Overland Cape Town to Cairo in our Land Rover Defender, Tin Can

The final planning and preparations are all but complete for Stan and Marianne Rogers – two confirmed wanderers and backpackers who never grew up! After wandering through Cambodia and Laos in recent years and having just a few months ago completed walking 1000 km through Spain on the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, something more adventurous had to be done. An overlanding trip from Cape Town to Cairo was what this adventurous couple needed! As 4×4 touring through their homeland Australia had been done many times across most of the Outback, mountains and forests over the years, Africa beckoned! It had been on the agenda in a vague sort of way for some years.

After discover all there is to Australia, Africa beckoned! Photo: Stephen McClung Although both of them have been born and bred in the *Ou Transvaal (as it was called) so long ago it seemed like the *Great Trek had only just ended, Africa never really gets out of the blood. After all, kangaroos and koalas really don’t seem to cut it when compared against lions, buffalo and the odd angry elephant.

The plan

So time to do some serious planning, load up Land Rover Defender “Tin Can” and somehow get it to Africa. Next Monday 12^th December “Tin Can” gets locked in a dark shipping container with her roof top tent and other gear and prepares for six weeks of seasickness on her way from Melbourne to Cape Town. (Fortunately Stan and Marianne take the easy option of flying to meet her early February). Always assuming the anxious wait to see whether the same container safely hits Cape Town wharf is rewarded, then it’s off northwards! The plan is a bit of zig zagging through South Africa itself up the Garden Route, Transkei (checking out Coffee Bay where Stan and Marianne spent a honeymoon on the way), Lesotho and on to Gauteng to visit a sister briefly. Then we head westwards to the more serious stuff in Namibia, the Kalahari and on to Botswana where the Okavango comes with such great recommendations. The Garden Route, South Africa.                              Photo: tagdance Gentle cruising through Zimbabwe (gotta see those falls again!) followed by some possible nostalgia in the Chimanimani mountains where Stan did an Outward Bound course when it was still called Rhodesia will probably be the prelude to a detour into Mozambique for some R&R. Seeing the sea again at Ilha de Mozambique will probably be looked forward to after weeks of Namibian and Botswana dust.

The other side of Africa

Then Malawi, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda and (provided no mountain gorilla has got nasty on the way), a bit of a break in Kenya at Jungle Junction in Nairobi will probably be called for. No doubt Tin Can will be eager for a service by then also. Then the point arrives where Marianne becomes dead quiet. Northern Kenya past all those shiftas (bandits), keeping well away from Somalia as we are too poor to pay any ransoms and into Ethiopia. This should be a breeze, but then Sudan (and because the Australian and British governments put a “do not travel” notice on Sudan, bless them -travel insurance etc is null and void in Sudan), just to add to the risks in case one is getting blasé’. The place will have to be negotiated with great care and caution. Sudan is beautiful, but will Stan and Marianne face complications due to their origin? Photo: Connect4Climate The Egyptians, of course, are also being a little hyper-active at the moment – and the original plan of driving through Syria is now definitely off the agenda- which means the final route into Europe is a little uncertain, but will probably involve Jordan, Israel and Greece. By now it will probably be late in the year and unpleasantly cold in Europe after all that beautiful African sunshine and sunsets, but Tin Can has to get to the place and country of her birth at Solihull England. So a quick drag across Europe and then the plan is to leave Tin Can in England for a few months while we have a break back home in Australia to plan the next thing and return to meet her in the Spring. Provided everything goes to plan. Who knows what’s next! We will keep you posted along the way. Marianne Rogers Stan Rogers

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