London to Cape Town
BA 0043: Boeing 747 – 11hrs 30 mins
Moving House: Land Cruiser – 10 months 5 days
Total distance driven: 30,557 miles / 49,136 km (almost 1.25 the circumference of the Earth!)
Average daily distance: 95.8 miles / 154 km
Fuel consumption: 5644 litres (24.63mpg or 8.71 km/litre)
Cheapest fuel: 7 pence/litre (11 US cents/litre) in Libya
Most expensive fuel: £1.13/litre (USD 1.79/litre) in Burundi
Ran out of fuel: Malawi (yes, all of it)
African countries visited: 17
Revolutions witnessed: 2 (Tunisia & Egypt)
Tear gas moments: 1
Bribes paid: 0
Speeding fines: 1 (but Ven sweet talked his way out of it!)
Vehicle searches: 8
Police road blocks en route: About 40 (especially in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt during the ‘Arab Spring’)
Number of hands shaken at border crossings and police stops: 893 (each, roughly)
Quickest border crossing: Namibia to South Africa – 10 mins – all the counters are numbered so you know exactly where to go! (Zimbabwe to Botswana would have been just as quick were there not a soap opera unfolding at the immigration office whilst our passports were being stamped!)
Slowest border crossing: Entering Egypt from Libya – 6hrs 50 mins, of which 10 mins to buy visa and have it stamped into our passports, and 6hrs 40mins to run around like a headless chicken getting the paperwork for our car sorted.
Parts fallen off car: 4
Punctures: 0 (!)
Worst road: Dodoma to Iringa in Tanzania (163miles, 7 hours and several lost car parts)
Scariest road: Sirte to Ajdabiya in Libya (in the dark, dodging Libyans zooming at over 100mph with no lights)
Number of teeth lost en route: 1