Our Journey to South Africa.
General information
Why are we doing it? Good question. It's easy to say because it's there!
And in a way that's almost true. Whilst travelling round the world, and since,
many people have asked us what Africa was like, but as it was not on our route
we had no idea. So, having devoted a great deal of time explaining where Africa
is in relation to the route we had taken, we eventually decided we had better
go and take a look!
Is there going to be a charity involved ?
We are thinking about this, but are reluctant to get into fund raising or
burden family or friends, but Penny went to a very good event in the village
last week, Water Aid, a charity that promotes self help clean water and hygiene
programmes throughout the third world. So we are looking into possibly a hook
up along the lines of on line donations and awareness rather than fund raising
events.Click here to visit the WaterAid
web site.
Camera and sound equipment
We plan to take a Nikon digital camera for sending photos home to the website
and Nikon f60 as well. We also have a small Sony sound recorder. We are also
taking our old Word Processor, rather than investing in an expensive (and
vulnerable) laptop. We are assured there will be plenty of internet cafes
etc where we can email home. We hope to have more success this time than when
on our last four month cycle ride from San Diego to Miami - the only internet
cafe we found was closed and the only times we managed to email home was when
we were given hospitatlity in private homes.
Medical
This has proved an amazingly expensive item, the staff at our Surgery are
quite embarrased. We needed to have all the major vacinations as our last
ones have run out but these will last another 10 years which takes us to 74
and 80. Perhaps by then we'll be happy to explore Europe. Injections include:
Rabies @ £108 each, Yellow Fever @ £35 each, Hepititis B @ £30
each, Hepititis A was free and Tetanus too. They also decided we could manage
without the Japanese Encephalitis jabs. But the real shock is the Malaria
tablets @ £130 each. We'll carry a full first aid kit with sterile hyperdermic
syringes etc. plus a full supply of personal medication.
Visas and other documentation
The best place to start researching this area is through the Foreign and Commonwealth
Office website www.fco.gov.uk. Here there is up to date travel advice for
the whole world under individual countries including visa requirements and
Embassy addresses. British passport holders do not need a visa for Tunisia
so our first one needed will be Libia and they require your passport details
to be in Arabic. Apparently this can be done at the reception desk of any
of the regional passport offices. As we do not know when we will reach any
particular country we'll pick up visas in the previous countries as we go
along. The vehicle needs a Carnet de Passage which is available through the
RAC Travel Research Department, email: pkgowen@rac.co.uk
. We will also acquire International driving licenses for both of us though
Bill will probably do most of the driving. These are available through the
RAC or the Post Office. We will carry several photocopies of all documentation
plus sheets of passport photos, and we will leave photocopies of everything
at home with one of the family. We've changed our bank account to a telephone
and internet account and will carry a credit card. But we know from past experience
that getting hold of cash in Third World countries can be extremely difficult
and will carry both dollars and travellers cheques.
Food and water
One of the most frequently asked questions is "What will you eat ?"
The answer is whatever is available locally. We'll shop at street markets
and stalls and hope to come home with a few new recipes. However we will carry
some basic reserves such as: Rice, cous cous, pasta, lentils, chick peas and
other pulses, a wide selection of herbs and spices, and plenty of stock cubes,
plus tinned sardines. Water will all be boiled or sterilised.