[DicKy]

A group of five youngsters travelled from Saudi Arabia to Kerala in their SUV.
15000 kms, in 45 days covering 8 countries.

Couldn't find any other source, other than Manorama, so excuse the Malayalam write-up.
From the pics i am sure it is a Lexus GX (rich twin of Prado)
http://www.manoramaonline.com/cgi-bi...uram&BV_ID=@@@

[joybhowmik]

Thanks Dicky. As you are from Trivandrum, could you possibly help with the translation. Looks like Google translate could not come close - because of the different character encoding.
I don't think this is something that the English dailies have picked up yet.

I am most interested to know about the specific route they took from Saudi Arabia.

[mroptimist]

Mathrubhumi has reported in English.

They drove Saudi to Malappuram in 45 days

Malappuram: They set a target to travel from Saudi Arabia to Malappuram, Kerala in a car spread wonders among their friends and relatives. The four-member gang covered 15,000 kilometers crossing nine countries to reach Malappuram safely the other. They covered UAE, Iran, Turkmenistan, Kirghizstan, China, Tibet, Nepal and India in their 45 day travel. The members say that except for Indian and Nepal roads, the other roads gave them smooth and easy ride.

Here is the link.

http://mathrubhuminews.in/ee/ReadMor...appuram-by-car

[joybhowmik]

Originally Posted by mroptimist

Mathrubhumi has reported in English.

They drove Saudi to Malappuram in 45 days

Malappuram: They set a target to travel from Saudi Arabia to Malappuram, Kerala in a car spread wonders among their friends and relatives. The four-member gang covered 15,000 kilometers crossing nine countries to reach Malappuram safely the other. They covered UAE, Iran, Turkmenistan, Kirghizstan, China, Tibet, Nepal and India in their 45 day travel. The members say that except for Indian and Nepal roads, the other roads gave them smooth and easy ride.

Here is the link.

http://mathrubhuminews.in/ee/ReadMor...appuram-by-car

Based on ^^^ just a rough sketch with the countries they must have gone through. It's not a route map though


1)
Interestingly they would have done a sea crossing between UAE and Iran. Not sure how they managed to do that. The alternative of traveling to Jordan, Lebanon and then sea-route to Turkey, would have been longer by far.

2)
The article does not mention Uzbekistan. And yet, they must have gone through Samarkand (on the old silk route).

3) The proffered line through China is a bad approximation. What I am most interested to find out is , do the Chinese government allow Carnet?

IIRC, the British Land Rover team had driven to India -via China. But that was a very high profile trip.

[rajesh1868]

Originally Posted by joybhowmik

IIRC, the British Land Rover team had driven to India -via China. But that was a very high profile trip.

Recently a 3 member(which became 2 later) team drove from Kerala to London.
Searched for that here and got this - http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/introd...elhi-road.html

[Sandm4n]

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[joybhowmik]

Originally Posted by rajesh1868

Searched for that here and got this - http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/introd...elhi-road.html

Thanks for the link - I went through Tushar and Pooja's blog in detail. Looks like reply2tushar has not provided added insights since then.

Here's the highlight from the land rover trip to Mumbai... interesting to see they had the same issues as ^^^

In an extreme engineering validation test, they set off from Land Rover's UK home at Solihull to drive the 16,800km extended Silk Trail, arriving in Mumbai, India, 53 days later. The mission took the vehicles through Europe and into Central Asia, passing the mythical Silk Trail cities of Bukhara and Samarkand on their way to the ultimate challenge – the Himalayas.
In the high altitudes of the Tibetan plateau, the Range Rover Hybrids entered a technical unknown. Pushed into thinning air at 5,000m, the reduced atmospheric pressure challenged engines and cooling systems, and the Land Rovers’ occupants too. More than a third of the 14-strong group suffered headaches, and two needed bursts of oxygen.

Wonder what the guys from KSA had to face - they must have driven through all kinds of terrain to get here (including the scorching middle eastern desert)

[rajesh1868]

And this is the FB page of the trip I was mentioning about (Kerala to London)
https://www.facebook.com/RecordDrive?pnref=story