Anyway, Ghani and I have travelled a fair bit with Adrian ; so much so, he has never really had a fixed routine. At the best of times, Adrian would have to make do with whatever Ghani and I threw him into, and he does adapt well, though with a little protest sometimes.

Having started making preparations in November 2007, we had 6 months before our intended start date of 1 May 2008. Having no experience in overlanding, we were totally reliant on others for advice. We started, believe it or not, by watching and reading Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman's Long Way Round and Long Way Down. I managed to speak to Ollie Blackwell, a Researcher for the Long Way Down, who gave an insight on their preparations and highly recommended the Nissan Patrol 4x4, which we eventually decided to choose as our expedition vehicle.

The following months were spent (while we were not down with the flu, which we seemed to constantly be bogged down by) pouring over books and the internet, researching and plotting routes, equipment and speaking to as many overlanders and off roaders as we could.