Now we had Biggles up to a level where hopefully he can complete our expedition...it was time to sort out ourselves. Apart from Camilla driving her brother's 1964 Series 11A Land Rover to school and back aged 17, we each had little experience of how to drive a four wheel drive car. We needed to prepare for all eventualities as the trip covers a wide variety of terrain and there will be parts where we will be on our own...So the answer came in the form of a 29th birthday present for Camilla - a one day's driving course with Land Rover Experience, based at Rockingham Castle in Northamptonshire.

We drove up the night before and camped nearby (still finding it hard to grasp that the rooftent will be our home for the next 9 months!)

An early start with a briefing was followed by a fantastic day driving a Defender 110 300TDI (a bit newer and posher than Biggles!) We thrashed the car about through mud and rivers, up (and actually more frighteningly) DOWN very steep slopes. If you've used low ratio gears on slopes before you'll know why I say this is frightening - you're faced with what seems like a vertical drop, teetering over the edge, and the instructor sitting calmly beside you says "take your feet off all the pedals" - What? Even the break? - this is exactly what you have to do, the low gears take the car down very slowly and steadily but it is an unnerving experience - one we are looking forward to practicing when we find a few sand dunes!

After the driving we had a very useful lesson on how to use our winch and other recovery equipment. It was a great day and we can't wait to put it all to the test!

Next up was a full day's training at Footloose 4x4, a specialist expedition company based in Peterborough. Paul, the South African owner, is an expert expedition leader and has travelled extensively in Africa in Land Rovers. He is currently preparing to lead and expedition of 18 classic cars from here to Sydney... And we thought our trip was pretty impressive!

Paul gave us expert tuition on all things from bush mechanics, how to deal with dodgy border officials, recommended routes through each country and even how to make bread from a packet of flour and a bottle of beer! We asked tireless questions and got loads of great tips from him - and he still had the energy to sell us some great tools and expedition kit at the end of it! (see www.footloose4x4.co.uk)

So, the car was in good shape - but what about us? For an expedition like this we felt we ought to have some first aid training. Even if it's not us that's hurt, the likelihood is when we're on the road we'll come up against some nasty situations. We took the advice of some chaps we contacted through the internet who were doing a very similar trip (www.driveafrica.org) who highly recommended Adventure First Aid, a company who specialises in teaching first aid to people in unusual situations. We did a great two day course with Guy Risdon, a qualified mountaineer who knows everything there is to know about first aid 'in the field'. We met some really interesting people on the course - from High Rope teachers to paragliding instructors. We learnt lots and had fun in the process (diagnosing whether or not someone who is very hot, red and mumbling is someone with severe sunstroke or in fact a deaf sunbather!)

On the first day we met a lovely chap called Malcolm who runs his own ethical travel company, but also, rather handily, is an electrician for Formula One racing cars. Since the electrics were still a mystery to us and when reading that we needed a 'split charge system' it seemed to go in one ear and out the other....Malcolm was a great help in the breaks of the course and gave us advice about what to do. It then got even better - Malcolm offered to help fit our electrics the following week! Rich spent two full days with Malcolm fitting a second battery (to run our auxillary items such as lights, electric cool box, sockets to charge electric equipment etc) and putting power points all over the car - Biggles is now fitted out to the spec of a Maclaren racing car! We are really indebted to Malcolm for all his help - without which we would still be scratching our heads looking at electric diagrams.

So, with all this training it was time to sort out the paperwork (which, to be honest, we should have done a bit earlier but it is pretty tough trying to fit everything in with a full time job). We left our jobs on 15 July and planned to have two weeks before the big off...however, we soon realised this was unrealistic and decided to set off a couple of weeks later. We put a lot of effort into getting a visa for Sudan to no avail (best bet is apparently to cross our fingers and toes and apply for one in Cairo) but did manage to get a Syrian one. We also had to get a Carnet de Passage (equivalent of a passport for the car - a document which prevents you importing a vehicle into a country and selling it) and lots of other paperwork such as international driving licences, an International Certificate of Motor Vehicles, etc etc.

So, apart from packing and all the final bits and pieces we still want to do to Biggles, we're getting there!