Welcome to the Roving Bonkers Website

For 26yrs I worked for Wandsworth Borough Council as a photographer. I met Rosina a student nurse in 1970 and we got married in her home town, Castleblayney Ireland in 1973. After bringing up 3 boys (Greg, Luke & Daragh) and living in Reigate for 20 yrs we bought Gainsborough Lodge a guest house at Gatwick airport in 1993. For 13 years we worked hard at expanding and building up a successful business.

It had always been our dream to travel as we both had a love & interest in wildlife, and after visiting Kenya & Tanzania over the years we decided it was time to sell up and do some serious travelling while we were still reasonably fit & in good health. Having seen this wonderful vehicle on a BBC "Vets across Africa" series I tracked down the makers..... Foleys of Harlow, so Rosie & I headed of there in Jan 2004 (that was when the dream started) there we met Stuart & Paul (2 great Guys) who spent hours with us on several occasions discussing our plans. With their help, expertise & experience we decided on the vehicle we are using.

After a summer driving through Europe to Gozo in Malta in out Lexus our Land Rover was ready for collection, so on the 31st August 2006 our best man Pete & his wife Gill drove us to collect it. There she was sitting on the grass all opened out tent, awnings, kitchen sink & cooker, she looked wonderful in her sand colour. Rosina & I just stood & looked, but Gill was first up the ladder to try out the bed on the roof!!!!!

We have been like an engaged couple over the last couple of years collecting various bits & pieces we thought might be useful on our travels, so we packed them all into one side of the vehicle and headed to Ireland. We spent a week boxing them neatly!

On the 19th Sept 2006 we headed of to Rosslare to catch the ferry to Cherbourg and drive through France & Spain and over on the ferry to Morocco for 6 weeks for a trial of the Land Rover, to see if we need any modifications or additions. We decided to have a Solar panel put on the roof and to move one of the spare wheels onto the back (to make more room for the table & chairs) When Foleys finished that and a service they shipped it to Namibis for us. Following Christmas 2006 we fly out to Namibia to pick up the Land Rover, heading for Botswana & then Livingstone in Zambia where Foleys have a base. While they service it we fly home to see family & friends for a month, returning for another 4 month stint taking in Malawi, Mozambique, Madagascar, Tanzania, Kenya & Uganda.

We are not sure how long this will all take as we are hoping to do some volantary work along the way, when we have finished Africa we shall ship it to India, Asia & keep heading East until we eventually reach Australia and our son Greg. We look forward to keeping up with all our old friends whilst on the road & when we return to the UK, and also making new friends along the way.