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10th January 2007

Location: Tunis, Tunisia
Distance Travelled: 20 000 km

Question: Can four lads from small town Whakatane New Zealand - disorganized, ill prepared and inexperienced motorcyclists drive the length of the African Continent, 20,000km from Cape Town to Tunisia?

Answer: Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes!!!!!!!!! Arrrrrghhhhhhhhh! We made it, yehaaaaaa!!!!! Huhuhuhuhuhu!! Yowsers!! Oh but we still have to get to london. But we made it the length of Africa atleast. STOKED!

We have arrived in Tunis capital of Tunisia at what is essentially the top of Africa, and the final African destination for the African Odyssey. So we are close but no cigar with 1500km remaining before we reach London.

Mungo Jerry kept our final two days driving in Africa from Tripoli to Tunis interesting. 10km short of the Libya Tunisian border our last African border crossing Mungo collided with the back of a confused taxi that stopped unexpectedly. In a dramatic scene Mungo flew over the handle bars bouncing off the boot of the taxi, somehow landing on his feet, shaken but thankfully, unhurt. The only damage a burst front tire that was fixed with a bit of super glue. The African Odyssey rode on.

As with all of the incidents we have encountered on this African adventure, somehow we have managed to keep on rolling, probably as much by chance as any other reason. We owe a large part of the success of this journey to so many people from so many countries who helped out with accommodation, repairs, rides or just good company along the way, to these people we are forever grateful, your kindness has made our trip.

The African section of the Odyssey is now all but over, the vortex of the arrival party and the real world is increasing in force. However the frozen winter locked continent of Europe still poses some seriously cold challenges to our overall success, Wish us luck for the last 10 days as we attempt to beat the cold and reach London by the 20th. The website updates will continue to roll, no doubt there is still plenty that happen between here and England.

In 30 hours time we catch a ferry for Italy and bid farewell to the African Adventure that has been our lives for the last 5 months. Bring it on Europe, we are harder than your coldest winter!

Tripoli to Tunis Images

Chronicle blurp

The final northern coastal strip along Libya was full of excitement, tension and drama. We were told to collect our visas at the border or wait 3 days in Tripoli for them to arrive, time we did not have. We rode out with our guide through the outskirts of Tripoli heading for the Tunis border and the last African country of our journey. Jerry came to an abrupt halt when the XR ran into the back of a Peugeot and he flipped onto the back window. Lucky there was only a torn tyre and no limbs. We patched the tryre and headed for the border leaving the peaceful Libyans behind. We crossed into no mans land for 5 hours waiting for our visas before getting into Tunisia at dusk. We stopped and ate with five German overlanders that got us dinner, then told us to promptly leave as things got fiery in a dispute with the proprietor. We camped in the desert then rode the 530kms to Tunis non stop (apart from food and gas of course). Bottom of to top of Africa on a Motorbike: Complete.