Collecting memories, taking video to broadcast in a 6-month KykNet programme, and leaving just their tracks – this is the mission of the Nissan convoy tackling the last leg of their Voetspore adventure from Cape Town to Egypt and Libya via Kilimanjaro.
The trip, ending in Kenya last year after leaving Cape Town 60 days earlier traveling north through South Africa across Botswana, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique and into Tanzania to Kilimanjaro, continues to Egypt this time, traveling from Kenya across Ethiopia, Sudan, Lybia and Egypt to finish in Cairo.
Team leader Johann Badenhorst says the adventure will start with the team climbing the mountain this time round. "Or shall we rather say trying to climb – at our age you never know," he said while getting everything ready for what can only be described as the adventure of a lifetime.
Driving a fleet of three Nissan SUVs (Patrol Wagon, Pathfinder and Patrol Pick-Up), the convoy will start from the Tanzanian side of Kilimanjaro heading to the Serengeti, around Lake Victoria to Uganda. "We have to go look for the origin of the River Nile – it forms an important part of our journey this year," said Badenhorst.
The convoy turns back east for Nairobi to have the vehicles serviced and replenish stocks before turning the Nissans northwards for Lake Turkana in Kenya, traveling west to get around the southern tip of Sudan.
Next on the route is Ethiopia, and apart from Addis Ababa the team will aim for Lake Tana in the north western part of Ethiopia and considered the source of the Blue Nile. From here the journey will take the group in their Nissans to Khartoum in Sudan, where the Blue and the White Nile meet. From here onwards the river is one mighty flow of water running through Africa.
At this stage the trip might even be extended beyond Cairo to Libya, ending in Bengazi.
Taking about three months this time, the trip should be completed in time for the first of the programmes to be broadcast in October 2007.
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