Change of route: E Europe, Middle East & E Africa

The route has changed yet again. Hard to believe it as I have now considered possibly every single route to and around Africa possible.

This is what we are now planning to do. I think it’s the best route. It’s certainly a popular route.

From UK we will head east across France to Germany. We’ll go to Czech and maybe as far as Poland, this really depends on weather. We want to leave UK early October but it might be too cold for European travel (actually, too cold for me to sleep in a tent). Then we will head south through Slovakia, Hungary and through Bulgaria to get to Turkey. We will then be heading through the Middle East, through Syria and Jordan. In order to skip out Israel, because of problems with having an Israeli visa stamp in our passports, we will have to get a ferry to Egypt. We’ll then cross the Suez Canal and go south through Egypt. The journey continues further south into Sudan, Ethiopia and into Kenya. I understand that from Kenya south the roads get easier. I think it will be impossible to guess the route here after, as we won’t be held to dates and visas and we would like to be flexible. We’d like to spend New Year in Zanzibar – if things work out that way. We’ll follow a zig-zag south and when we get to Southern Africa, go across to Namibia before driving to our destination, Cape Town.

Compelling us (Paul and me) to go this way is the proportionately high cost of travelling through Libya combined with complicated visa applications. For the cost of a quick blitz across Libya with our compulsory tour guide we figure we could take an extra two weeks and travel across Eastern Europe. Secondly, there is no ferry from Greece (or Europe) running to Egypt with no hint of any ferry running again in the foreseeable future. Enticing us to go the longer route is the opportunity of seeing some of Eastern Europe and Turkey, which is supposed to be beautiful and interesting and then the promise of extraordinary landscapes in Syria and Jordan. Actually, when we did some crude distance calculations, we weren’t really adding on that much mileage.

There is no time limit really, so it doesn’t matter if we take a little detour, visit some interesting people and places, watch a few sunsets and spend time absorbing that glorious African sun. Actually, we don’t have to be anywhere - except where we are and as long as we can find the money to travel, let's travel.

Proposed list of countries:

UK

France

Belgium

Germany

Czech Republic

Poland

Slovakia

Hungary

Romania

Bulgaria

Turkey

Syria

Jordan

Egypt

Sudan

Ethiopia

Kenya

Tanzania

Zambia

Malawi

Mozambique

Zimbabwe

Botswana

Namibia

South Africa