Stan and Sally Hannath from Noordhoek, south of Cape Town, have begun a road trip from the northernmost tip of Europe (Noordkapp or North Cape) to the southernmost tip of Africa (Cape Agulhas) from June to October 2013 to raise much-needed awareness and funds for the Nelson Mandela Children's Hospital in Johannesburg.
Hannath explained: "Our cape2cape4kids journey started in Hamburg, Germany, where we collected our VW Kombi (which had been shipped from Cape Town) and travelled to the official starting point, NoordKapp in Norway, and will end at Cape Agulhas in South Africa.
"We plan to visit as many hospitals and schools along the way as we can to raise awareness for the new children's hospital in Johannesburg."
FOUR HOSPITALS FOR 450 MILLION CHILDREN
The Nelson Mandela hospital will be one of only five dedicated children's hospitals in Africa. Currently there are only four hospitals serving 450 million children on the continent, compared to Canada which has 23, Australia with 19 - and 20 in Germany alone.
This hospital, to be built in Johannesburg, will epitomise Nelson Mandela's love of children and is considered his final legacy to the children of Africa.
The cape2cape4kids road trip will cover 27 countries and 28 000km over about four months. The Hannaths are funding their own journey so 100 percent of all donations will go directly to the hospital.
The Hannaths have completed 5700km of their journey, passing through through six countries including Germany, Norway and Sweden.
THE JOURNEY SO FAR
Highlights include visiting the 14th century medieval town of Tallinn in Estonia and catching a 2.7kg rainbow trout on a homemade fly made from goose feathers in Sweden. Disasters include Stan breaking his laptop screen while Sweden.
They are looking for sponsors, both corporate and individual South Africans, to support cape2cape4kids by donating funds towards the new Nelson Mandela Children's Hospital. All donations will go through the recognised donation sites Givengain and Justgiving.
Their route will take them through Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia and South Africa.
Follow them on the cape2cape4kids website.