some photos and other stuff

Photo 1 - sarah and her aunt nina and mama peg at skipton in the uk outside manchester. thanks for putting us up and we will come back one day.

photo 2 the magnificent rock of gibraltar.

photo 3 me having the closest shave of my life in martil medina, morocco - have not shaved since so the beard is co,ing along ok

photo 4 - roman ruins at volubillus

hi all we are in marrakech and have lashed out on a private hotel room for a couple of nights, right near the square, the kasbah and the medina. the last few days the weather has turned ordinary with lots of rain and wind. we wrote a big blog posting on the whole of the trip so far but cannot get it to work on this computer, but we will try to get something meaningful and interesting to you asap. in the meantime dont be afraid to send us an email so that when we do get places we feel loved and missed...

overrall the trip is fantastic and we have seen some incredible sites and had some awesome bush camps already. the high atlas, toudra and dades gorges are spectacular and now we will be on our way to mauritania in the next few days and then into real africa when we get to mali.

i am sick - maybe from the snails i ate last night or maybe a virus going around the truck, sarah is healthy -yay - , i see the bombers lost damn it all.

will try for more photos this afternon if we can find somewhere faster

ben and sarah

Morocco and the Marjan

Since we last wrote we picked up the remaining 13 people taking our merry bunch to 27, making for a very full truck. We camped outside La Linea, where we scored first cooking duty, which was slightly confronting, having a group of 25 staring at us, thankfully Ian and Kirsten our kiwi friends and cooking partners have just come off another camping trip and are old hands so helped us through. We then crossed from spain to ceuta on the ferry, and I managed not to throw up.

We did our big shop to stock the truck in ceuta we also managed to stock our locker with some rather nice 55 cent wine, conveniently in a tetra pack. So far no headaches have resulted from a fair amount of drinking. Lunches are consisting of a lot of tuna and mad cow cheese.

The group is settling in together and there are a few characters amo,gst us. Most people are getting along and pitching in with only a few recalcitrants who are yet to get really involved. Am sure it will sort itself out and for those whe we have told about Peggy b4 we left (she of the sharp knifes on facebook) she is great.

Stayed one night at Mqrtil and went to a really cool medina which is not tourirty at all. I (ben) fot a cutthroat razor shave and we bought so,e yummy olives and strawberries to munch on. next day we drove to a beautiful village inb the hills called Chefchaouen where the stunning light blue and white buildings ; sunny weather and friendly people made us sorry to leave especially as we have been siutting around rabat for the lq*ast two days getting oour visas for mali and mauritania. We park the truck at the marjan supermarket and pretty much wander around the town which is nothing special. We are looking forward ro leaving tomorrow for fez; the high atlas ; marrakesh end then into the real africa.

hopefully post u soon.

Hasta la vista

We are off to Morocco and may not be in contact for a while so we'll update the blog a bit later...

Spain - the tracksuit capital of the world

Sarah and I feel left out because we did not bring any Adidas tracksuits to Spain. Everyone wears them - some of the most fabulous outfits ever. Today we saw a lady with a skin tight bright aqua, sequined tracky strolling down the street...magnificent!! The lads wear them everywhere, with their long hair and dodgy music blaring out of the car. Its hilarious.

Tomorrow we pick up the last few passengers and head to a campsite out of town, and the real trip finally begins. We have 1 more day and then head to Morocco and the freezing cold of the atlas mountains after a big buy up at a cash and carry where we fill the truck with food and load ourselves up with supplies like tuna, wine, and other essentials.

We are currently sitting in the truck with some of the crew drinking our $1 wine from the tetra pack, listening to some music and making friends.

Hope you are all well and we'll hopefully update with some photos soon.

Ben and Sarah.

The Rock of Gibraltar (post by Ben)

We arrived in Gibraltar safely and the plane managed to stop b4 the runway ran out (its worth Google earthing it because its literally on a tiny spit of land and the road from Spain into Gib runs through it...so when planes are not landing u can walk across it. Were met at the airport by Chris and Gary, the driver and general roustabout respectively and taken into La Lina in Spain to meet the truck and get our tent. The truck is really good and we have plenty of room although there will be 26 people once everyone arrives in the next few days. We met Ian and Kirsten, fellow travellers for the first 13 weeks, who are kiwis and very nice.

On Tuesday the four of us headed into Gibraltar and went up the Rock. Gib is a funny little place, so British and very shopping oriented. The cable car was closed so we had to get a taxi rock tour, drove up and saw the pillars of Hercules, St. Michael's cave which was huge, awesome, wet and beautiful. It has an auditorium in there where they have classical music concerts too. Then onto the Barbary apes, which were cute, and climbed all over everything. The highest point of the rock gives u an amazing view, panoramic over the Mediterranean sea, across to Morocco, and back into Spain. It was really stunning and a great experience to stand right on the edge and peer down the sheer rock wall.

The final stop was the great tunnels, which were begun in the early 1700's by British soldiers and led to the establishment of the engineer corps. These tunnels go for about 123 milers all throughout the risk and were strategically important for the British as they held onto the rock against various attacks by pirates, Spanish, french, and African forces.

Last night was spent on the truck with Chris and Gary, drinking ridiculously cheap beer and red wine, exchanging stories and getting the low down on the trans from the boys. Sarah has successfully transitioned to tent sleep and is enjoying the camping, as of course I am. The shower situation here is excellent - Sarah says it is better than the one we had at home, so you will all be pleased to know that we are clean and fresh smelling for now. Will be a different story in the next few weeks once we head into the Sahara and the heat of Mauritania and Mali no doubt.

We have too much gear and have begun to cull it a little - saving unwanted items for bartering in Africa. We have a locker under two of the seats in the truck where we have stored our day to day needs, including food, wine, beer - the essentials for travelling for over 40000km's on the next year.

Can't wait to meet the rest of the people coming with us, starting with a group of 7 tonight. No doubt the next few days will be fun and interesting>

Airport Quickie (Sarah)

Ben and I have just finished... checking in for our flight to Gibraltar. We are now ending our short trip to England which has been fantastic, it has been so lovely to catch up with family and meet Joe (my nephew). We had a great night out Friday with Paul and Vicky (cousins) which was only slightly marred by me spilling 2 pints on to Paul, which he caught ninja style avoiding catastrophe, but still getting a rather wet crotch.

We lazed around on Saturday and then Mama took the whole family out for a gorgeous Italian meal then we all trooped back to Nina's for a relaxing night over a couple of bottles of wine and a couple of beers.

We had the full gamut of weather while we have been here the high light for me has been the snow on Sunday. It started coming down so I rugged up and ran out the front to enjoy the sensation. It was surprisingly wet !! Of course Ben popped out in his t - shirt to the amusement of the Mancunians who were heard to utter 'typical bloody Aussie'.

Sunday Ben and I (well mainly Ben) cooked up a yummy roast to say thank you to Nina for having us and to see the family one more time before we flew out. I was rather happy to have Yorkshire pudding as I haven't the frozen ones back home and cant make them to save myself.

It was sad to say goodbye and I had a tear in my eye after Mama left for the night but we are hoping to come back this way in about 18 months, when Joe will be decidedly bigger!!

Were very excited to be heading off for Gibraltar, our driver Chris will be picking us up which is great and we will be repaying him with a bottle of Bundy so that he can dance with the bear tonight. We are staying in a camp ground in Spain and meeting up with everyone as they arrive over the next few days. We will be heading out to see the rock and the monkeys (the first of many) in the next week and we will also get around to putting some photos up for you all to have a squizz at.

see ya later alligator

Manchester and getting here

Hey everyone,

We arrived in Manchester at the crack of dawn on Wednesday UK time after travelling for what seemed like forever. Flights were all good although we were disappointed not to be able to have a celebratory champagne as it was only available for business and first class!! Manged to compensate with a beer and G&T respectively.

We arrived at Abu Dhabi feeling pretty tired so headed to the departure lounge to await and next flight and decided to have a bit of kip on the floor - fell into a dead sleep and luckily a nice lady came and prodded me awake with her foot to inform, us that the plane was about to board. We probably would have slept right through but managed to catch the plane and got into a very cold (but not wet) Manchester where we were picked up by Sarah's Aunt Nina and Nanna - a few tears and we felt very happy to have the long haul out of the way.

Spent Wednesday trying to stay awake, so went and picked up Sarah's 2 y.o 2nd cousin and went for a long walk around Heaton Park. Much to Sarah's delight it even snowed a little (her first time seeing snow). We had a hot chocolate lakeside and then wandered through an animal farm and went to a cool playground. Little Joe warmed to us both and by the end of the night was sitting next to me feeding me his pizza!! It was good fun. Finally we went to sleep and stayed that way for about 12 hours.

Thursday we headed off by ourselves into Manchester, and, after battling with the light rail ticket machine (made Metlink look half sensible!!) we wandered around checking the town out. It is a strange mix of old and new building and is just like most other big cities - full of shopping malls and cafes. They have a Manchester Eye (like the London eye or the Melbourne one - but it actually works) but it was expensive and small so we did not bother with it. After sussing the town centre out for a few hours we headed home and rested over a few drinks (finally having the celebratory champagne) and some traditional English fish and chips.

Today we headed to Skipton, a small village about 40 miles out in the countryside. It was very beautiful in that English village fashion, with the canal through the centre and lots of great pub names (the Cock & Bottle being my personal fave). Had a good lunch with a pint and then headed back into the city after a spot of shopping for some more Merrel shoes (Nina bought Sarah a pair and i got some too - prob about1/3 of the price at home) and a great warm jacket for me. Tonight promises to be fun with a night out in Manchester with Sarah's cousin Paul and tomorrow night we are out for a big family dinner before a rest on Sunday and a re-pack of the bags for our flight to Gibraltar.

So far we are off to a great start - weather has been cold but no rain and some sunshine, Sarah's family are looking after us and we are feeling relaxed and ready to hit Africa next week.

Sarah and Ben

We're Leaving

We thought we'd kick our blogging off the day before we fly out to Africa (via Sydney, Abu Dhabi, Manchester, Gibraltar, and Spain). So, here goes...

We are about to start the Trans Africa overland trip which will take us from one side of Africa to the other, through jungles, deserts, beaches, lakes, rivers, and mountains. For those unfamiliar with our plans, this map will give a pretty good indication of where we are heading.

We'll be travelling with around 25 others on the back of a truck, bush camping and doing all our own cooking, cleaning (well, occasionally) and bartering at local markets to buy food. There may even be some drinking along the way. The truck looks like this.

We are feeling very excited, a little nervous, but overwhelmingly ready to go and enjoy this experience. The packing has all been completed and Sarah is just able to stand up with her pack on without toppling over (yes, Ben's writing this bit!!) although carrying a few less kilo's than I am (we're not just talking luggage here either). This what we look like fresh and ready before we head off and we'll compare these photos to when we get back (Sarah says she'll be tanned black and that I'll look like one BIG freckle, while I say she will look like a wild haired feral and that I'll look like I've reverted to man's natural form).

So, we'll update the blog as much as we can and hope you enjoy following our travels for the next year. Cheers, Ben and Sarah.

PS) Feel free to pass the blog address on to anyone who you think will be interested and also feel free to post comments although we give no guarantee that we'll be able to reply.