South Africa – The Start!

Well!  We are ready, I think, who knows…  Months of planning, a hiccup or two along the way (2 of the cars were stolen!) and it’s time to go and start our journey to London!

At the send-off function in Johannesburg. I’m standing on stage while we are introduced to the DHL customers and staff, it is all a bit surreal.  I am going to lead a team driving through Africa!   A travel dream for years, and now it was a reality, with lots of responsibility and a good chance of not succeeding, due to its scale and timelines!

A country (45 of them) a week, and in each one, I had to organise, functions for 100’s of people, rugby clinics, eye clinics (one of my team members is an optician), school visits. The Camera crew needs to film and capture the essence of Africa.  All that doesn’t include the planning routes, accommodation, food, visa etc etc

After the function, we had to drive down to Cape Town to officially start our journey.  That was painful and long, driving down to start driving back up, felt wrong…!

A Quick drive down to Cape Point for some photos, a shop for some last minute supplies, a press conference at the V&A Waterfront and we are off – on our way to spend the night in Bloemfontein before heading to Lesotho.

3 big yellow Landrovers, packed with clean shiny people and equipment wonder how long that will last…?

When I first got into my car, she had white leather seats and all the mod cons you could hope for and she was a Petrol engine instead of diesel like the other two with a very thirsty engine! I told her that she was a “Princess” yes, out loud, I have no problem speaking to inanimate things…  And from that moment on, she became “Princess” and my buddy!  The other two cars were named a couple of weeks later “Ntombi” and the other one “Nkosana”