Heading north....

Dear All,

Been a good week here in Cape Town. I’m sitting here typing this on a pretty miserable grey, wet and windy winters day in the southern hemisphere looking out of the window of the café at Ashanti Backpackers at Table mountain shrouded in twisting angry clouds.

Yesterday was different, the weather was stunning, there was no wind and the sky was bright blue so Bre and I decided to attack Table Mountain. The rather more leisurely route up and down in the cable car was not an option, they’re currently servicing it for the next week and so the decision to climb it instead was forced on us and I’m so pleased as it was simply stunning!

The standard route up the face of the mountain is supposed to take 2.5hrs for a good walker so we thought we’d test this theory out and try and smash the estimation! Stripped down to the bear essentials we marched up and down the mountain in exactly 2hrs…..taking only 25 minutes to drop the 1000m back to the Colonel! A brilliant day out, but both of us are paying the price today, sore thighs and calves to prove it!

Last week we stayed in the coastal town of Hermanus and all headed out on one of the shark diving boats to explore the underwater world with the incredible Great White sharks which call this part of the world home. Photos are just about to go up onto the website for you all to see! www.afritrex.com and follow the link. We each had a 20 minute session in the cage with the 3.5m long monsters circling us from all around and I loved it….a real pump of adrenaline!

I leave Cape Town at the weekend with Alex and head north east to Joburg as we have separated from the Watkins family and Kees for the next month to take on different missions, and met up with some friends from the UK to sample the delights of the Mozambique coast. We’ll will see them again in around a month and intend moving north together and are starting to put together a plan to ascend Mount Stanley on the Rwanda/DRC border.

Exciting times ahead, have a good weekend, back in touch soon,

Posted on 31 Jul 2008 by Ben Southall

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Welcome to Afritrex - A privately funded charity endurance challenge of marathons, mountains and more; documenting the encounters, obstacles and achievements of 12 months of hard fundraising and charity work across Africa.

Whilst circumnavigating the African Continent I will complete the following challenges:

To complete five marathons of at least 26 miles
To climb five of the highest mountains in Africa
To visit as many of the sites across Africa where the Victoria Cross has been won as possible (VC180 Challenge)

"The challenge to make every penny count"

Have a closer look at the site and find out more about how we'll be spending 2008.

Keep up to date !! - The action is happening as we speak...

Click here for the latest diary entry

Click here for the latest photos

Click here for the latest route

My name is Ben Southall and for the last decade I’ve travelled extensively throughout Southern Africa taking on projects and expeditions to test my abilities and discover exciting new areas of the African continent, whilst in the UK I take part in fitness and endurance events to raise money for charity and thought it was about time I combined the two fields to create my own fundraising expedition from with others could benefit.

So was born Afritrex: the logistical equivalent of one man trying to build spaghetti junction using Taiwanese instructions and a broken shovel.

The idea was simple: take one continent; attempt to circumnavigate it and whilst doing so try and stay fit enough to complete a number of endurance challenges to raise money for my chosen charities and whilst doing so post it all on the internet!

This is set to be the most challenging, exciting and exhausting year of my life, can I really do it?

"The answer is I don't know,

so why not find out!"

This is me Ben Southall and this is my mission throughout 2008. Stay in contact with my progress updates on how things are going through this site.

I’ll be keeping you informed of my progress through biweekly updates to the site, route information and with regular photo and video blogs.

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