Day 1: Cape Town to Bloemfontein (start odometer 0km) Question - does this count? I suppose so, but it was the N1, N1…! Amidst some teary and bleary eyes at 6:30am we bade farewell to our family and set off, the Doddle 5 has begun and 1040km later we pull into a B&B just outside Bloemfontein and get surprised at the amount of English spoken in the local pub/restaurant. It's an uneventful day except for some extreme downpours about 100km before Bloem...

As the countdown to our Doddle into Africa begins, we have been encouraged and inspired to appeal to all our friends for donations of pens, pencils, pencil crayons and erasers. The idea is to spread the Madiba Magic to some of the children we come across as we travel and we thought pens etc. would be the most useful. Packing space is a consideration so we hope to fit in as many pens, pencils, pencil crayons and erasers as we can round up. The Nelson Mandela Foun...

Simon's latest brainwave is a Doddle from Cape Town to Cairo in our beloved landcruiser. The countdown has now begun and we are due to leave on Friday 31st of January 2014. The route is literally Cape Town to Cairo as per the attached map. This will take approximately 94 days so we will be travelling February, March and April...... What a way to start the year! The Countries we will be visiting are: Zimbabwe - Zimbabwe Ruines, Motopos, Hwange, Victoria FallsZa...

Saturday 30th March Christchurch is a disappointment - largely due to the suffering caused by the February 2011 earthquake. There are still lots of buildings being propped up and lots of attractions closed, we do manage the gondola for spectacular views and see some para gliders in action. The roads and bridges are a mess with mass reconstruction bringing diversions and lots of bumps and humps. The people also don't seem as chirpy and chipper as in previous to...

Monday 25th March It is still drizzling on and off this morning so we took a walk around Queenstown - a real adventure paradise, weather permitting of course. Before lunch we decide to drive to Glenorchy about 45km away and walk around the lagoon for a couple of hours, there's a jet boat ride on offer but we would rather wait for a clear spell and tackle the Shotover River Jet Boat experience, claimed to be the worlds best. The weather pitches up real nice in...