Guest of the week: Ida Marken, African adventurer

Ida Marken and her family, husband and two young children, can be considered a real adventure family. By the time their son turned five, he had already travelled to Asia three times and Africa twice. However, the trip the family is about to embark on is unlike anything they have ever done before. 

In just a few weeks, the family will pack up their off-road vehicle with a tent on the roof and head for Africa. During 10 months they will drive about 3500 kilometres and go through countless exotic countries, which many of us have never thought of setting foot in.

We asked Ida about the preparations and the journey. You can follow the exciting adventure on the family's own blog as it unfolds: The adventures of the Mark family.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your family?

My name is Ida, I am 33 years old and a doctor at Lindeborg Vårdcentral in Malmö. My husband Jörgen is 37 years old, a graduate in mechanical engineering and works as a department manager at MAN Diesel and Turbo in Copenhagen. We live in a house in Malmö with our two children, Harald 6 years old and Thea 3 years old.

The whole family are members of the Swedish Expedition Society and Skånes Off Road Klubb where we meet other adventurers and practise off road driving. Jörgen and I both like to write and photograph and we blog together.

You are planning a very exciting trip. What are your previous travelling experiences?

Growing up, I moved around between Denmark, Sweden and Greenland. My first trip was by sailboat from Copenhagen to Ven. I was 6 days old then. Then it just kept going, we sailed a lot to Denmark and Germany but also around the Baltic Sea to Finland, the Baltics, Kaliningrad and Poland.

The family often travelled in a more adventurous way. We hiked and flew helicopters on Faroe Islands, drove to the North Cape, Lofoten and around the Iceland, boated along the west coast of Greenland and went on skiing/snowboarding holidays every year. I have spent a year studying in the USA and worked at the Ireland and has thus lived in 5 different countries.

Jörgen developed his interest in travelling as an adult. He has studied at universities in Hong Kong and the USA. He has a fondness for Asia and has spent over 2 years there if you add up all the travelling.

There have been many adventurous journeys; diving with killer whales in Narvik and with large sharks in the Red Sea, he has travelled by car around Tibet and... Mongolia as well as riding a motorbike across the US and Central America. He has also been lost in the Malaysian jungle where he had to spend the night on an elephant trail.

Our children have been travelling with us since they were babies. By the time Harald turned 5, he had been to Asia 3 times and Africa 2 times, totalling 21 countries. Our longest trip to date with both children was a 2-month trip to Dubai-Vietnam-Thailand-Hong Kong in 2014.

Tell us about the trip you are planning! What is the route and how long will you be away?

We will drive a car from Malmö to South Africa. Departure 14 October and we expect to be away for 10 months and drive about 3500 miles. The first stop will be Berlin, then on to northern Italy and car ferry across the Mediterranean to Morocco. We expect to spend about a month in Morocco before heading south along the West African coast.

We do not have an exact route, we take it as it comes, but expect to visit about 20 countries in western and southern Africa. There are those who have driven the same route in 2 months, but we will take it easy and make many stops and detours along the way. We want to be able to stay a week in a nice place sometimes, without feeling stressed. It is the journey itself that is the goal!

"Overlanding" is quite new for us. Last summer we were in the Pyrenees for 3 weeks. It was fantastic and simply gave us more flavour.

Tell us about the car you are travelling with! How is it equipped and how do you plan for meals and overnight stays?

We drive a Nissan Patrol 3.0crd 5d from 2008. We bought "Nisse" 1.5 years ago from the German army. He has served in Afghanistan but had only travelled 4200 miles. The car is equipped with extra large diesel tank of 145 litres, snorkel, solar panel, extra battery system, refrigerator and much more. We will sleep in a roof tent. When it is unfolded, we have a ready-made bed of 2.20×2.40 m with a real mattress 2 metres above the ground.

We will alternate "bush camping" with campsites, in big cities we will stay in hotels. We have an awning that can be folded out 270 degrees around the car as protection against rain and sun. We carry about 75 litres of water. The space for clothes and other stuff is very limited, it will be a minimalist lifestyle.

The kitchen equipment includes a large kitchen with two gas hobs and a pressure cooker. We are a food-loving family and hope to find many exciting ingredients along the way to prepare. Here at home in Malmö we are part of a food team, i.e. we meet with a group of friends for good food, wine and lots of chat one weekday evening a week. I've been part of the food team for over 10 years and that's also how Jörgen and I got to know each other.

We have come up with a challenge for the trip: in each country where we are staying for at least 10 days, we will start a food team, i.e. invite someone (other tourists, locals or whoever we meet) for dinner. It will be a fun thing and a reminder to ourselves to both be social and also to cook extra good food sometimes. It will of course be documented on the blog!

You will be travelling through some countries that may be perceived as unsafe. Are you worried about anything and how do you prepare for possible risks?

We feel a great responsibility for our children and of course we want to minimise the risks they are exposed to. But there's no denying that it would be safer for us to stay at home. We have found a really good travel insurance, which also covers the areas that the UD advises against. We also have a "satellite tracker" that updates our position every 10 minutes, from there you can also send an emergency signal to SOS. It is also linked to the blog so you can follow us in real time here at home.

We have to travel through a couple of countries that the MFA advises against, including Mauritania. We will keep a close eye on the situation and adapt our itinerary accordingly. Our flexibility is great as we have plenty of time and no fixed schedule. I believe careful preparation and common sense combined with respect for people, nature and culture will take us far.

What worries me most are diseases such as malaria. I have prepared myself by reading up, acquiring a broad travel pharmacy and making sure the whole family is well-vaccinated. Jörgen has great respect for traffic, which is one of the most common causes of injury/death for Swedes abroad.

We don't drive after dark and will keep a close eye on the children in busy cities. He also feels a great responsibility to keep the car running and has spent many hours getting to know its strengths and weaknesses, making sure it is in good condition and packed with essential spare parts.

I would say that we are close-knit, sensible and well-prepared. The fact that our team also consists of a doctor and a mechanical engineer/car enthusiast makes us extremely strong and hopefully well equipped to tackle the challenges we face.

How do you prepare for such a long journey, for example in terms of work and finances?

We are both fortunate to have good jobs and colleagues that we want to return to. Also, understanding and flexible managers who have accepted our long absence. We have rented out our house, cancelled many subscriptions and will sell our second car. So we have limited expenses here at home while we are away. Then we have simply saved.

We have also sought some sponsorship. Our most important cooperation partner is BFGoodrich, which both reinforced the travel fund a little and provides us with suitable tyres, which is otherwise a rather large expense item.

How do you prepare the children for the trip and what do you think they will like about the adventure?

I think we are good at involving the children in the practical preparations. For example, they help make the packing system for the car. Then, of course, we talk a lot about the trip; we look at map books, flags and pictures of places we're going to visit. We try to give a nuanced picture and also tell them that we will be away from home, friends and family for a very long time.

In any case, our own enthusiasm has spread to the children, because they can't wait and ask daily when it's October and time to leave. Every night they talk about sleeping in the roof tent, where we all sleep together (read: in a big pile) and both kids love it. They are at an easy age in that mum and dad are their biggest idols. We are enjoying it while it lasts 😉.

We believe the children will benefit from much more of our time and attention than they get here at home in the squirrel wheel. We will swim, see lots of animals and nature and spend a lot of time outdoors, which they love! They will probably think that the food tastes strange and that it smells weird sometimes, but on the whole we think they will thrive. We have each other and also the car which is our home and fixed point.

It has always been very important to us that our children understand how differently people can live, look, talk, think and eat. We don't want them to take material abundance or the social structure they are used to for granted. They should see and learn that there are many different rights and wrongs. We are eager to show them new cultures, people, food and nature experiences. Hopefully, they will take something positive from the trip for the rest of their lives!

Finally, a question we ask everyone we interview: What is your dream destination?

What a difficult question! Driving the Pamir Highway and crossing the Himalayas is one of Jörgen's big dreams. I would like to hike in Nepal. The Greenland of my childhood, where I have not been since I was 11 years old, is always in the background with me and would be fun to revisit. We have visited Hong Kong several times all 4 of us and it is a favourite that we will definitely return to.

But right now our upcoming adventure through Africa is our dream. It feels completely unreal, but in 7 weeks we are on our way!!!! 🙂

Thank you Ida Marken for sharing your experiences and thoughts!