Change of route

What with the political situation in Northern Africa and the fact that the Alexandria to Venice ferry does not run in winter it was decided at the last minute to change direction and go North to South. Bad move! We cancelled shipping the truck to SA and started replanning the trip only to find that the Venice to Alexandria ferry had stopped running the week before due to problems in Syria. We eventually found a RORO service from Salerno in Southern Italy (with Grimaldi lines if anyone is interested) to Alexandria but even that does not have a definite date as it is “maintenance time” in August. We will get there somehow.

All goes well on the charities front, £2887 has been raised so far and lots of fundraising is still going on. Thanks to everyone in helping so far. We will still be visiting all the charities but in reverse order.

The Landrover and trailer are now in a container in Cape Town docks waiting to sail to Tilbury on Saturday so at least something is moving. Picture shows landy and trailer in Franschhoek with sign on mountain to prove it!

Preparations and Charities Update

Truck - Lots of small finishing jobs still to do and only 2 more weeks before it is shipped. It is going to Walvis Bay in Namibia, about £1000 cheaper than Durban.
Sudan Visas - All 8 of us, including one year old Tilly have to go for an interview in July to obtain our 2 month visa which will be out of date before we get to Sudan. The hope is that we can extend it in Addis Abbaba.
Charity Fundraising Schools are now getting involved. Money is being donated and the first draw of the Hoek to Hooke 100 Club has been made. Thanks to everyone for their support.

Charity Wishlists Prepared

The wishlists for each charity have now been prepared. You can fulfil a wish from as little as £10. Please contact us for more information or to donate, for contact details please see our website http://www.hoektohooke.com/.

April 2011

The truck is ready to come home, Chris has passed his HGV license and Pete still to do his. Saturday 16^th April we saw the launch of the trip, Hoek to Hooke and fund raising beginning in earnest for the charities to be supported along the route. For more information see www.hoektohooke.com

In order to check out the truck systems are working, Sarah, Chris and children spent their first night in the vehicle. Sleeping may be an issue!

First Fund Raiser and Donations April 16th 2011
A grand total of £ 181.70 was raised from the bar. Florence and Thomas's sweet stall £10.58 and donations to date £215. Thank you to everyone.

January 2011

Sarah began investigating the problems of acquiring visas. Ethiopa will now only issue visas for 3 months from the country of origin! Not very helpful when we don’t anticipate being in Ethiopia for 4 months after our departure from the UK. However they have said that they may allow us a visa for 6 months if we apply in July and have evidence that we will be over landing! Watch this space for more information. Sudan is the other country which we have a problem with. They only issue visas for 2 months and have advised us to buy a visa here before we leave and hope that we will then be able to get an extension in Addis Ababa. Again we will let you know.

After Sudan our route is dependent upon the political situation in the Middle East.

November 2010

Having decided over another bottle of wine that using an army truck was the way forward we set about locating a garage to modify our mode of transport. The truck was acquired and rebuilding began.

Lots of discussion later, we decided that we would start in the South and drive North. This enabled Mandy to start ordering and reading the guide books and then plot our route. The start date to be early August 2011.

October 2010

Whilst having sun downers one evening in Franschhoek and looking at photographs of a recent trip to Botswana, the idea of driving up through Africa evolved. It’s a trip we have all longed to do for a very long time and whilst drinking our way through a few bottles of wine it was decided that now was as good a time as any to do it. Back in England the first thing was to sort the feasibility of Chris and Sarah taking time out of running the family business. Once this was established planning began in earnest.

Members of the team will be Mandy and Pete (Grandparents), Sarah and Chris (Parents) and Thomas, Florence, Nia and Tilly, aged 8, 6, 4 and 1 (Children).

Given that we have all been involved in education we wanted to do something as we drove. Hence we came to the decision that we would raise money for children’s charities along the way.