CATCHING a double-decker bus to work is nothing unusual for many of us, unless of course you catch the number 33 to Africa.

That is exactly what four intrepid travellers from the North-East have done, in a bid to help poor youngsters in a Ghanaian village.

The ten-tonne red London bus will take the team across Europe and on to Morocco and through the Sahara Desert during the 4,500-mile journey.

Along the way, the bus will stop at Casablanca and Marakesh to give its tired crew a chance to rest.

Led by John Knapton, professor of civil engineering at Newcastle University, the expedition will finish in the village of Ekumfi Atakwa, where the professor has been made a tribal chief by the grateful village elders.

The challenge is the team's latest attempt to help the people of the village - they have raised £75,000 during the last three years.

Prof Knapton, 49, was first alerted to the problems of the village community by one of his former students, who returned to his ancestral home after studying in Newcastle.

The bus will be used to ferry children to a new school and library built under Prof Knapton's direction last year.

He said: "We plan to drive between ten and 20 hours a day. I'm sure nobody else has ever driven a double-decker bus from Newcastle to Africa.

"They don't have double deckers in Ghana so I think that should be another first for us.