Drs Dean & Gary Allie treating a San girl in Namibia.

Entrance to Etosha, note the impressive tyres!

The Globeriders Cape2Cape group, comprising two Port Elizabeth doctors and their families, who left  the South African city in March 2007 on a  three-year around the world trip, have succeeded in driving over the African continent into Italy and through Europe into Ireland.

Continental Tyre South Africa (CTSA) supplied the group with overland tyres and has helped replace them along the way.

CTSA Media and Communications Manager Rene Olivier said, “Our 245/70 R16C ContiTrac AT tyres have performed very well on previous overland expeditions through Africa, and this expedition is enabling us to further put this tyre to the test. What’s more, the tyres are now proving themselves in winter conditions on European roads as well.”

Dr Gary Allie, a member of Globeriders, said in a letter to Continental Tyre that they had traveled through 12 countries in Africa, mainly the Eastern side of Africa and along the North Coast to Tunisia, on the overland tyres and then through Europe from Italy into Britain and now Ireland.

“The ContiTrac AT tyres that Continental Tyre gave us were great through the sand, mud and over rocky terrain with excellent grip on wet roads. We saw Conti-partner outlets at quite a few places through Africa, even an advert on a huge rock in Tanzania,” he said.

Dr Dean Allie has now taken up a post at a surgery in Athy, a small town south of Dublin, and Gary is practicing in Navan, 30 km north of Dublin. 

“One of their team said that when preparing to drive across Europe from Italy into Great Britain said that the condition of his tyres was so good that he was prepared to drive through to England before having to change them.  He was however very delighted all the same when Continental changed the tyres in Milan anyway.

“One our team was caught in a blizzard in Navan, north of Dublin and related that where other vehicles were skidding all over the place, in the 100mm of snow that fell, the Conti’s held their grip and afforded them a safe drive home,” said Gary Allie.

Olivier explained, “If the group needs replacement tyres at any point on their trip, we have arranged for tyres to be made available to them at outlets in every country where Continental Tyres are sold. These tyres have performed over a myriad of varying road conditions and we at Continental Tyre are extremely proud of this product.”

The group comprises eleven South Africans – seven adults and four children – from Nelson Mandela Bay (Port Elizabeth). Among them, they have expertise in medicine, pharmacy, engineering, entrepreneurship, information technology and human resources.  The two expedition leaders are brothers and top Port Elizabeth doctors. They have been offering medical advice and their expertise to the communities they interact with along the way.