The begining......

It all started with a thread on the SA 4X4 Community Forum on 28th August 2008. An innocent statement 'Volunteers needed for a mapping project.' Basicaly going into Africa and driving through some National Parks for about 2 weeks at a time. I thought, "What the hell, Why not?" Well you can imagine my surrprise when I received an email with a questionair to fill in, Again I thought, "Here goes, my chances are not good." I cut the questionaire questions and pasted them into a new email, answered the questions to the best of my ability (in a different colour) and thought, "That's it, at least I tried."

At this stage I had not told Caretha what I had done. Surprise!.. surprise!.. The next thing I get is an email with a VERY BIG spread sheet attached, I wondered what it was all about so I scrolled through it and there I found the answer....... my name in one of the blocks allocated to........Ethiopia!! (I had originaly opted for Angola, Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe or Zambia, in alphabetical order of no preference).

Phew!!..... Ethiopia!!....... Now what? I then told Caretha what had transpired, her reply was "You did put my name down as the other team member, didnt you?" Weeelll technically "Yes." I had also put down 2 other people whom I thought would fit the bill if Caretha was unable to get leave.

Since January we have been reading everything we can lay our hands on about the country, 3 guide books, 4 maps, a couple of historical novels, 3 travel books, uncountable internet articles, travel magazines. Not to mention the revisiting of my personal library to see if the books I have coverd that part of Africa, needless to say I had to order 2 new books, Birds of Africa south of the Sahara, by I. Sinclare & P. Ryan and The Kingdon Field Guide to African Mammals by J. Kingdon.

The latest is our International Driving Permits, the required injections and Air tickets. Still to get are the Visas.

We have been brushing up on verious skills that will be required in the field and still have to go for the training on the equipment we will be using.