2nd bit - Preparation

Well, I have started preparing for the trip.  It's just that I haven't got very far with it yet.

Last week I went to the travel clinic just to get a yellow fever vaccination and the nurse helpfully extracted a further two hundred quid in exchange for giving me rabies and Hepatitis B as well.  She also gave me some cholera in a glass.  As I've had a few other jabs from the NHS (and that nurse took the word 'jab' to heart) my left arm now resembles a teabag.  And my bank account is looking a bit redder than normal.  Still, I guess it's better to be slightly skint than slightly dead.

Most of the last week has been spent tidying up the flat, catching up with friends and relatives, and working on some prevarication practice.  This week looks like it may be a bit busier - as well as working out what I need to take and getting it ready, getting some anti-malarials, and sorting out my finances (such as they are); my mum's coming to stay for a day, I need to go to London to collect and fit a radiator for a friend, I need to go to London on another day to get more vaccinations and go for drinks with some ex-colleagues, I also need to feed a friend's cat, replace a brake caliper, a hub seal and two tyres on the car, sort out house bills and give the place a final tidy up.  And it all needs to be done before the weekend when my sister is coming up to stay.

So, I think I should probably be doing something other than sit in front of the computer drinking vast quantities of tea.

The next episode should be after I've left.  Although it would probably help if I actually booked some ferries and train tickets so I could leave...

Joe

First bit

Hi

This is a blog of my ramblings (verbal and physical) as I travel down from the UK to somewhere in Africa.  

"Where's 'somewhere'?", I hear no-one ask.

Well, I'm not sure.  My first target is Timbuktu - and other places in Mali - and then Burkina Faso and Niger.  If, by then, I still haven't run out of money, marbles or health, then I'm intending on carrying on down south through Cameroon, Gabon, the two Congos, and then somehow down to Cape Town.

I don't intend to fly, at least, not until I decide (or am forced) to come back.  So on Monday 20th October I'll be getting the train to Dover, a ferry to Calais, and then making my way down to Algeciras, on the Spanish side of the Gibraltar straits, by train.  Then ferry across to Morocco, train and bus down south.  I'll need to hitch across the border into Mauritania, and then it'll be 'bush taxis', boats, buses, trains, whatever, on from there.

I'm not sure how long this will take.   I may get fed up with my own company after a few weeks (which is understandable, most people get fed up with my company after a much shorter time) and come back then.  On the other hand I may end up on the road for several months.  Realistically, I reckon I'll be away for anything between one and six months.

By the way, the reason I'm not taking the Landy is that I'd rather not do it alone; being stranded in a broken down bus in the middle of the Sahara is one problem, being stranded by myself in a broken down car is something else entirely.  Obviously, the landy never breaks down, so I really shouldn't worry...

Anyway, enough for now.  The next exciting installment will be about preparation.  

It will be a very short installment indeed.

Joe