Status Update:

Current location: Bochum / Germany

50 countries, 1226 days, trip mileage: 124200 km

16 May 2008

Carnet de Passage

Went to the ADAC headquarters in Munich today to pick up my Carnet de Passage for the motorcycle. The Carnet is kind of like a 'visa for vehicles' and is mandatory for a number of countries, including Iran, Pakistan and Australia. (I can't recall the complete list of countries where the carnet is needed – if you're preparing a similar trip, check with your local vehicle association – or better: try the forums on Horizons Unlimited).

After pre-arranging a meeting time at the ADAC, the whole process was very straight-forward and only took about 45 minutes, with a bond of €3000 paid in cash. I'm lucky to have German nationality/residency (and a German bank-account, so the bond can be paid back once I finished my travels): because the bond for the ADAC is relatively cheap compared to the UK RAC's equivalent, the ADAC was very popular for UK-based motorcycle travellers for quite a while. In the UK, the deposit/bank-guarantee for a carnet can be up to 8x the value of your vehicle, depending on what countries you'd like to travel through. However, the ADAC recently stopped issuing carnets for non-German residents – rumours say the RAC wasn't too happy about losing business.