A four month journey of 25,000 kms (15,625 miles) ends successfully.

The five-man PangbourneAfrica expedition which left the Parade Ground at the College on Sunday January 31st drove through the mountains to Cape Argulhas in South Africa May 28th to end its epic journey with a bottle of bubbly and handshakes all round. Funds raised by the expedition will be donated to the College and to the Red Cross hospital for children in Cape Town

During four months the expedition drove through 16 countries and consumed 3,650 litres of fuel. Every kind of weather was encountered from a desert storm in Sudan to torrential rain in Malawi and sub-zero temperatures in Europe. Temperatures topped 40 degrees in Sudan and plunged to 5 degrees at 4,000 metres in the Semien mountains of Ethiopia. Along the route many wonderful people came into contact with the team and not once did anyone feel threatened. Accommodation en route ranged from the sublime to the awful. Probably the most memorable event was the ferry crossing from Aswan in Egypt to Wadi Haifa in Sudan - "an experience you do not want to repeat in a hurry."

The vehicles (two reconditioned Land Cruisers) performed amazingly well, says blogger Geoff Popple, with only a few minor electrical blips. "We had one puncture, a damaged wheel rim and a torn side wall of a tyre." The hardest part of the journey proved to be relationships among five men aged 50-65. In Kenya the two vehicles went their separate ways, reforming from time to time before the final meeting at Cape Agulhas.

Geoff's advice to anyone thinking of making the same trip: "Do it quick otherwise the adventure and challenge will not be there. Africa is becoming tourist-oriented and the roads are getting better."