Cairo to Cape Town - Russ and Sue drive the Long Way Down

Well, Russ has finally finished flying the big jets after 39 years and we have decided to celebrate his retirement with a BIG trip. As soon as we saw this adventure we knew we wanted to do it. We have just finished a 3 week trip from Cairns to the tip of Cape York and back - we wanted to do this for its own sake, but it was also a kind of trial run for Africa. We needed to test ourselves with trekking, camping and 4 wheel driving. The trip went really well and we thoroughly enjoyed every moment. (I have put up a practice run of this blog site on the Cape trip - if you are interested it is called To the Tip.)

So we leave on Tuesday the 28th October 2008 and fly to Bangkok, from where we catch our Royal Jordanian flight to Amman, Jordan. We will have a couple of days to explore the city and then we head south. Despite the fact that the trip is called Cairo to Cape Town, we actually start in Aqaba on the 1st November where we pick up our Land Rover.

Then we begin our 12 week journey through Jordan, Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania (including Zanzibar), Malawi, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia and South Africa. And maybe with a side trip into Rwanda for a gorilla trek.

We will be joined by 5 other cars plus the group leaders' vehicle. We are the only ones from Oz - there are a British, a South African and 3 New Zealand couples. Our leaders are Debs, an Australian born trained nurse and her husband a German diesel mechanic - we couldn't think of a better combination than a nurse and a mechanic for this kind of trip!

If you are interested in the itinerary, go to www.africaexpeditionsupport.com/cairotocape/index.html
My favourite photo on the page is of the roundabout in the Nubian Desert in the Sudan!

We are told that Africa is well supplied with internet cafes, so we'll find them on the way and upload some stories of our travels along with some photos. So every now and then, you might like to follow our progress on what we think is the trip of a lifetime.