the value of the vehicle is required.
    You are issued with paperwork that needs to be completed on all border crossings and is then lodged on return of the vehicle to the UK to release the guarantee.
    Contact the RAC Travel Research team, who are extremely helpful with information and advice to guide you through the process.

    International Driving Permits also acquired through the RAC and recommended for any international driving. It is a small book with details translated into various languages.

    International Certificate for Motor Vehicles another document acquired from the RAC, and although not a necessity, it is not expensive to get and is nice and official looking and may aid those tricky border crossings.

    Vaccination Certificates. To travel to Tanzania last year we needed a Yellow Fever vaccination for which we went to 1st Contact travel clinic, so it was logical for us to go back to them to get the rest of our jabs done and get our certificate booklet filled in. We were able to get them all done at a time convenient to ourselves and they were reasonably priced.

    Travel Insurance. We have to admit that neither of us are strong believers in insurance. No matter how comprehensive they claim to be there always seems to be a get out clause which leaves you asking why you bothered in the first place. But there is always that 'if' factor so we did some surfing and eventually went with Gap Year Travel Insurance.

    Visas. Before leaving the only visa we needed to apply for was for Venezuala, and this was only because we did not have a return flight out. The process only took a couple of days. Will keep you updated as we go as I'm sure we will be applying for more!

    Inventory. This is a comprehensive list of all personal items that we are carrying in the vehicle. (Hopefully translated into Spanish & Portuguese.) This list was required for the shipping of the vehicle and it was suggested by fellow travellers that we keep a few copies handy for border crossings.

    Emergency Contact List. This included specific travel advice and consulate contacts for all countries, which we obtained from the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office website. Again we printed a few copies of these and left them with our various base contacts.

    Other copies that we took with us included the following:-

Passport ID pages & Birth Certificates
Drivers Licences - British & International
Car documentation copies of originals
Copy of Insurance documents
40 Passport Photos each!!