We’re not quite sure where the dream (OK… obsession) started – it may have been on a cramped chicken bus while the reggaeton drowned out our thoughts, or the umpteenth time we picked up our backpacks, or maybe the second straight day we arrived at 6:00 am on a night bus forced to wait for a 2:00 pm check-in time at our hostel, but somewhere along the way an idea was born. Overlanding. The idea of owning our own vehicle and driving it around a country/continent for an extended period of time had started to sound more and more appealing. As Coons dove further into his research for the African portion of our journey, we realized this was the ideal way to travel Africa. With larger distances than Central America and lacking the tourist infrastructure that supported gringo travel in South America, Africa, it appeared, was designed for overlanding. We also checked out rentals, but renting a kitted out vehicle costs $100-$200 per day. We would be out of money in no time at that point.
Research began in earnest, which quickly led us to some amazing overlander Facebook groups. People were buying and selling cars kitted out for long-term travel in countries up and down South America as well as Southern Africa. After a few failed attempts to purchase a vehicle in South America with the intent of shipping it over, we turned our focus to Africa. Coons posed a question on FB about purchasing a car in Botswana which led us to meet Ashley, who runs a tour agency in Botswana but also kits out vehicles and rents them to travelers for overlanding. Ashley offered to help us purchase a car and kit it out, which would help his mechanics get some work during the off-season, as well as possibly add to his fleet once we left Africa. We were intrigued, and once he found a 2004 Toyota Surf (automatic!), we were in. We sent a deposit and Ashley purchased the car and put together a list of items he would add to it. We were golden! Or so we thought…
With the car all set, we planned a tight timeline for the beginning of our time in Africa. Land June 11th in Johannesburg, get Coons’ hair/beard and suit rental done and take a bus to Gaborone, Botswana on the 13th to get the Toyota. We would then leave for Victoria Falls on the 17th, get married on the 20th, spend a few days in a national park, then drive allll the way down to Cape Town to meet Kristian on the 29th. Well, as so often happens while traveling, things did not go quite to plan.
Ashley had been helping a friend in Mozambique get back on their feet after the cyclone damage and wasn’t able to get to our car for a while. Once his mechanics had gone through everything, they noticed an engine knock that they weren’t able to fix. They finally threw in the towel on June 7th. That’s right, four days before we were set to land (and while we were dealing with our own travel issues in Bolivia). Crap! Ashley assured us it would be alright and that his partner Mike would meet us in Joburg and help us get sorted.
Coons started frantically looking online for vehicles but was striking out everywhere with our tight timeframe. We had to leave Joburg by the 16th to make it to the wedding in Victoria Falls. Mike and his partner Alison met us at our hostel on the 12th and told us about a 1995 Mitsubishi Pajero they liked. After spending a couple of days looking at vehicles, this was the only reliable option they had found. While it was 24 years old, it had a reconditioned engine and gearbox and ran really well. While we had our heart set on a Toyota, we agreed to check it out – what choice did we have? Oh, and it was also a manual. Guess we’re going to be pros by the time we leave.
We took the Mitsubishi for a test drive on the 13th. Everything ran well, it had an optional 4 wheel drive with a differential lock, a bulbar, and a winch. Sweet! We dropped it off with a mechanic to look over while we went off to 4×4 Megaworld to price out our gear. Since we were heading right out to camp in a national park after the wedding, we needed the car to be mostly ready to go. With some luck, they were able to source the rooftop tent, awning, roof rack, fridge, and dual battery for us. If we gave it to them the 14th, it would be ready by noon on the 15th. Wow.
Back to the dealership we went. The car checked out alright, minus some worn down shocks, so all systems were a go. We had brought USD cash because that was our agreement with Ashley. Unfortunately, the seller wanted South African Rand (imagine wanting to be paid in your own currency — the nerve!). We needed to convert $5,200 USD into Rand for the car and registration. We headed to the mall (where else would we go in Africa) to a bank, thinking this would be quick and painless. Ha! Two banks, three separate transactions, and an hour and a half later we walked out of the mall with a giant bag of money – about 78,000 Rand.
Another hurdle we faced was registering the car in our name as foreigners. This is a notoriously difficult problem in South Africa (and one of the main reasons we planned to purchase in Botswana) as you are not supposed to be able to get a Traffic Registration Number (TRN) as a foreigner on a 90-day visa. I had heard about a company in northern Joburg that supposedly helped foreigners with this, but it was a two-week process. Not ideal for our timeline. One thing we’ve learned on our travels is that while nothing works out as you planned, there’s always another way. A lady at the dealership offered to get us a TRN in a day for $100. While this sounded too good to be true, we didn’t really have a choice – we needed the car and needed it in our name to cross borders.
After our money had been counted and paperwork exchanged for our registration, they handed us the keys. The vehicle was ours that day. We went out for a celebratory meal to let traffic die down and headed home, exhausted.
The next day we were up early to bring the car into 4×4 Megaworld for our gear. Mike & Alison (the absolute heroes of this story) met us that afternoon for lunch and a big shopping trip to help us get the rest of the gear we would need. On Saturday the 15th we picked up the car at Megaworld and headed to the dealership. While the registration wasn’t quite ready, the TRN was all set (hallelujah!) and we had enough documentation to get into Zimbabwe. We thanked everyone profusely for the help and took off in our brand new 1995 Pajero. It didn’t feel right to use the name we had in mind for the Toyota (Vic), so we decided on PJ. Our home for the next 6 months.
