Cape Town to Nairobi 2019 - Itenaries, trip reports, etc

**Jeleze** · 2019/12/03, 06:05 AM

I'd like to share our trip reports from the first leg of our East African adventure, travelling from Cape Town up the west coast to Namibia, through the Caprivi to dip down into Botswana, and enter Zambia via Zimbabwe. Then from Zambia we travelled through Malawi up to Tanzania, and followed the western border north to Rwanda, then Uganda, and finally ending in Nairobi, marking the end of our first leg!

Our final stats for the first leg of our trip:

Total days travelled: 103
Total distance travelled from Cape Town: 15,174km
- Total petrol consumed: 2,653l for a very healthy average fuel consumption on all different terrain of 5.7km/l...we think not bad for a thirsty V6 petrol engine, weighing close to 3t when fully loaded with 220l petrol, 120l water, 70l fridge/freezer packed, 2 spare tyres and two bodies in the front!)
Total countries: 10

We are currently taking a bit of a break, and will resume the second leg of our adventure early January 2020 - the plan is to continue to explore Kenya further, then depending on the current flooding situation go either north to Ethiopia via Lake Turkana (at the moment with all the rain a very bad plan!), or directly north up the main road, and then start to make our way down the eastern coast thereafter (via Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique) to be back in Cape Town towards the end of March/April.

All our weekly trip reports, itenaries, photos as well as other ad-hoc info are available on our website, instagram account as well as the route overview on Polarsteps:
Website: https://www.followtheaardvark.com/
Instagram: theaardvarkjourney
Polarsteps: https://www.polarsteps.com/TheAardva...airo-2019-2020

To give you a bit of background on the start of our journey, please see the first blog post on our website, dated 5 August 2019:
https://www.followtheaardvark.com/po...k-the-becoming
It all started about 16 months ago on a lazy Saturday morning over a cup of coffee...we were pondering life, the universe and everything in between...and came up with the very "normal" plan of:
"why dont we just take 2020 off, celebrate life, love and turning 40, and drive to Cairo and back".
For those knowing us well, you will know that we are dreamers by day, and not by night - aka the dangerous kind! And once we've decided this is a crazy, stupid, brave and incredible big plan, we decided to act on it there and then. And what a journey it has been over the past 16 months - I didnt even know half the 4x4 terms, or car parts to be researched, back then! The joy of innocence and naivety...if we knew all the admin and detailed research involved, we might have stick to it just being a pipedream! Life also happened in between the research, and we realised life is too short to not just dive into the stream and follow your heart...so the start of the journey was brought forward to the start of August 2019...checking out all the rainy seasons on the way north potentially also played a major part in the earlier departure date

Anyway, the first step was obviously to get a car...and some of the decisions were:
1.) Landrover Discovery vs Toyota Landcruiser / Hilux
That turned out to be an easy decision...Landy's make beautiful photos because they break down so often, whilst Toyota's are basically indestructible, and every second man or his dog can fix it all through Africa ...or so they tell us From the start Irene said we should go with a LandCruiser, but I wasnt convinced. However, after the first 2 months of research, I had to agree...even though the Cruiser is THIRSTY, it is super sturdy and ticked all our boxes! So we decided LandCruiser it is, and because we are planning on going far north, we needed a car without too many tierlantyntjies, ie as mechanical as possible...so we narrowed it down to a Toyota Landcruiser 79 model.
2.) Petrol vs Diesel
At the outset, we thought definitely diesel. But again, our research pointed us towards a petrol due to the following reasons:
§ A 79 Diesel Cruiser is basically a glorified tractor, and according to our experienced source, would struggle to hit 100km/h fully loaded on a tar road...downhill with the wind from behind
§ It is apparently also easier to fix a petrol engine than a diesel engine...especially if there are dirty fuel / fuel injectors in the mix!
§ So even though the 79 Petrol Cruiser's fuel consumption is c.5-15% worse, we thought we'd rather "pay at the pump than at the mechanic's service centers"

So the search was on for a Toyota LandCruiser 79 Petrol model, with less than 100,000km on the clock, and ready for overland action.

The next decision was a tough one!
3.) Single vs Double Cab
Again, we were initially so convinced of going with a Double Cab, that when we found the perfect vehicle, and it being a Double Cab, we bought it there and then! Oh and did we mention it had buffalo leather seats for real pimping up joy? It was promptly named AARDVARK, and we thought that all that was left, was to fit the perfect camper to the back, and off we go. Little did we know what was ahead...

4.) Camper
Everybody who ever went down this rabbithole, will recognise the names: AluCab's Ossewa or Khaya, Alu Innovation's owner spec'ed campers, Bushlapa's Bosluis2, AHA, RoRo, and the list continues. We were on our way to design and specify the build of our own camper through Alu Innovation, when we drove past INFANTA 4x4 in Swellendam. And we fell in love with their INKUNZI camper. The only problem was that it only fitted on a Single Cab LandCruiser

So as one does, we got back to Cape Town, sold the Double Cab to my brother (on the one condition that he had to rename it as there can only be one AARDVARK), and bought our Cruiser & Camper combination from a farmer called Thys in Swellendam...a couple of specs:
- 2010 Toyota LandCruiser 79 Single Cab with a Petrol 4.0l V6 engine and 86,000km on the clock.
- Infanta Inkunzi camper mounted on the chassis with the loadbin removed

And the new AARDVARK was in our lives and ready to roar!

Hope you enjoy travelling with us!
Jeleze

**Estee** · 2019/12/03, 06:10 AM

Like button

**zeek** · 2019/12/03, 06:38 AM

Yes like very much

**Mark Petzer** · 2019/12/03, 06:41 AM

Double like button!!

**Anne_W** · 2019/12/03, 08:40 AM

Thanks for this very useful introduction, I will keep it for further reference should we ever be so lucky as to follow your steps.

We are very much looking forward to reading your trip report on this bleak winter afternoon. Thank you!

**Stan Weakley** · 2019/12/03, 09:35 AM

Fantastic, will slowly go through your blog. Thank you so much for your helpful record and do please keep it up for the rest of your trip, when it resumes.

I would hazard a guess that you still have twice as much travel ahead of you, if indeed you drive there and back

.

**ortelius** · 2019/12/03, 11:13 AM

Great, plenty to read from your blog over next few days/weeks.

Wish you a nice break in SE Asia and happy return to Africa soon....

**Stan Weakley** · 2019/12/03, 12:58 PM

Jeleze, once started on the blog, it was difficult to leave until read completely. It is 4 years since we did our trip and it is interesting to see how much is unchanged, but conversely that there have indeed been some important changes which you have conveyed so nicely.

My biggest envy is that you still have such fantastic discoveries ahead of you. I think it was a good idea to scarter from East Africa in the rains, although the long rains after February will catch you. Perhaps head for Ethiopia and Sudan, saving the game reserves of Kenya and Tanzania for the return journey?

**Wazungu Wawili** · 2019/12/03, 02:10 PM

Asante sana! That is a great blog and thank you for sharing it here on the forum.

What a good idea to take a break whilst the “short rains” are hitting Kenya with ferocity. The “long rains” don’t usually arrive in Kenya until March/April, but who knows with climate change when and if the rains will arrive. February is usually dry and hot in Kenya.

Safari njema!

**Wazungu Wawili** · 2019/12/03, 02:34 PM

Whilst we are on the subject of the rains in East Africa, here is an excellent article from the BBC about this year’s phenomenal “short rains”.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-50628420