An 80-year-old woman, Julia Albu, drove from her home in Cape Town all the way to London to have tea with the Queen, the BBC reports.
During the early weeks, she spent the nights sleeping in tents on the side of the road. She received some help from her daughter, who drove with her to Zimbabwe, and her son joined her through the Malawi stretch.
“I never felt lonely, even when I was alone,” Albu said in the article. “I loved the times my children visited, and the intimate moments I spent with each of them. But you must remember Tracy (her car) is also an older lady just like me, and this was something we were doing together.
“The belief in the wisdom of your elders is ingrained in a lot of African cultures – though often they just found me hilarious,” she said. “One Ugandan customs official asked why I was driving to London. ‘To have tea with the Queen’ I replied. His eyes were like marbles, and my passport was stamped in a jiffy.”
Albu went on to have a midnight swim at a honeymoon resort in Tanzania, and to camp with younger travellers in Ethiopia, before eventually being stopped in Egypt where she was held at a border control while her car had Arabic number plates fitted.
She flew back to Cape Town from Cairo and after a few months flew back to Europe to be reunited with Tracy, who had been in a container in Greece after crossing the Mediterranean on a ferry. She then drove through Albania, Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, and eventually London.
Unfortunately for Albu, it was the week of Royal Ascot, and the Queen was too busy to have tea. Albu is now driving Tracy back to Cape Town.
“I didn’t know it before my adventure, but at my age you’re actually freer than you’ve ever been – you lose a husband and the children are grown, and you worry less about the consequences of everything.”
