Land Cruiser 200 - ready for overlanding

[Surfy]

At Friday i could pickup the car. It dont is really finished - but for a first trip it was finished enough.

Therefore we had plans for friday night (Swiss cheese Fondue with friends) - we decide to do a one night trip from samedy to sunday.
Also it is the first night for my Girlfriend - and i hope she will like it - so it is better to stay only one night out.

We still have not choosen how we will cook in africa (Gas, Petroleum), dont have a table - and have to improvise a bit.
So we bought a disposable grill, a big torch, and start pretty late as we reached the lake

And we have to cross the mountain pass. But we found a nice spot at daylight, but till the fire light - the night was there. Just in time, i would say.

The starts in the sky are so bright in the mountains - beautiful. But it get cold too, arround 5 Celsius degrees - good to have a fire!

We sleep very well inside, and push two times the webasto parking heater, that warms the car quickly without beeing too loud.
We sleeped very well, and wake up pretty late arround 10 o clock. Now it was time to show my girlfriend, that all neccecary stuff is there - it was.

And we had get a really beatiful place on a small creek!

We cross the area for the rest of our day

More pictures you find in my blog @ http://transafrica2012.blogspot.de

A buildup thread is also there https://forum.ih8mud.com/200-series-cruisers/610284-my-200-buildup-crossing-africa.html


Surfy

 

[TroutRunner]

Looks great.

 

[TemboTusk]

Great looking pictures! I take it you were camping in Switzerland?

What route and which countries in Africa are you planning to visit? Will you be traveling as a solo vehicle or with a group?

 

[The Jade Bean]

Looks like it was a sweet trip! Thanks for sharing.

-Daniel

 

[Surfy]

Great looking pictures! I take it you were camping in Switzerland?

What route and which countries in Africa are you planning to visit? Will you be traveling as a solo vehicle or with a group?

Yes, you got it

Our route will be this:

We try to hit mali only in the south part - you find in my blog also links to other travelers, who are currently on the way.

It is possible, but maybe not without some risk.

 

[FMKV]

Nutella is the best camping food. Never leave home with out it

 

[e9999]

you know about the bridge over the Congo, I imagine?
Talk about a disfunctional country... get through that one fast if you can

 

[The Jade Bean]

you know about the bridge over the Congo, I imagine?
Talk about a disfunctional country... get through that one fast if you can

What's going on with it, do you have an article link? I can't find anything online, just curious. Thx!

-Daniel

 

[TemboTusk]

.
This will be an exciting trip, although one not without its perils. I did a similar journey in 1984. We entered the continent at the Rock of Gibraltar crossing at Tangier. Travelled through Morocco, Algeria and Niger to start.

Niger was very desolate and poor, but they had beer. It was our first beer in weeks! I don’t know if things have changed, so, be sure to secure a case of empty beer bottles from someone traveling in the opposite direction. We could not buy beer and take the bottles with us unless we give the proprietor the same number of empty beer bottles. When in Morocco, don’t hesitate to purchase a goat skin water bag in the open markets. It is the best way to have cold water through the deserts.

We continued our travels through Nigeria, Cameroon and crossed the Central African Republic to get to the east. Travel was safer on that side at the time. We missed a coup by less than a day when we crossed out of Cameroon and into C.A.R.; the locals close to the boarder were non to happy to have us travel through their area.

Zaire (Dem. Rep. of Congo today) was beautiful as was Rwanda & Burundi. Not so safe today. Tanzania was and is a walk in the park as were the rest of the countries to the south. (Zambia, Botswana & South Africa.)

Do what you can to avoid traveling alone. It was not terribly safe in 1984 and I’m sure the same can be said today. Try to hook up with other travelers on the way and talk to every overland truck going in the opposite direction for updates.

Best trip of my life. I would do it again in a heartbeat. (Although, I’m older now and less stupid, I might think twice today!!)

.

 

[e9999]

What's going on with it, do you have an article link? I can't find anything online, just curious. Thx!

-Daniel

Sorry, I was unclear, I meant to say:

- you are aware that there is now a bridge crossing the river Congo which will make it a snap to cross vs trying to find a ferry? Near Matadi I think. Strangely, from what I can tell, few people out there seem to know about it and I've read of travellers despairing to find a way to cross and being told it is impossible until they happened fortuitously to see the bridge. Then again, if you've been researching seriously you very likely know about all that.

- the comment about the country was unrelated to the bridge, although you never know what can happen there, evidently, they may just close it, never know. Frankly, you wouldn't see me out in the DRC unless I really really had to be, and then I'd stay as far West as possible, which seems to be your plan too.

- Also, it doesn't look like you're planning that from your map, but I've read that some folks having used up their Angolan visa in Cabinda had a hard time to get into the main part of the country.

 

[The Jade Bean]

^^^ Right on... Funny people say we're crazy for wanting to live, travel and run a business in Central America, but I've gotta say it seems like a cake walk compared to the Congo! It's probably just a matter of what your used too and it's going to be an epic trip regardless!

-Daniel

 

[Surfy]

you know about the bridge over the Congo, I imagine?
Talk about a disfunctional country... get through that one fast if you can

Thank you much for this information!

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Mata...+Congo,+Demokratische+Republik+Kongo&t=h&z=17

I dont know that this bridge exist - but guess that they is includet in "Maps4africa".
Such information is really helpful - because we dont know - how good our gps sources will be there!

.

Do what you can to avoid traveling alone. It was not terribly safe in 1984 and I’m sure the same can be said today. Try to hook up with other travelers on the way and talk to every overland truck going in the opposite direction for updates.

Best trip of my life. I would do it again in a heartbeat. (Although, I’m older now and less stupid, I might think twice today!!)

.

Your trip sounds really crazy and beautiful!

Therefore that we have to be quick (we dont cancel our jobs) - i don`t know if other travelers want to enable a turbo for their plans - i guess not

98% of all other travellers have a timeframe between 6 months till 2 years - and have found their own "flow"

If anyone has useful informations about the route, a good way to go - please post em

 

[TemboTusk]

Thank you much for this information!



Your trip sounds really crazy and beautiful!

Therefore that we have to be quick (we dont cancel our jobs) - i don`t know if other travelers want to enable a turbo for their plans - i guess not

98% of all other travellers have a timeframe between 6 months till 2 years - and have found their own "flow"

If anyone has useful informations about the route, a good way to go - please post em

Keep in mind that there is real time and there is African time. African time has very little relationship to real time. Everything will take twice or three times as long to accomplish. If nothing goes wrong, plan on a three month trip one way.

 

[e9999]

Surfy, you know, I hesitate to tell you this cuz I don't want to throw in some negative vibes, but have you done enough research to make sure that the 200 is the best vehicle for the trip for you? Of course, it'll be newer and so presumably more reliable, but it's also much more valuable moneywise -which can lead people to do things differently or go to different places than otherwise- and you're much less likely to find parts and people who can fix the truck in Africa. The more sophisticated the electronics etc are the less likely you can do a simple fix in the bush. And driving a vehicle around that costs something like 100 years of personal annual income in some of those countries is possibly inviting trouble.
Personally, I would take a very simple vehicle, a model with a solid reliability history, that is very easy to fix, not flashy at all, that would not make me heartsick if I were to bang it up, and that I would not hesitate too much to abandon if I got into a life-threatening situation.

Either way, congratulations on having the fortitude to do the trip. Enjoy!

 

[TemboTusk]

.
A few things to think about. These may sound trivial and a space waster, but you will wish you had if you don’t. Bring lots of hard candy for the city kids and lots of Bic pens for the country kids. On the less than politically correct side, bring a few cartons of filtered American cigarettes. You never know when a few packs of smokes can get you out of jam.

I would kill to bring my Land Cruiser to Africa; however, a good Peugeot 505 is hard to beat. They are a dime a dozen in North Africa and go anywhere. You can get parts & repairs for them anywhere.


Given a choice, go simple in your vehicle decisions.
For example:

Diesel vs Gas: go diesel

Turbo vs non-turbo: go non-turbo (You will never go much more than 50 Kph in sub-Saharan Africa.

Cooler vs fridge: neither (You will rarely buy or find anything that needs refrigeration. Buy “fresh” from the market every day.) Bring lots of can goods.

Vehicle color: go white (Most humanitarian vehicles are white.) Might help in a jam.

Tires: use stock tires (Good luck finding 33” 12.5 Mud Terrains in Niger.)

Most useful language: French

Most useful currency: US Dollar (small denominations, nothing dated before the 1990s)

Zippered pockets


Remember you are not only driving through third world counties, you are also driving back in time.
.

 

[Surfy]

I have done some research, before i bought the car - and Africa is not the biggest of the planned trips in the next years.

But let us look only about the Land Cruiser 200 - and africa:

The Landcruiser 200 is there the most used car for the UN, and also many of the NGO`s - use this car as basic vehicle.
When you study some blogs from other travelers, they often tell their irritation - that they drive such expensive cars there.

So the visible look of the cars - are well known to the locals. This may help against scams or make them more expensive. I calculate - that this may help - and sometimes also gives us a free drivetrough

Clear to say - the Land Cruiser 200 they drive there - are the "african" editions (Google Toyota Gibraltar), which are equipped with less electronic stuff, no leather and so on. The V8 Diesel has there only a single turbo and many other changes.
This means- that there should be standard spare stuff arround of the bigger towns - but means also - that they dont know much of the technical stuff on my car with europe spec.

But i drive there to travel - not to challange some repairs.

You find many blogs of travellers with less technical cars or "heavy duty" Models who had some breakdowns - and they had to flight in some spare parts from europe. Otto (link in my blog) has his major breakdown after 3 days - and has to wait a week for the repair... He not even has reached africa - as it happens with his HZJ 78.

Yes - i maybe have a higher risk, that my car has a breakdown which is not easy to fix - but the risk seems not to be very high

There are many other serious risks - get beaten by a scorpion at sample, to get in touch with armed robbers, to meet some guys in the jail, because you dont want pay the bribe. Yes there are some risks.

The risk to have some electric problems don`t count really, i think.

Surfy

 

[The Jade Bean]

^^^ Although Africa is likely a bit harsher I've posed the same type questions about our choice to take a 4th Gen 4R to Central America. However I came out thinking about the same things as you did after research. When it comes down to it you gotta go with what you best feel meets your needs. Myself and MUD as a community look forward to watching your adventures unfold! Enjoy it all!

-Daniel

 

[Surfy]

Personally, I would take a very simple vehicle, a model with a solid reliability history, that is very easy to fix, not flashy at all, that would not make me heartsick if I were to bang it up, and that I would not hesitate too much to abandon if I got into a life-threatening situation.

Thats a good point! In such a situation i would prefere too, to drive an old used car.

But i will love this car, when driving so many kilometers, and to handle the bad tracks with such an eqippement.

We had planned to take our car much much later in his lifecycle to africa two years ago. But actual we fear that it could be the last time to do the west this way, because the sitation goess worse and worse - so we replan - to do first the west.

So we knock on wood for save travels.

But back to your knowledge about this bridge in Matadi. IS it "only" good to cross the congo like showed in the picture:

Or is it possible to go a straight way in direction south, after leaving Matadi and the bridge, like the red arrow shows?

On my detail study with Bing/Google Satellite Image Service there seems to be a way (http://binged.it/Qn7yaE). In what conditions is the road? And also important: is there a way to get the carnet stamped?

Thanks for help!


Surfy

 

[e9999]

I'm sorry but I have no first-hand info about that bridge, just what I read, which isn't much and I would not want to mislead you. I don't know if there is a driveable road towards the South from the bridge. I would think that it's already pretty nice if you can cross the Congo river reliably and at low cost, so count your blessings, sure beats the kind of ferries they use. But I would think that if it's a major passage point for the Angolans too -as one would guess- that there would be some immigration/customs people at the Angolan border and a decent road; but that's just a guess. Should be reasonably easy to figure that one out though, I think Angola is nowhere the basket case that the DRC is now. Well, at least if you don't mind landmines...

Btw, it's so funny to read that those online maps think you can do 60mph / 100 kph on any road in that part of the world...

 

[Surfy]

Thank you e9999 - for giving feedback here!

Unfortunately the "mines" problematic starts in western sahara - and will be there more or less till namibia.

We try to follow trace, trails and tracks - to keep the risk so low we can.

We will try it this way (red arrow) - and will leave the street if it is one of the main roads for traffic. In Angola we plan to spend much of our time!

Btw, it's so funny to read that those online maps think you can do 60mph / 100 kph on any road in that part of the world...

Yes, its funny. I fear in 5-6 years we are all able to cross africa with google streetview - and then at latest - they may update their time calculation. The chinese built and obtain overall in westafrica roads and bridges - maybe we have an finished highway then

Surfy