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In the United States, you may not have heard about the driving the “Cape to Cape” run . I guess there may be some scenic drives or highways that go from Cape A to Cape B, but the Cape run I am talking about is the drive from North Cape, Norway to Cape Agulhas, South Africa. It is a drive that overlanders dream about and only a handful actually complete in their lifetimes. There are obviously more direct routes to drive from the northern most point in Europe to the southern most point in Africa, but for us, the journey covered roughly 17,000 miles, spanned about 110 degrees of latitude, took us through 29 countries and lasted approximately 6 months.
Six months ago, we were in the far northern reaches of the Arctic
As we made our way to Cape Agulhas, instead of reindeer, we were on the lookout for turtles
Although chilly, it was a bit warmer at 34.5degrees South latitude
The marker in Norway was nicer, but where else can you swim in two oceans at the same time!
We are not the first people to drive the Cape to Cape run, but it is definitely a small number of people, mainly Europeans… I can probably extrapolate a bit further, hedge a bet from our experiences and say that most of the members of the Cape to Cape overland family are either Dutch, Scandinavian or South African. Now add some nutty Americans to the group. I am fairly certain that we are the first Americans to complete the Cape to Cape run as part of our overall expedition. We received a lot of support and encouragement along the way. In fact, some South Africans we met in Angola shouted enthusiastically “finally, some Americans with some balls,” when we stopped on the side of the road to chat. The road was very tough at times, but we made it and looking back it was well worth it. We still have a good portion of the trip left, but this was a major segment of the expedition and one that we anticipated would be one of the toughest. I am sure South America will hold some surprises in store for us, but our experiences here in Africa will help us to prepare for what the next continent throws our way.
The capital of Mauritania is a very poor place. Most people don’t even have homes and many of the inhabitants of the country are nomads. We took many photos in the surrounding area and it is easy to see that this is near the top of the list for poorest countries in the world.
Speaking for myself, Mauritania was still one of my favorite countries, despite the trash infestation problem. With a fairly large piece of land and a relatively small population to go with it, you can easily feel the adventure of the Sahara when going from one place to the next here.
In the far far north of the northern part of the north European country of Norway, there lies a cliff encircled point called North Cape. This is the farthest you can drive north in Europe and a truly majestic site. With giant cliffs, tunnels, ice covered roads and little to no light, the drive up to here is a true adventure in the middle of winter. The sub zero temperatures, snow storms, wind and incredible hunger that abides when darkness is far more common than light nearly drive you mad as you count the number of days since the sun has actually shined on you.
On our speedy journey to the north and the little information we could gather about making it all the way to the cape led us to a closed gate just 12 kms from the finish line. After a day of driving around trying to find the right people we were able to get a convoy with a snow plow and safety car to take us to the top, but at a cost…it ended up costing $1000 for that last 12km, and although that $1000 is still sitting on my credit card accruing interest…to all of us it was well spent. We drove all the way from Cape Otway Australia, over 30,000 miles through jungles, deserts, mountains, rivers, rebels and more to make it there and nothing would stop us.
Considering the safety truck was less prepared than we were if something was to happen and the plow had already been up that day so the road was already clear, the price was for little more than the Norwegians making yet another dollar off of us. Expensive for nothing, but worth it.
There is a small town in Norway not far from the Swedish border called Narvik. The town is full of history, setting the stage for numerous WWII battles and attracts many tourists each year because of this. Its natural beauty is unreal as well, with huge peaks jetting straight out of the fjords and surrounding the town. We spent New Years here and although at first it seemed like a quiet little town with nothing to do, suddenly around midnight thousands of locals poured into the streets setting off the finest run of amateur fireworks I have every seen. We were told that this would be the last year for the fireworks as it was going to be outlawed because to many people had been getting hurt over the years. It seems that the rest of the world is getting law crazy just like the United States, although I have a feeling that the locals may not adhere to this law all too well.
There is no doubt that we were ducking in fear as rogue bottle rockets and airborne spinners whizzed by our noggins, but this excitement is something that should be preserved instead of legislated against. I guess it is just becoming the way of the world to make a law instead of learning some tolerance for one day each year. Lawmaking aside, this is a hot spot for New Years. Where the Narvikians lack in population, they certainly make up for in zest. This New Years will certainly be one that I will never forget.
The day after new years we actually missed a turn on the way out of town and ended up at the Viking Hotel in Bjerkvik, a small town in the same area. Here we met the owner of the hotel and a few of his friends. They told us of the plans to remodel the hotel and put a huge Nazi Junker 52 airplane from WWII on the roof of the building that was recovered from the bottom of the bay. Mark and I had a chance to go with the guys to see the plane in the process of restoring it that evening. The two days around New Years could not have worked out better for us. Check out the photos below.
For Africa that is. That’s right, we made it all the way to South Africa. We have a few more days before we arrive in Cape Town and hopefully ship the trucks to Argentina on the 6th of July, so we are taking in some of the sights on the Garden Route. It has been a pretty hectic month and a lot has happened. Here are some of the highlights:
D.R.C
After getting deported the first time we tried to enter the DRC, we were more successful the second time with a little bit of help from our friends at the US Embassy in Brazzaville. On our way to Matadi where we hoped to finally obtain our Angola visas, we took some time to camp a little bit at the Zongo Chutes, a waterfall churning out a huge volume of water that eventually empties into the Congo River. It was quite an interesting sight and probably one of the only semi-developed tourist attractions in the entire country.
At the Chutes, we also met some people from the Netherlands who are working for Heineken in Kinshasa. We had some good conversations around the campfire about living in the DRC and life on the road and they were kind enough to let us crash at their guesthouse in Matadi while we waited for our visas. That’s right, we waited for our Angola visas at the Heineken House… enough said. After three days of waiting in Matadi, we finally had our visas in our passports and headed south to the border.
The guys from Heineken pose for a photo at Zongo Chutes, D.R.C.
View of Matadi from the Heineken House
Angola
It was hard to believe that we actually had our visas to Angola… it was almost as hard to believe that we only had five days to drive over 2,000 kilometers on roads that were reported to be pretty rough. The roads in Angola did prove to be pretty bad, but if you are planning a visit there in the next five years, the Chinese will probably have completed most of the wide scale construction projects we witnessed there. Angola was an interesting country. The people were exceptionally friendly, the natural beauty was astounding and given all of the construction going on, it was obvious that they are preparing for an explosion of tourism in the not so distant future. Someone just needs to tell them that if they want people to come to Angola, they need to chill out on the whole visa thing. It was also very interesting driving through a country that up until a few years ago, was in the midst of a brutal civil war. Signs of the war are still everywhere, from wrecked military equipment littering the side of the road, to completely destroyed buildings pockmarked with bullet holes… not to mention the thousands of landmines still hiding in the ground waiting to be found by an unlucky farmer or pedestrian. It was too bad we only had five days to experience Angola, because there is a lot more that all of us would have liked to have seen and experienced there. In the end, we made it through Angola in the time we were given, but had to log in about 60 hours behind the wheel in just under five days to do so.
Much of the Portuguese architecture did not survive the civil war
Military equipment dots the Angolan countryside
Most of the horrible roads were no match for the Thundra
But when the bridge is washed out, there is not much you can do but find another way around
Namibia
After spending four months in the developing countries of West Africa, Namibia was a welcome change. The roads were in great shape, the ATM’s worked, the official language was English and the grocery stores were stocked with a variety of items that did not cost a fortune. A lot of the change is probably due to the fact that the wildlife in Namibia attracts a healthy stream of tourists and the country has invested in infrastructure to keep that stream flowing. We were still behind schedule, but we could not miss the opportunity to see some of the amazing wildlife in Namibia, so a few days after entering the country, we headed out to Etoshia National Park to see what we could see. We saw a lot, but unfortunately missed the opportunity to see any of the big cats, but rest assured, they are there waiting for you.
No Photoshop… the shot of the day!
The Etoshia Pan is the only waterhole for miles so animals are everywhere
This bull elephant felt we were a little too close to his family and charged the Sequoia
Wildebeests share the pan with Zebra
It was amazing how close you could get to the animals in the park
