Talk:Round the world overland

4,5 years long (sort of) RTW in an almost 30 year old bus
 "38 countries and 90000 km — the express finally returns to Finland. The express around the world - project will come to an end on may day on Salo market square, the place from where it started almost four and a half year ago." Sadly Google translate produces rather hilarious Finglish, but you can always look at the pictures...

Anyways I thought it would be interesting to share, as it's quite a feat to pull off such a trip. ϒpsilon (talk) 17:50, 27 April 2015 (UTC)


 * Hey, their blog actually also includes some English information :) ϒpsilon (talk) 18:00, 27 April 2015 (UTC)

Criticism
Do more people share the criticism expressed in this edit summary? And should the VfD discussion in question be transcluded to this here talk page? Hobbitschuster (talk) 22:13, 16 July 2018 (UTC)
 * A "transclusion" would be the insertion of text as a MediaWiki template; I don't think that's what's wanted. Moving the original discussion here from Votes for deletion/August 2017 might be reasonable. In any case, I look at that discussion and it looks like I'd already raised the issue that "round the world overland" directly contradicts a definition of "overlanding" as "travel without flights or boats" – they're different, mutually-exclusive concepts to the point where this should not have been merged in this way. Those concerns were ignored. The few other comments which were made, if they advocated any form of merger, had the 'merge' running in the opposite direction (so 'overlanding' as destination). No idea why this was done this way, or at all. K7L (talk) 01:54, 19 July 2018 (UTC)
 * I agree that the current state is confusing. I suppose the different kinds of travel now included should be split to separate articles, but not necessarily before somebody starts working on one of them, only then choosing the most suitable title for the article being written. If it is "round the world overland" that gets written first, then the rest of this should be moved to some other suitable name. The General considerations section is relatively well developed, but not written to stand on its own. The rest is useful, but feels like random remarks. As no good article can be created by just rearranging the stuff, I think there is not problem with all of it being in this one place for the time being. --LPfi (talk) 09:14, 23 July 2018 (UTC)

Scope
So the confusion remains. Reading today's edit, I wonder whether tour companies arranging long tours in Africa is what this article is supposed to be about. Even Finland to Berlin by bus with guide and accommodation is overlanding, As is Frankfurt to Berlin by train!

The added (and removed) links were of course about journeys that tried to keep most of the feel of an adventure, but made secure and comfortable. I am not sure that is our niche, and probably not what those clicking Round the world overland expect.

From the linked blog article:
 * "Nowadays, neither Vivian nor Ken would dream of sending clients on an overland trip without a day-to-day detailed itinerary. Before stepping foot on a truck you’ll know where you’re going, where you’re staying, and all the stops and activities in between."

So I think we have to make a decision on scope, as otherwise we may have good-faith editors adding stuff that we really do not want to have here. "By tour" could be added to Africa, but we should decide whether we want it here, there, or at all.

--LPfi (talk) 09:28, 6 February 2020 (UTC)

Removing Australia via New Guinea and the Torres Strait Islands?
I added a sentence, but I'm a bit skeptical of whether these two paragraphs should stay.

"A hypothetical route into Australia, not spoken about much is via the Torres Strait Islands (Disclaimer, this was not attempted by the writer but was researched extensively). Separating Daru, Papua New Guinea and Thursday Island is approximately 150 km of water. While no commercial boats connect them, it is legal for Torres Strait Islanders to freely travel between the Torres Strait Islands (Australia) and PNG. You could hire a captain to sail between the two, or kayak it yourself between Daru and Saibai Island.

The main difficulty is reaching Daru from Indonesia as it may involve traversing the entire PNG coastline to reach it. It may be possible to reach Daru from Merauke but you may not be able to cross the border into PNG from here ( seems to hint there is, but check with official sources). It is possible to cross the border at Jayapura on the north-side of Papau but reaching Daru may be very difficult as it would involve many many ferry rides to reach even Port Moresby. Air travel is the primary means of travel between towns and cities in PNG."

I've been researching this endlessly but nearly all of this info is unconfirmed. These are some issues with this route:
 * "reaching Daru from Merauke" – the problem here is not the lack of a border crossing, but the lack of overland access to both Daru and Merauke. Having extensively looked at OSM, not a single road from Merauke leaves Papua Selatan (a new Indonesian province)
 * Likewise, Jayapura is also not connected to the western parts of the New Guinea, though OSM claims there's a ferry route to Jayapura from Nabire
 * Once you've entered PNG from its northern border, you'll need to go all the way around. There are no roads that cut through the PNG Highlands, and traversing the New Guinean Highlands is possibly one of the most dangerous things one could do. That means that you'd need to traverse the entire coastline as the article mentions, but there is nothing east of the Sepik River. There is a road a few kilometres east of the Mandang border, but you'll need to travel 86 km as the crow flies, and realistically, this is next-to-impossible. 4WDing through PNG's thick jungle without adequate equipment would be a death sentence.
 * Once you reach Lae, the only "road" that connects Lae (south)east is the road to Wau. Once you've reached Wau, the only roads are the tracks to inland villages – places that travellers wouldn't want to meander in. Not a single road connects Wau to PNG's southern coast.
 * Even if you make it to PNG's southern coast, you again face the same issue travelling to Daru. Not a single piece of infrastructure to Daru.
 * Perhaps the most important one of all, " it is legal for Torres Strait Islanders to freely travel between the Torres Strait Islands (Australia) and PNG. You could hire a captain to sail between the two, or kayak it yourself between Daru and Saibai Island " is blatantly misleading. As far as I'm aware, only those who are officially Indigenous Torres Strait Islanders as defined by the Australian and Queensland governments, can freely cross the border between the two countries. That means that you, I, and most travellers using Wikivoyage are ineligible to cross the straits past Saibai and Boigut (both of which are only 3 km from PNG's southern coast) and we cannot advocate allowing travellers to illegally cross a border per our Illegal activities policy. The Torres and council website also has nothing about a border crossing.

Given that this whole blob of text is purely speculation, I would remove it. It's practically unreasonable for the most part, if not impossible. Until there is some trace of someone actually attempting this route on the internet, then we could possibly consider, but as it stands, it's pure speculation.

Other thoughts? -- SHB2000  (talk &#124; contribs &#124; meta) 11:28, 15 September 2022 (UTC)


 * From a map on the world the route seems feasible, so I think we shouldn't just remove the paragraphs, but rewrite, including your observations. Are there international ports in the area, where arriving by boat would be allowed (which would make crossing legal and perhaps feasible with local fishermen)? Are there routes foreign craft are allowed to use? Are there routes commonly used by round-the-world yachters (so that you could find a boat to "hitchhike" with?). –LPfi (talk) 08:13, 16 September 2022 (UTC)
 * re: "Are there international ports in the area, where arriving by boat would be allowed (which would make crossing legal and perhaps feasible with local fishermen)?" Not really. The islands and the Cape York Peninsula are both pretty remote on top of the fact that all road access is cut off for around four months of the year, it's unlikely to happen within the 21st century. Local fishermen can freely cross per treaty, but only up to the 9°N line. The simple matter of fact is, it's almost impossible to get into Australia using a yacht or a private boat (keeping in mind that the navy rigorously patrols these northern areas). SHB2000  (talk &#124; contribs &#124; meta) 09:32, 16 September 2022 (UTC)
 * Over here non-Schengen yachts have to follow customs routes to a cost guard station or a harbour with suitable facilities (I'd expect any harbour with international shipping would do). To what degree the coast guard patrols is irrelevant if you comply with the regulations; the question is what those regulations are. Are there harbours that international yachts are allowed to visit? Can you enter the country through them? If so, I assume you are allowed to enter also using services of the fishermen. –LPfi (talk) 16:45, 16 September 2022 (UTC)

FYI: He visited all 195 countries without flying. It nearly broke him.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/08/07/visit-every-country-without-flying/ —Justin ( koavf ) ❤T☮C☺M☯ 01:11, 9 August 2023 (UTC)


 * Wow, absolute mad lad. Veracious (talk) 04:13, 11 September 2023 (UTC)