Independent overland travel through Africa in a Unimog called Moglet

Who'd have thought it? A jolly holiday for who knows how long is going to need a fair amount of education and training beforehand!

Driving
First and foremost for me, I have to learn to drive! Its not all that bad though, I've been driving an automatic for years, but my licence doesnt cover me for manual vehicles, so I have to take lessons and pass another test so I can drive Moglet. As of June, the lessons have started :-)

Medical

Then of course there's all the medical training we thought would be a good idea. The Royal Geographical Society run a great series of courses, from 2 days to a full week, depending on how serious you want to get. We've done a 2 day course (£275 each), which ran through all the usual first aid stuff but also extras on how to deal with broken bones, ear nose and throat stuff, how to recognise more serious injuries etc. But the real bonus of the course is the open prescription they write for you at the end of the two days - as long as you buy your drugs from Nomad, they'll give you antibiotics etc that you couldnt normally get from a GP unless you were actually ill at the time - not a lot of help when you're trying to put together your first aid kit to cover all kinds of 'just in case' scenarios. The courses are called 'Far From Help', which kind of gives you the idea - most overland travellers dont have the luxury of calling a ambulance and expecting to be rescued in less than an hour. The courses only happen a couple of times a year, so get in there if you're thinking about it - expect lots of gross pictures though!

As of June, we've also now completed Part 2 of the Far From Help, which means we've been trained on giving intramuscular and intravenous injections, as well as inserting a cannular for putting in fluids with a drip bag etc. Plus we can also sew each other up if we need to! Testing stuff, more blood smeared on tables than I would have liked, but its the kind of knowldege you hope never to need, but will be glad you have it, if things start to go a bit wrong. And it needn't be drastic stuff - just being able to run in some fluids if one of us gets badly dehydrated is good stuff to know.

Languages
We've got self-teach discs for Spanish and German (probably not the most helpful in Africa, but who knows where we'll end up!), we're hoping we can get by with the French we already have, and there's bound to be more along the way!

Off Road Driving
Interesting one, this. We know we need to do it, we just havent done it yet...

Grease Monkeys

The other half knows which end of the truck to look in to find the engine and built a kit car once in the dim and distant past, but we both need to familiarise ourselves with the day to day workings of our new home. Atkinson Vos will give us a full tour when we eventually get to go and collect Moglet...