In September 2003 I invited a friend to accompany me on a short trip to the Garden Route. When he asked me if he should pack bedding or a towel my response was: I will never again stay in a place where I need to take my own towel or bedding… At the time I was making a living from photographing fancy hotels and lodges and always ended up staying in the place I was working for. When asked what I did for a living I often said: I visit the nicest places in the country and leave invoices when I go… Famous last words!Towards the end of 2004 my wife (then girlfriend) and I borrowed a small Suzuki SJ 410 jeep and toured Namibia for 25 days and travelled some 6 500km. We spent every single night sleeping in a Roof Top Tent using our own bedding. We had no airconditoning and swam almost every day, needing our own towels. We had to carry enough food for us for a week at a time and on a few occasions even enough water to survive for 3 days. We never saw the inside of a lodge or hotel and we really did get to see the nicest places! We found that, for us, the nicest places were the least travelled and known places around and that you really did need a 4x4 to reach them… Or a helicopter, but they are noisy and a little more expensive!
Returning to life as photographer of hotels and lodges I soon found that you could be in the nicest place imaginable, doing the most amazing things you can dream up, but unless you have someone to share it with, it’s just another room in another place with another view.
Now we look back at that first trip as the “make or break” of our relationship. I’d like to think it was the start of magical things to come. Not only in our relationship, but also in the way we travel and experience things. We have come to realize that we are at our most comfortable when we are completely self sufficient and self-reliant. Besides, there is a basic primal satisfaction, or joy in the knowing that you can disappear into the African Bush for a while without the need of any of our modern day amenities or luxuries.
In 2005 we invested in our own 4x4 (A 1989 Toyota Hilux Double Cab) and spent the next 4 years perfecting the art of independent overland travel. As Catt (My wife) was studying at the time, we had ample opportunity to practice our art and explore our neighboring countries. Most of the time we travelled alone, and even to the remotest areas we preferred it this way. The once or twice we travelled with someone else we found ourselves closer to “Safari guides” than travelers and although we still thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, we definitely prefer being the latter.
It came as no surprise when we established, or admitted to ourselves, that we would absolutely love the idea of becoming perpetual travelers. This, as you can imagine comes with it’s own very unique challenges and problems, finances being the most obvious and difficult one to overcome. Starting a family is a less obvious, but equally challenging idea if this is to become our chosen lifestyle.
We also had to admit that the dream, or idea may just be a little more romantic in theory than in practice, so we needed a project to test our willingness and adaptability to be on the road for an extended period of time. This project was born at the end of 2008 when we decided to put all our efforts and means into a twelve month independent, self sufficient, self funded trip in a 4x4 through the eastern side of Africa and on to the UK where Catt is from.
The planning and preparation for a trip like this can very easily take as long as the trip itself. I’m fairly confident that you can manage with a lot less preparation, but our time frame had two very fortunate restrictions; After Catt finished her studies, she had to work as a community service dietitian in a Government hospital for 12 months, and because of the places we would like to go and see, we have to wait until the end of the next rainy season before setting off. This established our leaving date to be around May 2010 and gave us 18 months from the day of the decision to the day of departure to prepare ourselves; a vehicle; and our bank accounts for the epic adventure of a lifetime!
The first, and arguably the most important part of the planning revolved around a vehicle.
In January 2009 we managed to find a suitable vehicle. Our chosen one is a 1996 model Toyota Landcruiser 80 series. It has a very mechanical 4.2l diesel engine and manual gearbox. It has been very well looked after and maintained and has very little “fancy gadgets” that can go wrong. I flew from Johannesburg to Cape Town to inspect the vehicle and was so impressed that I drove it back home over the next two days. I fell in love with the size and comfort of this beast of a car and cannot imagine life without it any more!
When we bought it, it had aftermarket suspension and a duel battery system for running a fridge installed.
We were fortunate enough to already own most of our camping equipment from previous trips and expeditions. There is however certain vehicle specific equipment you need, so over the last 8 months we have invested in the following:
• Replacement Bull Bar, integrated winch and built in compressor/tire pump
• Replacement rear bumper with double spare wheel carrier. (You need to carry two spare wheels)
• Longranger 156l extra fuel tank to give us a range of around 1 800km between fuel stops.
• Frontrunner packing system and fridge slide. We had a fridge/freezer already.
• Frontrunner Roof Rack with high lift jack, spade, and storage box, awning and roof top tent fitted to it.
• 90-Watt Solar Panel for charging batteries when we are not driving.
• 55l Water tank
• A snorkel fitted by our good friend, Louis from Menlyn 4 x 4 Megaworld.
• A Stereo with an Auxiliary plug for use with the IPod.
• We were fortunate enough to have top of the range off road tires sponsored by Bridgestone. We look forward to taking these Dueler D673 Mud Terrains off road!
All this came to a cost of nearly R60 000 and we’re not quite done yet!
The next step in our planning was all about the countries we wish to visit and the things we wish to see and do. Our list of countries are: Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania (Including Zanzibar), Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Sudan, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Sicily, Italy, France and the UK.
As for things to see and do, that’s the difficult part. We invested in Lonely Planet guides for all the countries and started reading them. We read other traveler’s websites and blogs and spend an enormous amount of time of forums and still there is no feasible way we can see to plan this. We have decided to start with a rough idea of the first three counties and then plan as we go. Through research and interaction with other travelers it became apparent that things change all the time in Africa and the best source of current information is the campsites and places like minded people stay.
We are both very adventurous people and our biggest fear on this trip is missing out on something, or anything along the way. When we started making lists of sites and activities by country we intend to visit, we quickly realized that 12 months might simply not be enough! To add to this phenomenon, we did a SCUBA diving course and completed our PADI Advanced diver ratings earlier this year. Because of places like Lake Malawi, Zanzibar, Kenya and the Red Sea we thought it would be irresponsible not be able to SCUBA when we get there.
Our rough plan also includes visiting the famous game parks of Southern and Eat Africa. These parks are really expensive ranging from US$60 to US$ 280 per night for the two of us to camp. There are so many that I cannot even list them all, but they include places like:
• Gonharehou, Hwange and Mana Pools in Zimbabwe
• Lower Zambezi, Kafue and South Luangwa in Zambia
• Liwonde National Park in Malawi
• Ngorongoro Crater, Ruaha, Selous, Serengeti, Kilimanjaro and Tarangire in Tanzania
• Kibale, Mgahinga Gorilla Park, Murchinson falls and Queen Elizabeth in Uganda
• Amboseli, Masai Mara, Nairobi, Sibiloi and Tsavo in Kenya
• Semien Mountains in Ethiopia
Although we live in a society where most people have a fairly inactive lifestyle, we still have activities we participate in and gyms we go to, to try and keep in shape. People I know who make a living from the comfort of an office chair all do some kind of sport or activity to keep fit and healthy. Catt and I are very active people who love walking with our dogs every day and swimming to keep fit. The challenge on a trip like this is to avoid being stuck in a car for year without any exercise. Keep in mind that traveling like this is to become a lifestyle, and not just a holiday. For this reason we have identified a few “must do” activities in-between the game park visits. These include:
• Fly Fishing and hiking in the Zimbabwe Highlands,
• A canoe trip on the mighty Zambezi
• SCUBA Diving and Kayaking in Lake Malawi.
• Hiking and fly fishing in the Malawi Highlands
• More SCUBA in Zanzibar and climbing Kilimanjaro
• Gorilla Trekking in the forests of Rwanda
• Chimpanzee trekking in Uganda
• Visiting Murchison Falls (source of the Nile River)
• SCUBA diving in Kenya
• Hiking to the ancient churches of Ethiopia as well as in the Semien Mountains.
• Visiting the ancient ruins and pyramids of Sudan, Egypt and Libya
• More SCUBA diving in the Red Sea
The final part of planning before we set off has now begun. This involves paperwork, paperwork and more paperwork! From passports to Visas to vaccinations to international driver licenses need to be organized and if we don’t keep on top of it all the time, we may not get it done in time!
We both need to start with a new passport, as in most of the countries we visit we need a full page for a visa. For some of the Arab countries you have to have an Arabic translation of your passport stamped into it. Fortunately there is a man at our local Mosque who is certified to do this. It is impossible to organize all the Visas from South Africa, as some of them are only valid for 30 days from date of issue. For this reason we have to find out where along the route the best places would be to obtain Visas. With my South African passport, and Catt’s British Passport, the first Visa we will need is for Ethiopia and we can easily get then in Nairobi in a couple of days. We both need international drivers licenses for all the countries outside of SADC. The AA issue these and it is really not hard to get.
The car needs it’s own passport. This is called a “Carnet de Passage” which is obtained from the AA of South Africa. The carnet is simply a guarantee from the AA to pay import duties for the car to any country where the car is not exported. Without this document you would need to pay import duties in every country north of Tanzania and then try and claim that money back when you exit the country. The duties range from between 35% (Kenya) to 200% (Egypt) of the value of the car. The AA requires you to give them a refundable deposit of 200% of the value of the car to get the Carnet, but at least I am confident we will get it back at the end of our travels! Can you imagine trying to claim back some R50 000 in some border town at the northern end of Lake Turkana?
Some of the countries we intend to visit require Yellow Fever and Typhoid vaccinations. These are easy enough to obtain for your local travel clinic and they suggest a whole range more including things like Rabies, meningitis, Cholera, Hepatitis etc. It’s probably wise to get them all and for some of these you need to allow three months before date of departure.
We are now at the stage where we have a spreadsheet with “things to do” and “dates to do things by” stuck to our fridge door. Every day starts with reading this list and ticking off the things we did the day before. The intensity of this list will increase to ballistic proportions in the last three months before we set off.
Yesterday I started making a list of services and payments to cancel before we leave. This includes things like DSTV subscription, Cell Phone contracts, magazine subscriptions etc. When Catt and I met, and started dating we could fit everything we owned into two duffel bags and one camera bag. I find it utterly astonishing how “complicated” and “involved” our simple life has become in the short 5 years that we have lived together in South Africa.
