Our first flat tire and broken window! But it is all fixed. We spend some two days at garage Van Dierndonck in order to do a final check of Daffy. This included fixing our first flat tire! Van Dierendonck is a specialist in preparing 4x4 for trips to Africa and that shows. We found him very helpfull and received an impecable service.
Our third - and most experienced - team member is our Toyota Landcruiser PZJ 75, baptised Daffy by its prior owners. The success of our trip will for a big deal depend on this car.
As most overlanders, we originally fell for the charms of a Landrover Defender or III series. Finding an old III series at a reasonable price is difficult but certainly possible (I especially came across cars from different European armies). Finding a more recent defender 110 (i.e. long wheel base) at a reasonable price I found quasi impossible. It was after some initial discussions with recent overlanders and consultation of many internet sites, that we rather quickly decided that a Toyota Landcruiser would be an equal - or probably even better - alternative. Although the choice between a Defender or a Landcruiser is probably mostly a question of personal taste and feeling, there was one saying that convinced me of that choice: Landrovers are easy to prepare when they breakdown, Toyota's don't breakdown (I hope this is true� although I am afraid that if they do breakdown�they are probably less easy to prepare). Clumsy as we are, our choice was made� and we were willing to pay the higher cost of a Landcruiser! Initially, we were looking for 73 series (medium long wheel base with RFP top). However, when we first saw a 75 series - formerly used by the red cross - we knew what we really wanted. Also a 60 series crossed our path, before we made our final decision: Daffy! We had already admired Daffy on the website of the overlanders Sofie & Ronald (http://users.belgacom.net/sofie.ronald), but when we really met him, we were in love!
Daffy is a Land Cruiser PZJ 75 from 1992; the car has 5 cylinders, 3.5 litre engine and is a diesel (no turbo!). Together with Ronald & Sofie, Daffy just drove 100,000 km (or a return ticket for Brussels - South-Africa) over a period of 22 months. In total, it has 260,000 km on the counter, and is according to some people just in its midlife (hopefully without the crisis).
Clumsy as we are, we were very lucky to buy a fully prepared overland car including the most important equipment. The most important preparations made to the car are: extra protection (2nd hand bulbar and an aluminium plate below), self designed & made (extra strong) roof-rack, internal design for optimal space usage and "luxury" (possibility to sleep in the car). Somewhere halfway their trip, Ronald also replaced the suspension and installed double suspensions at the back and some extra leaf springs. Equipment included a GPS, three pit gas cooker, fridge, old roof tent, storage boxes, highjack, etc.
In order to treat Daffy the best and to be able to give "first aid" in case of an accident or breakdown, Jeroen decided to follow a basic course auto mechanics at SYNTRA in Antwerp (the only place were we found a 10 evening basic course) and we are very grateful to Ronald and David who taught us the basics in practice.
Insurance
We took two types of insurances:
- Travel insurance with the VAB/VTB. A lot of interesting information on this can be found at Wegwijzer. We can highly recommend the VAB/VTB. Freija's grandmother died while we were in Aswan. After contacting the VAB, they sheduled the flights, came to pick her up at the hotel, and had a representative waiting for her at every stop. Also, we enjoyed a very personal and appropriate service. So insurances can proof very useful.
- Life Insurance - especially for if we drive against a tree and are not capable of working anymore.
Money
We took a mixture of traveller checkes (around 3,500 Euro - in USD), cash (2,000 Euro) and visa / amex. When Freija came to Begium in March for personal matters, she took another 1,000USD cash and 400 USD traveller's cheques. Cash proofs easier to exchange, but of course it is much riskier. |
