The mark of a true adventurer is a willingness to risk death for glory. This coming Friday, two British middle class poster boys adventurers are setting out from Cape Town’s Mount Nelson Hotel, and driving straight to London in a Fiat Panda, which is no bigger than a shetland pony. Philip Young and Paul Brace plan to break the current record of 14 days, 19 hours and 26 minutes for the 15 000 kilometres. Here’s why they might not make it.

1) Leopards

Lions get a lot of the credit for being the scary man eaters of Africa – especially in the general area of Kenya. But Leopards are the only big cats with a high likelihood of getting at you while you’re actually in your car. In fact in 1914, an attempted drive from Cape Town to Cairo was aborted because the driver was eaten by a leopard. And apparently no one else in the crew knew how to operate a manual gear box.

Skip to 1:40 for the action. 

2) Scurvy

The pair aims to drive an average of 1 600 kilometres every 24 hours. Which leaves little time for preparing food. To stay on schedule, they’ll be eating self-heating meals. And ignoring the fact that their teeth are falling out.

2) Armed Forces Check Points

So Libya enjoyed a coup not so long ago, and ad hoc rebel check points are a real thing. It seems unfair to single out Libya considering the colourful bouquet of under-reported armed conflicts currently underway across our continent, but apparently the guys are fairly concerned about what might happen if they meet a group of bored rebel soldiers while driving an 875cc vehicle.

Libyan Rebels don’t drive a Fiat Panda

4) Treacherous roads

Here’s a small sample of the sort of road the pair will have to deal with. The road conditions are significantly more tricky than the Vredehoek “paved pothole” situation.

5) Rivers

There are multiple rivers with attitude problems between Cape Town and London. Here’s one, eating a tree.

So best of luck to you, chaps. Eat an orange when you get to Blighty, and please do post the video of the leopard mauling to YouTube.

*Yes, it takes three months for symptoms to present themselves. You might feel more at home at the News24 comment boards.

[Source : IOL]