Transafrica with a Land Cruiser 200 (Diesel)
- Thread starter 4x4tripping
- Start date
4x4tripping
Adventurer
Most of the stuff is listened at my blog - but not everything.
Please remember that i let two companies work on my car, so i also dont have a complete list and an idea where they did optain that stuff. Like at sample where they optain this hot cold switch for the shower.
All technical gear was selected by myself - i will try to add a list to my blog soon.
But all technical drawings are online, please ask if i had to remeasure some values!
4x4tripping
4x4tripping
Adventurer
-
-
Day 26, Jungle Camp (Cameroon) to Jungle Camp (Congo), 315km
-
Like as usual, we wake up pretty early and used the cooker to heat up some water for tea. The breakfast we will do later, when the sunrise has bring the sun. Then the amount of mosquitoes in the air is much less then, and with some luck we are hungry till then.
The adrenaline rises once as we start the engines, somehow we had to return to our dirt track again, had to climb over the clay hills. For shure we look where the village is we could hear near at night, but is was not visible. Means that no road lead to the village, looks like they had no car, no slot for parking, no mobility.
Since yesterday afternoon, we are in deep jungle / rainforest. Since yesterday afternoon we see only woods, no distant view, no view, just a braid of trees and shrubs - and our jungle track. Rarely is there an offshoot, even more rarely, a few huts on the roadside. There are also no shops or shopping - apparently not even expect the locals with traffic or sales.
But from time to time we meet some guys walking on the track, always with their machete as glued in the right hand.
After probably 2 hours driving, we stopped for breakfast. What for a noisy environment-the jungs is pretty loud. We saw some monkeys, some birds, note more. But the noise let us know - that there are many animals out there.
The track itself had everything. From passages with deep mud, extended ruts, really bad washboard, to parts like a flat jungle highway.
Did you too ask yourself sometimes, how this washboard originate? I found this scientific explanation…
Sometimes the washboard was that worse that we had to creep or to drive above 100 km/h. The problem with the high speed was that there are near invisible jumps in the road, so we severall times took of with all 4 wheels with our near 4ton Land Cruiser.
Because of this we also drive many kilometers with 20-30km/h, a speed where the AHC Suspension (hydraulic) was able to take out the washboard and we don`t risk our car or live.
We was not shure if we could pass the border if we was there, if they could handle us overlanders, was able to stamp our Carnet de Passages, would accept our worldwide car insurance, would let pass us through.
That we probably had to drive back, sound not good to us. Really a green hell. Did we mention that we just see trees?
We saw one of these rare tracks who crossed our track, but we stay on the better "highway". We didnt see a single car or truck the whole morning. After a while i slowed down quickly, trying to guess what was in front of us.
The jungle was cleared further here, an approximately 800m wide spot, around the track. In 100m distance was a tiny house, more like a bus waiting station, and a closed barrier. Two armed guys hanging arround there, a big sign shows something - to far away to read.
Definitively not a border crossing like we know them. But it looks to official and special, to be a trap.
So I drive to the barrer and stop. Now I could read too the sign, a mining company. One of the guards could speak english, what he shows us dosnt make us happy.
We had to return to the last junction, use one of these much smaller tracks. Maybe 20km back with some not so nice parts of the track.
Our offline satellite view of Bing and Google Hybrid and tracks4africa shows us, that this normally should be the way. Now is there a mining company...
Looks like they build the GPS Sources from the satellite view, instead of really track the road? The small road was not visible in the 14/15 Zoomlevel we had.
Anyway, we drove back, turned to the small road. The track was small but flat. Better than new highways in europe, a pleasure to drive! After a short drive we arrived in a small village with probably 12 huts but too 2 small houses.
There was several crossroads, we try two of them, who had a dead and. We ask at one of the houses to the direction of congo. They show us the direction, but not as exact as necessary. We tried two other roads but wasn’t successful. So we returned to the house, and ask them again. I guess they thought “stupid white guy”.
One of the men jump onto the bike and choose a small quite bad track and after 200m a bit outside of the village we stopped at a house. Obviously the border. If we had found this junction by ourself, we would have passed them, because we could see on the navigation, that the real border is miles away from here.
The exit of cameroon was easy. They dont seems to see many tourists like us. A guy without uniform was in the hat and came outside to look at our car. "Where is your weapon" he asked, like it is an usual equipment for border crossing. After a short friendly chat we got our carnet stamped (without any hassle), and could drive further in direction of congo.
30km dirt track through an nice scenery lead us to something like an village. More a comercial fabric than really a village, but we was just at the border, not in the town itself. Guess what we saw, in the middle of nowhere? A blue Land Cruiser 200 was parked near the border! The first car in Congo....
Some shacks was on the roadside, where the different steps was - we had to finish: Police, Gendarmere, Immigration und Vaccination. Like expected, each one want`s 20`000 CFA for doing his job. No one could speak English well.
The lady who seems to check our vaccination card try to walk away with them. I catch the card out of their hand, and shows her that we come later to her. I didnt want to buy these vaccination card back at the end.
Not an easy job there! We had to argue with any station, with a mixture of "understand nothing", "what", and "please write us a receipt", "your embassy told us it is free" to "we have no money" and once even I put the Visa card on the table - to pay with that (with knowing they cant handle that).
They was not happy about us. The gendarmery guy was angry about, and starts to check our car.
Damn, why we didn`t got a break bevore this border? I was hungry and dont feel really prepared for that amount of stress.
I open the back of the car, shows the drawers shortly, because they start to touch around. The second guy point to my cb radio antenna, damn - I dont had removed it before the border. The only point where they could catch me - everything else is perfect, from insurance, to papers, to visas, vaccinations to stuff we carry with us.
Ok one weak point is too my 2nd passport, a swiss person is just allowed to carry one of them at the same time.
Hint: try to keep everything completely legal, and you will don`t have any problems.
Glad that the leader guy ignors the other one, he detects stuff below our mattress, between the drawers and matress. There we transport our foldable Travel Toilet and our tirestep.
After that he shows us that we should leave, seems to be a bit pissed off.
This border wasnt not near that hard like that one of Benin/Nigeria at Lagos, but also not too easy - for a small border in the middle of nowhere.
For these travellers who try to optain an insurance at the border - at this border crossing you cannot get an insurance!
We were totally wet, high humidity and heat together comes at a price.
So we were glad to jump into our car, and let the aircon doing her job. A small village starts directly behind the border. Compared to the cameroon Villages near the border- here in congo there was really cute small chalets.
We had to find the women from the vaccine service, who wan`t to write our values into a big book we guess. We didnt see her - so we drive through. Also at these village - no visible shop or fuel station, i guess they will have some barels if you ask there.
With our 270l Diesel we dont care about fuel, was able to pick us these better fuel stations in the bigger cities. Also there: every single liter fuel we bought, we fill through our mr funnel fuel filtre! It is better to have some work while refilling, that to get stranded with bad fuel in the tanks!
After the village the rain forest starts again. It is that beautiful, but after a while you really miss an extended view, to see more than some meters! A beautiful green hell...
But after a short ride the rainforest got more and more into a jungle, palms, banana and flowers surrounds the track, very nice. Suddenly a violent thunderstorm began pouring rain, lightning and thunder. The dirt track transformed in a short time in a clay piste, what was very very hard to drive.
The tail tried several times to be quicker, and i stopped because i though - something must be wrong with the tires. But everything was ok, these mud was just near like ice. It was hard to drive, but too a lot of fun! Everytime the tail try to overtake, i had to compare that wish with accelerate, what makes us quicker than necessary. Fun! After a short time we detect traces in the mud - there must be a car bevore us! Now we saw where he chute from the street, the marks where they fight back to the track, marks where he hit the sidewall.
With reading this marks we was pretty quick, i saw where he lost control, and was prepared there. I never was drifting more previously, pure fun. Also completely crazy - the much better choice is to wait till the condition gets better!
After an half an hour we saw the blue land cruiser 200, we had seen at the border. He had hit the sidewall and was stuck, and 3-4 guys try to get them out, while pushing them.
They don`t seems to had detect us, so i try to hide us, light off, engine off and watch their progress. After some minutes they was unstuck and drive again - we wait 10 minutes to give them a kind of protrusion. The place they leave was full of toilett papers as they try to clean themself of the mud.
We saw that they got stuck severall times, and after some times we had them again in view distance, to short behind a turn, so we got detected. Again they had hit the left sidewall, they are lucky, because on the right side it goes downhill.
I didnt see a way to help them, we had trouble to stay on the track by ourself, no way to winch them out without much work for anchoring ourself. So we wait till they was out there, again 4 man pushing the car, after a while they was again on the road...
We rest there a while, eating something in the seats, it still rains a lot. In that mud and rain we cant eat our regular breakfast, or cook something.
When I look what damage we two cars did to that dirttrack, creating deep ruts, slip away of big parts of the track - filling the drainage system - I start to fear that they dont let us drive further, if we meet a village, checkpoint or similar. Too if a car got really stuck, the track will be probably not wide enough to pass by, so you are not quicker than these guy bevore you, who had no winch or mud tyres.
Glad that we just see just one car for the whole day... After a short break we drive further, enjoying the mud. Without ESP we probably also had hit the sidewalls, I guess. The thunderstorm seems to pass by, the rain gets weaker and ends finally.
We arrived in a village who was not soo tiny. At something like a bar we saw the parked Land Cruiser 200. The day was near gone - so we drove further - to find a wildcamp spot for the night.
The last 20km there was no possibility to even leave the track. The track was surrounded by jungle. In the middle of the Village (everywhere just clay track) was a step hill, where we are not shure if it is possible to climb up, it was still wet and muddy. I decide to risk it, and was on to put in 4Lo and the difflocks as a white guy with a bicycle slowly try to walk down, together with two helpers.
We feel like it was a long time ago, that we meet a white guy ;-) He`s a young guy from Czech, who did travel through africa by bike. We had a nice chat, he wants to know about if it is possible to drive further by bike - we told them that he better wait till it is not that wet..
Our car was able to climb up - pretty risky if you slide down - hard to get any control in that condition... Above we could see the whole village, a small church and even on one of the houses an Hilux Pickup before with an WWF Sign.
At a small shop we stopped and bought some food. We would like to ask that WWF guy about what he did here, but we need a hidden wildcamp spot soon. We hadnt drive long, a short part behind the village was one of these spots where the locals seems to get the clay for the roadbuilding, where we could hide us behinde some hills.
Unfortunately the Coleman stove (unleaded, two flames) died after heating up water for a soup. As we want to fire up again to rare a steak - he didnt light up. We try to solve the problem, but we wasnt able to repair it.
What a crap device. After 3 weeks of use with a maximum of 2 inserts a day, and using of Coleman Fuel - and daily sooty pans...
We are in the middle of nowhere, how we will cook the next days? Our plan was to go into the Odzala-Kokoua National Park, staying some days into the rainforest, watching animals...
At night we try usually to stay hidden and undetected - therefore we can`t know if we are able to light up a fire... Tonight we was too close to the village, at sample... So we have a cooling box and a fridge - but no cooker... :stir:
We decided to have a look at the shop in the village for something to cook, otherwise we will pass through to Brazzaville. A bit hungry we go sleeping.
____
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
_____________________
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.
Our experiences about equipment, gear and so on, we write at the www.4x4tripping.com Blog, since a short while too in english language.. About stuff like the most important gear for overlanding, most important apps, comparisons of winches and air compressors, travelogues and so on...
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Day 26, Jungle Camp (Cameroon) to Jungle Camp (Congo), 315km
-
Like as usual, we wake up pretty early and used the cooker to heat up some water for tea. The breakfast we will do later, when the sunrise has bring the sun. Then the amount of mosquitoes in the air is much less then, and with some luck we are hungry till then.
The adrenaline rises once as we start the engines, somehow we had to return to our dirt track again, had to climb over the clay hills. For shure we look where the village is we could hear near at night, but is was not visible. Means that no road lead to the village, looks like they had no car, no slot for parking, no mobility.
Since yesterday afternoon, we are in deep jungle / rainforest. Since yesterday afternoon we see only woods, no distant view, no view, just a braid of trees and shrubs - and our jungle track. Rarely is there an offshoot, even more rarely, a few huts on the roadside. There are also no shops or shopping - apparently not even expect the locals with traffic or sales.
But from time to time we meet some guys walking on the track, always with their machete as glued in the right hand.
After probably 2 hours driving, we stopped for breakfast. What for a noisy environment-the jungs is pretty loud. We saw some monkeys, some birds, note more. But the noise let us know - that there are many animals out there.
The track itself had everything. From passages with deep mud, extended ruts, really bad washboard, to parts like a flat jungle highway.
Did you too ask yourself sometimes, how this washboard originate? I found this scientific explanation…
Sometimes the washboard was that worse that we had to creep or to drive above 100 km/h. The problem with the high speed was that there are near invisible jumps in the road, so we severall times took of with all 4 wheels with our near 4ton Land Cruiser.
Because of this we also drive many kilometers with 20-30km/h, a speed where the AHC Suspension (hydraulic) was able to take out the washboard and we don`t risk our car or live.
We was not shure if we could pass the border if we was there, if they could handle us overlanders, was able to stamp our Carnet de Passages, would accept our worldwide car insurance, would let pass us through.
That we probably had to drive back, sound not good to us. Really a green hell. Did we mention that we just see trees?
We saw one of these rare tracks who crossed our track, but we stay on the better "highway". We didnt see a single car or truck the whole morning. After a while i slowed down quickly, trying to guess what was in front of us.
The jungle was cleared further here, an approximately 800m wide spot, around the track. In 100m distance was a tiny house, more like a bus waiting station, and a closed barrier. Two armed guys hanging arround there, a big sign shows something - to far away to read.
Definitively not a border crossing like we know them. But it looks to official and special, to be a trap.
So I drive to the barrer and stop. Now I could read too the sign, a mining company. One of the guards could speak english, what he shows us dosnt make us happy.
We had to return to the last junction, use one of these much smaller tracks. Maybe 20km back with some not so nice parts of the track.
Our offline satellite view of Bing and Google Hybrid and tracks4africa shows us, that this normally should be the way. Now is there a mining company...
Looks like they build the GPS Sources from the satellite view, instead of really track the road? The small road was not visible in the 14/15 Zoomlevel we had.
Anyway, we drove back, turned to the small road. The track was small but flat. Better than new highways in europe, a pleasure to drive! After a short drive we arrived in a small village with probably 12 huts but too 2 small houses.
There was several crossroads, we try two of them, who had a dead and. We ask at one of the houses to the direction of congo. They show us the direction, but not as exact as necessary. We tried two other roads but wasn’t successful. So we returned to the house, and ask them again. I guess they thought “stupid white guy”.
One of the men jump onto the bike and choose a small quite bad track and after 200m a bit outside of the village we stopped at a house. Obviously the border. If we had found this junction by ourself, we would have passed them, because we could see on the navigation, that the real border is miles away from here.
The exit of cameroon was easy. They dont seems to see many tourists like us. A guy without uniform was in the hat and came outside to look at our car. "Where is your weapon" he asked, like it is an usual equipment for border crossing. After a short friendly chat we got our carnet stamped (without any hassle), and could drive further in direction of congo.
30km dirt track through an nice scenery lead us to something like an village. More a comercial fabric than really a village, but we was just at the border, not in the town itself. Guess what we saw, in the middle of nowhere? A blue Land Cruiser 200 was parked near the border! The first car in Congo....
Some shacks was on the roadside, where the different steps was - we had to finish: Police, Gendarmere, Immigration und Vaccination. Like expected, each one want`s 20`000 CFA for doing his job. No one could speak English well.
The lady who seems to check our vaccination card try to walk away with them. I catch the card out of their hand, and shows her that we come later to her. I didnt want to buy these vaccination card back at the end.
Not an easy job there! We had to argue with any station, with a mixture of "understand nothing", "what", and "please write us a receipt", "your embassy told us it is free" to "we have no money" and once even I put the Visa card on the table - to pay with that (with knowing they cant handle that).
They was not happy about us. The gendarmery guy was angry about, and starts to check our car.
Damn, why we didn`t got a break bevore this border? I was hungry and dont feel really prepared for that amount of stress.
I open the back of the car, shows the drawers shortly, because they start to touch around. The second guy point to my cb radio antenna, damn - I dont had removed it before the border. The only point where they could catch me - everything else is perfect, from insurance, to papers, to visas, vaccinations to stuff we carry with us.
Ok one weak point is too my 2nd passport, a swiss person is just allowed to carry one of them at the same time.
Hint: try to keep everything completely legal, and you will don`t have any problems.
Glad that the leader guy ignors the other one, he detects stuff below our mattress, between the drawers and matress. There we transport our foldable Travel Toilet and our tirestep.
After that he shows us that we should leave, seems to be a bit pissed off.
This border wasnt not near that hard like that one of Benin/Nigeria at Lagos, but also not too easy - for a small border in the middle of nowhere.
For these travellers who try to optain an insurance at the border - at this border crossing you cannot get an insurance!
We were totally wet, high humidity and heat together comes at a price.
So we were glad to jump into our car, and let the aircon doing her job. A small village starts directly behind the border. Compared to the cameroon Villages near the border- here in congo there was really cute small chalets.
We had to find the women from the vaccine service, who wan`t to write our values into a big book we guess. We didnt see her - so we drive through. Also at these village - no visible shop or fuel station, i guess they will have some barels if you ask there.
With our 270l Diesel we dont care about fuel, was able to pick us these better fuel stations in the bigger cities. Also there: every single liter fuel we bought, we fill through our mr funnel fuel filtre! It is better to have some work while refilling, that to get stranded with bad fuel in the tanks!
After the village the rain forest starts again. It is that beautiful, but after a while you really miss an extended view, to see more than some meters! A beautiful green hell...
But after a short ride the rainforest got more and more into a jungle, palms, banana and flowers surrounds the track, very nice. Suddenly a violent thunderstorm began pouring rain, lightning and thunder. The dirt track transformed in a short time in a clay piste, what was very very hard to drive.
The tail tried several times to be quicker, and i stopped because i though - something must be wrong with the tires. But everything was ok, these mud was just near like ice. It was hard to drive, but too a lot of fun! Everytime the tail try to overtake, i had to compare that wish with accelerate, what makes us quicker than necessary. Fun! After a short time we detect traces in the mud - there must be a car bevore us! Now we saw where he chute from the street, the marks where they fight back to the track, marks where he hit the sidewall.
With reading this marks we was pretty quick, i saw where he lost control, and was prepared there. I never was drifting more previously, pure fun. Also completely crazy - the much better choice is to wait till the condition gets better!
After an half an hour we saw the blue land cruiser 200, we had seen at the border. He had hit the sidewall and was stuck, and 3-4 guys try to get them out, while pushing them.
They don`t seems to had detect us, so i try to hide us, light off, engine off and watch their progress. After some minutes they was unstuck and drive again - we wait 10 minutes to give them a kind of protrusion. The place they leave was full of toilett papers as they try to clean themself of the mud.
We saw that they got stuck severall times, and after some times we had them again in view distance, to short behind a turn, so we got detected. Again they had hit the left sidewall, they are lucky, because on the right side it goes downhill.
I didnt see a way to help them, we had trouble to stay on the track by ourself, no way to winch them out without much work for anchoring ourself. So we wait till they was out there, again 4 man pushing the car, after a while they was again on the road...
We rest there a while, eating something in the seats, it still rains a lot. In that mud and rain we cant eat our regular breakfast, or cook something.
When I look what damage we two cars did to that dirttrack, creating deep ruts, slip away of big parts of the track - filling the drainage system - I start to fear that they dont let us drive further, if we meet a village, checkpoint or similar. Too if a car got really stuck, the track will be probably not wide enough to pass by, so you are not quicker than these guy bevore you, who had no winch or mud tyres.
Glad that we just see just one car for the whole day... After a short break we drive further, enjoying the mud. Without ESP we probably also had hit the sidewalls, I guess. The thunderstorm seems to pass by, the rain gets weaker and ends finally.
We arrived in a village who was not soo tiny. At something like a bar we saw the parked Land Cruiser 200. The day was near gone - so we drove further - to find a wildcamp spot for the night.
The last 20km there was no possibility to even leave the track. The track was surrounded by jungle. In the middle of the Village (everywhere just clay track) was a step hill, where we are not shure if it is possible to climb up, it was still wet and muddy. I decide to risk it, and was on to put in 4Lo and the difflocks as a white guy with a bicycle slowly try to walk down, together with two helpers.
We feel like it was a long time ago, that we meet a white guy ;-) He`s a young guy from Czech, who did travel through africa by bike. We had a nice chat, he wants to know about if it is possible to drive further by bike - we told them that he better wait till it is not that wet..
Our car was able to climb up - pretty risky if you slide down - hard to get any control in that condition... Above we could see the whole village, a small church and even on one of the houses an Hilux Pickup before with an WWF Sign.
At a small shop we stopped and bought some food. We would like to ask that WWF guy about what he did here, but we need a hidden wildcamp spot soon. We hadnt drive long, a short part behind the village was one of these spots where the locals seems to get the clay for the roadbuilding, where we could hide us behinde some hills.
Unfortunately the Coleman stove (unleaded, two flames) died after heating up water for a soup. As we want to fire up again to rare a steak - he didnt light up. We try to solve the problem, but we wasnt able to repair it.
What a crap device. After 3 weeks of use with a maximum of 2 inserts a day, and using of Coleman Fuel - and daily sooty pans...
We are in the middle of nowhere, how we will cook the next days? Our plan was to go into the Odzala-Kokoua National Park, staying some days into the rainforest, watching animals...
At night we try usually to stay hidden and undetected - therefore we can`t know if we are able to light up a fire... Tonight we was too close to the village, at sample... So we have a cooling box and a fridge - but no cooker... :stir:
We decided to have a look at the shop in the village for something to cook, otherwise we will pass through to Brazzaville. A bit hungry we go sleeping.
____
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
_____________________
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.
Our experiences about equipment, gear and so on, we write at the www.4x4tripping.com Blog, since a short while too in english language.. About stuff like the most important gear for overlanding, most important apps, comparisons of winches and air compressors, travelogues and so on...
texascrane
Adventurer
Great thread. Did you have to do anything to the AHC system to support the additional weight?
4x4tripping
Adventurer
-
We did use the AHC Dampers of the armored Land Cruiser 200, together with the violet springs of toyota. This setup is rated for/can handle 5.1 tons.
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With an emtpy stock car it is a bit harsh (too in comfort mode), but with Winch, Frontbar, additional fueltank and other mods - it is fine.
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At first we just had the violet springs in the front, but with the travel-setup arround 3.8to we had to use these violet springs too in the rear. It was a last minute change bevor our trip.
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@ Frdmskr: i will post soon the next step of the journey
4x4tripping
4x4tripping
Adventurer
There will be a kind of delay, before I am able to translate the Transafrica-Diary to the end, because a new journey is coming:
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-
Here is my "new" Travel-Thread:
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http://www.expeditionportal.com/for...re-Overland-Transafrica-Panamericana-and-next
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And the new Travelblog you will find here:
-
http://adventure-overland.blogspot.com
-
I will finish this translation of my transafrica blog afterwards for shure! Because the story here isn't finished, I had to open a new thread...
-
4x4tripping
-
-
Here is my "new" Travel-Thread:
-
http://www.expeditionportal.com/for...re-Overland-Transafrica-Panamericana-and-next
-
And the new Travelblog you will find here:
-
http://adventure-overland.blogspot.com
-
I will finish this translation of my transafrica blog afterwards for shure! Because the story here isn't finished, I had to open a new thread...
-
4x4tripping
I hope you can finish this thread one day!