This is the African overland expedition website of Cindy and Nick Truyens.  Living out a dream we will be embarking on a journey that will take us from Cape Town through Southern and East Africa, unaided and alone (at least until we meet some like minded travellers along the way).

The concept was born in March 2004 and after some false starts and lengthy preparations and a few changes in itinerary, we finally, some two years later, quit our jobs in the UK , sold our house and shipped the Landie to Cape Town for the start of our 7 month expedition.

Why? - you may ask - and the answer is "just because".  We have both yearned to explore Africa by road for over 20 years and we finally have the means and the time to take on the challenge.

We have done mini journeys in 4x4's in South Africa, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe but nothing on this scale.  We know a little of what to expect and have experienced some of the challenges first hand but tackling a trip like this for 7 months non-stop is an entirely different matter.

We are well aware that the most important thing for us to pack is patience - something the fast paced western world seems to have run out of.

Sure we are worried about our safety - our family and friends are even more concerned than us. We will be travelling through known hotspots (found in most "don't travel there" guidelines), we expect to break down, get bogged down, face bandits, have a bad case of the trots now and then, be subject to fuel shortages, bribery and corruption, boarder post delays and theft, not to mention malaria and wild animals. 

Oh what the heck - better to have lived life to the full than to be stuck in a rut - until of course that rut is 3 feet deep and filled with muddy Kenyan cotton soil.

Just think of the memories and stories that will be told for years to come......

Eleven countries , different languages, cultures, customs and traditions. From the excesses of the western first world countries to the shortages of some of Africa's poorest third world countries.  We will come across the most diverse scenery on this planet - deserts to tropical forests and the raw bush teaming with wild life.

Sights, smells, sounds, flavours ....... and dust - lots of it.

The simple things in life are going to become a challenge - where to sleep, what to eat and where to bath/shower.  Talk about testing Maslow's Theory!

We hope to have the privilege of becoming involved in community projects along the way and lending a helping hand where direct benefit can be derived from our efforts.

This website will be our travelling diary with submissions along the way - wherever and whenever we can.

For those who are planning a similar trip or have an interest in overland expeditions we have added most of our preparation and research data to this site. 

We would like to thank all those overlanders that  have gone before us and who have unselfishly shared all their info on their individual websites in a similar way - some of these are mentioned on our Preparation page.

Please join us in your armchair as we undertake the journey of our lifetime - enjoy (without the pain) and if you have the time ... drop us a line - we'd love to hear from you - we'll respond whenever we can.

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Drop us an e-mail (we'll respond whenever we can)

mail@truyenstravel.com

Site last updated 24/02/2009 22:49

Copyright  ©  Cindy Truyens 2006

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