THEY camped under star-studded skies in the Sahara Desert, swam in the vast rivers of Sierra Le-one and basked in the sun on the beaches of Angola.
They also had to ward off inquisitive goats, contend with clouds of ravenous mosquitoes and battle through intense tropical thunderstorms. But for Maarten van Pel (35) and Renske Cox (33) every imposition and inconvenience was worth it to achieve the ultimate goal: journeying across Africa in an electric vehicle charged almost entirely by solar panels.
The Dutch couple spent eight months travelling 24 000km through 22 countries – a voyage that cost nearly R5 million – to prove you don’t need a
