As I write we are in the mountains north east of Nice and plan to cross the Italian border this afternoon. We crossed the southern part of the Alpes yesterday and, after some hairy mountain roads, arrived in our present location. Apologies for the delay in updating the site, we have been charging through France in order to meet Rory's flight to Nice on time.

Our official send off from Demelza House on Saturday was a great success. Not only did many of our friends and family turn up to bid us farewell but we were also surrounded by our patrons, sponsors, the local press, Land Rover Monthly Magazine (in which we have a four page feature article this month), Meridian Television and the local radio. All went well and after some brief speeches by Commander Bawtree, OBE, Ray Partridge (coordinator of Project Gateway in South Africa, the third project we are due to stop at and give assistance to) and Derek Phillips (founding Chairman of Demelza House), we finally set off on the long road to Cape Town. It was a great feeling to be on the road for the first time. After thirteen months of painstaking preparation and fund raising and a month of frantic work with little sleep, we were anxious to start the expedition and begin the task of getting to Cape Town. Opening the mail that had arrived that morning, in addition to some much appreciated good luck cards, we received a cheque from Anglo American PLC for £2,000; a nice surprise!

Our ferry left Dover at 5.15 and we watched with mixed feelings as the white cliffs slowly disappeared from view and gave way to the industrial sprawl of Calais. We headed southeast down the A16 and stopped after an hour or so to set up camp at a picnic site just off the main road. The first night spent sleeping in the tents and Land Rovers went well; we cooked up some sausages and bacon and then got some desperately needed sleep. The back of the vehicles proved reasonably comfortable and despite stiffness and no facilities to wash, we set off on Sunday in high spirits with the aim of reaching Dijon by nightfall. After 500 kilometres through the pouring French rain, we arrived and found 'Camping du Lac', a campsite that allowed us to take much-needed showers. Another adequate nights sleep and we set off down through the Cote du Rhone towards Lyon. Veering off the main highway we headed into the mountains of the Drome region and set up camp at Die, a small village south west of Grenoble. Eager to get to Nice by 7.00 to meet Rory, we headed off early and, driving through fields of sunflowers with the snow-capped Alpine mountains to our left, arrived in the palm clad city of Nice. For the first time we have a day to tidy our vehicles, study the map and write an article.

The vehicles are driving well, the documentary is under way and spirits are high. We are just starting to fully appreciate how far we have to go and how hard nine months on the road will be. We are all both excited and nervous and looking forward to dealing with whatever challenges lay ahead. Keep checking the site regularly, bulletins will appear at least every couple of days and articles every week or two. Thank you all so much for your encouragement, support and generosity. We plan to achieve big things and our journey has hardly yet begun.

Jonathan Besley - Project Leader

About this site | Feed Back | Privacy Policy | Help?