It is, of course, important to have a route. But, as any African explorer will tell you, this is, at best, a guideline. There are a number of countries in what might politely be termed as "flux" at the moment (not to mention our beloved home in Zimbabwe!), and we'll have to pretty much take it as it comes. Since we started planning this route a year ago, there have been tourists kidnapped in Egypt, bombs in Khartoum, aid workers kidnapped in Ethiopia, severe post-election violence in Kenya and a major eruption in the eastern DRC. Who knows what further delights await us!
Oh yes, and three weeks ago our ship up to Alexandria was cancelled due to pirates off the Somali coast.
As to why we're driving both ways, I've already partly answered that question. The original plan was to ship up and drive back, but that didn't work out, so now we're driving up as quick as we can and driving down again in a more relaxed fashion.
It makes more sense to drive downhill, as it were. North Africa is new territory to all of us, so we'd like to spend the bulk of our trip there, and preferably while we're still fresh and enthusiastic. It also means we'll be heading south to avoid the northern summer. The 50 degree heat of a Sudanese summer isn't something any of us especially long to experience and, if all goes well, we'll be into the cool of a southern winter by then.
Approximate milestones, for those of you really interested in dates and locations, are as follows:
21 Dec: Harare
21 Dec- 5 Jan: Harare- Addis
5-22 Jan: Ethiopia
23-31 Jan: Sudan
1 - 28 Feb: Egypt
1-10 Mar: Sudan
10-25 Mar: Ethiopia (including Omo Valley)
25 Mar - 15 April: Kenya
15 April - 1 May: Rwanda, Burundi, Lake Tanganyika
1 May - 10 May: Southern Tanzania
10 - 31 May: Mozambique
1 - 10 June: SA to Cape Town
10 - 30 June: Namibia and home
I seriously doubt that any but the first two or three of these dates will bear any resemblence to what actually happens, but hey, it's a guideline!
No comments:
Post a Comment