Kapp 2 Cape - Nordkapp to Cape Agulhas 2012

wideformat4x4 wrote:

Have you thought about folding bikes there are some funky new types out there not like the old moltons of yesteryear.
A friend of mine has two he takes along in his small motorhome they fit in a small bag about the size of a camping chair.

Wideformat4x4 - pray tell - more info please!! Which bikes does your friend have - they sound perfect! What sort of cycling does he do?

All info is good info!

rgds
African GirlChild

GirlChild wrote:

wideformat4x4 wrote:

Have you thought about folding bikes there are some funky new types out there not like the old moltons of yesteryear.
A friend of mine has two he takes along in his small motorhome they fit in a small bag about the size of a camping chair.

Wideformat4x4 - pray tell - more info please!! Which bikes does your friend have - they sound perfect! What sort of cycling does he do?

All info is good info!

rgds
African GirlChild

This link may help
http://www.atob.org.uk/folding-bikes/folding-bike-buyers-guide-uk/

The one's my friend has are made by Giant and look to be very robust but don't fold down as small as some (which fit in a backpack) they don't get a very good write up in the link.
They use theirs for the odd shopping trip and jaunts into towns and villages to save driving the motorhome down small tight lanes and streets.

The only thing which limits choice is really budget as you can get mtb's and all manner of style's of bikes for a price

Thanks wideformat4x4!

Will look into it!

rgds
African GirlChild

I am not quite sure how it happened - we reached 5 months until departure. I looked back over the journal, to remind myself of what we have accomplished so far, and I have amazed even myself. The ideas are starting to take shape, moving from paper to real life … and back to paper and back to real life again.

Most importantly, though, we are having fun! This is something that is really ours - it truly belongs to us! We can decide for ourselves what we want to do, and how - and then change our minds if we want to! It excites me!

But there is still so much to do.

This week I had a chat to Paul Gowen at RAC about arranging the carnet for the trip. I have a much clearer idea of the process involved. We are opting for the insurance option, rather than the bank guarantee or cash deposit. We’ll also be arranging our International Drivers Permits through him. We’ll be sending our application form off in late June, which should give RAC plenty of processing time - even with the Olympics!

Onto the sewing projects - the front car seat covers are finally complete. I have to confess, it was a lot more tricky that I had anticipated, and certainly a lot more of a fiddle. With other sewing projects, I have had a picture in my mind of what I wanted to do, and just got on with it. These car seat covers, on the other hand, have been a very iterative process. It has been quite slow, and even seemingly simple tasks - like putting pockets on the back - have taken time. Anyway, here they finally are!





The seat covers have eyelets so that the head rests can still be plugged in. The buckles around the sides should hold the seat covers in place. The back of the seat covers now has a variety of different sized pockets - books, pens and other little items can all be neatly stored for easy access. Perfect!

On the vehicle front, progress continued with level one of the drawer system. I took advantage of the long evenings during the week, and managed to complete the varnishing of the wooden drawers.



This weekend, Very Helpful Friend came over to lend a hand. He always asks the difficult questions that we don’t always ask ourselves, and serves as a good objective view on the proceedings. As a result, a tweak to the design of the drawer system for additional stability. This requires a little more construction, and more varnishing for me.

Having the right tools, the menfolk also completed the fitting of the loadguard - although the tweaking of the drawer design may require an adjustment to the loadguard. We’ll have to wait and see.

Until next week!

kind regards
African GirlChild

Hi all,

Another week flown by - and another weekly update. I trust everyone enjoyed the "double weekend" that was Easter!

Here it is - thoughts and comments always welcome!!

African GirlChild

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There is another side to all the preparations. Most blogs and websites discuss the preparations for the vehicle, the travellers, but there is another important side to preparing for a trip like this - the “leaving behind” bits!

The first part is a major clearout! So, this weekend we started gathering together everything that we really don’t use, and really don't want to put into storage - and in 2 weeks time we’ll be taking it all up to the local car boot sale to find new homes. Now, let me start by saying, we are not hoarders. We have both lived in too many places, in too many countries, to keep gathering items. But I am embarrassed and surprised. Clearly, 4.5 years in the same house has impacted our non-hoarder traits. So far, we have 2 suitcases and 2 large plastic bags of clothes and shoes; 2 boxes of books; and 4 or 5 boxes of other random items. This is just items that we aren’t using and unlikely to in the future. Frightening. We haven’t even reached the items we are currently using but won’t want to put in storage. I think it is safe to say that we’ll be doing a second car boot sale before we depart.

Storage for items staying behind is under investigation. Self storage it’ll have to be, unless one of our kind friends has loft or garage space for it all

Back to the trip preparation …

Preparing the explorers is an all important activity - so this weekend we attended our first ‘Pay & Play’ day. This was mainly for me to continue to be comfortable with handling the vehicle, and hubby to show me how to handle the more technical challenges. To be fair - I am a ‘fraidy cat, so this demanded nerves of steel from me. I did well, and became more comfortable with each extra bit of driving we did. It was slightly awe inspiring to watch the many others in their ‘play-mobiles’ trying all manner of challenges. Definitely another on the cards.



My fun sewing project for the weekend was to turn a pair of baggy mountain biking shorts into something a bit more feminine - a mountain biking skirt! Overcoming the geometrical challenge of changing a garment with curves in the design into a curve-less skirt - the skirt is a success. I took it for a trial ride, and it is 95% there - a few small design tweaks and it’ll be perfect. Now I have something a little more appropriate the wear on our big trip than lycra!

And so, we reach 21 weeks to go … and under 150 days.

So, this week the seamstress tried her hand at carpentry – with guidance! Overall, I did OK. My project: to create one of the wooden drawers for the second level of our drawer system. Hubby had very kindly already cut all the pieces I needed, I just needed to drill holes and screw it all together. And yes, it sounded pretty easy to me too! Anyway, it took me a good few hours, and hubby only needed to recut 2 pieces after I made a bit of a boo-boo. But, I managed, and the drawer has already had its first coat of varnish!

The second level for the drawer system is coming along nicely – it fits perfectly, and has already had its first coat of varnish. Now that we can see the 2 levels together, we have a better idea of the storage space on either side of the system, and will be looking at how to use that more efficiently.



Other work: the vehicle went in to have a tiny bit of rust around the rear windows treated. It looks much better now, and should be good for a few thousand miles. The water tank has also arrived, and hubby will be collecting it in the coming week.

The seamstress will be resuming work in the coming week, having secured necessary supplies, and temporarily hung up her drill. The cycling skirt is coming along well, and a few more pouches (for chargers) need to be constructed.

Events in Africa are followed continuously. While Nigeria has quietened down a bit (or rather, not making the news headlines as much) Mali has become unstable. From what I can gather, most land borders to other countries have now been closed. While it is still a long time until we reach Mali in our journey (approx 10 months from now) we are starting to look at alternative routes.

And so, we are at 20 weeks to go!

Comments most welcome!

Until next week,
African GirlChild

Looking good. Do your new-found carpentry skills mean that hubby will be having a go with a needle & tread in the remaining weeks?

Tom - that is what I thought too!!

Only seems fair to me?!?!!!

Quite! Talk about 'stirring'.

A very quick update this week.

This week was all about preparations for the Big Car Boot Sale that we did on Sunday.  As mentioned in previous posts, we have been clearing out the house and shed, all with the plan of attending a car boot sale.  All in all, a very successful day.  Although we didn’t sell everything, we made enough to cover the recently purchased water tank and about 40l of fuel for the trip .  Fun day, and we’ll definitely be doing another before we depart.

On the water tank front, we collected the water tank during the week, and look forward to installing it.

The unpredictable weather of the last week has been excellent for the garden (hosepipe ban anyone?!??), but not great for continuing with the varnishing of the second level of drawers.  Fortunately, hubby managed to get a few hours in on the weekend, to make up for the lack of progress during the week.

We continue to explore other route options, given the recent coups in both Mali and Guinea-Bissau.  We are considering altering our route slightly to avoid both, and instead travel from Senegal to Guinea, Cote d’Ivoire then Burkina Faso.  Research continues.

19 weeks to go.  

Until next time!
African GirlChild

Wasn't overkeen on Mali when I visited the place some 20 years ago, and it was stable then. Your new route sounds a lot better as in my experience both Senegal and Guinea were okay.

19 weeks and counting ... scary!

Tom - the main reason for visiting Mali was to go to Timbuktu! As children, when we were naughty, we were always told we'd be sent to Timbuktu. I always thought it was a ficticious place ... :o

Anyway, seems that it'll remain unvisited

African GirlChild

Aaah - it is that time of week again: weekly update!

Frustratingly, the weather has hampered our progression.

Enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The adventure is becoming so real.  One day this week, as I stopped at the traffic lights near our home, I pictured us stopping in the exact spot in Brodie, all packed and heading to Dover to catch our ferry to Dunkirk.

Back to the preparations …

We have decided on our cooker!  We have gone for a 2 ring burner which runs off a Cadac 907, and folds into its own compact case.  It should be tough enough for a year in Africa!  Order placement this week.

The weather has been favourable to the ducks and geese, but less so to the workers!  We have tried hard to put on a brave face - but working with electricity in the rain is rather cold, and potentially a breach of health & safety .  We eventually braved the weather today, and made good progress.  The first and second levels of the drawer system are finally in the vehicle, with 2 side shelves created to make use of the space between the drawer system and vehicle sides.  All newly created shelves have also had a coat of varnish.

The sewing projects continue!  More pouches came into existence, as I am creating order out of the chaos of the numerous chargers that seem to be accompanying us.  I also need to put my creative mind to the bag that we need for the camping table.  The current bag conforms to my “bad design” mantra, so needs replacing with that of a more intelligent design.  

We continue our search and research into the “sharing” aspect of our trip.  At the moment, we are searching out social entrepreneurs and community projects that are making a difference.  These are the people we want to meet, be inspired by, and share their stories.  There are, surprisingly, more projects than I was initially expecting - what a great position to be in.  We may need to focus on a particular theme (such as environmental related initiatives).   

The official starting point has been decided!  With this being the year of the Olympics, and both of us volunteering at the Olympics, we thought the starting point really ought to be Olympic related.  Don’t worry - before you picture us driving our fully loaded Cruiser to the Olympic stadium, we are thinking about heading up to Box Hill instead.  This is memorable location for us as one of the landmarks on our favourite mountain bike ride in the Downs area.  Hopefully the rings will be ready and waiting for us!

We have finally ventured onto Facebook - so please do come along and ‘Like’ us.  I am still figuring out how I’ll be using it!

And so, time marches rushes on ... 4 months until we head out ...

Until next week!
African GirlChild

Just a quick update this week - when travel is involved, time takes on new meaning

- malaria tablets, test kit and treatment acquired
- additional wolf boxes acquired
- further progress on level 1 and level 2 of drawer system
- design ideas starting for “back seat row” - fridge, skinny 3rd seat and additional storage to be located

That’s it folks! Normal service to resume next week!

And we have broken the 120 days to departure … yikes!

kind regards
African GirlChild

Perhaps you need to add one of those 'days to departure' countdowns on your website, just in case you forget how many days to go? No fear of that eh? Think you might just be aware!

I see you've been liasing with Paul Marsh from Footloose 4x4 ... good bloke, sound advice you can take as gospel.

Tom Mc wrote:

Perhaps you need to add one of those 'days to departure' countdowns on your website, just in case you forget how many days to go? No fear of that eh? Think you might just be aware!

Yip - definitely want to frighten myself every day with a ticking clock I think it is time to switch the count down to days ... the number is 'bigger' so it doesn't feel quite so soon! 112 days isn't as alarming as 16 weeks!!

Tom Mc wrote:

I see you've been liasing with Paul Marsh from Footloose 4x4 ... good bloke, sound advice you can take as gospel.

Paul has been an absolute star - ensured our vehicle is purring like a lion and tough as a buffalo! We hope to get at least 500K miles out of the engine

Decent update to follow tomorrow

rgds
African GirlChild

Hi there!

Yip - back on the mud island, and time for a respectable update ... enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was inevitable - at some point we were due to feel completely overwhelmed by the enormity of what we are trying to accomplish by departure date. This was the week. Independently of each other, we both had almost heart stopping realisation of what still needs to be done. Hubby’s concern is the vehicle, mine the house. So, we have reminded ourselves of some key mantras:

1. Keep it simple! Seems obvious. Good to be reminded again by a guru.

2. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. In the heat of the ‘overwhelm’ this concept disappears entirely. We are implementing a ‘microblocking’ concept of doing a little bit every day, rather than nothing for a few days and then flat out on the weekends!

So, we’re back on the wagon ...

And, what have we been up to these past 2 weeks?

I had a trip out to see friends & family in South Africa - my gran in particular is getting on in years, and I wanted to spend time with her before we start our adventure. While out, I picked up a few essentials:

- wolf / ammo boxes are much cheaper (but a real pain to bring back!)
- malaria tablets, test kit and treatment were all sourced. Even with the unexpected dispensing fee, this was a bit cheaper than the UK
- braai / barbeque grid for cooking over an open fire (aaahh …)
- collapsable cooking tripod for use on an open fire (aaahhhh again …)
- security lock for handbrake / gear lever
- replacement mosquito nets for our rooftop tent - hopefully this will enable me to sort out the torn mosquito nets currently on the tent. It seems a common problem that the nets pull out of the nets, and Howling Moon are changing the net they use.

Hubby was busy too!
- He changed locks on the vehicle
- Next, much design for the back seat of the vehicle - using the anchor points for the back seat, he has now designed and created a base for the guide seat and fridge to sit on. As ever, these things take waaay longer than initially thought, but a sunny weekend certainly helped!

Aaah, yes, the Big Clearout continues too. We are utilising online market places at the moment to start reducing the furniture in the house - great success so far!

Busy weeks!! Only 16 more to go ...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Have a great week!

Until next time
African GirlChild

You have skills. Respect.

Jas wrote:

You have skills. Respect.

Thanks!

With the clock ticking, let's hope you have the energy to match the enthusiasm!

Nah, it’ll be a breeze. Naturally you will both be running about like mad things in the final days, but even if you extended your departure date by a week, you would still have last-minute things you need to do. It happens to everyone whether you are off on a round-the-world expedition or a low-key foreign off-road rally spanning a long weekend, that’s life!

Tom Mc wrote:

With the clock ticking, let's hope you have the energy to match the enthusiasm!

Yip - me too! I am already starting to think that once we catch the ferry from Dover to Dunkirk, we'll sleep for about 3 days at the first camp site!!!

Tom Mc wrote:

Nah, it’ll be a breeze. Naturally you will both be running about like mad things in the final days, but even if you extended your departure date by a week, you would still have last-minute things you need to do. It happens to everyone whether you are off on a round-the-world expedition or a low-key foreign off-road rally spanning a long weekend, that’s life!

Wise words - thanks for the reminder. Yes, we considered moving the date by a week or 2 to give ourselves more time, but we'll probably still be doing things at the last minute!!

kind regards
African GirlChild

Hi all!

Latest weekly update. Enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There is one aspect to all this preparation we have been up to - it has been a secret project from its outset. With the exception of parents and a few close friends and family, we have largely been beavering away in anonymity and stealth mode. It gets challenging to answer questions such as “What are you up to this weekend?” week after week when it is no more exciting than sewing, building interior storage ... Of course the neighbours must suspect something is going on – they’re no fools!

This week we started telling more people about our trip. Our managers responded completely differently! Hubby’s manager thinks it is a great idea, and personally really likes West Africa ... My manager is in complete denial, and can’t believe I would give up my job. I have been given more time to think about whether I really want to resign … or more likely, more time for her to digest the information.

Other people have given generally mixed reactions - some have been really excited for us; for some, the concept of camping for a year is horrendous but they appreciate the excitement of travelling for a year; a good few are concerned for our safety as we travel through Africa.
Work continues on the vehicle interior. Slow steady progress is being made in using the space as effectively as possible for storage. We discovered the third seat won’t fit where intended ... Rookie error. New solution found. Seat for sale. There is quite a lot of varnishing that needs doing, so this will start during the week (weather permitting).



The sewing machine was in action this weekend. And my pet peeve - storage bags! This week, a new bag for the camping table. This had a slightly modified design compared to the tent bag - the whole top of the bag needed to zip open to fit the rolled up camping table in. As the creator - there are a few little things I am not happy with. However, hubby thrilled; sewing machine praised.



We have also put a date in the diary for the first of our shake down weekends. Actually, this first weekend is more of a ‘check the kitchen and back storage work’ weekend. Well, actually, one night away. So, by the end of June, the back needs to be finished and the fridge in place, all ready to be tested.

It is starting to feel very real. Telling people, and having them ask questions, makes us realise that we are really doing it!

15 weeks to go ...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

until next time!

kind regards
African GirlChild

You're really good with that Singer (or whatever). Brand new career if you can't get your old job back.

Tom Mc wrote:

You're really good with that Singer (or whatever). Brand new career if you can't get your old job back.

Thanks Tom! No intention of going back to dull ol' deskjob with spreadsheets when we get back ... Definitely open to new alternatives - so will keep your suggestion in mind

African GirlChild

Don't blame you. As I've said many times before, we only pass this way once, so a boring job is something that should be avoided at all costs!