Up early to get to the South African Embassy. They opened their doors promptly at 09. For the visa and then the wait began as we were told to come back at 1.

The idea to drive home from Wimbledon to Kokstad. Started out as a bit of a joke at first but we soon made it a reality when we realised what an amazing adventure and challenge it would be. And so began the lengthy. And research which has consumed all our spare time for the past 15 months. We have always maintained that the success of this trip would be down to our preparations and planning before the adventure even begins. During the summer of 2007 we spent a day with Protrax. Castle in a disused sandst.

Day 1 - Wimbledon to Epernay. Today was a long drive but only because we hit rush hour traffic in Geneva which added on about an extra 2 hours onto the days driving.

Hopefully tomorrow we will get out of the Alps and do some more flat driving instead of up and down very steep roads.

The customs manager in the mean time quickly filled out a form signed it, handed over to me and said welcome to my country my friend. Not a door was opened and not a box searched, what a bonus! .