We crossed into Benin at the main border crossing on the road between Lome and Cotonou. Formalities on the Togo side were pleasant and quick. Benin police took their time filling in all our information into their books before we headed for customs to have our car paper stamped. Once there however the customs man refused to stamp our carnet unless we paid him CFA 5,000, we refused and left returning to the man who stamped our passports. We kindly asked him to stamp our carnet, he looked confused but we reassured him it was necessary because we are from [View Full Entry]

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TOGO We crossed into Togo at a little border, which according to the Lonely Planet and other travel guides was only open to pedestrians as the bridge had been swept away. The Ghanaian police entered our details into his book which revealed we were the 8th vehicle since August. We had to fill out forms and Tom was made to rewrite his form as he misspelt the name of little village we had come from. Then they used white out to erase his parts of his signature that had gone over the lines, obviously too much time on their hands. Then [View Full Entry]

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Burkina Faso is certainly not on the travel itineraries of many tourists. Generally foreigners who visit this land locked country are NGO workers, diplomats, businessmen or those that transit through it from countries such as Mali or Ghana. We usually avoid capital cities if we can, since they are generally congested, noisy, polluted and navigating around them in our large cruiser is very stressful. However as needed to get our Ghana visas in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso so it was necessary for us to visit “Ouaga” as the locals refer to the capital. It was with some [View Full Entry]

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It seems that only when we finally stood on the African continent did our overland journey begin. We took the ferry from Algeciras in Spain to Ceuta (a Spanish enclave in Africa) a 35 minute trip across the Mediterranean Sea. We watched Europe disappear over the Northern horizon as Africa appeared on the southern horizon. We went through customs with absolutely no problems or hassles, the Moroccan officials were helpful and friendly. We headed for Chefchaouen, a little town where we planned to spend our first night in Morocco. RAIN IN MOROCCO As we pitched the tent it began to rain [View Full Entry]

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Finally our Land Cruiser was unpacked from the shipping container and through customs. Now we begin the task of packing and organizing ourselves and our cruiser in preparation for our long drive from Portugal via Morocco and the west coast of Africa to South Africa. We are hoping to leave Portugal by the middle of September for Morocco. We anticipate the journey will take us 6 months. Once we are officially "on the road" we will update our website www.adventurouspirits.com [View Full Entry]

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Traveling from South Africa we headed for the DRC, travelling through Namibia and Angola in 2007. KABOOM The moment I heard the sound and felt the cruiser begin to sway out of control I knew but could not believe it, we had another puncture our 7th!!! But this time when we got out of the car we discovered this was more than a simple puncture the whole back left tire was shredded. This was not going to be a patch job this would require buying new tires. Once again we prepared to change the tire, tools out, rocks in front of [View Full Entry]

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