It's not Tuesday but it's still a top ten: Medical Supplies

As we prepare for the rally in earnest I realise that Girl Guides really didn't stand me in good stead for big adventures.Or, if it did, I wasn't listening to those talks. Either way I realise that I don't know how to make a tourniquet (I had to google the spelling of that); I can only build a fire after about 4 false starts and certainly can't do it without a match or lighter; and if we get stuck in the mud we'd better hope we have a flare gun so people can find us because my grasp of the physics of mud and the force of friction is not that strong. Bearing all this in mind, and realising it's less than 3 weeks till the trip, I've decided to make a list of all the medical supplies we'll need so that when faced with a broken bone, a burn, or bruising from pushing the car, we're at least prepared for that!

1) Arnica - because I bruise like a peach
2) Dettol - this is good for disinfecting and we don't want to waste perfectly good gin if we don't have to
3) Immodium - 12 hours in a car with a dodgy stomach, thanks to some ill-advised fresh produce, is a prospect I certainly can't face
4) Malaria medication - this is fairly self-explanatory. Can one buy this over the counter in South Africa?
5) Plasters - ideally with cartoon characters but hospital beige will do and some cloth bandges too, just in case.
6) Headache tablets - definitely self-explanatory!
7) Rennies or other such stomach settling product - I don't get car sick but sometimes my stomach just doesn't agree with me. It's a curse.
8) Hay fever tablets - good for insect bites and sneezing thanks to "the nature"
9) Zambuk - "the real makoya" as it says on the tin, and good for just about everything (thanks Zed for introducing me to it!)
10) Savlon - good for the Bs - burns,bites and blisters (I think).

And then of course there's suntan lotion, after-sun, chewing gum, ear plugs and old favourite boiled sweets. This isn't quite medical, but not quite not either....except maybe for the boiled sweets. But what's a road trip without barley sugars?

The Put Foot Rally Shoe drop 2012

Well, as you've no doubt figured out by now, we're pretty damn excited about road-tripping around Southern Africa. The parties - the wildlife - the thrill of knowing that if Constance breaks down there is no possible way we can fix her... But it's not just about the thrills - the most important thing we'll be doing along the way is taking part in a shoe drop at Senkobo Basic School in Zambia.

Photo © Put Foot Foundation

Top Ten Tuesday: Camping equipment that we need

As the rally rapidly approaches and I keep waking up with night sweats realising what on the "list of things to do in preparation for the rally" has been done (not much), still has to be done (lots, and growing), may have been an impossible dream and should be taken off the list entirely - I thought it was about time we actually started making these lists visible. Perhaps if they are here for everyone to see, we'll get things done? And perhaps someone with fresh eyes can tell us if we're being a little hysterical....

Some inspiration from Penelope Pitstop

It's probably too late to get our Constance looking anything like Penelope Pitstop's Compact Pussycat (yes, that is what it's called).

The Compact Pussycat at Goodwood (from here).

But potentially not too late to source the costumes..?!

Cougar Penelope

Hmmmm..

We can change a tyre!

With less than a month to go until registration day we’ve been quite good at ticking the fun things off our Put Foot To-do list – like looking at route and ogling at pictures of Mozambican beaches – but there are still quite a lot of not-so-fun things that we have been avoiding. For me the most dreaded of these was to come to grips with changing a tyre. So you can imagine my delight when I discovered a flat on a bitterly cold Joburg morning! It wasn’t fun, and it did take me ages making me late for work, but I am proud to say that I can now change a tyre on my own and am feeling a lot more rally ready.

FML.

Jozi's turn to quiz

Jozi’s best and brightest braved the cold to gather at Pirates sports club last week Thursday for the 2^nd Team Pedal Pushers fundraiser. 

A fairly unwilling Mr Langley took on the role of quiz master and did a fantastic job of controlling the enthusiastic (read unruly) crowd – even as we were plunged into darkness by a momentary power outage. Well done to each of the eleven teams who fought to the (almost) death for eternal glory and the top spot. In total we raised R2900 for Project Rhino and the Put Foot Foundation which brings our fundraising total to R5800!!

A very big thank-you to everyone who came to support, to Pirates who hosted us free of charge and to Larry ‘The Quizwizz’  (undoubtedly the best quizmaster in Jozi) who advertised for us. 

Fun fact Friday: Checkpoint 6 - Mocambique

Sun, sea and sand - we couldn't be happier to have our final checkpoint by the seaside! Although in Mozambique with its 2470kms of coastline it's not that hard to be by the sea. That being said Mozambique is pretty sizeable being just less than twice the size of California and 45% larger than France.

Capital is Maputo, which used to be known as Lourenco Marques during Potuguese rule.
President:Armando Guebuza
Popuation: estimated 19,686,505 

 

Mozambique became independent in 1975. The country was the scene of an intense civil war lasting from 1977 to 1992. During this period up to a million Mozambicans died from fighting and famine in a war that ruined the economy and much of the countryside. The country has been left with a legacy of landmines and amputees but 20 years on, we're sticking to the main roads and have been on holiday here before so I think we're safe!

Now for fun facts!
1) There are 147 airports in Mozambique, although only 22 have tar runways.
2) Not fun but interesting: February 2007 brought the worst flooding Mozambique had seen in six years, particularly along the Zambezi River where it burst its banks. Tens of thousands of people were displaced.
3) Natural gas is Mozambique's most important resource (after hydro-electrical power)
4) Mozambique has only one official language - Portugese
5) The country was named Moçambique by the Portuguese after the Island of Mozambique, derived from Musa Al Big or Mossa Al Bique or Mussa Ben Mbiki, an Arab trader who first visited the island and later lived there.

It's arrived - Our Route

So following one rather confusing skype conversation we finally have what we hope is OUR ROUTE! We are of course trying not to be too anal about it and accept that while this is "the ideal" we may have to make it up as we go along when we realise what sort of roads we're facing, have a puncture, don't set an alarm and only arise at 10am but surely this is what adventuring is about...at least this is what I keep telling mum. And as I keep reminding myself, we're only young enough and stupid enough to do a car rally around Southern African once...probably!

We've dedicated a whole page of the blog to the route so look up and click :)

Excited, terrified in equal measure.

Seriously. We need an audio book or four. "Game of Thrones"....?

Afri-Quiz Madness

So fellow adventurers, the first fundraiser kicked off this Saturday in old London Town and I think we can safely say it was a fabulous success. Five teams of friends/friends of friends - some willing, some less so, battled it out for the once in a life time opportunity to be crowned: Afri-Quiz Kings 2012. (I'm sure the medals and champers had nothing to do with luring them in!)

Our quiz contained all the necessary elements that make up a fun night of brain-testing endurance: beer, snacks, rumours of cheating, more beer, tasty home-made biscuits, animal-shaped sweeties, a bingo round, frayed tempers, jeering at fellow quizzers, jeering at the hostess, and even more beer. We gave animal-sweeties to the bingo winners, a mini bottle of bubbly for the team that amused us the most: Team Name: Agatha Quiz-Team (Cue raucous laughter) and the sorry losers went home with a great bottle of Sainsburys Basics Wine in a handy plastic bottle. Remember readers: Basics wine is for the table, not the cellar. Unless of course you're like one of the unruly Pedal Pushers....then it's for the bed while watching reruns of The OC....


And this little recap wouldn't be complete without a shout out to the brilliant venue, The Duke of York.This is my post-work local and I have spent many a boozy lunch/Friday night knees-up/midweek will-we-even-make-it-to-Friday drink there and can't recommend it enough. They allowed us to commandeer their upstairs function room and wavered the charge as it was for charity. Laura and I even chatted to a lovely local who flirted outrageously and told us of meeting Hemingway when he was younger - not too shabby. So yes if you're ever lurking about Fitzrovia, do pop in. You may even bump into me!

So big thank you to everyone who took part and to those who didn't: I think you'll find we're no longer friends on facebook.... ;-)

Oh yes and we made a sweet £130!

Fun fact Friday: Checkpoint 5 - Malawi

Malawi will be the penultimate country that we’ll be travelling through on the Put Foot rally. No doubt there are many great (and better) reasons to visit Malawi but mostly we’re super-excited because:

1.  Who wouldn’t want to visit the place known as the ‘Warm heart of Africa’?

2.  It looks like the kind of place where one might suntan on the beach whilst being served cocktails

Not bad Malawi.

and  3. The Checkpoint party is full-moon themed and is going to be epic

Full moon and full set of toes.

The country was established in 1891 as the British protectorate of Nyasaland and in 1964 became the independent nation of Malawi. The capital is Lilongwe which has an estimated population of 821000.

Much of the country is plateau - the Great Rift Valley runs from north to south and in the mountainous sections surrounding the valley, plateaus rise from 900 to 1 300m above sea level.

Now for fun facts!

• Lake Malawi is sometimes known as the Calendar Lake as it is around 365 miles (587 km) long and 52 miles (84 km) wide. It is the third largest lake in Africa and the eighth largest lake in the world.
• The only Carlsberg factory found outside Denmark is found in Blantyre, and they do free tours on a Wednesday afternoon. Alas we will miss this, but now you know - should you ever find yourself in Blantyre on a Wednesday afternoon.
• Who does the lake belong too? Tanzania claims that the border runs through the middle of the lake, based on the border set out between the German and British territories prior to 1914. Meanwhile Malawi claims the whole of the surface of the lake (excluding the Mozambican part). The dispute stems from when the British captured Tanganyika (now Tanzania) and placed all of the water under the jurisdiction of Nyasaland (now Malawi).
• The lake is of big interest to scientists as it is the site of some 'exciting' evolutionary happenings amongst some fish. These fish (Cichlids) evolved rapidly into a large number of closely related but diverse species. Lake Malawi is home to several hundred endemic species of Cichlids - and they are fairly good-looking as fish go.

Not for eating

As ever thanks to wiki and CIA factbook (here).

Papering the world with money

This rally is in large part about raising money and while I won't badger you about giving us your money in this post (subliminal messaging aside of course) I thought it might amuse you to see some awesome pictures of Zimbabwean money. Before we "dollarised" aka "admitted our money was useless and had to take on the US dollar" we went through many many iterations of the Zimbabwean dollar. Yes indeed once we had the $2 note then we had the one hunderd trillion dollar bearer cheque. How things change!

Image from here.

Sigh, that's not quite as funny. Image from here 

Image from here.

You should definitely read the whole article that goes with this.

 That's all folks, and of course, please do give us your money.

Do I make you horny baby?!

Finally a rhino story to smile about!

There are only seven (!!!) known Northern white rhinos remaining in the world, and in 2009 four of these were moved from the Czech Republic to the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya. Their return to Africa was considered the last chance at preserving the genetic material of their sub-species - which has been poached to extinction in the wild. Experts believed that a return to their natural environment might induce hormonal changes to make the females (Najin and Fatu) receptive to breeding.

After a whole load of match-making by conservationists and a little bit of foreplay:

Fun fact friday: Check point 4 - Zimbabwe

Our fourth fantastic check point will be Kariba in Zim. Zim has had a lot of bad press in recent years but is definitely on the up and up!

• Zimbabwe became an independent state on 18 April 1980.
• Prior to independence the country was known as Rhodesia or Southern Rhodesia.
• The name Zimbabwe is derived from "Dzimba dza mabwe", which means "great houses of stone" in the Shona language. It is based on the stone structures of Great Zimbabwe or Dzimbahwe, which were included in the World Heritage List in 1986.
• The capital city of Zimbabwe is Harare.

We like Zim a lot not only because it is Laura's homeland but also because of it's rasta coloured flag. The green represents agriculture, yellow mineral wealth, red the blood that was shed in the fight for independence, and black stands for the native people. The yellow Zimbabwe bird represents the long history of the country and is superimposed on a red five-pointed star, which symbolizes peace.

And now for a fun fact about our Check point location!

• Lake Kariba was formed by the damming of the Zambezi river and is one of the largest man-made lakes in the world. 
• The formation of the dam led to the flooding of the Zambezi Valley which left many animals stranded on small islands.  From 1958 to 1964 a large-scale wildlife rescue operation - Operation Noah - was led by Rupert Fothergill during which over 6000 animals (elephant, rhino, lion, leopard, zebra, small birds and even snakes) were rescued and relocated to the mainland.

Again thanks CIA World factbook

Of wine ships and flame-throwers

Lyn went off to AfrikaBurns last weekend in the hope of picking up some basic survival skills to see us through the Put Foot Rally. For the uninitiated AfrikaBurn is pretty much an African version of Burning Man in the US.. A stern warning from the organisers states: “YOU VOLUNTARILY ASSUME THE RISK OF SERIOUS INJURY OR DEATH BY ATTENDING THIS EVENT ... You must bring enough food, water, shelter and first aid to survive for a week in a harsh environment.”

We’re not sure whether she learnt anything but she did come home with some pretty far-fetched stories of wine ships and fire-breathing dragons, as well as some new crazy ideas as to how we can decorate Constance our rally vehicle.

Option 1: Grass 

Option 2: Silver bug - pretty sure that's a Conquest like our Constance under there

Option 3: Wine ship - 2000 litres of wine on tap, how can you go wrong?

Option 4: Tank (flame thrower optional)