| The
Route :
In the middle of September, the adventure of our lives will
begin. By that stage our Honda Africa Twin will be packed
and ready to take us from Växjö in Sweden to Cape
Town in South Africa and back again (!). This journey will
take about 11 months.
Our first stop will be in Karlskrona and from there we will
take the boat to Poland. From Poland we are planning to travel
trough the Check Republic, Austria, Italy, France and Spain.
We intend to spend around three weeks in Europe before we
cross the border to Africa.
To get from Europe to Africa, we will take the ferry from
Gibraltar in Spain to Tangier in Morocco. When we are finished
exploring Morocco we are heading across West Sahara, Mauritania,
Senegal, Gambia and maybe Mali. This is of course going to
be very tough. There are two of us sitting on the bike and
we have a lot of desert and bad, bad roads ahead of us. This
is, by all means, going to be a mayor challenge.
At the date of today we’re not 100% sure how far down
on the west coast we will be travelling. A lot of the countries
in this area are affected by political conflicts and we will
wait and see what the situation is like when we get there.
Because of these conflicts we have chosen not to travel trough
DR Congo and Angola. This means that we are going to fly from
one of the countries on the west coast, most likely Senegal
or Gambia, to Namibia. A part of our preparations is of course
to inquire a suitable country and a suitable airport (with
suitable prices) to fly from.
From Namibia we steer south to South Africa. From there we
have countries such us Botswana, Mozambique, Malawi, Tanzania,
Kenya and Ethiopia ahead of us. The next country in turn will
be Sudan. This will probably be a tough part of our journey.
Sudan is not only affected by different kinds of disturbances,
most foreigners who are planning to travel trough this country
are also having problems getting the visa. The last African
country that we will visit is Egypt. From Egypt we will take
the ferry to Greece and from there the time, our energy and
our wallet will decide how much time we will spend in Europe
on our way back to Sweden.
Purpose:
The biggest reasons why we are doing this trip are because
of the experience, the adventure and the challenge. Imagine
two people on one motorbike, driving from Sweden to South
Africa and back again. Are we really going to manage? It’s
impossible to visualize what we are going to experience. The
amazing landscapes, the fascinating African cultures and all
different kinds of people that we’re going to meet.
Imagine when we are driving trough West Sahara in intolerable
heat (and probably are getting an empty tank in the worst
matter of time). Or when the hardly existing roads contain
nothing but sharp stones. When we’re repairing our tenth
puncture and are about to explode of anger. And imagine the
excitement when we are bush camping for the first time. Trying
to fall asleep to the sounds of animals that we’ve hardly
even seen in the Zoo. Yes, this is definitely going to be
an experience, an adventure and a challenge.
When you think about Africa it’s hard not to think
about the children. Children without parents, children who
are starving, Children with AIDS, children without an education
and children who are growing up in countries affected by war.
Children that are judged to live a life in misery. To us it
feels like a matter of course to try to make an effort for
these children. For starters we are sponsors to a 10 years
old girl in Kenya, Robe. Robe is an orphan who’s living
with her grandmother outside of Nairobi. Hopefully we will
get an opportunity to meet Robe when we get to Kenya. It would
be very interesting to se what kind of difference the money
that we’re sending is making.
To support the children of Africa we are also planning to
do some volunteer work. We have been in contact with a orphanage
home in Johannesburg, South Africa, where we are planning
to spend a couple of weeks. This is going to be very tough,
but useful.
Another purpose with this trip is to really test our relationship.
It’s been three years since we were lucky running in
to each other in the streets of Wellington, New Zeeland. We
started out our relationship by travelling together, that
is true, but the circumstances were so much different. Then
we travelled by car for a couple of weeks in New Zeeland...
A lot has happened since we met. We have had time to break
up, to travel apart, to become an item again, to move in together
and to get to know each other for real. If there are any good
or bad things about each other that we haven’t noticed
yet, they are about to be discovered. I mean, we are going
to spend almost 24 hrs a day together for eleven month:-)
If we are a happy couple after this “test”, we
will be a happy couple forever!
Map:
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