Well. Here we are, back in sunny Sussex, bundled up in jumpers and scarves, shivering and unable to feel our toes. Even as we recount the tales of everything we’ve done and seen and experienced, and look through all the hundreds (thousands) of photographs, it still feels strangely as though we’ve not been away at all.
I think we can be pretty proud of what we’ve achieved on our epic adventure. And particularly chuffed that we’re still talking to each other! I can’t imagine many newly-married couples would be crazy enough to resign from work and go and spend four and a half months, twenty-four hours a day, in the baking heat, within a few feet of each other. So to do that, and to come out of it still laughing, and still happy to be within a few feet of each other, is no mean feat.
We’d successfully bought (and sold) a car, navigated our way around four Southern African countries, crossed some tricky international borders and not had a single puncture!
We’d read an article in Getaway magazine about a group of people who’d hired a convoy of fully kitted out 4WDs to cross Namibia – complete with tyres which cost around £1,000 each. The end of the article reflected on how important it was to have all the right gear, and how the tyres had most certainly been what had prevented them from getting a puncture, especially as much of the distance had been covered on gravel roads.
But we know better than that. We know that you can do the whole thing with very little preparation, only the bare minimum of equipment, and even less mechanical know-how. And we know that you can do the whole thing, in a 2WD Corsa with fairly old tyres, without getting a puncture – just so long as you have that shot of brandy at the Dop Steek.
