Endless preparations before we go...

Few weeks ago when i finally agreed to guys, and said that ok, i will come with you. Now i think that might have been an bad idea :D
I _never_ thought that how much of endless internet mining and sleepless nights it will bring to me :/
I've spent now countless sleepless nights searching where to go, what to see, when, and never the less, how to get back from there. The "final" routeplan goes like this so far:

Hämeenlinna, Finland-Turku-Sweden-Denmark-Germany-Belgium-France-Spain-Portugal-Morocco-Mauritania-Mali-Burkina Faso-Ghana-Togo-Benin-Nigeria-Cameroon-Equatorial Guinea-Gabon-Kongo-Angola-Namibia-South Africa

Technically (5 weeks, and 15500km) we have time to drive from here to Cape town, but i think that we're not even trying to get there (we should drive over 500km every single day), unless everything goes perfectly and we have absolutely NO techical problems during the trip. Coz this is holiday trip anyway, it isn't actually so fun to spend whole 5-6 weeks in hellish Land Cruiser trying to stay awake and avoiding all the land mines and cows on the road. So, we drive somewhere where we can get ourselves back to Finland, (i'm happy if we reach Benin) can sell our vehicle there and chill out week or two, before coming back and entering endless squirel wheel.

Some checkpoints from/on the road.

Omaha beach, the legendary beach where Allied forces made their invasion to France. We're driving so closely from here, so this is an must-see after last year visit to Auschwitz.

Eddies Bar in Portugal.. Well, we got Tommi with us.. Need to say more? For now seems that we're spending one day and night in Santa barbara de nexe, Algarve and of course, we're going to see this bar. Seems that it's open only till 02, so we need to find a decent nightclub after that, suggestions are very welcome :)

Tanger, Rabat and Casablanca in Morocco. Those locations are soooooo familiar from outnumbered books and films, need to se them all!

Whole Western Sahara. Need to try boarding there like guys did in Madventures =) in accordance of that camel safari that i've been dreaming...

All capitals in BF, Ghana, Benin and Togo.

The Atlantic ocean. I've never seen it before.

And my favourites, giraffes, antiloops, lions and elephants. Why go to Africa without seeing these?

So, what we have done so far to get there? Because of our team leader employer we can't help him in his work on renovating our Cruiser on his workshop. Juha has serviced (so far) engine, transmission and rebuilded half of the electronics. Old problem, cant-see-through-and-is-something-burning-here-smoke is now gone, oil pressure is on idle now higher than it was previously on 3000RPM and the engine hums like a small kitten! The thing we still have to do for Cruiser is add a air intake from roof level, in case we have to wade over river etc.. Luckily rain seasons are away when we are there :) We're thinking to add additional gas tank and also we need tank for fresh water. Air filter should be also replaced by different one before we can start, i believe that some sand in engine isn't so good thing. And new belt for battery charger. Juha replaced old batteries with new ones, and if we lose charger in France, we still can drive with lights on through the whole africa. Clutch seems now beeing the last thing that we're checking, if we're checking :D that's all about the car.

And what kind preparations we have done to ourselves?

We all four have taken many vaccations, and getting couple more before we go. Most important seems to be against Yellow fever, you can't get into some countries if you don't have it. Hepatitis A+B, meningitis, typhoid fever and cholera. Plus reshots for polio, rabies and tetanus. And then malaria of course.

We all have gathered our own personal gear which is: Few t-shirts, underwears, shorts, longer pants, sandals and better shoes that we can use if we need to walk around longer trips (i prefer on CAT). Cell phones and credit cards. Sleeping bag. Backpack where we can fit our whole remains if car fails somewhere. We are trying to keep our personal gear as minimun as we can. Coz reality is that we're heading on road with ancient Toyota and anything can /will happen. And more or less gear to carry after breakdown, i prefer on choosing the less.

As i allready said before i've done many sleepless nights now searching for info and info and info. And i still don't got it enough. I still lack in some information about Visas to few countries (basically where and when obtain them), and excact info where we can sell that vehicle. I don't really want to get 3000€ bill from the Autoliitto... So if anyone knows good car dealers in countries along our road, please feel free to let us know.

Yep, thats it for now. I'll keep on infodigging :)

Edit1:

I really forgot to mention that we're staying over nights in tents, car is full so there is no space for taking it easy. And now, we're not planning to make our cruiser anykind camping-vehicle like some other people has done..