Greetings! The All Africa send-off in Johannesburg was fantastic, brought to life by the Lesedi dancers and the presentation of a 240,000$US cheque to the United Nations Global Fund raised through the sale of United Against malaria beaded bracelets. The sale of the bracelets also goes towards buying mosquito nets for Africa. Congratulations on the role you have all played in this historic event. Thanks – Kingsley and the team.

Today we get the good news that Vestergaard-Frandsen, the suppliers of top quality insecticide treated mosquito nets, will sponsor extra bednets in Ghana.

 The All Afrika Expedition’s overland leg will start from the Land Rover dealership in the vibrant Ghanaian capital city of Accra, situated on West Africa’s coastline in the Gulf of Guinea. The expedition will then cross Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, the Central African Republic and onto Cameroon before flying into Equatorial Guinea.

Finally we are off and the All Afrika Expedition has begun. East to West across Africa, the plane jam packed with Bangladeshi policemen off to monitor the elections in troubled Cote d’Ivoire, a country where we did good malaria work whilst on the Africa Outside Edge Expedition. Africa passes below us. Lake Victoria, the Rwenzori’s Mountains of the Moon, the vast Congo River basin, Cameroon, Nigeria, the tiny voodoo countries of Benin and Togo, and a refuel in Abidjan, over the bulge of Mama Africa to Dakar. Then west into the setting sun in a small propeller plane. Just a speck over the vast Atlantic. Heading for the island of Santiago, one of the ten that poke up out of the eastern Atlantic to form an arrow shape Archipelago called the Cape Verdes – we’ll keep you posted.

Greetings and Bom Dia from Cidade Velha, the 500 year old but still occupied ruined city where the history of Cape Verde began. This is the first documented European city in the tropics, first settled by the Portuguese in 1462. It’s a great start to our All Afrika journey.

We are jammed-packed into a mini-bus ‘publico’, tyres screeching on the twisted cobble stone pass. Cape Verde music blaring. Sexy looking girls in tight jeans and shorts, beautifully woven hairstyles and shy smiles. Feet up on big 20 litre glass bottles of home brewed grog – each village has its own still.

We race passed the ruins of the old cathedral, attacked and virtually destroyed by a French pirate Jacques Cassard. Down in the town square people greet each other in Creole – lots of laughter and smiles. Cabo Verde is in Africa but it feels different – a mixing of the races through the history of the slave trade and Portuguese occupation. There is a buzz here that is somewhere between Brazil And Mozambique – a delightful mixture of European and African. ‘Até logo’ – until later.