African Self-Drive Adventure

African Self-Drive Adventure

For our next adventure, we are planning an African self-drive adventure tour of four countries in Southern Africa. If you are thinking of making such a trip, here is all the information you need to plan it. Or follow along with us.

Previous Adventures

We drove all around the coast of Australia, covering 27,000 kilometres in seven months, camping all the way. You can read about it here.

We drove from Mexico to Tuktoyuktuk on the Arctic Coast. Read about the last leg of the journey in Arctic Canada, which involved 700 kilometres of isolated gravel roads and lots of bears. Click here.

We travelled all over Mexico. Mexico is a great place. Lots of info here.

There were also trips from Germany to Lapland and throughout the Middle East, from Lebanon to Cairo.

Getting Ready

New Passport

New passport. Check. My passport was almost expired. You don’t need a new one if it has more than six months remaining after your departure date.

GoPro

Learning to use the GoPro. In Progress. There is a lot to learn about these amazing little cameras. I got the GoPro 11. I found out that versions 11 and 13 have built-in GPS, but version 12 does not. Version 13 is the latest model, but version 11 is much cheaper and will be more than sufficient for our needs.

GoPro memory card. The GoPro takes the tiny Micro SD memory cards. Memory cards have two qualities: capacity and speed. Everyone knows the capacity measured in gigabytes. However, the cards also have a speed at which they can receive data. It is a small number starting with the letter “v”. For example, it might say v10 or v30. The v10 disk is too slow for recording videos. The camera will record faster than the disk can save the data. Ensure you get a disk with a speed of v30 and lots of gigabytes.

Vehicle

Rental vehicle booked. We booked a Toyota four-door with the following included.

1. Air conditioning (a must. Make sure you get a veh with air)
2. Radio and CD player
3. USB connection (charge batteries while you drive)
4. Alarm and central locking
5. Two spare tires (flats are common. Make sure you know how to change the tires)
6. An air compressor.

Mythathedhut Travel Tip. Purchase a tire plug kit before you go. They are not included with the vehicle. If you get a flat, you might be able to plug it. If you have a compressor, you can pump the tire up again, and it should be good enough to get you to the next town.

8. Jumper cables

9. Second vehicle battery.

10, Tow Rope. (Hopefully, you will not need many of these things, but you should have them just in case.

11. Axe

12. First Aid Kit (very important)

I don’t know what “central locking” is, but I will find out when I arrive. Not sure why an axe is included.

Mythathedhut Travel Tip Make sure your rental vehicle has full insurance plus window and tire insurance, which is separate. Also, make sure that taxes are included in the price and that you have unlimited kilometres.

Accommodations

Accommodations booked. We are not going on an organised tour with a guide, but we had a tour company make all our accommodations and vehicle bookings for us. This is much better than dealing with each company separately by yourself and is much cheaper. Of course, the tour company will make a profit on this, but they make hundreds of bookings and can get a much more affordable rate.

You can choose between hotels, lodges, or camping. Rental vehicles with camping equipment, including a roof-top tent for protection from animals during the night, are available.

I will put links to the tour company and all accommodations at the end.

Organised Tour vs Self-Drive

Should you go on an organised tour or a self-drive? They both have advantages and disadvantages.

On an organised tour, you have nothing to worry about. Just show up, and everything else is taken care of. You will have a choice of several routes, but you cannot just go whenever you want and stay where you want. You will be in a vehicle with several other people on a package deal. With a self-drive, you have your own vehicle and can stop wherever you wish. This is great if you want to stop to photograph a bird or another animal. The organised tour vehicle will not stop whenever you ask. With a self-driving tour, you can plan your route and go wherever you want. and stay at each location for as long as you want.

Because you will not have a guide, self-driving is much cheaper. The cost of a guide is the major expense on an organised tour. I arranged a 23-day trip for $5000 (Canadian dollars) for two people. I see organised tours charging more than $10,000 (U.S.) each for a one-week trip. Self-driving is much cheaper.

With a self-driving tour, you have to be adventurous and self-reliant. I think it is much better, but you will be on your own if you have problems or get lost.

Stay Tuned

I have much more information and tips to share, and all about our trip once we get there. I am just getting started. Bookmark this page and check back weekly. Videos will begin in September.