misteroverland

What do you get when you put together 2 highly organised people, 1 trip to Africa, a trusty land rover? … a loose itinerary and huge amount of spares! Well this is our first blog post – finally – it’s taken a lot longer than I thought to start writing about our trip but here we are.

The other day I was thinking about when we started preparing for this trip, I have finally settled on the fact that I have been preparing for this trip my whole life otherwise my life journey would not have delivered me to this point. Of course more recently we have had some help along the way, everything from preparing the car mechanically with Gio our trusty mechanic around the corner, fitting it out to ensure we can live out of it comfortably for 6 months with Safari Equipment and Nene Overland as well as learning the ins and outs of how to fix MrO with minimal spares, some wire and a tooth pick with David and Lynsay at Bush Mechanics in Devon.

Preparation hasn’t centred only around MrO we have had several debates on tyres, jack’s, bicycles and of course malaria medication, I feel like I could consult in the local GP practice on anti-malaria tablets and their side effects. My mother and I have also discussed the first aid kit at length and she now has a large shopping list to compile before we reach Cape Town. Nightly study of the Bradt guide books has finally meant I am slightly less petrified of the 3 S’s (Snakes, spiders and scorpions) having read in every one of their books that sightings are a lot less common than I might think and bites are even less. There I have said it – Murphy’s Law and all that …

Only thing left to conquer is that pesky GPS – though I think I am more of a traditional map girl!

We will do our best to keep this up to date so that you, our family and friends, can track our progress as well as our highs and lows though I would imagine internet access will be sporadic – well at least that is what I will claim if the updates are few and far between.