Welcome to Surfing Africa. This site documents the journey of two Hilux Surfs from Carrickfergus, in Northern Ireland, to Cape Town, South Africa. The trip will will include one vehicle being driven for the entire journey by Andy and Louise, with the other being driven by different groups of friends and family for various legs of the journey.
So a bit about us… We live in Carrickfergus, just outside Belfast in Northern Ireland.
I’m Andrew (Andy) Simpson, 29 from Edinburgh, Scotland. I’ve recently finished a PhD in mechanical engineering at Queens University Belfast, studying hybrid buses. I have previously lived in Dodoma, Tanzania for 9 months working for MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship). As much as I enjoy living in Northern Ireland I still think of Scotland as my real home!
I’m Louise Simpson, 25 from Northern Ireland. I work in a day care nursery in Belfast, having graduated in summer 2009 from Stramillis University with a Degree in Early Childhood studies.
For more information, feel free to contact andrew@surfingafrica.net or louise@surfingafrica.net.
Hi Andy, Just had a wee look at where my handy work was going! Looks great……………….
Poor jeep!!!!
Wes
I bought a Surf this afternoon and am planning a similar trip… Good luck best wishes and i shall be watching how the Surf handles the it!
Hi Andrew, good to hear from you. Stay in touch, and let us know how your trip goes too!
Hi Andy and Louise, sorry only to catch onto your blog at 800+ miles in……….all the very best, and, you know, if you need a wooden door or anything….Love Nick
I’m about to (or at least trying one out) buy a surf and I am planning to do almost your exact route, leaving in July, over 6 months. The surf I’m looking at is a little clapped out, but i have high hopes. Out of interest, what was your budget (would love a wee bit of info if thats ok). cheers, Ed, uktosa@hotmail.co.uk. Hope you are progessing well…
hello, Andy and Lousie, i met you in Addis ababa , do u remember me when you were fuiling oil for your cars. you were ready to contnuteyour trip to kenya after Ethiopia, where are u now?
Hi,
Hope Kilimanjaro is OK. I’ll be really interested in how you got on with the high altitude.
Best wishes (with envy)
Ken
Marvellous picture with the lit-up coloured tents and stars on your Kilimanjaro trip.
Ken
Wow, just went on your site and saw Crotian trip (my ancestors 2 generations removed). What is a surf pls????????????//
Hi Deb, glad you enjoyed reading about Croatia. A Surf is the type of car we’re driving, made by Toyota. And by the way, what does ????????????// mean?
Send me more info on the Toyota Surf’s please !!
Hi you two,
our namibia mobil nr. +264 -0-817186502 or email tg@marpak.de
how are you? where are you now? We thought a lot of times about what are you doing and we wonderd that we didn’t meet you the last weeks. We read that you had problems with your car…. we also have problems.. Do you want to drive to the Kaokoveld? If yes, please let us know, because we got stucked some days in the dessert and have now a big problem. We are in windhoek to get the spares and then we have to go back to the desert to our car. Would be nice to see or hear you again!
Tanja & Jesper (Sudan)
Tanja, Jesper, great to hear from you! We tried texting your German number quite a few times but think we must have had your number wrong. We’re in Swakupmond just now and will be in Windhoek on Thursday. Would be lovely to meet up with you. We’ve copied down your Namibian number and we’ll try and get one today too, then give you a call. We’ll be unlikely to be going that far North though, but maybe can offer some help or consolation.
This is awesome, i could only ever dream of doing something like this!!