While praying and planning for EA 09 God was impressing on my heart that we had to cover the whole continent. While it wasn't possible to enter all 54 (South Sudan didn't exist yet) African nations in one year it did seem possible that we could enter at least one country in each area of the continent. In other words North, West, Central and East Africa.
The Cairo to Cape Town route was still very much at the forefront of my mind; but I soon realised that some of the other adventurers out there were talking about three possible ways to cross the Sahara from North to South. One was of course from Cairo via Sudan, Ethiopia and then on to Eastern Africa. The 2nd was considered extremely dangerous since it crossed in the centre of the continent from Algeria to Niger. Many kidnappings by terrorists and desert tribes had taken place on this route. The 3rd was from Morocco along the coast through Western- Sahara and Mauritania till you reach Senegal. This one was also risky, especially the Mauritanian part, but much more do-able. Although I could find no-one who had done it with public transport. Most travellers did it with own transport. This was more and more important since our initial plan to use our own vehicles starting becoming less of a reality as we struggled to secure a sponsor.
More and more I started thinking of travelling from Morocco to South Africa instead of from Cairo to South Africa. The idea seemed ludicrous. How would that even be possible? Think about it: on African buses, taxi's and trucks from Morocco to South Africa. Pretty crazy.
One of the greatest moments for me was a few months later when most of the team had been assembled. They knew we were travelling Africa for a while but I don't think they had any real idea what they were letting themselves into. I threw open that beautiful African map before them and said: “Guys, I have a crazy idea. And I've no idea how were going to do it.” The excitement in the room was tangible. It felt like I was Sir Edmund Hillary leading my team up mount Everest.I looked into their faces, adventure burning in their eyes.
"We're travelling from Morocco to South Africa. Using only public transport," I said. They were ready to go.