Our trip commences!!
Trip Start
Apr 11, 2009
1
38
Trip End
Jan 08, 2010
Gibraltar, Andalusia, Spain
Saturday, March 14, 2009
26 excited travellers
18-tonne overland truck (fully stocked)
1 continent to explore
Bring on Africa!!!
Gibraltar
After a fabulous couple of weeks catching up with old friends in Ireland, on Wednesday 11th March I flew from Dublin to Gibraltar, through Gatwick.....after spending a small fortune on excess luggage charges (I'm sure I could have cleared the foreign debt of a small country with less money as paid to those bl#$%^dy budget airlines)! I was on my way to commencing an epic journey traveling through 29 countries in Africa and Middle East for 43 weeks.
My driver, Chris, and his sidekick, Gary, meet myself and 6 other eager travelers at Gibraltar airport and walked us into La Linea, Spain to take us to our new "home" - a 15-tonne BMW overlanding truck (pale yellow and green). The silence was deafening as we climbed up onto the back of the truck and assessed the space in which we would spend over 300 days with up to 25 others....the realization that my journey would be filled with many challenges and experiences filled me with much excitement and apprehension. The truck had 28 seats, under which we must store our day-to-day belongings, with bigger bags stored under the floor. From outer lockers, the truck was kitted out with kitchenware for outdoor cooking, stools, tents and other basic supplies required for our long, long camping trip.
On Thursday I spent the day checking out the sights of Gibraltar - nothing really magic to report. On Friday, the rest of my traveling companions arrived - the trip had officially commenced!
