Although the Big Loop has not yet been completed, we are already planning the North-South challenge and one of the major headaches is which African route to take. Many of areas which were traversed by the African record run crew have since become unsafe to visit: Northern Africa has seen major upheavals which have not yet completely settled down and the situation in Egypt is volatile with conflicts between large groups of the civil population. The Sudan region, particular in the south has fallen into outright war in the last couple of years, and although the situation there might become a bit more secure with outside help/pressure, it will take a long time for the region to be completely safe for outsiders to travel in. Alternative routes are not always the solution.
The personal safety of the crew is obviously of utmost importance for us and we don’t want to unwittingly end up in dangerous environments, so we are taking advice from a variety of sources which have up to date local knowledge. From a planning perspective this project is the most difficult to date especially as local communication and transport infrastructure on the majority of the continent are not fully developed.
What it means for the Longestdrive is that we are pressing ahead with the planning as best we can but there is a big TBC (=to be confirmed) ‘hanging’ over everything we do relating to the North South run.