Ch-ch-ch-changes

Today is officially the first day of the Big Trip (also now known as Drive and Dive - And a Bit of Human Evolution). We are thirty days away from leaving - although we are planning to leave as early as we can, so we may well already be in Cape Town by the end of June.

To celebrate this date, I have been re-vamping the blog quite a bit, as it will be our primary news location during the trip. On the left I have posted a map to show the planned route (as blogged last week), where I will add the real route as soon as we start, so you can see how far apart the plan veers from reality.

There is also an intro for those people who might not know us and the plan to conquer Africa in a 'small' white car. There is also the Flickrstream of photos, which will be filled with travel photography courtesy of Stuart's fab camera, for your delectation and specifically to satisfy Jason's needs ;-)

At the bottom of the page you can find a calendar. So far it shows our rough timetable, which consists of a hopeful version of our schedule; sure to be superseded by reality as soon as we get on the road. As we are going along, we will update this with real dates and locations and - maybe - even important events.

Visas part 1

Oh, I am having soooo much fun at the moment, digging my way through visa applications and their respective requirements for 18 countries. I knew that this was going to be the hair pulling part of the trip preparations, but quite how hilarious the process would be I didn't know. And I haven't even applied for any visas yet, although I have managed to order a passport replacement for Stuart, as he inconsiderately travels so much that he managed to fill his passport in two years. That involved getting shouted at by UK embassy security - driving a big huge Defender obviously means that I am carrying large amounts of explosives -, driving around the block three times to find the hidden accessway to the passport office, being asked if I carry any weapons, as they are not allowed through security, and finally being growled by a Very Grumpy (TM)at the cash desk. There is sooo much more fun to be had, I am sure.

Just fyi, we need visas in advance to the following countries:

Tunisia

Rwanda

Tanzania

Ethiopia

The rest of the visas we can get either at the border, or - since they have a short expiration date - we have to apply for them in another country, for example the visa for Egypt we have to get either in Nairobi, Addis Abeba or Khartoum, all of them undoubtedly fun places to spend a few days while traipsing to the embassy every day. Not.

Mozambique

Stuart finished his project, so as a treat we took off for a few days to Inhaca Island in Mozambique (cool how the most exotic locations are right door next to us sometimes ;-). He has posted a lovely description and some fab photos (taken with his new camera) here.