More than 47,000km, 38 countries, 27 breakdowns and only one flat tyre during a six-and-a-half-year road trip.
That’s the incredible story of a Cape Town family who are finally back after renting out their house to drive clockwise round Africa in a 41-year-old truck powered by waste vegetable oil — the first people to drive round Africa without using fossil fuels.
Comedian Mark Sampson and writer Sam Pearce took their kids Ruby and Zola out of school in 2013 and headed north in search of adventure and life lessons.
They say they saw so much, and have been gone so long, that it is now impossible to return to business as usual. Instead, they are figuring out how to sustain their life on the road as climate educators.
In the meantime they are settling Zola, 15, back into school. Ruby, 18, who pulled out of the trip halfway to complete her schooling, finished matric last year and is now a climate change activist, motivated partly by what she saw during her travels.
“When we set off we thought it would be a break from our lives but actually this has become our life and we will never go back to the way we were before,” said Pearce, who blogged most of the trip they dubbed Africa Clockwise.
Speaking to the Sunday Times while eating fish and chips in their truck in Fish Hoek this week, the family agreed on one standout lesson from the journey: not only is modern life unsustainable and wreaking environmental havoc, but an alternative life in a mobile home is a lot more fun.
Despite a few skirmishes with Mother Nature — the truck was quarantined in Liberia for more than a year during the ebola pandemic of 2014-2015 and they’ve all had malaria and typhoid — the family emerged almost completely unscathed thanks mostly to resounding hospitality almost everywhere they went.
The family spent 185 days living in garages while the truck was being repaired in 2019.
— in numbers
In Côte d’Ivoire, villagers spent four hours pushing and digging them out of a pothole — and cheered like they were World Cup champions when the big green truck finally crawled out. In Nigeria they were welcomed as VIPs in the governor’s box at the Calabar Carnival, and in Egypt they were given a free scuba-diving holiday on the pristine coral reefs of the Red Sea.
They drew crowds of laughing children whenever Sampson did his busking routine: “The family does a full circus show — each of us has a trick. We would perform to thank village people for their hospitality.” Sampson also used his magic at borders and roadblocks — they have never paid a bribe.
As keen surfers, wherever possible they stuck to the coast, but detoured around Equatorial Guinea and parts of North Africa due to political instability. Their alternative route took them through Europe, before crossing by ship to Egypt and travelling back south through East Africa. Their second engine refit of 2019 in Malawi turned out to be fortuitous: the delay caused them to miss two major tropical cyclones that lashed the northern coast of Mozambique.
In Durban, the city’s main Mercedes-Benz Commercial dealer helped find donors for a third new engine, sponsored them the labour to fit it, and let them live in a corner of the workshop yard for two months.
Notwithstanding the breakdowns, their modified diesel 1978 ex-South African Defence Force Mercedes truck performed heroically. It contains a heat exchange plate that allows hot water from the radiator to heat waste vegetable oil to drive the engine.
Said Sampson: “We decided to use cooking oil as fuel to raise awareness about climate change in Africa — plus we couldn’t afford to do the whole trip on diesel!”
He said he hoped to use his platform as a comedian and motivational speaker to effect change. To this end the family are preparing the truck for phase two — smaller sorties into Southern Africa to offer climate education and adaptation outreach. With the engine now sorted, Sampson is exploring ways of replacing the truck’s rusted-out steel body with lighter aluminium.
Are they eager for Africa Anti-Clockwise? “I think I’ll wait a while,” said Zola with a smile.
“We want to explore where we grew up,” added Ruby, who led local student participation in three climate strikes last year with her organisation, the African Climate Alliance. “Now it’s time to go and have some fun in Long Street.”
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