Check out the Polarsteps daily entry for a log of our 'Lake2Cape' trip
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| Overlanding 60 days over five Countries |
This was an adventure of a lifetime that all overlanders dream of, a long trip over a month or more. Not many of us get this opportunity due to work and family commitments or simply don't have the gear to last much more than a long weekend of camping.
We had always dreamt of a long overlanding camping trip once we were retired and had the perfect overland vehicle kitted accordingly for the trip. As things would work out, out time in Malawi was up with no forward destination finalized opening up a rare window of opportunity to travel.
There would be no time for planning, bookings or the perfect vehicle other than pack our trusted Hilux Bakkie with our existing camping gear and hit the road with a vague plan of heading to George in South Africa the long way round via Namibia.
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| Standard Hilux with no modifications except for the roof tent |
With cyclone Freddie lurking off the coast of Madagascar after making landfall once and going back to the Indian Ocean, the prediction was for it to return to hit Malawi and Zambia about the time were to leave Malawi. Besides the fact we were yet to explore Namibia it was most likely to be the driest place on the many possible routes down to George, so it was decided the way down would be via Namibia.
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| Household packed in to storage with destination unknown. |
There was very little time for planning as the original plan was to close shop in Malawi by selling the car and buying a car in South Africa from where we would start travelling.
The decision to start the trip from Malawi was made less than a month to go. The main logistical addition was a car fridge and after much discussion, the Engel was ordered to be delivered to Lilongwe.
The idea was to have it fitted a couple of weeks ahead of travel and test it in Blantyre before heading on the long drive. However, logistical challenges resulted in the fridge arriving a few days before we left which means the fit out had to take place on route!
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| All this needed to fit in to the bakkie |
Much debate and research took place around dual battery systems, awnings and alu cabs all of which was awfully difficult and expensive to resolve from Malawi. In the end it was concluded that only the car fridge really mattered and it was ordered with a slider but the slider never arrived.
The fridge was wired through a cigarette lighter socket in the bakkie which was the least complicated set up. The lighter was wired to the ignition to ensure it was only on when the ignition was on to ensure the fridge could not run down the car battery.
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| A 80 liter Engel fridge freeze combo takes up a fair chunk of space in the back |
After the packers had taken away our household to be stored in Lilongwe until our destination was known but at this stage we have two quotations for South Africa and Australia as potential destinations.
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