Going North

3rd August Team Bulldog and Lipstick need to be at Frankfurt airport today for their flights back south. The logistic tasks were to meet Ingrid and Michael on the highway before Frankfurt airport and also park Lipstick in a safe

1st & 2nd August Time for facts today – The team members had to get to Mestre where the port of Venice is situated to meet with their shipping agents – named properly called “team shipping”…. This required a short

30th and 31st July After breakfast the teams fetched their washings from the local laundry in Freudenstadt which added a somehow nicer smell to all members and this had to be celebrated at the local “Brauhaus” a little brewery in

28th and 29th July Having arrived midnight the night before in FDS the teams regrouped and with their limited clothing resources firstly decided to have all clothes properly washed – most of the clothing was left in the cars on

27th and 25th July Nice early train drive to Florence from the close by main railway station when Vera phoned advising that she and Vito would meet us in Panzano – a little village south of Florence this afternoon. This

24 and 25th July The teams landed in Rome around 1.30pm and got to Hotel Napoleon –close to Piazza Emmanuele by just after 3pm. No time to be wasted- they took off by foot to visit the surrounding monuments like

23rd and 24th July After breakfast the teams drove back to Cairo to a hotel in close proximity to the airport. All arrived just in time to watch the Rugby game between the Springboks and Australia… Much to the disappointment

22nd July No breakfast as we wanted to avoid the Cairo traffic on our way to Giza. David managed to get the teams out of Cairo like driving through his home town. Knowing that a few months ago this city

21st July Despite celebrating David’s arrival a few hours befoire – the team members were able to meet up with Ahmed at 8am in order for the final onslaught – getting the cars through final police and customs and parking

20th July With no official paper work to be done today it was decided that today the team would visit the battle fields of El Alamein and also clean the interior of all 3 cars for easy custom examinations. To

19th July After a quick planning meeting it was decided that the team m embers split up so Andre, Rene and Denis would go to the Airport to book flights out to Rome whereas Paul , mark and Willy would

18th July to Alexandria via Suez Canal Ready for the final leg on the African continent to Alexandria the teams left after breakfast towards Suez. It was a long casual drive initially- on a double high way- along the shores

16th of June rest day on the shores of the Red Sea Late awakening – and a – believe it – Breakfast buffet offered by the Magawish hotel put the teams in good spirit. The teams King of diving -Bulldogs

15th of June – Rest day on the shores of the Red Sea after having visited the Valley of the kings… Late awakening – and a – believe it – Breakfast buffet offered by the Magawish hotel put the teams

All were told to be ready around lunchtime and Mazaar came around the house in the morning to give us the stamped carne for the car as well as all the export papers which are required. Transportation of the car

If the outside temperature is 35 degrees at 7am and the generator ran out of diesel one can imagine what happened to the teams wish for a long morning sleep. Besides this there is the problem of that 7.2 mm

So here they are in Wadi Halfa the border town between Sudan and Egypt. The cars are gone and their location unknown at this stage – the team members just hope that the cars will be found on Thursday 14th

Off to the most northern border town of Sudan – Wadi Halfa – today. This was a real trip through extremely rough desert terrain and through temperatures reaching 46 degrees. The road was fully tarred in a very good state

First thing in the morning was to make sure that all cars have enough fuel on board. The navigation systems guided the teams nicely through town but every now and then a U – turn was required especially when new

Words from the editor Hi there all, it’s me again Elaos Natsan the teams editor.   We are approaching the cruelly hot Nubian desert in northern Sudan and were glad to park off for 2 days in Khartou….. These 2

In order to avoid the sweltering heat we started to dismantle the campsite with the early sunrise. Within minutes of the sun showing face on the horizon the temperature already climbed to almost 30 degrees. Back on the main road

We left the Goha Hotel in Gondar with cars that received a proper wash and clean up the previous day. After about 180 km we arrived at the border posts between Ethiopia and Sudan. The Ethiopian passport procedure went relatively

After breakfast in the mountain lodge the teams proceeded to look out for the famous Gelados monkeys for which the Siemen mountain is famous for. These creatures can only be found mainly in this mountain park and in a few

After breakfast we went with a local tour guide to visit the religious sites of Aksum. History has it that people lived in the Aksum area 500000 or more years ago . A female hominid skeleton ( Lucy ) was

We left the Jerusalem Guest house at 7am just after we were handed a fax from Willy’s sister in law – Waltraud – who somehow was able to trace the fax number in the middle of the African bush. The

1st June 2011 Again an early morning wake up and by 6am we are on the way to Lalibela with our cars having been refuelled the previous day. We again had to climb mountains to 3200m and had a coffee

By 7.30 in the morning and after a spartanic breakfast we were on the boat to a monastery which is situated on one of the many islands of Lake Tana. No woman is allowed on this island which is inhabited

It took us less then expected time out of Addis Ababa and the Garmins worked well in getting us on the road to Dahir Bar within 30 minutes. We soon climbed to over 3500m into the mountainous highlands of Ethiopias

Today we had all dirty clothing washed and dedusted our cars. Even the best organised car becomes a bit chaotic after 2 weeks as one tends to be in a bit of a rush in the morning with the result

We left before breakfast with the intention to eat something later bin one of the many towns ahead. Soon we found ourselves again climbing to altitudes of 2600 m driving through small villages and about 30minutes into our drive we

We arrived at the border post at 7.30 and were told that because it is Sunday today the border would open a bit later. One of the junior officers promised to phone the senior officer to open up soonest. At

We took off at sunrise from this little oases on lake Turkana and headed off north towards the Ethiopian border. Most other Africa Overlanders take the road via Marsabit but other travellers coming down from up North told us that

A cup of coffee at 5am started us off when team Lipstick discovered that their water stock was down to 4 bottles. Andre and Willy quickly decided to go into Isiolo and buy some more water supply at the 24/7

We were told to leave Nairobi as early as possible or face the morning rush hour with the risk of being stuck in traffic for 2-3 hours. As the bikers arrived a day late they would only follow the following

Greetings from the equator – my name is ELAO NATNAS I am the official mascot for team Lipstick. My main task is to watch over their security, supervise their driving skills and putting the daily blogs together. I am very

Team Lipstick took this rest day as an occasion to have the vehicle serviced and the onsite mechanic of Jungle Junction exchanged the oil as well as topping up the hydraulic oil for the steering mechanism Andre and Willy then

Waking up with great expectations to look at Tanzania’s highest mountain- from the Kenian side of the border – we realised with great disappointment that today the mountain would remain covered in thick clouds refusing us to take any pictures

Our wonderful host Geoff did not hesitate to wake all team members up at sunrise without any mercy for those who insisted to have those absolutely bloody last final drinks only a few hours earlier. Another nice breakfast ensured that

What a pleasure waking up in a beautiful bedroom in Watamu. Blue skies ,27 degrees and a 5 star breakfast thanks to the chef of Club 15 plus a full day of rest caused everyone to put on their best

Firstly in the morning the teams established a suitable repair centre for Bulldog’s wheel bearing problem. The local Toyota dealership was contacted and they assured that they have both spare parts and manpower capacity available to sort Bulldog out before

In the morning we said good bye to team Halfway and team Ivory who would go to Zansibar for 2 days and thereafter head down South back to Souith Africa. It was a great pleasure travelling with them and celebrating

Pieter Booysen from team “ Halfway” who arrived a day ahead of team Lipstick in order to meet his wife Jenny who flew in the previous day, had met an indian business man who offered any assistance which the Elao

Originally this day should have taken us to Lindi in Tanzania but after checking out Lipstick we realised that. new shock absorbers were urgently required. We therefor decided to take the long route straight through to Dar es Salaam which

Having been dropped off at Situ’s mooring station next to the Rani resorts we proceeded to Russel’s cottage , where we met up again with Paul who stayed behind in order to repair some electrical problems with his car. Mark

All resting on Situ island – Pictures say it all:           These were 2 relaxing days on Situ island – those out there who would like to know more about Situ can go to the web

Awoken by the sun rising over the Indian Ocean all the members enjoyed a beautifull breakfast prepared by the kitchen staff under Donne’s guidance. We all decided thereafter that we would like to cruise some of the other islands in

After leaving this really nice campsite and saying good by to the owners – Manuel and Maria Ferreira – we had to fill up vehicles in Nampula which seems to be the commercial capital of northern Mocambique. By 7am the

We left early morning from our self-decorated camping lodge after showering by throwing buckets of water at each other. In Mocuba we filled up with petrol and changed money at the local bank. This was a pretty fast process as

Instead of our planned trip to Macuba the teams decided to change this to the coastal town called Quilamane . The trip let us along a very scenic road with the huge Gorongosa mountain majestically looking down on us at

Team Bulldog and Lipstick decided to use as short cut and enter the Gorongosa National Park from the East rather than from the Western site. On the map this looked to be the perfect option cutting about 120 km of

We left at 8.45 am on the long road to Beira . The so far nicely built road soon became somehow narrower after Inhassora and more and more potholes were part of our trip for the next 200km when we

We left the Honeyport Resort in Xai Xai at about 9 am – shortly thereafter the unavoidable happened and Lipstick was stopped by 2 local policemen for allegedly doing 140 in a 60 km zone. Andre and Willy politely negotiated

Day 3 – Baadplas – Xai-Xai -583 km (Team Lipstick) We left campside at 7am and drove through beautifull forest areas towards Malelane. The landscape was indeed comparable to what we most probably will see in Freudenstadt – Huge Pine

Day 2 – Bethlehem to Baadplas – 583 km (Team Lipstick) We woke up at 6am in freezing conditions despite the electric blankets. It was indeed difficult to get out of bed and face temperature of minus 2 degrees –

Day 1 – East London to Bethlehem – 710 km (Team Lipstick) Like a real last minute flight we all assembled at Lets Travel ( a travel agent in East London ) in anticipation of getting handed over our visas