Ok so lots to talk about, sorry we’ve been so quiet as I’m sure you can guess we haven’t had time to blink never mind get round to updating our blog. We have been busy writing articles for press, filling in form after form for the Carnet, researching kit requirements and finalising the route as well as an endless list of other things. So here is a bit of a catch up:
Carnet: so the carnet has been the bane of our lives recently. A carnet is a document that allows us to temporarily import the vehicle in the different countries without paying tax. There is a certain risk attached to each country with Egypt being the highest at 800% of your vehicle value! The three options we have are a Bank guarantee, insurance (which is roughly £2000 with 50% refunded upon return) or we just to have pay the risk value amount as a deposit. Since the banks are not being very friendly and won’t let us have a bank guarantee, it looks like the insurance option for us. Once it is finalised I’ll let you know the exact details and how much it’s costing.
Vaccinations: Well we both feel a little like a pin cushion right now! Make sure you get round to doing this early as you need to leave up to 3 weeks in between some injections. This is the list of the vaccinations we have been advised to get:
- Diphtheria
- Polio
- Tetanus
- MMR (Measles, Mumps and Rubella)
- Hepatitis A
- Hepatitis B – 3 injections
- Typhoid
- Yellow Fever – including certificate to enter certain countries
- Rabies – 3 injections
Some of these are just boosters as most of us have a selection of these vaccinations whilst growing up. Most injections can be done on the NHS apart from Yellow Fever that costs around £50-£60 and Hepatitis B around £90 for the set of 3 injections prices vary between different Doctor’s surgeries. Rabies is also not provided on the NHS, however I did manage to get mine. With Malaria tablets we have both decided to go for Doxycycline purely for financial reasons, we would have gone for Malarone but at £60 for a 7 day trip’s worth of tablets, for a 6 month trip it was just too expensive.
JRS Parts online: We collected our spare parts from the guys at http://www.johnrichardssurplus.co.uk last weekend and just wanted to say once again a massive thank you for all your help and support. If you would like any advice on the spare parts we are taking with us please just ask.
Press: We are starting to feel a little famous with being featured in two papers already (the Doncaster Star and The Burbage Rock) and with two more to go (The Doncaster Free Press and The Hinckley Times). We are also featured on the Carphone Warehouse staff website, and are due to be in next month’s issues of LRM magazine. All in aid of getting some more interest in our adventure to gain a few more charity donations. Whilst on the subject I would just like to say a massive thank you to everyone who has been generous enough to support us every penny really will make a difference to the two charities.
Kit shopping: After hours of searching and researching into the kit that we need to take with us we have finally (hopefully) got everything that we need. Recent purchases include Coalman Family Cookset -3X heavy duty pots, as we have a dual fuel cooker and normal camping cookware gets destroyed. A shiny new axe (Bryn’s favourite new toy!) , a camping loo (basically a toilet seat on legs), 2X very comfy Hi gear camping chairs, Twin Cylinder 12v Compressor, 2X Lenser H7R Head Torch’s these are slightly expensive but a million times better than any other we have come across, and are also rechargeable, and also a Hozelock portashower, we have the usual solar shower which is just basically a bag with a pipe attached, these are great but don’t provide sufficient pressure for me to was my hair, very girly but essential! – I have updated the kit section on the website if you’re interested in our final kit list.
Test trip: We have just returned from a test trip, only a short camping trip to Derbyshire to test out the new kit. We managed to forget one vital piece of equipment –tea spoons, rookie mistake! After one rather cold but fun day/night involving cards and a fair share of Rum and Brandy everything was running smoothly and we seem to have all the kit we need, as well as a home for it all to live. In addition this trip gave us some more practice with the roof tent and the side awning. I’m sure after 6 months we will be absolute pro’s and have it all put up and packed away in minutes. We have realised however that we will need to take a little set of steps with us as I’m just too short to reach the roof tent from the side to fasten up the cover and after lots of swinging from the roof rack I think a little set of steps is the best way! Day 2 was not so successful and was called off after torrential rain – hopefully we won’t see too much of that in Africa.
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