Transafrica with a Land Cruiser 200 (Diesel)

[Dan Grec]

Thanks again for the amazing thread and photos.

I've already read through your entire blog, but every time you post here I read it again, I enjoy it so much!

Your trip is truly an inspiration for me, and I will absolutely be following in your tracks. Mid 2015 leave date is the current estimate.
I'm saving money and planning my vehicle now.

I have two major questions I hope you can help me with.

Money/Cash:
It sounds like ATMs in West Africa are hard to come by and not reliable, so everything I've read says to carry a decent amount of cash.
How much cash would you recommend carrying, and in what currency?
I'm thinking something like $500, €500 and the same in CFA.
I've read that it's illegal to carry certain currencies into some of those countries - did you worry at all about that?

Water
I'm planning my water needs, and I'd love to hear what you did.
From reading around, it sounds like most African overlanders have a tank for drinking water, and a very high quality filter that it gets pumped through before use.
I'm wondering how you filled your tank -
Did you buy jugs of water in towns?
Did you fill up from the city water supply in towns?
Did you ever fill up from a random river/lake?

In all of the above cases, I would absolutely still pump the water through a high quality filter before use.
I'm thinking about designing a system where it's pumped from the tank, through a filter then out a tap for use (common I think)
AND I'll have a hose system so that to fill up, I can pump it in through the filter into the tank.
That way it would actually be filtered twice before use.

I'd love to hear your thoughts / ideas on this one.

Thanks again.

-Dan

PS - Do you have plans for another similar trip in the future?

 

[4x4tripping]

Hi grecy
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Money:
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Because we had a short timeframe we carried way too much money. I suggests to carry 500 USD and 500 Euro in small pieces. This money is just for backup if you had problems to optain money with your creditcard.

You can optain cash from the ATMs in the most big cities. Visa cards is prefered. Try to use the money you got from the ATMs before you reach the border of the next country.

If you travel with Carnet and international insurance you need no money at the borders. If you want to work with temporary import papers you need money. Use a currency calculator app with online updates - that you can show that to the guys who exchange money. This way you can show them (also if you are offline) - that you had an app with relative actual exchange rates. This helps for argumenting for a good rate.

You need at best 2-3 Creditcards from different bank accounts - that you dont get lost if one stop working. If you need much money in short time - you can use the day limit of each card - or spend your money on western union fees. Thats better than to loose much cash during any other circumstances who may happen.
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Water:
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Your right, we filteres our water also during topping up our water tank. It is a 3 stage filter, with UV, active Coal and normal filtration:

This setup allows too to take the water from a lake or river. We always was able to get that what the locals named "drinking water" (tap water). Our Filter was pretty used as we reached cape town...

You never now where you got stuck for a longer timeframe - it is good to know that you are able to optain clean water under any circumstances.

But dont overrate that - you can also buy bottlewater if you had the storage for - and to use an katadyn bottle filtre as emergency device.

Here is a writeup about how you can handle the water question: http://www.4x4tripping.com/2013/07/portable-wasserfilter-systeme-fur-die.html
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Surfy

 

[4x4tripping]

Day 20 , Benin - Nigeria
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Today we got up at 7 clock. We had to fill the water tank - what was not that easy - at the end there was at least 4 guys from the Hotel who try to help us.
It was 9:40 as we were finally ready to progress with the journey. We reached the border at 11:00 clock , despite heavy traffic.
The exit stamps for Benin we got quickly - but now we had to drive to the nigerian border. Well it was pretty bad , always artificial barriers were erected and people wanted our money.
There was the Health Service , the XY service - and we had again a fixer who told us he is an officer from the police - which we can`t scare away.
After he had distributed $ 10 from us to people who do not actually want the money -we said that we will no longer be paid - and had only a Maestro card. Now our progress was really slow - but somehow we managed it within 2.5 hours to reach the real border - an incredible marathon in this heat .
At least 45min we was at the vaccination service - who wants to desinfect our car when we dont pay 200 USD. We told him he can desinfect the car, the guy means that this consume 6 hours. This is ok for us we said - now he shout angry that we have to pay 30 USD - but after a while he resigned.
Same same on each station, we guess over the half of them are phantasy stations. That our fixer showed us an police ID card, and we arent shure if he is an officer or not - made it more difficult for us.
Finnally we reach the nigerian border with police guys in uniforms. They want to see the exit stamp for benin - which we had in our other passports. Ouch, they got very angry about that we had each two passports. Shouted that it isnt allowed to carry two passports, calling their chief`s, and getting really nervous.
After again endless minutes we got our stamps, and had to switch the "hut" for the guy who wants to write our car data in a big book. Here also the Discussion about paying a bribe starts - we was glad as we sit again in our car..
Now there was our fake police fixer who wants 200 Euro. I show him the "bird" - that he is completely crazy and start the engine and start driving.
He runs behind shouting - i had ignored him when i realize that there comes two Police checkpoints again. Fuuu*** I guess with a crying guy behind it isnt that easy to cross that checkpoints.
I stop the car and open the window a bit. He asked why i start driving - i told him that he isnt a police officer, an cheater. Now he wants 150 Euro - i close the window and start driving. One Officer on the first checkpoint asked me - if that crying man behin belongs to us - we told them. No. The guy starts talking to the police officer and we can proceed. After 20 Meter i stopped again.
We had realized that there are several Checkpoints and Roadblocks until we reach the "real" road.
I told the fixer, that i pay him 20 USD - if he runs with us - and bring out without hassle to the road. Not more - or i drive by my own.
Now he runs in Front of us- shouting "Diplomatic, Diplomatic and showing his fake licence". The Military and Police guys looked skeptical - but no one stops us.
He has earned his 20 USD, and we was glad to reach Nigeria. If you plan this route - use a smaller border- for get through much more relaxed.
The road was big, 2 lines for each like an highway. Unfortunately all 100m there was 4-6 Military Guys who stops cars and search them. They did search deeply - we saw pretty stripped down cars. They where heavily armes, machine guns an pistols - definitively no fake.
I was now way to nervous and stressed. We passed severall of them - but one group point us to stop. I stoped shortly and hit again the gas. Gitte was really shocked and told me to stop again - but i know i now just can keep going.
The next "mobile control point" wasnt far - but they let us pass. A short time later they try again to stop us, i did just wave and keep driving. This way i break trough severall stops. This was not wise, not good and pretty stupid - i just had much luck that they let me pass.
I need over an hour to calm down - it is hard to describe - but it was an hard fight to get through that border - and i know i had much to loose. By foot or with a bicycle - what can happen. But with an > 100`000K USD Car (swiss prices) - when they starts to remove the interior paneling and so on (stuff we had seen driving through)... Yeah – I was not relaxed.
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But after a while we had an high quality highway without further hassle. We use a branching dirt track to get an silent spot for breakfast and a break.
Sometimes later we reach Lagos, a huge city with lots of traffic, again bad roads. We stuck for hours in traffic jams and slow moving traffic. But hey - we was in Nigeria.
We did starts soon to look for a hidden spot for a wildcamp, but at this part of Nigeria you drive from small city to small city without bigger green spots between, farms or wood.
We stopped at a car dealership , and asked the guards if we should spend the night there - but since there was no owner - the guards was not allowed to decide… Several times we left the road for dirtracks, but anywhere houses, hats or people..
It was getting dark as we cross an big Hotel. We decide to ask if we can stay at the save parking, and meet the Hotel Director. He can`t believe that we wants to sleep in the car and did make us a special offer of 50% for an room. We can pay that – can use a room or sleep in the car if we want. Under this circumstances we choose the room, use the pool and the excellent Restaurant.
40 USD is pretty cheap for a nice Hotel, we just had burned 600 USD for two nights in Benin (5 Star Hotel, togehter with laundry and some food & drinks). The Hotel here in Nigeria is named "Nirvana" - what a name ...
Again, if you watch other blogs of nigeria travellers - you will see - on the smaller boarder crossings you will have much less hassle...
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You can progress reading also in our Blog @ http://transafrica2012.blogspot.com - but i will tell the whole story here - and try to translate everything.

 

[4x4tripping]

Day 21, Nigeria Nirvana Hotel to Bushamp approximately 610km
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Today we tried out to eat some miles down - through a beautiful landscapes and cities deserve the name . They are smug , clean, and churches are everywhere to be seen - and the cars often adorn references to a psalm or something from the Bible.
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Nigeria we like more and more - no corruption - nice happy people - and often we get a thumb up, as they detect the we are tourists.
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As often we eat our breakfast later, after some driving at10 a clock , along the way , and then drove back towards Cameroon. Do we push to much? We dont know how much time the wet/rain season will cost in Cameroon till Angola - therefore we keep our plans - to travel slowly if we know that we can reach southafrica within our timeframe...
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We have never seen so many police checks - but they rarely apply to us - thankfully . But the police are nice and friendly.
Always in places where the traffic slows - you will be surrounded by an army of sellers - where you can get near everything - from mobile phones to chargers , potholders , eatables, iron etc. Our favorite is the roasted cashew nut.
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In the evening we got stopped by the military who told us that the road before is "not safe"- without to say why.
Maybe you understand - we wasnt really relaxed and with a bad feeling in the stomach we miss the time for getting a wild bushcamp space before the sun goes down.
There is virtually no place where you could go unnoticed, or from where you can not see other villages or houses.
We follows severall Dirttracks, but here are to many people, we always end at some huts, houses or small villages.
So we drove in the night, with an open eye for a sleeping possibility. I was thinking as a factory site or something similar.
At a police checkpoint in the dark we were asked what we do here and we marked that we are looking for a hotel or a safe place - to spend the night.
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The Police told us, that there is no hotel arround. We ask them if they are there at the checkpoint during the night.
As they say yes, we asked if we could spend the night near them on a branching dirttrack, in approx. 100m.
We showed them that we can sleep in the car, and they nodded. For shure there where some houses in sight distance. But the people seems to think we belong to the police - and dont try to disturb our delicious meal (fish from the can) and another sip of whiskey.
A quiet night is probably not - because the police stops 100m away almost any car who drives there.
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[4x4tripping]

Day 22, Nigeria to Bushcamp Cameroon ca 240 km
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We spent a quiet night, just the heat was pretty extreme. We used the car aircon to cool the car down - to get a chance to fall in sleep in the short timeframe before the car heats up again.
We wake up from a knock on the car, the police checks if we are ok - thats a service!
Now in the starting day and some light the locals come to ask, where we are from, where we are going. They cant belive that we plan to do such an extended trip.. "Cameroon is dangerous"
And they ask, why we dont ask at their house. They have rooms there, they will cook local food and so on... Next time we would do it this way, the people was very friendly and relaxed and we dont think that we would risk anything there. Keep in mind that you explore your camp area at the day - that you are able to talk to the people to get a feeling about safety!!
We dont try to let them know, that we regulary dont try to connect with locals, because we just want to cook our meel, to talk together - to relax and don`t be surrounded by a bunch of people who watch each step.
Over the day we are open for chatting, some smalltalk and so on, but the evening is ours...
We give each Police Guy a pen as a small present (they dont ask for) and head to the cameroon border.
We know that there is a small Nationalpark, there is a Waterfall too - but honestly we know that we will see these Animals soon enough in the southern part, and that there are some very big waterfalls - so we pass the sight seeing part.
We look how to split up our money, change the clothes to the oddest we have, did prepare us for a hard border crossing.
But here the border guys was very friendly, relaxed - and within 30minutes we was in Cameroon.
After a short drive we meet some small mud huts, and the first time where a guy sign us that he is hungry in Cameroon - needs food and water. Thats just a try to cadge, he dont looks as he need food or water...
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Now i was happy to drive one of the most famous offroad parts during our Trans-Africa! The "famous" part is between the border and ends in Mamfe.
The scenery is just amanzing! Here the "Jungle" is worth to wear that name, big trees surrounds the "track" who itself who has dig partly very deep holes. For an Toyota Corolla it may be the challange, but for an well equipped Land Cruiser on 33" tyres it was not that hard that i had hoped...
Unfortunately it was too dry to get more fun out of the track, also when we are in the small rainy season. (if you are query yourself about your tiresize: when you like to get some challenge - stay on 33".. With 35" or bigger tyres you will not find any challenge on the known tracks).
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Yes, with some rain you will have some challenge there, but when you watch the travellers from 2013 are the chinese streetbuilder on - to built the street there...
Somewhere we miss deeply furrowed mud paths the locals use with their corollas, and was able to find some offroad fun there. Yes it was a "nice" piece offroad, but when you like to drive offroad and go there to find a challenge, you will be disapointed.
On a private Roadblock some guys try to optain money for keeping the track in good shape... I try to tell them, that we overlanders like bad roads and that they please should stop maintaining the roads - but i guess they dont really understand what i want....
The first time since Morocco we meet some Overlanders on that track (there is no alternative for these part, therefore when there are overlanders on the way up - you will meet them).
Two Girls on the way up in an Land Rover we just had a short smalltalk. A short time later we meet another english guy with an Land Rover who has an breakdown. His rear axcle he had fixed with his rear winch - crazy stuff... He is on an africa loop and on the last view miles up to the UK and was really pissed of from travelling because he runs from breakdown to breakdown... We talk about the sitations on our and his route, he was happy to hear that nigeria is pretty easy to cross.
As he hear from our disappointment about our offroad challenge he points us to the Road N8 between Bachuo Akabe and Bakebe.. He has there a really hard fight he told us, the worst part of his africa roundtrip.
The N8 means a big road who you find on each map - but this part of the road was never build.
Most Overlanders and the too the locals use the well prepared road from Mamfe to Bachuo Akabe to Etuku..
That guy was really staggered as he hears that i don`t have any deeper mechanical skill than changing a tire or an fuel/air filter - the simple stuff.
After the meetup the day nears to the end and we drove through the track to Bachuo Akabe. On the village we meet tar again, somewhere in the middle of the village we saw a dirttrack in pretty bad shape starts there, the good tar road heads to Etuku. Thats must be the track the english guy has told us from, with a portion of respect we head to the track.
Because my girlfriend feels my big disappointement about the missing offroad challenge - she dont try to ask for heading on the tar road... For shure i will drive that bad track.
The village locals stops us and told us that the road is not possible with our car. I try to tell them that i can lift the car (hydraulic AHC suspension) and have lockers, but i`m not shure if they believe me.
Very nice and friendly guys who just want to help us in the right direction.
After a chat we progress with the track, but we had to rest soon, the day nears his end. We are surrounded by the jungle, the real primeval forest we knows from films, just a wonderful environment to cross. Here is no track who leaves but we found a small spot direct on the track (20m away).
Thats not the privacy we like, but today it has to work for us. We get our chairs&table out and prepare a fire for the night. Severall motorbikes cross the roads and three young guys was curious enough and return shortly as they passed us.
They could speak some english words, but it was barely enough to really have a chat. They just cant believe what they see - it looks like.
After a while they leave and told me that they will come back later.. Was that a threat or just a new friendship? I will have a look that our car is ready for emergency start when we go sleeping - i promised to myself. We usually pack everything before we go sleeping, no table/chair/stuff outside anyway...
We prepare two beautiful steaks (watch the pictures) together with pasta and pesto - delicious!
It was really hot and wet and extreme loud from the insects and animals - who was unfortunately not visible. We often try to guess what animal has currently cried - amazing!
We light a fire and enjoyes the evening with a sundowner. Two thre times a motorbike cross the track, but without to stop.
Tomorrow we will see what is "the hardest track" on an african roundtrip.
My Girlfriends means that i`m a bit too carefull as i ask her to leave the driver seat free for tonight - to be able to do an emergency express start...
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But there are some other stuff who can cause headache - our route was well known and public in our blog - we put each evening the GPS coordinates from our wildcamp to our blog (with our satellite messager)..

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You can progress reading also in our Blog @ http://transafrica2012.blogspot.com - but i will tell the whole story here - and try to translate everything.

 

[jds0912]

Thanks for the great trip report. First one I have read in it's entirety a while! Looking forward to more!

 

[4x4tripping]

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Day 23, Sunday 2 December, Jungle Camp - Beach Camp (Cameroon) ca 260 km
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Today we drove the first 7 hours 150 kilometers harder offroad style. These english guy was right - very very nice offroad stuff and way harder than the famous border crossing till mampfe!
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Again and again demanded long mud passages all of us and the car - several times it was not easy to figure out how to best tackle the passage.
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The AHC Suspension saved us severall times for getting stuck, because the suspension can lift the car also on setting "high" if it detects massiv wheelspin on all tyres. It was the first time that Brummie had really to fight, since our experiences in the sand of mauretania.
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So everything was going extreme lean angles with subscript chassis, low- furrowed track mud mud grooves and holes where you do not know how deep they were - and where to see no more lanes were . Sometimes the whole still steep downhill or uphill - so beautiful crisp.
If Brummie side leaning on the mud channel - was also my adrenaline level as where he belongs.
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But at the end we manage it through these lovely area without the use of the Maxtax, Winch or ground anchor. Remember this was optional, there is a better track available from Mampfe, so you dont have to use this track. But you can.
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The locals are really nice and helpful! In Mamfe they had try to stop us from taking this route: "not possible , not with this car " ...
It was possible - but also several times very close.
I think with smaller tyres than 33" you can figh there often with your winch, if you like to do that..
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Cameroon is THE off-road paradise and many Dirttracks to nameless villages invite you to explore. From our track we saw severall splitting tracks who looks exrtemely worse - yummi!
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As part of our Trans Africa within 2 months - it was not possible to explore these tracks deeper. They looked also too risky for a single car, specially if you sleep inside of your car. Not funny to sleep inside, when the Mud was inside too. With 2-3 well prepared cars - you find there any challenge you dream about..
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As we reach a better track we reelerd off another 90km additionally. I want to camp by the sea and to swim inside again.
We headed to Limbe - a sweet little town - with a majority rocky coast - and the Cameroonischen oil industry outside the city - including oil rigs.
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When the now ironically sounded - no - it 's beautiful here - even though the oil industry does not quite fit here. The Limbe region is just wonderful! Many smill islands lie to the little town, reminds me a little bit to the islands arround koh pi pi in thailand.
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We drove about 20km to the north along the beach and found a nice restaurant by the sea - where you can let us camp against a small mite.
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To swim into the sea after such a day - very nice! Perfect waves, a nice spot - what does we want more? The sand is black there, a nice contrast to the beach we usually know.
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The Restaurand was just a beach restaurant, as we start cooking the peoples left the beach - and we stayed back there alone. We cook rice and put a delicios steak on the fire - delicious!
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Shortly after the food - it was already dark. Suddenly we noticed - that we got attacked by ants. Normally, this would have gone over our socks and good. But we treated our socks with Nobite - they perished miserably and called for help and gave us their burning juice - we and our socks was full of dying ants.
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So resettle camp - swimming in the sea - and the late Sundowner can come.
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The people in Cameroon are not quite as cordially as in the previously visited countries. It is rare to see a wave at the roadside at sample. Often, people begging on the wayside.
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A few times we were yelled at when we rolled in step speed through the villages. We dont had stopped to ask why, maybe they just want to drive with us in the next village...
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The Police guys on the checkpoints arent that friendly too, but they work correct without trying to take cash from us. Usually they just want to chat a bit. We also drive in a correct way, slowly in the villages. We stop also when there is no stop sign on road crossings, to avoid any bribery szenario we read from.
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Keep your paperwork is in order, ride correctly and be kind, then you can bypass the most trouble who can happen...
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Fuel prices in Camerun are arround 1 USD per liter.
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Here the pictures. Unfortunately Gitte was often not relaxed enough to take pictures - so you can just look these areas of the track here who was not that heavy to drive...
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You can progress reading also in our Blog @ http://transafrica2012.blogspot.com - but i will tell the whole story here - and try to translate everything. But it will need some time for the next update.

 

[wilgauss]

Me and a friend are planning a trip -same as yours - in June 2014 - we did the east coast during 2011 ( see www.elao2011.com )
Do you knwo of any problems with right hand drive vehicles especially in Nigeria - we hear that RHD vehicles are banned - Our other alternative is to buy a vehicle in Europe and then drive back to SA - do you know of a good place to buy a vehicle like yours - new or second hand.
You can also email me under willy001@telkomsa.net

best regards - Willy

 

[4x4tripping]

Day 24 Monday 3 December , Beach Camp - family connection, Jaounde , Cameroon ca 360 km

How cool is that? We have allready passed the first milestone - to reach the beach from cameroon, in the raini season
Here i had guessed that we probably get stuck in the mud for some days, for reaching the beach. We realized that in the morning, as we wake up.
I got out and jumped into the sea on this wonderful black beach. Looking back from the water shows an amazing szenery, with the highest mountain from Cameroon in Front. I enjoyed it for a while to look back from the sea towards the beach and country. It was a bit overcast and foggy - but so beautiful!
We meet an guy from the tourism office who try to sell us a walk into the mointains. He laughed out loud as he hears that we want to cross the congos.. Too dangerous.. Funny that people of each country told us, that the next country is worse. That had started in Mauretania..
We don`t want to walk, we are on to enter the next stage of thrill - to cross to congo on an less known boarder in the jungle. We also didnt know if we can enter there in an legal way. And i hope too to find there some additional offroad adventure.

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We drove relaxed through the green jungle to Yaounde. Cameroon , we have now both closed in our hearts - because it is beautifully - and the people are relaxed. Although the people starts to beg from time to time, the people arent that warmly welcoming than in the countrys before, it is nice here!
Today we was also a bit on the Cameroon mainconnection roads, the N3 - what means we had too some police checkpoints who we wasnt able to drive through as we usually try it on the small backroads. One check was pretty deeply, they checked triangle, Carnet and fire extinguisher - the other times we was able to look stupid and to sign them that we dont understand.
While people have always spoke English - so this has turned behind Limbe - all of us speak French. We even bought a pineapple and beat pretty early on for a good bush camp.
We knew that we were noticed when exiting the road, but we left ourselves to the aloofness of the people. After dinner , with veal steak and mashed potatoes - there was a ripe pineapple - what a life.
During we wash the dishes two men came out from behind the car - and unfortunately could only speak French. Apparently they found our wild camping not so great.
To bad - we was glad to camp early and had want to have an relaxing evening.
We packed our gear, because we had to leave anyway, and we discuss if we want to trust these two guys. We trust them, and they show us a parking spot where we are hidden behind their house. They care about our security!
Now they offer us to come into their house. Now we had a familly connection. 7 People live in this large inconspicuous house with two floors and a neighbouring cottage. They had a large living room we would also like to have at home. A large leather couch, a wall clock, a large dining room table, over all a bit more space and like we would like to have at home in switzerland. Electricity is granted only from each 19h in the evening - but otherwise have everything you need here.
Honestly - just the living room. As we asked for toilet they had no answer, we had to go outside. In the meantime it was dark outside, not an good idea to find a spot for toilett - we was glad we had our foldable camping toilet with popup tent and dont have to ******** in their garden somewhere.
So we sit in their livingroom with candle light - but no more sign of hospitality. So i went out and came back with three cold beers which we shared. The two men, Joseph and Desire were brothers and live there together. One women spoke English since she came from the english speaking nothern part of cameroon, Bamenda and so we had also a little small talk.
Thus, a large living room , we would also like home ... Sofa, showcase , wall clock - so we would not have imagined it. Electricity is granted only from each 19h in the evening - but otherwise they have everything you need here. The water they got outside, they have not an bathroom like we at home - it is like on of these caribean or houses from cube who are just not really finished.
The two men , Joseph and Desire , were brothers and lived together here. Joseph is a mechanic, while Desire is a taxi driver (we guess with a bike taxi). We learned that we have passed an national park, about 5km before - and that we have to go tomorrow . Since Google / Bing satellite maps do not know the park - we expect times relaxed with a zoo ;-)
It looks that we had a bit too much fun with the english speaking women, they had to leave soon - and the discussion ends because auf the language barriers.. As the electricity and light comes at 19h, the television starts and we was alone with some children - the adult ones seems to leave for television.
The woman of the house apparently had no desire to take care of us. We would have been happy if they just would leave us where we was, that to lead us into their house without anything. But clearly our fault when we cant talk the french language, i guess the evening had end in another way - by sharing storys and chatting.

So we went to bed early. The host wants that we park in another way - but we prefere a straight peice of meadow. After a short discussion we could stay where we are. Tomorrow we will reach again the remote areas of Cameroon - happily with an wildcamp spot where we could stay witout hassle.


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[sumnrfam]

4x4tripping,,,

Brilliant fun write up, thank you!

Question regarding the aluminum structure shown you built up for housing the fridge freezer and water filter arrangement, who makes the aluminum channel parts?

Thank you for any information, :safari-rig:

Regards,

Wade

SUMNRFAM

 

[4x4tripping]

Hi SUMNRFAM

Thank you for your feedback

I will look tonight what company made these drawers! There is a brand sign somewhere, it starts with A - when i remember right :wavey:

4x4tripping

 

[4x4tripping]

Sorry for that delay!
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Day 25 Cameroon (Beach to Jungle Camp 350km)
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In the morning we filled our watertanks, glad to had a water filtration / purification device.
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Not because the water was bad, it had just a decent amount of dirt inside.
Then we try to find that nationalpark our hosts has mentioned. But we didnt find the entry point, nor a sign for it.
So we head in direction of congo. Till Youande we had a kind of an good country road, where we could push it a bit, the V8 let us flight, with many overhaul operations. Here we saw again many accidents mostly caused by big trucks, some of them was pretty fresh.
The landscape is incredible. Slowly the bush goes into the green jungle and into the rain forest. The road and the places were getting smaller, and we refil our diesel tanks, and bought little bread, bevore we leave the populated area of cameroon.
We went over many rivers and bridges, until the road stopped, and just a nasty gravel track lead into the deeper forest. The track was really the worst washboard (corrugated) i had ever driven. I set the suspension to comfort, lower the airpressure and try to run faster than 100km/h, but that rattle dont reach an comfortable level, too it was dangerous because deeper holes that required a screeching halt.
Mostly the AHC Suspension let us drive quickly over such stuff, but this time it was too extreme and i drove 10-15km/h over an hour to avoid serious damage on our car.
We hadnt found any recent experiences, had no idea if we even can cross there to congo - if we get our paperwork done there. I hope we dont have to return the same way...
But soon the the rattle/shake track gets better, and a fast brick clay track leads through the amazing rain forest.
There was no traffic and not often we saw some people and 1-2 huts. The people here was very small, a kind of Pygmy peoples,very short and we never saw one person without a machete in the right hand.
They dont pay more attention to us, they donst seem to see tourists often(no beging anymore). They seem to look for small fields of banana and other stuff who mostly was behind the first row of trees of the track.
After a while we reach a small village of maybe 10 huts with an open selfmade looking barrier who was open. As the people detect us they start scraming and start to run to our car, while we was slowly rolling. I decide that i dont want to know what they want, because they are a bit to loud/fast.
Maybe the want to drive with us, to let us transport something, or also do get some roadtax?! After more shy looking peoples on the road side, this amount of running guys - to much for us. So the V8 brought us quickly away.
Now quick passages was mixed with really bad stuff, deep holes and some funny mid. It takes a lot of concentration to drive here without ruining the vehicle - unless you sneak extremst.
Later in the afternoon we reached after we have long seen only " mini " village " a real village with gas station - the last in Cameroon, according to a gas station attendant .
Now we would usually start to look for an wildcamp spot.. But here is jungle just jungle.. When there is gap, then there is too a hut. So we stop on such a hut and tried to ask - but no one was there. We start again and after some kilometers we stop to camp directly on the track, on a short piece who was wide enough to let other vehicles pass.
As usual i did a short walk to inspect the camp are, to avoid some surprising events. There i detect an near overgrown entry to a unvegetated spot. We had to take an steep hill, to get there, our car is made for stuff like that. We look that no trace point others to our camp, if someone pass us by daylight.
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Bingo - we are such lucky poeple! On tall grass at sample, we would never relax because of snakes and stuff - here we got really a perfect spot.
We cooked a Steak with pasta and pesto rosso - yummi!
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As i did check Brummie (we name our car this way) I found that 4 of the 6 screws of the roof rack had been resolved between 1 and 2 cm . Ouch! Even as we take out the camping chairs, a screw drops down. Damn bad tracks!
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Then we heard some people talking very close, there was now severall walking peoples on the track in the evening. We never wash that quiet till today and we too use just very small lights. We didnt want to get detected.
If we got detected it is probably better to move directly in a village and ask for a permission to stay there, as to hide in the wood and make the locals worry about.
Here in the jungle (rain forest) it is pitch dark at night - the smallest light acts like a spotlight - and we use the smallest light sources we had ( most of it covered by our fingers).
Only some fireflies (glowworm) was visible from time to time. Usally we are pretty relaxed at our camp, tonight in these darkness and trying to be quit as possible - not really - specially because we recognize that we can hear people talking constantly - a village is nearby.
So we didnt light a camp fire and talk just quietly. After a while a gospel choir was to hear pretty near, a nice experience to sit and hear that!
Now we will go sleeping and we hope that we have remained undetected...

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You can progress reading also in our Blog @ http://transafrica2012.blogspot.com - but i will tell the whole story here - and try to translate everything. But it will need some time for the next update.

 

[4x4tripping]

Brilliant fun write up, thank you!

Question regarding the aluminum structure shown you built up for housing the fridge freezer and water filter arrangement, who makes the aluminum channel parts?

Thank you for any information, :safari-rig:

Hi Wade
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Sorry for the delayed response!
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The Aluminium Channels looks like "ITEM Aluprofile Bauserie 5"
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http://www.item24.ch/schweiz/produk...en/verbindungstechnik/universalverbinder.html
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The Drawers itself are from the brand "Aluca"
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http://www.aluca.de/de/produkte/system-aluca/modulbeispiele.html
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4x4tripping

 

[proven]

Dang that last picture is crazy. Love your 200 and all your posts.

 

[PetitFrereArmada]

Wow!!! This is awesome. Love your trip report and pics.