Four Wheels Around - An Introduction

Four Wheels Around - A Road Trip From Brighton UK to South Africa:

Who We Are:

We are Katie Ramsay and Alex Pegram, we graduated from the University of Birmingham in July 2007 and we live in (or in Alex's case 'around') Brighton, East Sussex.

How it all started:

Summer 2007 -

In our quest to see the world away from the beaten tourist track of many ex-students before us, and to feel as though we were doing something worth while at the same time we came up with the ingenious yet slightly daunting idea of driving from our home base of Brighton, East Sussex, UK all the way to South Africa.

The Route:

Over recent months we have adapted our route. We were both keen to see particlar parts of the world and we wanted to incorporate these places into our journey.

This is the provisional route.

We intend to leave Brighton, East Sussex, heading East along the coast and catching a ferry to France. Travelling through France into Luxembourg, Germany, Czech Repulic, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Syria and Jordan. From Jordan we intend to travel by boat to Egypt and to Cairo. From there we will journey through the rest of Eygpt, into Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland and into South Africa.

There will be more information regarding our route as we develop it, watch this space.....

The British Red Cross.

This roadtrip is going to be the trip of a lifetime, but more than that we want to raise money for a good cause whilst we travel. We have decided to support the British Red Cross.

• The British Red Cross is a fantastic charity that really makes a difference to the lives of people in the UK and overseas.
• The British Red Cross work overseas in many of the countries we are planning to visit, which gives us the unique opportunity to both raise awareness of the charity we are raising funds for, and to see exactly how these funds can be used to make a difference to peoples' lives.
• The work of this charity is important to pretty much all of Africa. For example, in East Africa The British Red Cross works namely in Ethiopia, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda. In Ethiopia for example, The British Red Cross focus in depth on HIV/Aids awareness programmes and they also specialise in helping those who have suffered at the hands of recent famines.
• 'Key areas of operation are; helping communities prepare for disasters; health care, with an emphasis on HIV and AIDS; water and sanitation; and ensuring vulnerable people have access to food.' http://www.redcross.org.uk/standard.asp?id=53566
• These pages illustrate just how important it is to raise this money.

What next:

This blog will follow our progress as we begin the challenging task of preparing for this trip. In no particular order we need to prepare in the following ways:

• We are trying to raise a significant amount of sponsorship for The British Red Cross through fundrasing events, family and friends and coporate sponsorship. www.justgiving.com/fourwheelsaround to donate!
• Neither of us are particularly gifted mechanics so it is extremely important that we research thoroughly and organise a suitable vehicle that will get us from the UK to Australia without breaking down too much!
• We need to prepare what equipment and utensils we will need during the trip.
• A suitable guide to accompany us through Libya needs to be arranged.
• We need to plan our route.
• We need to organise international driving permits and a carnet de passage.
• We need a vehicle....
• Katie needs to pass her driving test.......

These are just a few of the things that are involved in our preparation for Four Wheels Around. This blog will follow our progress over the next 6 months before we leave and more importantly we will continue to update it throughout our travels.

In the meantime, if anyone has any advice or comments regarding our preparation or blog it would be much appreciated as would any donations to our 'justgiving' page.

www.justgiving.com/fourwheelsaround

Thanks for reading,

Katie and Alex.

Please note that some minimal costs and expenses (for example, emergency vehicle maintenance) will be covered by a small amount of the sponsorship money we receive.

The British Red Cross is a registered charity number: 220949