Team Tana Netting is on a three-month overland journey from Amsterdam to Cape Town.  En route, they will promote malaria awareness in over 20 countries. This is Liz and Laura’s first blog entry for Tana Netting:

3 – 16 April
Our departure to Basel, Switzerland on April 3rd was an extravagant day with lots of national press and attention.  The following day, as we drove to Milan with several teams, some cars broke down.  It was quite a challenge but the cars were fixed in a local village.  We slept in a little village by the sea where we passed Pisa the next day.  After a quick lunch, we headed to Rome and everyone made sure they stayed on schedule the next morning in order to catch the boat to Sicily.  All together on one boat, we drove to Taormina, a beautiful seaside village.  We got on another boat the next day in Trapani to cross over to Tunis and after the 8 hour ride, we were ready to drive again.

On Friday, we rested and all the teams updated their websites and blogs. The next day, we were all very excited to see our family where we picked them up at the airport as one big orange group.  During the weekend, we played football against the former Tunisian national team.  On Monday, our day of departure, the minister of tourism and sport of Tunisia visited us along with the national television news channel.  We stayed at a hotel near the Libyan border so we could drive across the country and reach the other side as soon as possible.  The process went by faster than planned and by afternoon, had crossed the country.  The drive over the past few days in the hot and dry desert with many wild camels was spectacular: what a beautiful country!  Fortunately, all the cars were able to withstand the heat and had enough petrol to drive through the deserted countryside.  After staying at several stunning beachside camping sites, we finally arrived in Egypt.  The Dutch Embassy in Cairo held a celebratory event for our entry into Egypt on Sunday.

We are extremely excited and motivated to learn more about this breathtaking and fascinating continent: so far, it has been a blast!

Catch more of Team Tana Netting's journey on their blog (in Dutch) or on Malaria No More Netherlands' website.