.: August 2009

07/08/2009

We are now at a small campsite in Malawi right on the lake. The power could go down at any moment, so we'll make this quick. We left Tanzania this afternoon. Richard's sister, Catherine, joined us on Tuesday and we went to a lovely beachside resort with her. Since then, we've made our way from Dar es Salaam to the border. We managed to talk our way out of a speeding fine. Gerhard stumped the cop by asking to see his 'calibration certificate' for the radar gun (which is law in South Africa, but who knows in Tanzania)! The clutch also almost fell off... Heather was driving along and noticed it getting stiff, so Richard had a look underneath and noticed a bolt missing from the clutch. Another hangover from the damn Moyale road!!! At this point we needed to cut a bolt down to fit and realised that our hacksaw was missing - so we used our trusty leatherman. Took a while, but it still worked.

We stayed at some recommended campsites on the way to the border... one of which served us an awesome steak and was right on the river. Our border crossing was incredibly quick (yay!)... let's hope that's a precident for the rest of our trip.

From here we're going to head down the lake slowly and spend another 3 nights just chilling out, then across into Zambia. Probably not going to have any internet (or power possibly!) until then. Almost there, just 3 more countries before SA!!

.: July 2009

02/08/2009 - Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

After we left Arusha (two cameras lighter) we made our way to the coast, taking a few photos of Kilimanjaro on the way. We stopped at the Pangani beach resort for two nights. It's a beautiful spot with a good braai area... we'd found boerewors in Shoprite, so this was fully utilised. Night time was spent fending off a bomber fleet of mosquitoes who didn't seem too phased by our insect repellant.

After Pangani, we headed for Dar es Salaam and got pulled over by a traffic cop on the way. He asked us to show him our fire extinguisher, first aid box, hazard triangle, drivers licenses and car registration. I'm not sure if all of these are a requirement in Tanzania, but you could almost see the disappointment on his face when we started producing all of the items. After he realised he wasn't going to be able to fine us, he took Richard around the back of the car and began asking for a few bucks for a 'brother'. Having none of this, Richard took back his license and we were on the road again. We got to Dar and went straight to the ferry port for Gerhard to book his tickets to Zanzibar. We then headed to the airport to pick up Gerhard's cousin (Paul) who is joining him for the fishing trip on Zanzibar island. Paul didn't get a Yellow Fever shot before arriving and had to pay a small sum to get this 'sorted out' at the airport. We then headed to 'Addis in Dar'... a brilliant Ethiopian restaurant in the city and had a fantastic late dinner. PK, The owner of the restaurant, gave us a white spare wheel cover for Bokkie, which looks great at the moment. I'm not sure how long it will be white for though.

On the way to drop Gerhard and Paul at the YMCA for the night, Richard turned the wrong way up a (badly signposted) one-way. We were quickly flagged down by two security guards who both had assault rifles. They told us we had to pay a 50,000 Tz shillings (£22) fine for doing this. Not wanting to simply pay them any money, we requested to have an official fine written out. They couldn't do this and said we'd have to go to the police station to pay officially. Richard agreed to this, but then they told us that the station was closed (of course). Anyway, after a long discussion, they finally agreed to let us take Gerhard and Paul to the YMCA and then come back to get escorted to the police station for the night... and that was the last we saw of them.

After dropping off the guys, we went to a hotel in town and checked in for two nights. We were going to go to a resort on the South Coast, but the last ferry would have sailed by the time we got there. We are currently at the hotel, enjoying spending a couple of days just relaxing and recouperating.

From here, we will fetch Gerhard again tomorrow and then Richard's sister (Catherine) is flying into Dar es Salaam on 4 August to join us for the rest of the journey. From Dar, we will make our way to Malawi and spend some time relaxing on the lake.

28/07/2009 - Arusha, Tanzania

Well, we're back from our safari trip... and boy was it worth it! We decided to go with a guided tour which provides a guide, a comfortable vehicle, accommodation and food all inclusive. After driving for 3 months, it was so nice to just sit back and relax while someone else worried (or not) about the shocks, suspension and food. The day before our tour, we drove to Oldenyo Lengai, the only active volcano of it's kind in the world. As Gerhard is studying geology, he really wanted to climb it in the hopes of at least seeing the crater, if not to get a sample of fresh lava. People who do this hike always do it at night time so the heat of the day doesn't make it too difficult. It's a really steep mountain to climb, and Gerhard reckons (rightfully so) that they make you climb it at night so you don't see how steep it is and get despondent. So we drove along a dodgy track (sometimes having to make our own tracks as it was dark) in and out of dry river beds and eventually got to the base (120km took us about 4 hours). Gerhard started up the mountain at 11pm while Richard and Heather camped at the base (windiest night camping ever!). He arrived back down the next day a very broken, exhausted man.

That night we camped at the town that is on the edge of Lake Manyara national park and were met by our guide, James. The next morning we said our farewells to Bokkie and headed off with James to Lake Manyara National Park. We saw loads of monkeys and baboons, and plenty of herbivores. No carnivores though - although James promised that we'd see plenty in the next few parks.

Back to the designated base camp where our tents were set up for us, and we were delighted with Oscar's brilliant cooking. The next day we drove through the Ngorongoro National Park to get to the Serengeti. We couldn't see the crater unfortunately as it was misty. We saw a number of game (including lions) on the way to the campsite - which was not fenced off from the animals. At night, we were woken by munching next to our tent. When Richard looked out there was a buffalo right next to us having a midnight snack. We were also woken by some sort of pig screeching really loudly right next to our tent, and heard some lions in the distance. Gerhard was brave enough to venture to the toilet during the night and said he encountered some hyenas next to the toilets.

During our safaris through Serengeti and Ngorongoro crater we managed to see the big five. We were lucky enough to see a lion encounter with a brave buffalo who ended up chasing about 8 lions away! And we saw a cheetah with a kill just after sunrise, and shortly thereafter another two cheetahs in a half hearted attempt at making a kill. We have videos and pics of all these and more.

Now we are back, and we had a little mishap this morning... We left Bokkie alone for about 5 minutes while we checked our bank accounts on the internet and Richard returned to be told by someone on the side of the road that she had just been broken into. The brats stole both camera bags and our small camera. Luckily we had backed up all our current photos to the laptop last night so no actual photos were lost - but what a schelp to sort out. We had to buy a small camera (can't go without one for the rest of the trip!) and go to the police for insurance. They took AGES. And we had to replace the passenger side locks. We're over it now (the brandy and coke is setting in nicely). We are going to stay one extra night in Arusha and then make our way (via Kilimanjaro) to Dar es Salaam, where Gerhard will meet his cousin and head off to Zanzibar for a day of deep-sea fishing and Richard and Heather will probably stay on the mainland and chill at the beach.

21/07/2009 - Arusha, Tanzania

Wow. We did a nice big update last night... and the stupid internet crashed our homepage! So those of you who were sitting on the edge of your seats pressing refresh every 5 seconds over the last 2 weeks (we know you're out there) would have read the latest update written last night... for the rest of you (more normal people)... here's a condensed version. Sorry!

After Khartoum we headed to Gedaref (on the Sudanese side of the border with Ethiopia). We stayed in a dodgy hotel, ate the local food (much to the amusement of the locals) and were fully expecting to spend the next few hours getting well acquainted with the toilet as a result... but luckily didn't. We crossed the border into Ethiopia relatively easily and headed to Bahir Dar. On the way we encountered the worst rain storm we've ever been in. The visibility was about 1 metre in front of us and the road looked more like a river. As a result, we missed the turn off to the (cheap) camping site and ended up staying in a 4 star lodge (with 4 star prices). The next day we discovered that the campsite was next door! Oops. We moved across for that night to try and recover some of the cost.

We drove to Lalibela, where there are a number of churches (still in use) which are carved out of solid rock. Very impressive. The road in and out of Lalibela wasn't the best (gravel, with long mountain passes) so we had to drive pretty slowly. We aimed to drive from Lalibela to Awassa (south of Addis Ababa) but it ended up being way too long a journey so we found a nice roadside hotel and camped in their garden. It was on this drive that we hit a bull. Stupid thing was walking along the side of the road and then turned his head at the last minute. Good thing we have a bullbar! The poor bull suffered no more than a headache (we hope).

Once in Awassa, we drove around for a while trying to find the one campsite they had. Eventually at around 8pm we found it and managed to get someone to open the gate. We headed into town the next day and spent the day taking in the sites (people, goats, cars, the lake etc). Richard felt the need for a genuine African haircut so we found a little barber on the roadside (much to their amusement). We get the impression that this guy had never cut a white man's hair before. He did a great job though, even if he took over an hour to do a haircut which takes 15 minutes in Britain.

We then headed to Moyale, the town which stretches across the Ethiopia/Kenya border and camped in a hotel ground on the Ethiopia side. The border crossing was really easy, and we found out very quickly that the Kenyans are a very friendly race (the guy at the border jokingly wouldn't let Richard cross without giving up his Springbok Rugby jersey - likely story).

We were quite taken aback by the roads in Northern Kenya. If you could call them roads. They are more like corrugated iron, with a little earth scattered on top. Really hard on the bum, back, shocks, bullbar etc etc... We drove 270km in about 8 hours.

We arrived at Henry's Rest campsite, which was a really nice place. We spent the next day recouperating and making our first pooitjie (well Gerhard made this). In the late afternoon, 2 other overlander cars pulled up: Roy and Sandy from the Netherlands and Steve and Katie from the UK. We spent the evening regailing eachother with horror/funny stories of our trips thus far.

The next day we set out along the horrible road in convoy. Another 250km or so. Poor Steve and Katie ended up with two broken front shocks so they had to limp to the next campsite. We spent the night on the edge of a game reserve and pretty much headed our separate ways the next day.

We drove to Isolo and got the bullbar welded (which was now sheared off on the side that had hit the bull from the shaking of the road). After this we drove to Nanuki (only a few km down the road from there). By this stage the roads were tarred and much better. In Nanuki we decided to stop at the Landrover dealer to get the gearbox oil plug removed as Landrover use a starshaped tool (which we didn't have) for it. Turns out the plug was fully stuck in there and the poor guy had to weld another bolt on to use as leverage to get it off! Good thing we got it checked though, the oil was almost empty (again from the shaking road). We met Steve and Katie there too - getting their poor car sorted out.

We were aiming to leave and head a bit further south (to play at the Equator), when Gerhard got chatting with a lady named Rose, who offered us a place to stay in her house. We accepted and were treated to genuine Kenyan hospitality for 2 days (we stayed an extra day as we were having so much fun). Thank you Rose and David for having us in your home.

We took a brief walk from Rose's house to the equator and did the typical touristy experiments with a funnel. The next day we drove through Nairobi, across the border to Arusha. We spent the night in a lodge (which on our GPS is indicated as a campsite - so not true!). So we had hot showers (for the first time since Khartoum!), comfy beds and have internet that isn't as slow as writing a letter and posting it.

We're off to Serengetti, Ngorogoro and the area around for the next few days, so we'll probably only get internet again in Dar es Salaam in a week or so.

Oh yes, on last thing - WE'RE IN THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE PEOPLE! We can almost see Table Mountain... almost.

05/07/09 - Updated Newsflash
Today has been a really humbling and exhausting experience for all of us. Richard and Gerhard set out relatively early this morning with a colleague of a friend we met in Scotland (on our mechanics course). He'd arranged for us to get a minor service done to Bokkie while in Khartoum. We planned to get the oil changed and the fuel and oil filters replaced. However, on the way to the garage, the clutch pedal got stuck and wouldn't depress. We had to pull over to the side of the road to look at the cause. After a bit of investigation, the guys decided that it must be the bearing or the flywheel. Three random locals managed to get her into 2nd gear and drove with Richard to the garage (which turned out to be a small shop on the roadside with no sign of any hydraulic lifts or anything like that). It was then that they began to pull out the entire engine! We watched this in absolute amazement for about 20 minutes and then went back to the office of our friend. We spent the afternoon in air conditioning being fed tea, coffee, lunch, water, coke and sprite. At about 5pm, Bokkie arrived at the office all fixed. We were then taken to the nearest diesel garage where all tanks and jerry cans were filled (80 litres). So, we are now in awe of the generosity and hospitality (and mechanical skills) of the Sudanese people. Thanks to everyone involved for helping us out today! Mustafa, from Scotland, you've given us a taste of the Sudanese culture. You truly are a good friend! The incredible thing about all of this has been that we have noticed God's protection all the way. This could have happened in the Sahara desert (3 days from any civilization), but it didn't. It happened in Khartoum, on the way to a mechanic! Praise Him for His goodness to us.

04/07/09 - Khartoum (Sudan)
Yay! We did it... we drove through the Sahara desert - and survived!!

In Luxor we did a tour around two ancient Egyptian temples (Karnak and Luxor temples). We were shown around by a local guide who Gerhard organised through the owner of a papyrus shop. Gerhard had been sitting in the internet cafe and ended up helping this man fill out a UK visa application form for his daughter. They spent a long while chatting and he organised the tour for us.

On the day we left Luxor we all had one last swim in the pool, not knowing when we would next have that luxury. We headed to the valley of the kings, which is quite near Luxor. When we got there we realised that we only had enough money for one person to go in (bad planning!) so Gerhard went and took as many pictures as he could (not allowed to in the tombs) while Richard and Heather sat playing battleships in the cool of the airconditioned reception area.

On the road again, we passed through 22 police check points - some requiring passports and talking incessantly, others waving us through from the bed in their office. One particular officer wanted to take Richard's passport but he (Richard) held it up against the window and wouldn't let him take it. The officer grumbled and tried to make as if he had to have it in his hand, but Richard stood his ground and the officer got the details he needed without holding the passport. This was from past experience of the first police stop near Cairo. The guy walked off with the passport and hung around for about half an hour, not letting us go. Only later did we realise he wanted 'bakshiesh' (money) for him to give it back. Corruption reigns supreme.

Once in Aswan we found a nice hotel (nice by Egyptian standards) which actually had a pool on the roof! We were really happy about this. While lazing at the pool that evening we saw two Canadian girls and got chatting with them. We ended up hanging out with them for the next two days (always nice to hang out with fellow travellers).

The next morning, Richard and Gerhard went with our fixer, Mohammed, to sort out the paperwork to get Bokkie onto the ferry (handing in the Egyptian licence plates, deregistering her etc etc). The whole process took about 2 hours, but would have taken 10 days were it not for Mohammed. Some of the places they went were to what looked like residential flats, where a piece of paper was shoved through an open window with a 10 pound (Egyptian) note to speed up the process. None of these places were obvious and official looking. But it was all done smoothly and we were very grateful for Mohammed's help.

The rest of our time in Aswan was spent resting up for the ferry, and doing touristy activities including a nice little cruise along the Nile in a felucca (small sail boat) and dinner on an island in the Nile with the Canadian girls.

The day of the ferry started relatively early - we wanted to get there well in time to get Bokkie onto her barge and ourselves onto our ferry. When we got there we were told to go to an office on the other side of the parking lot to the customs office (again, not very obvious if you're not local). We went in and were told to sit by a woman behind a desk. After about 20 minutes we began to wonder what was happening so we called Mohammed and passed the phone to the lady (so he could speak in Arabic to her and ascertain what was up). At that moment, another man came up the stairs and the woman (obviously pretty cross with us for passing her the phone and her getting shouted at by Mohammed) passed the phone to the man and began to shout at him. Or she could have just been speaking normally, Arabic really does sound like such an angry language.

So anyway, this man sorted us out with some paperwork (in the mean time, Mohammed had called one of his contacts at the port and he had come to introduce himself and make sure we knew we could call on him if we had any problems). We then left Bokkie in the parking lot and headed for passport control. Richard went to the counter and the man asked 'You have car?'. When he replied yes, he was told to move the car onto the ferry before getting his passport stamped. So he went to do this and was told by another official that he couldn't move the car until his passport was stamped. This is Africa! So he headed back inside, told the first guy what the other one had said and sure enough the passport was stamped. Then when he tried to go back out again, another official (spoke no English at all) wouldn't let him out again because his passport had already been stamped. We tried (in vain) to explain that we needed to move Bokkie but he wouldn't budge. Eventually one of us found another official that spoke minimal English and we were able to explain a little what we wanted. What a pain!

We got onto the ferry at around 11:30 am, leaving Bokkie (looking very sorry for herself) all alone on the dock (we had been told that we would be called to move her onto the barge). When we got there, we saw a Russian couple (bikers) who we'd bumped into at the Sudanese embassy in Cairo. We ended up sitting with them and another Russian girl (who had hitchiked all the way from Moscow - brave girl) and chatted the whole way. Eventually we were told to move Bokkie onto the barge (she was the only car) and we then waited some more. The boat eventually left the dock at around 6pm.

The journey itself was pretty uneventful apart from the mass sunset prayer - pretty much the whole boat took part! It's really strange being in a pretty much all muslim country. The meal during the journey was surprisingly good and we spent the evening sleeping (as best we could) squashed up next to the Russians and other travellers. It wasn't as bad as we'd been anticipating, but it wasn't a luxury cruise either.

Eventually the boat docked in Wadi Halfa at around 11am. We were met on the boat by another fixer (Magdi). We hadn't arranged this one, but think Mohammed possibly called ahead to let him know we were coming. Again, well worth the money. We got to customs and had our bags searched by a guy who could honestly have been Leon Schuster in disguise (if you don't know who Leon Schuster is, google it). We kept expecting him to say 'ha ha, only joking, you're on Funny People'. But he didn't, instead he ended up preaching to Gerhard (after asking if he was Muslim and hearing that he was in fact Christian).

Magdi arranged our stay in the 'best' hotel in Wadi Halfa. If that's the best one, we'd hate to see the worst! We're not going to be snobs and complain about the place, because it was way better than it would have been staying on the street, but it looked (and felt) somewhat like a jail/hostel. And it was SO HOT! The electricity went off in the middle of the night (apparently this happens every night) and we had to peel ourselves off the pool of sweat that was our beds in the morning. Not much sleep had by all.

The next day, Magdi took us to the port to fetch Bokkie (the Russians had stayed with us and came to the port to fetch their bikes). When we got there we were told 10 minutes. Which we now know means 1 hour or more in African time. Eventually Vladmir (the Russian guy) got annoyed and started to unpack the barge himself, making a path to get the bikes off. Initially this was met with disdain by the port guys but eventually they caught on and got out the way (didn't help though!). Next was Bokkie's turn. Vladmir and Richard ended up having to carry the second ramp (which was almost not long enough) to the edge (incredibly heavy) and only then did one of the officials start helping (getting the ramps tied to the ferry for Bokkie to drive off).

When it was finally ready, Richard put his driving skills to the test (to the MAX). Honestly, thinking about that moment, we all still get nerves in the pits of our stomachs. When Bokkie was driven from the barge onto the floating jetty between the barge and the dock, the jetty moved and looked as though it was about to sink. Then Richard had to maneuvre Bokkie around so that her wheels aligned with the ramps (really not much space to do this at all, especially not on a moving jetty!). Once aligned, the most hair raising part of all came... driving down the ramp. As soon as Bokkie's wheel touched the one ramp it began to slide out from under her (she would have ended up in the gap between the jetty and the dock if she'd carried on). Vladmir to the rescue, puts his foot on it and holds it in place. Going down that ramp, there were moments where we were picturing Bokkie, nose first in the concrete of the docks. But Richard (legend driver that he is), got her off safe and sound. Whew!

Once we had Bokkie we had to wait around for a little while longer while Magdi sorted out final paperwork for her. We had lunch while the paperwork was processed (my kind of paperwork!). The Leon Schuster lookalike came to inspect the contents of Bokkie (talking way too much, not getting on with the job) and then we were off. Back at the hotel we had a quick group photo (and exchange of details) with the Russians and said farewell and headed off into the desert

The first day's driving was pretty uneventful, but beautiful nonetheless. The temperature was about 45 degrees, so needless to say, we were sweating! We camped at an abandonded station along the railway line, it's amazing how serene the desert is at night. The next day we hit the soft sand. Again, and again. Poor Gerhard (who happened to have the wheel for that stretch) spent his time driving 2 metres then getting stuck, while Richard and Heather spent the time shoving the sand tracks under the wheel, digging where necessary, then running along behind with the sand tracks and doing the whole process over again. Eventually we gave up and drove along the railway for a while - a bumpy ride, but no soft sand to get stuck in.

Across the heat of the day, we stopped at Station 6 (pretty much the only station with people still living there). We were invited by a local to sit in the cool of his house, pampered with tea and taught basic Arabic phrases. We were more than happy to share the rest of our ice cold watermelon with him.

Another night at another abandoned station and we headed early in the morning in the hopes of getting to the Moroe pyramids. We had another (brief) session of soft sand on our way out, but pretty soon we were on tarred roads (how strange it felt). By the time we got to the pyramids, there was an eerie haze hanging over the land, and a pretty strong wind blowing. We decided to forgo the pyramids that night and to find a campsite nearby and do the pyramids the next day.

The campsite we had GPS co-ordinates for was nearby and we headed for that, only to be told that they were closed for renovations. The main manager came up to us after that and said we could stay. They specially cleaned a shower/toilet (very nice one) for us and let us camp wherever we wanted. They then pampered us with tea, ice cold water (a real treat after drinking 35 degree water all day) and dinner! All of this was for free. The Sudanese people really are the most friendly and hospitable in the world.

Unfortunately the wind carried on into the night (and grew worse) and we experienced our first (and hopefully last) sand storm. Gerhard was unable to pitch his tent as the ground was way too hard so he slept out in the open on his bed. Richard and Heather woke at around 4:30am (when the wind was really getting bad) to find he had moved into the bathroom for some shelter! At that point, Richard and Heather packed up the tent in the ripping wind (in the dark) and sat in the car to wait out the light. We then discovered that Bokkie's battery had drained in the night so we tried to push start her. No success with just two of us, but soon we saw one of the guys from the campsite making his way over to us (this was around 5:30 in the morning). He went and woke up all his mates and together they managed to get her started. What amazing people.

We headed to the pyramids quite soon after this (only after being told to sit down and have tea and orange juice!). We all walked around the pyramids with ski goggles for eye protection. They were really interesting, quite subtly diffrent from the Giza pyramids.

On the road again, we headed to Khartoum, which is where we are now. When we arrived here, we found out (from the hotel owner) that we can't use foreign cards to withdraw cash in Sudan due to sanctions. We were told that the Western Union down the road can organise a transfer for a fee. After many long (and expensive!) calls to banks, friends and family in the UK, we managed to source enough money to get by until Kenya. We had pictured driving from Khartoum tomorrow, eating pasta and tuna until we were out of Ethiopia (apparently they have a similar banking issue). Thank you to everyone who helped out there - you know who you are :)

Right, from here we will probably head to a campsite just outside Khartoum tomorrow. We plan on getting Bokkie properly serviced tomorrow after her time in the desert. Then it's on to Ethiopia... and beyond. See you when we get there.

.: June 2009

25/06/09 - Luxor (Egypt)
It's just going to be a short update today. We are about to get a guided tour around Luxor. Gerhard has organised this, after helping an Egyptian guy with some english. Since the last update, we have moved from Dahab to Cairo and we spent 3 nights in a small campsite right near the pyramids. During our time in Cairo, we visited the South African embassy (where we all felt right at home and very happy to get some time chatting to fellow South Africans). We were there to get a letter for the Sudanese embassy so that they would give us our visa. After the SA embassy, we went straight to the Sudan embassy and made our application. They kept our passports overnight and we went to the Cairo museum in the afternoon. After collecting our visas the following morning (without any trouble), we went straight to the Ethiopian embassy to apply for that visa. Again, no trouble, but they kept our passports overnight. So, we spent the afternoon at the pyramids. We were expecting to be hit with people trying to sell us everything under the sun and were, but it was no where near as bad as Palmyra (Syria)! The following morning, we collected our Ethiopian visas and got on the road for Luxor by 10:30am. This proved to be our longest day's drive yet and we only ended up arriving at the Luxor camp at 3am the following morning. This was because of the MANY police checkpoints (some taking half an hour). We were also escorted by the police for about 100km of the way. I am not sure why this was necessary. Egyptians all drive with their headlights off and were constantly flashing me because we were driving with ours on. It was a pretty stressful and very long day for everyone, but the campsite in Luxor is very relaxing and has a lovely swimming pool.

18/06/09 - Dahab (Egypt)
Since our last blog, we have crossed onto home soil... WE ARE NOW IN AFRICA!! Yeah!

While in Aqaba, we decided we were going to attempt to catch the lunch time ferry across to Egypt. After reading a fellow overlander's blog, we discovered that we had to buy our tickets in the town (near the supermarket). Lucky we saw this as we were planning on heading to the ferry to get our tickets. Once we found the ticket office (time check: 11:30am), we proceeded to attempt the booking. Only after Heather casually mentioned the car, they realised that we required a ferry for it too. They were happily booking us on the ferry without booking Bokkie! So we had to scrap the idea of the lunchtime ferry as it was full. After much deliberation, we got our tickets for the 'midnight' ferry (timecheck: 3pm).

We spent the afternoon 'chilling' on the beach (chilling is a bad description - it was upwards of 45 degrees with a boiling hot wind). We attempted a quick swim in the Red Sea, only to find a bunch of early teenage boys had turned into sharks in the water and were attempting to circle Heather (they are not used to bikinis apparently). So feeling very meat-like, Heather called Richard to escort her out of the water (and quickly got dressed). Lesson learnt.

That evening, we went to a very nice little restaurant across the road (also has rooms to rent for next to nothing - air conditioned, with a beautiful view of the sea - well worth a visit for any overlanders).

We headed to the ferry about 3 hours before we were due to leave to allow for customs and boarding. Customs (Jordan side) took next to no time and then we waited in the queue of cars to board. And we waited, and waited. Eventually we boarded at around 11:30pm.

Getting out of the car, we headed upstairs and attempted to do the Egyptian paperwork before docking. The queues were incredible - Heather began to feel a bit faint from the stuffy air (with a lot of people who don't wear deoderant around) so they gave up on the queue and sat in the air conditioned resturant for a while. Eventually we were called to the desk by someone who realised that we had no idea what to do.

Once that was done, we thought we had finished the Egyptian side of the paperwork and that we would be able to drive off the ferry and head straight to Cairo. Boy were we wrong...

Heather spent the whole time on the ferry feeling very meat like (like the teenage boys, but an entire ferry full of grown men, staring at her the whole time). By 3am, the ferry hadn't left the dock yet and we realised we were in for a very long night. We managed to organise a cabin with 4 beds (VERY strongly recommended!) and proceeded to sleep the rest of the trip away. Nice and easy does it.

Woke up to the morning announcement where we figured we were docking in Nuweiba. Sure enough, we were, but it took another hour to get off the boat. We sat in Bokkie in the car deck with the windows up (30 something degrees in the car) to avoid carbon monoxide poisioning from the trucks.

Once we drove off the ferry, we had to go through several different points before leaving customs. We had to park with hundreds of other cars while everyone offloaded everything from their vehicles. We decided not to do so until someone told us what to do. Luckily, a tourist police member came over and showed Richard where to go and what to do. After going back and fourth from desk to desk, paying money at a desk here, into an official's pocket there (the guy said '30 pounds', so he was given 30 pounds... and he proceeded to pocket it!).

After 14 hours since getting to the queues to the ferry in Aqaba, we were finally through the last checkpoint at Egyptian customs and off we went. By this stage it was almost 11am so we decided to scrap the Cairo idea.

We had met a New Zealander who takes overland tours at the border who said we should head to Dahab (on the Sinai peninsula) instead. So we listened. And boy are we glad. As this is written, we are sitting on cushions on the floor of a bedouin style restaurant, 1 metre away from the sea, eating a lovely lunch. Thinking we could stay here a while...

15/06/09 - Aqaba (Jordan)
Not going to be a long update today. Just to say that we're busy uploading the latest pics to date (as this blog is being written). They should be done by the time this blog is up.

Since Damascus, we've swum in the Dead Sea, seen Petra (awesome place - check out the pics) and spent two days in Wadi Rum (basically desert with rock formations/mountains). Our border crossing into Jordan gave a taste of what was to come... the Jordanians are really friendly and this is a great country to visit. So far one of the highlights for all.

We're currently in Aqaba (in Jordan) in an airconditioned hotel room (it's 34 degrees outside and it's 10pm). We cross to Nuweiba in Egypt tomorrow - African soil here we come!

11/06/09 - Damascus (Syria)
Well, we're all safely in a little internet cafe in Damascus now. We have been in Syria now since 06/06/09. I'll hopefully be able to get out a rather summarised update of our experience in Syria thus far.

The border crossing went as smoothly as could be expected from reading other blogs. It took 2 hours in total and cost us around 160USD... diesel tax, 3rd party insurance, some other tax (?) and a small tip to Sammy (our very helpful english speaking 'fixer'). Once on the Syrian side, life changes! The buildings are all dilapidated and there appear to be no more rules of the road. Everyone drives pretty much where they please. Anyone who's watched Black Hawk Down will know what the outskirts of Aleppo and Damascus look like (the city centres are actually quite charming though). We managed to find a campsite (also recommended by Sammy) about 20km outside Aleppo and pulled in there for two nights to recuperate. Richard woke up on the first morning feeling horrendous at about 4am and spent most of the rest of the morning shuffling from tent to hammock to toilet. The lady whose campsite we were staying at reassured us that it was just a 48hr stomach bug that most of the villagers had. So that entire day was spent in the shade, trying to keep cool in upwards of 40 degrees and reading books. Oh yes, and we've now been properly exposed to Middle Eastern toilets... basically a hole in the floor which you squat over. There is no TP, just a hose from the wall which you use to wash and flush.

Gerhard joined us one day later than we originally expected (on the 8th). We fetched him from Aleppo airport at 6am and he was very relieved to see Bokkie pull up into the parking area after having been waiting outside the terminal since 1am. We then drove straight to Lake Assad (on the Euphrates) to a totally secluded and wild campsite right on the banks of the lake. That day was also then spent relaxing and swimming and trying to stay in the shade as much as possible.

We left our riverside campsite and headed for Palmyra at about 9am the following morning... in hindsight, any driving days in the desert, we will leave at 5am. Anyway, we followed a main road through the desert and ended up at the Ar Rusafah ruins. This was really cool to walk around and we were the only people there. Highly recommended to any potential travellers! Contact us for GPS co-ordinates of the lakeside campsite too. On the road again and we managed to lose our way. I think the map we're using is pretty outdated. We actually ended up driving over some hairy offroad tracks straight through the desert and would have been fine had we not been stopped by a giant escarpment. After much deliberation, we opted to head back to the lakeside campsite and swim and try again the following day.

We were up much earlier and on the road to Palmyra without any problems by 7am. Again, the map proved fairly useless, but our GPS work and high school map reading got us there eventually. Palmyra is an interesting place. Magnificent ancient ruins! We managed to get a campsite right next to the ancient city in one of the locals' backyard. We then spent the rest of the day being sold everything under the sun. It is amazing how persistent the Syrian locals are in trying to get us to buy their trinkets. A good training ground for Egypt we suspect. The campsite itself was pleasant, with a green swimming pool. The food was amazing and we were very close to the ruined city. The showers were not so amazing though and Heather ended up showering using the toilet cleaning hose mentioned earlier! Richard and Gerhard opted for swimming as a way to wash off and the campsite owner actually emptied and refilled the pool overnight, so there was a cold shower running all night. This was much needed, as when we went to bed, it was a neat 35 degrees and when we got up it had cooled to a polar 25 degrees.

Today, we drove through the desert to Damascus and struggled for about an hour to find the only campsite in the city. The GPS co-ordinates on the little flyer we had were incorrect and we eventually opted for getting a cab driver to show us where it was. Gerhard risked his life by getting in the cab and Richard and Heather risked theirs trying to follow him! The campsite is nice (it has grass). This afternoon, we caught a minibus taxi into town. Can I just say that I will never again comment on the way SA taxis drive. They are all now promoted to first class. I nearly passed out a few times.

Actually this has ended up being quite long. Unfortunately we aren't able to upload any photos here, but they are coming... we promise.

06/06/09 - Bogsac (Turkey)
So, we've now travelled all the way around the South Coast of Turkey and we're getting ready for our final push into Syria this afternoon. We have seen some amazing places in Turkey, but the "broadband" here is pretty dodgy, so we'll have to tell you about all the details later. The coastline of Turkey is beautiful. From tiny, secluded bays with beaches no more than five metres wide, to hair-raising cliffs and mountain passes (with no crash barriers), to sprawling 20km beaches.

Gerhard arrives in Aleppo tomorrow morning at some ridiculous hour and we're fetching him at 7am. So begins the next chapter of the journey...

.: May 2009

30/05/09 - Akçay (Turkey)
Wow. It’s been a whıle since our last blog (since our last access to internet). Since our little pension in Brad, Romania, a lot has happened so this is a long one… We left Brad and headed towards a mountain pass in the heart of Romania. When we started at the bottom our elevation (according to our GPS) was 580m and when we reached the highest point we were at 1800m. Quite a high mountain! We drove up relatively slowly, intending to head through the tunnel at the top and go down the other side and to start heading to Eastern Romania. We stopped for a late lunch on a nice flat part with an amazing view down to the bottom (photos of this in our ‘Romania’ photo album). We then started to head up the zig-zag road that lead to near the top where the tunnel was. Unfortunately we only got almost to the top when we encountered a massive wall of snow across the road which was almost twice the height of the car. No going through then! So we turned back around and went back to our lunch spot (by now it was almost 5 or so) and decided to camp for the night. What an amazing campsite – beautiful view to wake up to in the morning.)

Because we couldn’t pass through the mountain we had to change our plans, so we headed through Brasov and were on our way to Bucharesti (in a small town) when we heard a metal-on-metal noise that sounded like a train next to us. We were driving along next to a train track so we thought it was a train at first, but we soon realised that there was no train – the noise was coming from one of our wheels! So we pulled over as soon as we could and another car stopped behind us. An ex-US Army serviceman got out of the car and began chatting with us while we (mostly Richard) tried to diagnose the problem. We were in the process of heading straight to the Romanian coast on the Black Sea (Constanta or thereabouts), but he said that the area was properly dodgy and that we should avoid it if we could. He then went on his way (might we just add that he was pretty impressed with how prepared we are for the Africa leg of this trip – he used to do missions into Africa with his troop to rescue stupid people who blindly just got into their cars and drove, then got stuck. Nice to hear that from someone in the know). By the time he left, Richard had the wheel off and had diagnosed that there had just been something between the brake pad and the disc, so he changed the brake pads on that wheel as a precaution (phoning Andy, Bokkie’s “vet” back in Edinburgh to double check that it was ok to only change one set). There’s a photo of his elation at having fixed the problem all by himself 

Back on the road again and we had to drive through Bucharesti. Interesting city – but too much traffic. We thought Paris was bad. We were wrong. It seems the further East (and South) we go, the worse the traffic in cities gets. After a good while trying to navigate through Bucharest city centre (almost at rush hour), we were finally out and pretty tired. We were pretty close to the border with Bulgaria so we had planned to cross over and get a campsite as soon as possible on the other side.

We were mistaken… Stupid, stupid Philips’s forgot one thing – to check the valid dates for our Bulgarian visa! OOPS! We arrived at the border at around 5:30pm on 26/05/09… only to be told ‘You have beeg problim’ when we handed our passports over. Our visa officially started on the 27th, so we were told to wait there (in Romania/Bulgaria nomans land) until midnight before we could cross over. So Heather used her charm and begged to be allowed to open the tent so we could sleep. After much cajoling (and convincing that it was on the roof of the car and not a ground tent) they said yes. So Bokkie and the Philips’ camped out at the Bulgarian border post.

We woke at (what we thought was) 11:30pm and went through with no hassles (what we thought was 11:30 was actually 12:30am – we had changed time zones when we crossed into Romania and didn’t know – we could have left an hour earlier than we did!). We drove through the night from West to East Bulgaria, straight to the coast. We stopped in Varna at 3am for a quick photo of Heather in front of Mall Varna – a project that she worked on at her job in Scotland. We then drove down the coast and got to about 50km north of the Turkish border around 8am. Needless to say, we were exhausted (there was a stray dog at the Bulgarian border post who barked the whole time we tried to sleep) so after looking for a ‘nice’ campsite, we eventually gave up and took the first campsite we could actually find that was open. We were lead to what looked like the camp’s rubbish dump and both thought we were going to be told we could camp there (the place had brightly painted wooden chalets in neat rows so it wasn’t really a campsite for tents). Luckily, the owners lead us around the rubbish to a section of the chalets that was pretty quiet (there were no guests at the site the whole time we were there). We had the rubbish just behind us (photos in the ‘Bulgaria’ album), but it was only old sheets and furniture, nothing too bad. By this stage we were exhausted so we politely accepted and paid him 10Lev. £5 for 3 nights (since the mountain pass) – not bad!

We got straight into the tent right then and went to sleep for a couple of hours. Then we went to the beach (which was right where we were camped – very nice) and enjoyed swimming, watching a pod of dolphins, and a nice walk along the beach. We had ambitious plans to head into the nearest town for a restaurant meal but we realised that the closest town with anything remotely resembling a restaurant was not walking distance (after attempting to walk there and finding that there was nothing but building of holiday accommodation going on). Feeling lazy, we settled on cup-a-snack. Not the most exciting meal, but it certainly hit the spot (we didn’t have to pack up camp and try order something from a Bulgarian menu).

The next morning we headed off pretty early to Turkey. After taking a wrong turn (we now firmly believe that the ‘9’ road in SE Bulgaria does not exist and it’s simply a trap for tourists like ourselves to get lost), we found ourselves in a nature reserve, about 15km away from where we thought we were. So we had to double back along the road (still couldn’t find the 9) and ended up taking a back road to another road that looked like it might exist. It did (oh happy day) and it got us to the border eventually.

The border crossing was by far the longest so far. We had to wait at least 20 mins at the Bulgarian side while they sorted out our car registration thing (which we later figured was probably because the last 3 characters of our licence plate are OOK, which could be confused for 00K). Then on the Turkish side we had to fill in a ‘swine flu’ questionnaire that basically asked if we felt sick or not. After that we got our visa (nice and easy) then had more troubles trying to get Bokkie across. Turns out our ‘Green Card’ (car insurance for Europe) doesn’t cover Turkey. But after much broken English, we managed to convince the guy that our other insurance covers Turkey. But he saw an expiry date on the green card and told us we have to be out of Turkey by the 4th of June. As our Syrian visa is only valid from the 6th, we had visions of camping at the border post for 2 days! Again, more convincing later (and much praying under our breath) and we were allowed through, given 90 days to be in and out of Turkey.

As we’d done so many big European cities, we decided to miss out Istanbul (please don’t gasp – we’re pretty sick of cities). So we then headed directly South (via Ferry at Cannakale) to the Kandemir’s place, which is where we are currently staying. On our way we stopped for an attempt at lunch in a small town. We felt like celebrities – the stares we were getting! Richard was invited into a barber that was next to where we parked (right under a no parking sign – which we didn’t know was one) for cola. We both went in and had a cola with these guys and then we heard a police whistle. We looked and saw that there was a cop about to fine Bokkie. So the owner of the barber started shouting to him (in Turkish). He came over, looking pretty stern. But after a bit of banter back and forth between him and the barber guys, he left us alone (we think they told him our plans and told them to leave us alone). There was a table in the barber with a glass top that had loads of different bank notes in it from all over the world. We happened to have a R20 note in the car so we went and got it out and gave it to them to put with it. There’s photos of the money and the guys from the barber in the Turkey album.

The last 2 days have been spent sampling Turkish cuisine, hanging out on the beach and a massage (each) from a guy in a hotel. The massage was a good experience, but certainly different to what we’re used to!

We’re certainly grateful to the Kandemirs for playing host/tour guide and to be able to stay with ‘family’ on our journey. Not sure when next we’ll have internet. We fetch Gerhard from Aleppo airport on the 7th at 7am… Till then, Salam Alaykum.

24/05/09 - Brad (Romania)
Well we really are flying through the countries now. The day after our last update we visited Auschwitz (most notorious Nazi death camp from WWII). Not a happy place at all. But definitely worth the visit - keeping a record of such attrocities will hopefully be a deterent for the human race to avoid repeating history.

After Auschwitz (a tour of Auschwitz I and a drive by of Auschwitz II - the main death camp), we headed to North Slovakia. We headed for a little ski resort type settlement in the mountains. They also happened to have thermal springs there so there were two thermal 'parks' to choose from. We ended up going with the one that opened earliest (so we could get on the road) and spent about 3 hours wallowing in warm water in the sun. Can you say 'Aaahhhhh'?

After our swim we aimed to head straight out of Slovakia to Hungary. Yet again we were caught by the cops. This time even more lame than before - 63 in a 50 zone - which WAS NOT SIGNPOSTED 50 AND WAS A DUAL LANE ROAD!!! Can you tell we're annoyed about this? No cheeky grin in the customary photo from Richard this time...

Finally we were on the road again (after having to drive around looking for a cash machine to give the fine to the pig who had kept Richard's passport and drivers license - a scaly way to ensure we didn't duck off). Not a long journey, but a beautiful one out of Slovakia - albeit tainted by the utter lameness of the cops.

We reached the border of Hungary around 5:30 pm and headed straight for the first camping sign we saw. Turned out to be a nice little place to camp with a motel on the grounds. Not a nice motel. We were given access to use the motel's bathroom but it proved nicer in the woods!

This morning we left our campsite around 9am and made great headway through Hungary, stopping in Debrecen (city near the border with Romania) for lunch. Thinking we were making excellent time we decided to aim for a town called Deva (a name which Heather recognised from her work at Miller in Scotland - they had done projects there).

WOW! We thought the Polish roads were bad! We started to feel like we were in Africa as soon as we crossed the Romanian border (our first real 'stamp-in-the-passport' border crossing by the way). We were bouncing all over the roads (which were tarred, but with HUGE dongas in them) and there were shells of abandoned cars on the sides of the road, massive industry etc etc. We could have been in Mitchells Plain (a low income area of Cape Town for the non-South Africans) for all we knew! We decided to head along the 'highway', which turned out to be no more than a single lane road all the way with brief stretches of tar that were actually decent. A few hairpin bended (but beautiful), hastily-constructed mountain passes later and we were finding time wearing on (9 plus hours on the road). Hence our little stop tonight - in a 'Pension', which is pretty much a hotel. Very nice place actually apart from the loud Romanians just outside our window watching football at the adjascent pub and shouting at the tops of their voices from time to time.

Oh yes, one last thing to add - it seems the local passtime in Romania (on a Sunday at least, we'll find out more tomorrow) is to sit on the roadside on benches outside one's home and watch the traffic going past. Needless to say, we saw quite a few heads turn today!!

PS - We saved a little Mrs Tiggiwinkle (hedgehog - really cute but poepscared) from getting squished in the road today too!

21/05/09 - Rybnik (Poland)
Since our last update, we have moved from Dresden to Prague and from North East Czech Republic to Southern Poland. We are now in a small 3* hotel just West of Auschwitz, where we planned to visit today, but as you'll see this wasn't meant to be...

The drive to Prague was good except for one police stop where they told us in no uncertain terms that we were required to have some sort of disc in our window to allow us to drive on the Czech roads. We got this pretty quickly at the petrol station and thanked them for not fining us. Prague is a very nice city and we didn't get enough time there. We spent the evening in town and then the next morning as well. Heather's cousin (Ian) who lives there, met us on Tuesday morning and took us to see some local places... the sort you just wouldn't think to stop at as a tourist. We really appreciated all his help and guidance throughout the day.

After Prague we headed to Turnov (NE Czech Republic) where Richard's uncle has a house and we camped one brilliant rain-free night before staying in the house itself. Allow me to be the first to endorse this area of the Czech Republic! It is magnificent and unspoilt. There are some amazing rock formations in the area. All of these make for some great rock climbing and hill walking.

This morning we got up nice and early and after a quick coffee and breakfast, hit the road to Poland. While driving, we had a near miss with a crazy Czech driver who swerved out in front of us. By 10:00, we had crossed into Poland and when we pulled into the first significant town, we heard a clunking sound from under the car. Upon inspection, we noticed that the exhaust pipe had sheered off right before the silencer... bugger! Luckily we were in a town. So, we went in search of a mechanic who might understand us and be able to help us. The first place we tried told us that they'd be able to arrange a welding job within half an hour. So, all in all, our little exhaust failure only cost us 100 zloty (about £28) and an hour of our time. On the road again, and it was time for roadworks to slow us. We sat waiting for a tree to be felled (right across the road) for a good half an hour and sat in 5km/hr traffic on the A4 for another half an hour. By now, we'd already abandoned the idea of getting to Auschwitz. In search of a campsite and we drove through the tiniest town - perhaps two houses - when a policeman jumped out in front of us to inform us that we'd been doing 83km/hr in a 60 zone (because it's a town). Didn't think I'd ever see the day that I'd meet a more scaly policeman than those in SA!!! Another 100 zloty and a chat with the guy about driving all the way to Cape Town and we were on the road again. By the time we reached our camping area, they'd already closed the gate for the night, so we just lussed the idea and went straight to the nearest hotel. Comfy bed, hot shower and an early night. We will upload photos and sort out the stupid spam on our comments page as soon as we can.

17/05/09 - Dresden (Germany)
In our little roadside sleeping place (our last night in France - we simply pulled off the road into a forest... very nice!) we parked under trees... Woke to the sound of dripping on our tent (it had been raining a lot that night). After coffee we had a nice early start, taking all the back roads through some beautiful French towns then we eventually hit the highway to Germany. We stopped for a relatively healthy lunch at a roadside garage stop as we were both craving vegetables and fruit.

The border crossing itself was relatively uneventful... just like driving through a toll booth with no one manning it. No booms or barriers, just straight driving.

We headed due East in an attempt to get to Dinkelsbühl (on the Romantic Road). Made good headway and ended up pulling into Annweiler at about 16:30 only to find that the campsite reception only opened at 18:00. So we drove around and found someone with unsecured wireless internet. Sorry to say, we used it to update our site.

Our driving on the Autobahns was an experience and a half! We were going a comfortable 70mph/120kmph and there were people zooming past us almost twice our speed! Definitely a great way to increase one's prayer life - being stuck between a truck and a speeding car. We made it out alive (just). On the 15th we had lunch in a town called Philippson. Quite fitting really. Richard had his first proper German Bratwurst and Heather tucked in to a nice salad with a roll. Still craving the veggies!

That night we stayed in a campsite just outside of Dinkulsbühl (a town with walls all around dating back to the mediaevil times which survived the wars unscathed. Nice campsite, the guy running it was really friendly and helpful. He even spoke English which we really appreciated. After setting up camp we went into the town itself to explore (photos to follow when we can) and then had a VERY wet night from the rain (we were incredibly grateful for our nice dry tent - especially as it wasn't on the ground soaking up the river that we were parked in).

16/05 - The drive from Dinkelsbhül to Dresden was relatively easy and uneventful. We stopped off at Rothenberg (another town very similar to Dinkhulsbhül) on our way and had a quick look around.

Heather hurt her elbow while packing the car (the not-so-funny bone) and damaged a nerve (not too seriously though) so was struggling to drive. Poor Richard had to take over for most of the day.

So far today, we've been walking around Dresden. It's a really beautiful town. There's a river that runs through between old town and new town. Last night when we came in to town from the campsite (which we took ages to find by the way), there was some sort of festival going on. People EVERYWHERE and markets and bands playing jazz etc etc. Amazing. When we got here today we thought we were going to be a bit bored as what was very lively last night seemed more like a ghost town this morning. Turns out we had just come a little early... as the day wore on, more and more people packed into the city. Even the sun has made a grand appearance today. This is the first time we're both wearing shorts and tshirts since summer in South Africa!

Our tent on the roof of our car (in fact our whole camping set up) has caused quite a stir at our campsite. Before we left we wrote up a brief blog type thing explaining what we are doing (Driving from UK to CT) and translated it into various different languages using Google Translate. When we left the campsite last night we could tell people were really interested in us (everyone was staring). So we left the 'What are we doing here' German translation stuck up in the drivers window as we left. This morning, one of our neighbours came up to us and asked if we minded if he took a video of us to send to us in South Africa. And loads of folk have stopped to ask us about our trip. We've been learning to communicate in broken German and English combined.

Long post, but we're not too sure when we'll next have internet. Finding an internet cafe in a city you don't know is not easy. Must apologise for any spelling mistakes (particularly y and z being swapped around - German keyboard), we have limited time in this internet cafe. Till next blog, in the mean time, we're off to Prague tomorrow. We appreciate any and all prayers for safety on the road. See you when we get there!

14/05/09 - Annweiler - (Germany)
We ended up spending 2 nights in France (near Normandy and near Reims) as the drive in and out of Paris was MUCH longer than expected. Currently in Germany en route to the romantic road. We will be brief as we are sitting in the car boggying someone's unsecured wireless network. Pleased to find it in such a tiny German village!

11/05/09 - Pyrford (England)
We're off tomorrow morning first thing! After a tiring but great time with family around London (and a wedding) we're finally setting off officially out of the UK. We've driven about 1100 miles since we left Edinburgh and about half of that was along the M25 and back. Tomorrow the rubber hits the road and the first part of driving on the other side of the road begins... Ou revoir.

07/05/09 - Pyrford (England)
We're in Surrey and the surrounds until Tuesday. Mike (Heather's brother) is getting married this Saturday and we're just trying out our camping equipment in a non-stressful environment until then. We've also had our first small glitch... the headlights have stopped working! I have checked the switch, fuse and bulbs and they're all fine, so it's going to an auto electrician tomorrow morning. Rubbish that I couldn't fix it myself, but good that it's happened while still in London. At the moment the high beams still work fine, so we're just blinding everyone.

Last night we met up with some friends at a small wimbledon pub for dinner and to chat about overlanding. The friends who came along are all planning similar trips and it was good to share some advice before setting out.

02/05/09 - Worcester (England)
Day 1 of our journey is complete. We set out from Hopetoun Street at 10:10. Thanks to everyone who made the effort to come out and see us off so early this Satuday morning. It still doesn't feel quite real and I'm not sure it will until we drive onto the ferry at Dover. We made a short stop at Edinburgh Castle this morning and took a few photos. With all the gas/diesel tanks on the roof, it took a bit of convincing to get anywhere near the castle. After this, the journey South was 530km to Worcester to stay with a collegue of Richard's. Thanks John and Katie for feeding us and for your brilliant hospitality.

01/05/09 - Scotland (Edinburgh)
Well, these last few days have been quite manic! We have had to organise, pack and arrange collection of six large shipping boxes. All this while tidying our flat, moving out and packing the car. Amazingly enough, the car is now ready and packed and we're both going to get an early night and some much needed rest. Our first stop in Worcester, just West of Birmingham.

.: April 2009

27/04/09
5 days to go! As far as Bokkie's concerned, we're ready to rock and roll. We're going to make a few minor adjustments on Friday (wheel alignment and hopefully fit an immobiliser). Now to get the house move/cross country shipping done... And finish up working in the UK for the last time :)

18/04/09
So, the roof tent is now out of storage and fitted and the food is bought. Our flat looks like a disaster zone, with boxes and crates of kit everywhere. We have added an extra lock to the back door for added security and the side (back) windows now have security grills on them. We spent this morning chatting with a really friendly young south African couple who have just bought a defender for a similar trip down the African West coast next year. They are also planning to return home/to Africa for good. This seems to be the transport method of choice when moving back to SA! We now have under two weeks to go before we're on the road and the emphasis is shifting to getting our shipping packed and house tidied.

Other things that have been happening: Richard has had a week of trouble trying to get a letter of employment from the Royal Bank of Scotland HR department (who are pretty pathetic, by the way). Eventually, he gave up and turned to a previous colleague (legend) who provided this without any hassles. You know who you are, thank you very much! The SABS require us to provide proof of employment for the first six months of owning Bokkie.

13/04/09
Wow! Bokkie looks amazing! She's about a metre higher (slight exaggeration) now so getting in requires a superman style dive across the seats and then wiggling around till the bum is in the seat. Not easy, but loads of fun! The winch is now connected, she's got security grills on the windows and carpeting padding the back, just the lights remain to be connected up. It's incredible just how cool one car can look! She's going to look even sweeter with the tent on the roof and fully loaded. As this is written, there are 19 days till departure. It feels like yesterday we were saying 'This time in 5 months time we'll be going'... now it's less than 3 weeks! Bring it on!

.: March 2009

05/04/09
Our Bulgarian visas are now done. Just 2 more to go before we leave. We've sent our documents and passports to Gerhard, who will be taking the applications to the Syrian Embassy personally (hopefully making it a bit easier).
This Saturday is the final day of prep for Bokkie. Luke will be overseeing the team (Raab, Mike, Rich and himself) to get the electrics sorted. 4 weeks and counting...

27/03/09
Time is FLYING now and there is still a lot to be done! We are making good headway though. We've been getting on with the mechanics course and can now both completely strip down an engine and replace a double wishbone suspension system. Bokkie went to the mechanic this week and now has a new radiator. This coming week, she'll get a full set of new tyres and a heavy duty two inch suspension lift kit. We've also attached some tension cables to allow for extra winching stability. Sorry, lots of mundane detail about the car! We also bought and received our satellite phone and a 300mm camera lens :) The Bulgarian embassy still has our passports.

13/03/09
Our passports are now with the Bulgarian consulate. They told us 10 working days so that means we should have them back in the first week of April - hopefully! We've now sorted out what we're doing with the jerry cans and have created a mount for a 2nd spare tyre on the bonnet. This will be connected using ratchet straps and secured with a chain and bolt. Check out the logo that is now on Bokkie! She's looking super hot now. With less than 6 weeks left it's all starting to feel so real. We're making the most of our time, using most evenings after work and all weekends to make tweaks to bokkie. Come on 2nd of May!

02/03/09
The Romanian consulate took ages to process our visas. We got them back yesterday, which was 2 weeks after we sent them. Every time we phoned to find out where they were, the guy at the consulate told us 'Relax, you have plenty of time' (meaning he thought we had until May to get the visa processed - little did he realise we still need another 3 visas before we go!). We are going to put a covering letter with our Bulgarian visa application saying that we need the passports back within 2 weeks if possible because we still need other visas (hopefully this will mean we don't have to phone them every day for a week asking where our passports are). We've now invested in a full length roof rack and purchased some old army ammo boxes. One of these will be installed to the roofrack and will be used for tools etc (it will be locked with a padlock). The electrics will be installed in the next few weeks as will any other peripherals on the car. It's now just a waiting game. 7 weeks and counting till we leave Scotland...

.: February 2009

28/02/09
We now have our Schengen visa! No problems whatsoever... and the date on the visa is the same date we actually dropped it off at the German embassy. When in doubt, go for the German embassy! Our passports are currently with the Romanian Consulate... we should get them back by the end of this coming week - hopefully! Royal Mail has lost Richard's passport before, so needless to say, we're a little apprehensive! Richard is busy every weekend with little tweaks to the car. He's got the snorkel off right now and is cleaning it and plans on spraypainting it before putting it back on. Any little areas of possible rust are being taken off, sanded down and spraypainted. We still need to sort out the electrics on Bokkie. This is going to be done with the help of our good friend Luke (helps having an engineer for a friend!). Richard is toying with the idea of installing a power generator on top of bokkie to be linked with a third battery which will be used to power the fridge and winch etc. At the moment, (mostly) all that's left to do is finish the car mods and the visa applications. That and get the carnet... which we are waiting to hear back from HSBC about. These last 9 weeks are going to be a bit of a waiting game. Sigh! Are we there yet??? Starting the trip, not in Cape Town.

14/02/09
We've now finished our innoculations and bought the malaria tablets. No side effects... yet (they can take up to 10 days to appear). We're hoping to get the electrical items installed in two weeks time (let's hope the weather in Edinburgh isn't too typical) and are currently looking into where we can purchase a gas bottle holder. We're also looking into getting a roof-rack extension for the water/fuel jerry cans at the front of Bokkie. Our Schengen visa application went to the German Embassy yesterday (Friday) and it all seemed to go very well. We've had terrible experiences (and heard awful stories from friends) about the guy at the French embassy with a god-complex who turns people away for a photo that is half a millimetre out of spec. The girl at the German Embassy was friendly, smiled, and generally made us feel welcome (unlike the French guy who would have looked at us like we were something he'd scraped off his shoe). So anyone applying for Schengen visas in Edinburgh - try aim for Germany. They really are a nice bunch. We'll know in a week if we get the visas though...

.: January 2009

29/01/09
We've pretty much decided against the Saudi idea... Mainly because we don't want to miss out on that stretch of desert or driving down the Nile in Egypt. It will work out more expensive in the long run but it will be worth it. We're almost finished our vaccinations - one sore arm each later. Our final shots are in 2 weeks time where we will have to get 3 injections. Ouch! The back area now has the basic layout installed. Putting it together was a real laugh... most of the time consisted of hunting for items that Richard had just put down a second ago! But that's what you get when you don't have a garage to work in and you have to rely on running a power cable out of your friends' window (2nd floor) to power the angle grinder. It's all good.

23/01/09
We are currently considering the option of avoiding Egypt. They have a 'carnet' requirement which is completely ridiculous. Have a look at the preparation page (under carnet de passage) to see what I mean. The alternative is to drive South, once we get to the bottom of Jordan, into Saudi Arabia. The Saudi port of Jeddah (only about 100km from Mecca) has daily ferries to Port Sudan, where we could effectively continue on with our route as originally planned. We are investigating the feasibility of this option at the moment, taking all safety considerations into account. The monetary saving will work out to about £1,200 to avoid Egypt.

14/01/09
Having prepared a detailed list of things still left to do, we are now faced with the daunting task of completing all our vaccinations (seven more injections), acquiring a carnet (car passport), organising visas (five countries require visas prior to departure) and purchasing the rest of the kit. Additionally, we still have to design the packing area in the back of Bokkie (our landie) and fit her out with all the peripheral electronics. Both Heather and I will be attending a 10 week mechanics course before we leave and I also hope to get some good pointers from my mechanic when Bokkie goes for her final service.