“Preparation is everything.”
Taking a break and some time off to explore foreign places in the world has been on both our minds for quite some time. To drive all the way from Zurich (Switzerland) to Cape Town (South Africa) in a Land Rover Defender 110 has been Tom’s dream since his last trip to Africa. To do it together as a couple has never been on either of our minds… Love hit us, our dreams inspired us, and we started planning this journey together. What sounded like a great, spontaneous, romantic adventure required a lot of preparation, solid nerves, and some investments before we could hit the road.
Our Land Rover Defender 110 TD5
We have visited Anna and her team from 4x4 Manufaktur a bunch of times - if you own a Defender as well, you will also know how keeping it in shape is a never-ending story =). On the other hand, we do hope that choosing a Defender for our home on wheels will reward us if we need some reparation work in Africa - let’s hope we are right about this.
Anna helped us prepare the Defender and pack the essential spare parts we won’t find that easily on our trip. She checked every single screw before we took off (and plenty needed to be tightened or replaced - she even found some missing ones).
Our Driving Skills
When Tom bought the Defender back in 2019, he also attended a short 4-wheel-drive-course and gained some off-road experience afterward on his various trips around Switzerland and Corsica (France). Liv has never driven anything off-road before, and her last camping experience dates back to many younger years. She, therefore, wanted to pre-test the “Defender-lifestyle” and move on dirt roads before going all-in on this adventure. That’s why we decided to go on an Offroad-Driving-Tour with some well-experienced “Offroaders.” David from the Abenteuerfabrik led the tour through Liguria (Italy), and trust us; we received the offroad experience we were looking for =) David helped us maneuver the most challenging dirt roads without bumping into rocks and trees - we were impressed ourselves where the Defender was able to bring us. And every night, we were rewarded with fantastic sleeping spots and beautiful views to wake up to.
Essentials
Last but not least, it was not only about getting ourselves and the Defender ready for this trip but also a lot of paperwork and things to organize and think of before we could hit the road. Passports, vaccinations, visas, a carnet de passage (I didn’t even know something like this existed), insurances for ourselves and the car (good luck finding car insurance that also covers Africa), subletting our apartments (and getting rid of everything we didn’t need anymore or storing stuff away we won’t need during the trip), quitting our jobs, packing not bags but drawers and uncountable visits to camper stores to buy things we were missing - our last weeks at home were super busy and often a bit overwhelming.
See you again
To top it up, we also had to say goodbye to the best friends and families in the world, which made the last days emotional and not always easy; nevertheless, we were committed to jumping on this adventure together. And we did!
