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Comment by hiharryhere | Hacker News Reader

Found this map of their route... (reuploaded to imgur to save the little website I found it on from being slashdotted).

Whoah, that's pretty hardcore. Across the length of Africa, through China and Tibet to India, etc. Even things like island hopping across Indonesia, which only occupy a few pixels on the map, are logistical nightmares.

The main one I see there is they appear to have crossed the Darien Gap between Central and South America. Last time I checked this was not easy!

I presume they took a ferry across the gap like everybody else, the actual Gap is effectively impassable for anything larger than two wheels and very dangerous to boot due to various narcos/militias operating in the area.

Is it simple for everyone else? When I was looking into going north from South America to Panama a few years ago, it seemed like there wasn't even any sort of regular ferry service, and if you wanted to move a vehicle you had to attempt to negotiate with cargo shipping companies.

Perhaps things have changed :)

Yes, that is indeed the case. My vague understanding, though, is that negotiating passage by sea on a cargo ship is not particularly difficult, it's just expensive.

> Even things like island hopping across Indonesia, which only occupy a few pixels on the map, are logistical nightmares.

I used to be so much into this kind of travelling, I already feel like I hold back so much on what kind of trips/destinations we choose to do now because of kids.

I can't even imagine myself doing such a hardcore trip with 4x kids. It looks like they timed their pregnancies to be on locations with good healthcare but still these guys really are wonderers in the most beatiful sense of the word.

I wonder when they went to Tibet, AFAIK the current law (well, before Covid closed everything down) to visit Tibet for foreigners is that they can only do so as a tour group with a guide, so, no solo trips. But when I was there, I met Westerners biking from Lhasa to Nepal, of course with a guide, so maybe their car could've been escorted along the way.

Things were much looser in the good old days, people used to explore Tibet solo and even hitchhike. But this became effectively impossible after the riots in 2008 led the PRC to crack down.

For what it's worth, even now the guide can ride along with you in your car, they don't necessarily need their own wheels.

Yea I extremely highly doubt that they drove through the Darién Gap

I like how they carefully avoid France :)

Huh… imgur flagged this pic as explicit and I couldn’t see why. Then I noticed the circles… this is funny.

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