A decent stretch of road in Ethiopia, no rivers, sand, mud or donkey herds getting in our way - the only problem being - "Are we on the right road?" As there is also a lack of road signs.

Unbelievably this turned out to be the main road heading northwards from the Ethiopian border through Sudan- we were hundreds of miles from the nearest tarmac and dropping Thelma numerous times every day. The intense heat and lack of water made the situation even worse and the deep ruts (created by tractors) were a nightmare to ride through, at this point Thelma is actually wedged upright, I'm not having to hold her.

Exploring the sand dunes of the Kalahari Desert in Southern Africa.

We were caught in the tail-end of the wet season in Ethiopia, we had pictured dry desert-like conditions, the reality was lots of rivers and flooding in many places.

Once we had adjusted to riding the gravel tracks we loved the open spaces of Namibia.

One of the most stunning sunsets of the journey- deep in the Sahara lies the White Desert, in the western half of Egypt. We had managed to not only sneak away from the compulsory foreigners' convoy but also trick our way past the army roadblocks to reach this amazing location. Weird and wonderful rock formations had been created by sandstorms and desert winds over the centuries including this pinnacle. Maggie had scrambled to the top of it, completey unaware of her helmet in hand which she then placed by her feet as she watched the spectacular sunset.

At Charlie's bike workshop in Cape Town, a stripped down Thelma received some much needed TLC from Mohammed- top mechanic and good all-round bloke who put up with some very silly questions from us as we tried to add to our technical knowledge before setting off across the dark continent.

Possibly the most nerve-wracking part of the journey through Africa was attempting to get Thelma onto the ferry at Lake Nasser. The narrow, floating pontoons were not even moored and there was a long line of them to ride across over deep water to get on the ferry - needless to say, it's not regarded as a vehicle ferry.

In remote northen Kenya we came across this guy urgently flagging us down to request some much needed water- he was the only person we saw all day.

Cursing the endless amounts of mud, we take it in turns - the pillion rider gets off and wades though the mud on foot first to find the best route through while the rider just tries to gun the engine and get through without falling over.