A Russian woman, Irina Sidorenko, has been living out of her car for the past year, and has travelled through 48 countries with only her dog, Greta, for company.
The story as reported on iol.co.za says Irina and Greta have driven from Moscow, through 20 European countries, and through Africa in a 2005 Hyundai Elantra, clocking up more than 190 000km so far.
She got her licence in 2016 and went on a three-week journey across Crimea.
She then went to Georgia, and this time, took her Labrador-Husky cross along for the ride. And by the end of the trip knew that the trusty canine was the best companion she could hope for.
“My first plan was to go along the east coast but we could not get into Egypt and Sudan. We had to return to Morocco and go from there along the West coast. The next stop was Western Sahara, then Mauritania, Senegal, Guinea Bissau, Conakry, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon before entering the Congo. There I met some friends. They flew me over the DRC to Angola in a military aircraft. Then I came to Namibia and finally Cape Town.”
The most difficult parts of the trip were in Guinea, where her car was swamped by protestors, and Senegal, where she was told they only accepted cars no older than 2008 models, and reportedly had to pay a fine to get in. Israeli customs were a problem because Greta’s papers were not accepted by the officials.
From Cape Town she and Greta travelled to Durban and are now planning to continue the trip in South America.
