Forums.NitroExpress.com

The following reveiw is something I've written for our website; www.dunia.no (but not yet published) and is perhaps a bit off topic for Nitroexpress.com . But, there might be a thing or two that is of interest to you guys, so here goes anyway:

Final quipment review:

All in all, the trip has taken us about 62000 kilometers. It's been a mix of highways in Europe, sandy deserts in northern africa, plus mountains, mud and bush in eastern and southern africa.

The temperature has fluctuated between stifling heat, to freezing nights with ice inside the tent in the morning. It's difficult to be prepaired for everything, but it helps to at least have some of the basics in order. We have found that the more prepaired you, are the less "silly" problems arise, giving you the chance to deal with the "big" problems easily. If things are in order and you know how to use you equipment, then you also have the opportunity to go farther off the beaten track and experiance things that few others can or dare.

We have for the most part been pleased with our choices in equipment and have subsequently had few problems.

THE LAND ROVER:
To begin with the biggest piece of equipment; the Land Rover Defender TD5, we have become increadably attached to it and found it actually quite depressing to lock it up in a container for shipment back to Norway. All along the journey, people have asked us if we wanted to sell it to them. From Morocco to South Africa there have been uncountable potential buyers! Unfortunatly for them, there is no way we could ever sell the car and we look forward to using it on future trips in africa and other places.
Besides changing bushes in the rear a few times, which is normal for all cars in africa, there haven't been any real problems. There is a crack above the windscreen in both corners, but again, this is something we've seen in about all 4x4s down there. The tracks are simply made for donkeys, not automobiles! I do think though that people who drive their 4x4 like they are in the Paris - Dakar rally, necessarily end up with more repairs than those who drive sensibly.Flying across endless sandy deserts is one thing, but its another to speed across sharp rocks the size of grapefruits! No car can handle that no matter who builds them. Generally speaking, the majority of local drivers think that a 4x4 is made to crash through the bush, bouncing like a pogo stick over large boulders. Unsurprisingly, they are in constant need of repair...
The TD5 engine has worked without a single problem, also in deep water. Some people were worried about this because of the electronics, but as we had closed up any holes into the ECU compartment, no water got in, and we were pretty deep a few times! The poor fuel did effect us in a couple of countries, like Ethiopia, with a lot of black smoke pouring out of the exaust pipe. A noticable lack in power also occured and in the steep streets of Addis Abeba, we even had to use low range to start uphill a few times. This wasn't just a TD5 problem though. All cars there are surrounded by a big cloud of smoke. As soon as we got better fuel in the next country, things went back to normal.
We would have like the TD5 to have a bit more horsepower/torque though. With a heavily loaded Defender in the sand, 122 hp and 300 nm isn't quite good enough. Especially in the morning before the engine is warm. In retro spect, I probably would have put in a bigger intercooler, which most hopefully would have done the trick.
The Traction Control/ABS (ETC/ABS) that modern Land Rovers come with is a nice thing most of the time as it eases the strain on the drive components, but I think they should put in a switch, so you can turn it of if you want to. The thing is that ABS can be a problem when driving down a gravely hill with little or no traction. Sometimes the only way to stop is to lock the wheels, which of course ABS prevents... We got around this by simply removing the correct fuse! When we got Uganda, it turned out that the left front ETC/ABS sensor wasn't working and since no Land Rover dealer in africa has had this part, we've just continued without. The ETC is also a good thing for most conditions, but sometimes you might need a bit of wheel spin to move, as we did when "grounded" in western Sudan a few times. With the ARB differential locks on on both front and rear, we had just enough traction to get loose. The "sand" under the chassis was more like cement and impossible to dig away while the sand in the wheeltracks was loose. ETC didn't work with this because it just braked the spinning wheels. On the other hand, ETC would have been greatly appreciated in areas like northern Namibia where slow driving on the rocky tracks meant that it wasn't unusual for a wheel to loose contact with the ground. ETC would then have have stopped the spinning wheel and thus lessened the strain when the tyre hit the ground again.
Our front lefthand shock absorber started leaking a little in Namibia, but not enough for us to bother using our spare. We'll do this when the car is back in Norway.
We took out the regular front seats from the Defender and replaced them with Recaro seats. These gave us better support and I'm sure that our backs will thank us in the years to come!
Our Defender is fitted with airconditioning, something we really learned to appreciate. It took us until the middle of Mali to find out that the minuscule amount of extra fuel you use is worth the advantage of having a dust free car. Well, at least as dust free as you can get a Land Rover Defender. Dust comes in no matter what, but with the windows opened, we had a centimeter thick layer of reddish powder covering everything after some streches. With the windows closed it was kept down to a few millimeters... Keeping the windows up also has benefits in mud, as I got a face full of cow manure mud once when it was open. It wasn't very pleasant! Using the airconditioning doesn't mean that it has to be cold inside. We just kept it on the lowest setting and used the fan speed to keep cool and in areas where dust wasn't a problem, we often drove with the windows open just to smell the special scents of africa!
All this dust also has affects on the engine. A snorkel was of great value and kept the engines air filter cleaner for a lot longer than it would have been without.
As soon as we began driving in east and southern Africa, we were approached quite often by people who were interested in buying our car. A fully rigged Defender with pretty much everything you need on a trip was obviously appealing!
Naturally, the answer was always "Sorry, no!", and we can't see ourselves ever getting rid of it. Hopefully we will have many new travels and adventures with our Defender in the future!

ARB DIFF LOCKS:
As mentioned earlier, we have had good use of our ARB diff locks, fitted by Arctic Trucks. The ARB is controlled with compressed air from a compressor mounted in the engine compartment. We've used this compressor to re-inflate our tyres after sandy streches, from 0.6 Bar to 2.5 or more Bar in extreme heat without a problem. We actually have a big compressor from Grand Erg in Italy that we havn't bothered to take out of its case much, because the ARB has been so handy. No matter what, going off the beaten track is not recommended without a good compressor. Forget filling tyres with a footpump. In 45`+ in the shade, you'll have some serious heat exuastion problems! We met a few travellers with compressors that I would call total junk. Although they maybe only payed 50 Euro for it, it stopped functioning after a few uses in the heat. This made them dependant on others, they couldn't go off to remote areas and missed out on a lot of interesting places.

UNDERSIDE PROTECTION
We put protection plates from Southdown4x4 under both the front axle/diff/steering and under the rear diff. We're very happy that we did. They have a some dents in them and have done their job well, as a cracked diff isn't much fun in the bush.

TYRES
If there is any one piece of equipment that we wouldn't have chosen any differant, then our Michelin XZY 7.50x16 tubeless tyres would get that vote.
Our grand total of puntures have been 3! All the way. The punctures have been from unavoidable things like steel bolts sticking out of the road etc. No other tyre type we've seen along the way have been as sturdy. In Tanzania, I wasn't sure if they would last the distance, since it was hard to know how long we had left to go. Now, thousands of kilometrs later, I'd have no hesitation driving on our used tyres back up east africa to for example Cairo. I'm sure that the tread design has a great deal to say, and that the use of correct tyre pressure makes a big differance. Michelin XZYs are definatly worth putting on for long trips like this, as buying another set of tyres in africa isn't cheap.
We had a set of Tyre-Pliers with us to remove the tyre from the rim if needed, but didn't use them. We fixed the few punctures from the outside with our TECH truck tyre repair set from Vianor in Oslo. We didn't even bother taking the tyre off in Ethiopia to do this, let alone jack up the vehicle!
Just in case though, we had 4 heavy duty Michelin innertubes for the tyres in our tool case.
We had 6 tyres with us and this allowed us to rotate the tyres more evenly spreading out the wear, but in retrospect, I feel that 5 of the XZY's would have been enough.
Quite a lot of people asked us if we wanted to sell our used tyres to them, as the trip was nearing an end. They knew that even though the tyres were worn down, they can still go many thousand kilometers more! Unfortunatly for them, we wanted to keep the XZYs for later use.

SNORKEL
Our air filters have lasted unusually long, keeping the engine healthy, and a snorkel also is helpfull when wading.

WINCH WITH SNATCH BLOCKS, TREE PROTECTORS ETC.
There has been a couple of times when we would have needed the Superwinch Husky for ourselves if it hadn't been for the ARB diff locks. But, we have used it to rescue several others. This has usually happened without much thanks, since the locals expect you to ask for payment. Thus they quickly get into their cars and drive off, leaving you to pack all the gear up. This is because all locals ask for money up front when helping someone else in need and think you'll do the same. Perhaps we should have demanded money just to see what they'd say...
We also had a small hand winch incase of a need for rearward retraction. It hasn't been used, but Murphys Law says that it would have been needed if we didn't have it.

ENGEL FRIDGE/FREEZER
A fridge is a luxery, but it's a practical luxery that lets you keep fresh food for longer and is also practical for keeping beers/soda/water cool! Having a cold drink instead of 40´+ water is something you have to experiance to fully appreciate! The Engel has been on constantly since we started the trip, exept for a short time while we tried to get a new auxillary battery in Tanzania when we turned it of at night. In retrospect I'd put in a "deep cycle" battery, as the auxillary battery instead of a regular one. The Auxillary battery gets discharged/recharged too many times for a regualr one to last. All our power outlets go to the auxillery battery, which is used for the fridge, GPS, lights, winch, etc. This keeps our start battery fresh and problem free.
When we think of the amount of bouncing and jolting the fridge has been through, there's no doubt that the Engel is built to last.

SOLAR PANEL
We have a 55 watt solar panel that has been in use when stopping for more than a day or two. This really helps keep the auxillary battery going longer and is well worth is. In an emergency, we could also use it to recharge the starter battery, even though this would take a few days.

PACKING CASES
Everybody we've met underway has a different system of packing the car. Our system is definatly not the most practical, and we would do a lot differently if starting over. One thing that we like a lot though are the dust proof cases from Zarges. Everyone without them (or something similar) had dust inside of everything. The people with them have dust free cloths, tools etc. Dust is very annoying after several months...
I think though that next time we will try to build a dust proof system that is more integrated with the car instead of having lots of seperate boxes.

FUEL
One thing I wish Land Rover would do is to make the Defenders fuel tank larger as standard, or at least give the option of a long range fuel tank as an extra. Toyotas Land Cruisers can be fitted with around 180 liters from the factory and I see no reason for Solihull not to offer the same.
We had and extra 45 liter tank fitted in the rear righthand wing and in addition had 5 jerrycans of diesel behind the front seats on the floor. This is to keep the weight as low as possible. There is absolutely no deisel odour in the car. As long as the seals are tight and you make sure that you wipe off the can after filling, there's no problem. It is a major hassle though getting the cans in and out from under the stuff thats piled on top... I'd prefer to add a 60 liter tank under each of the front undersides from one of the companys that specialize in Land Rover accessories, giving us a total of 240 liters. We've had to use around 200 liters a few times between re-fuelling and having this amount, or even a bit more, lets you get farther away from the beaten track. Even though a town might have a diesel pump or fuel station, that doesn't meen they actually have fuel! This is something we experianced seveal times in north africa and even in "civilized" areas like southern Mozambique.

WATER
Our 100 liters of water was kept in 5 military water jerrycans. During the trip we discussed the benefit of have a built in 40 liter tank for daily use, but have all in all been happy with the jerrycans. We used a 12 volt filter system to filter the water and generally tried to stick with our own water as much as possible. After being deadly sick from contaminated water in Bangladesh once, I'm sort of paranoid about clean drinking water!
We filled all the jerrycans with filtered water at the same time and thus could get a drink out of any can we wanted to. For daily us, we had a metal SIGG 1 liter bottle plus a 1.5 liter plastic bottle each. In the hottest areas we had to refill the bottles during the day, but since the water was already filtered, it only took a couple of minutes.

TOOLS
A variety of tools for servicing the car and fixing things is essential. There is always something that needs to be tightend after a bumpy strech, and checking over nuts and bolts becomes a rutine. After all, you'd feel pretty stupid if your roofrack suddenly flew off the car when you hit the brakes or drive over a bump!
We also had an amazing tool set called SOS Rescue Tool that is used by many police and fire departments. This has everything you might need from an axe, shovel, hammer, crowbar etc. and is stored in a small handy case.
To remove the tyres, we of course have to jack up the car. We have a Hi-Lift jack to do this and generally speaking this is a great (but dangerous if used incorrectly) tool. The main difficulty in africa is the amount of dust. If we changed how the inside of our car is, I would have made a space to keep the High-Lift inside and thus protected from the tremendous amount of dust swirled up when driving. Everybody we met that has one outside, had the same problem. There are 2 pins with springs that move in and out when highering or lowering the jack. These get clogged with dust and don't move as they should. The result is that you lift the car up, but can't get it down! At least in the proper (and safe) manner. After finding this out, we started applying a large amount of lubricating spray, like WD-40 or the like to keep the pins from sticking. Both before, during and after use.

RADIATOR PROTECTION
We fastened a metal mesh made for mosquito netting over the front of the radiator and this has kept it free from grass seeds, insects and small stones.
Definatly a good idea since you just have to brush it off every now and then.

ROOFTOP TENT
Our Echo tent from South Africa has done it's job well, keeping us dry and comfy. I don't think there is much differance between the various brands, but it stands to reason that the aluminum floor on the Echo must be stonger than a plywood one. Just my guess. We have appreciated that our ladder went down to the front bumper instead of to the ground, as it then doesn't matter what kind of surface you're on. Having the tent in the front also frees up the rear of the roofrack as a place to take off your shoes, or just to sit and look at the veiw like on a veranda. The tent itself had enough space inside when folded to store our pillows, blankets, a few books etc.

SAND PLATES
We used them a couple of times, but found out after a while that deflating the tyres enough, together with a minute of shovelling did the trick quicker and easier. I'd still take them with next time just in case.

12 VOLT TO 220 VOLT INVERTER
Used to recharge our laptop, camera batterys etc. Also used to run our hair trimming machine to the benefit of myself and a handfull other heads along the way. Almost like a mobile barber shop!

CAR SPARES
An assortment of spares were brought along and exept for brake pads and filters, haven't been used. We found it difficult to get new filters until we reached South Africa, so it's a good idea to bring what you'll need from home.

EMERGENCY RATIONS
We brought with us Norwegian military MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) and always made sure we had enough water to last for quite a while longer than needed on each desert stretch.

CAMPING GEAR
A good folding chair is very nice to sit down and relax in after a long day. It should be pretty sturdy if it's going to last with everyday use for a year. We also brought with us 2 mini hammocks, but didn't use them more than a few times. At one point, we stayed in the same place for 3 weeks and finially felt the need to use our side awning. AC made 3 walls that could be attached with Velcro, making a closed "room". This was quite nice since we didn't bother packing in our tables, chairs etc. at night. It also made it easier to live when it rained for a few days. We just sat in our little "house" and were perfectly dry. When the sun was beating down, it provided a welcomed shady spot to stay cool under.
Our kitchen was a 2 burner propane stove that was fed from an 11 kg (big) fiberglass propane bottle. The type you connect to a gas grill/bbq. This worked out fine, but it was very bulky. Next time I think we'll go with something smaller and probably petrol fueled.
Flashlights are naturally needed when camping in the bush. We both had a waterproof (dustproof) handtorch, plus a headtorch each. The head torch from Lucido, as described in detail on the previous equipment review, was complete garbage.
The first thing we did when we got to South Africa was to buy 2 from Petzl. It's a good thing we did too, because without them, climbing inside the pitch black Drotsky Caverns in Botswana would have been near impossible.
One gadget that we did find kind of nice was a folding toilet chair from Echo Accessories in South Africa. This might sound silly, but it's nice not have to always squat down in the sand! Quite a lot of people we met had a good laugh about it, but most of them admitted that it's a good idea when travelling for so long and were a little jealous!

SATELLITE PHONE
We were able to borrow an Inmarsat satellite phone, and have used it to call home every now and then to hear how things are with family and friends. I'd say that a sat phone can give people a sense of false security when driving to far off places. This is because, although you might have the ability to call someone for help, it doesn't meen that officials in the country you're stuck in have the equipment or for that sake interest to come and save you. I seriously doubt that you'd get any help especially in northern africa. Even if they are offered large sums of money, which might change the lack of interest part, it doesn't make non-existant equipment magically appear so they can come and rescue you! Thus it's important to be both self sufficiant and prepared for the reality of being stuck for ever. A satellite phone is a nice gadget, but don't bet your life on it!

CLOTHS, SHOES, ETC:
The difficulty of travelling from so far north to so far south is the tremendous variation in climate. You must be prepaired for suffocating heat and biting cold, together with everything in between. Generally speaking, I suggest that people pack what they think they will need and then leave half of the stuff behind. We ended up having cloths in the bottom of our boxes that we never really had use for. All in all we brought with us too much stuff.

FIRST AID/MEDICAL
First aid equipment is the one thing that should never be skimped on. On a trip like this, you must be self sufficiant as there are many areas with no medical help. Or help that you don't want... If you had seen the blood covered floors and walls we saw in one african hospital, then you'd quickly be convinced of being able to help yourself as much as possible!
Having the right gear doesn't make you a doctor, so taking a first aid course and having a doctor explain how to use what, before leaving home, is very important. Having the right medicine and the knowledge to use them correctly helped us several times. Bringing your own needles for blood transfusions/IVs is also a good idea.
A great book to bring with you is "Where there is no doctor". It covers pretty much anything you could possibly need in Africa from delivering babies, to what type of medicine and what dosage for all African sicknesses. It's available from www.talcuk.org .
Malaria is naturally a problem in most of sub Saharan Africa. Anne Cathrine used Lariam without problems or sideaffects until we reached Swaziland. I couldn't us Lariam because it gives me dizzy spells that pop up randomly. Not a good thing to have when your driving! My alternative was Doxycyclin, a mild, but broadspectered antibiotic. Nothing is 100% sure of course, and I got Malaria when we were in Tanzania. I used Malarone as a cure, which is supposed to be the best drug against malaria, but too expensive to use for such a long time. One problem with the Doxycyclin I was on is that it makes a lot of people sun sensitive so they get sunburned easier. I found out by trial and error that if I took it at dinner time, I had no problems in the sun next day. If I took it in the morning, I would burn very quickly... I tried this so many times that I almost felt like I was in my own science experiment!

MAPS/GPS
If you want to go anywhere remote, than good maps and a gps are needed. There is a series of 3 Michelin maps that cover Africa (west, north east and southern Africa), but these are really only good for planning and basic navigation. Many of the places we went to would have been alomst impossible without more detailed maps than the Michelins. The problem is finding maps of Africa countries who often keep their "good" maps to themselves presumedly for security reasons, or some other nonsense... We had a variety of French IGN maps, ex-Russian military maps and whatever else we could get our hands on.
For a GPS, we had a Garmin GPSMAP 176C with us and were extremely pleased with it. It has a rather basic map installed from Garmins Worldmap CD and made it incredably easy to see where we were and what was ahead of us at a glance. Not all the roads and tracks were always totally correct, but most were good enough to make navigation easier.
Of course, there aren't always any tracks to show on the map and electronics can give up in rough conditions, so knowing how to use a regular map and compass is also important!

CAMARAS, LAPTOP ETC.
We brought with us a Nikon F100 SLR with an assortment of lenses. For film, I mainly used Fuji Provia 100 slide film and ended up using 80 rolls. We also took with us a Nikon Coolpix 5000 for digital pictures, dumping the picture files onto our laptop computer when the memory cards were full.
In dusty conditons, protecting electronics like these are very important. We had 2 camara bags and a backpack from Lowe-Pro for this and have been very glad that we did. The Lowe-Pro bags have kept the equipment dust free and protected from jolts. We also took a Polaroid camara with us mainly for giving pictures away to locals. Many people promise locals that they will send a copy of a picture when they get back home. This almost never happens and many locals By giving them a picture then and there, this isn't a problem. Most of them don't have a picture of themselves and are amazed at finally getting one. This isn't for free of course, the "fee" being that you can take a few pictures for yourself! Cultures vary and in some areas it's simply dangerous to get out your camera. In others, people come up and ask if you want to take their picture, as if this proves to the others there that they're special. Taking fotos of officials, military personel etc. can make you special too. Basically because you could quickly wind up one of the few, if not only, foreign prisoner in the local jail. So be careful.

GUIDE BOOKS
Generally speaking, most of the guidebooks we have seen are almost all complete garbage. This might seem a little harsh, but the fact is that by the time the book is out on the market, the info is outdated and often totally incorrect. Africa changes constantly and a nice place to sleep today, may be gone tommorow. This applies to all the books: Lonely Planet, Rough Guide, Footprint etc. etc. There isn't much differance between them, but the info in our Rough Guide for West Africa was so unusually incorrect that we ended up not being able to use it. We won't buy much from them anymore... Another thing is how many of the guide books operate in regards to who gets a good rating or not. We met several campsite, hotel and lodge owners who had journalists from Lonely Planet and publications approach them with incredable demands. Some wanted free board, food and the use of the places car for an extended time! A "good write up" would of course be written in return. Some of the owners naturally told the journalists that it wasn't possible, resulting in no, or rather poor mention in the books. Others who played this corrupt game got great mentionings even though the places where sometimes so lousy that they shouldn't have been mentioned at all. We had thought that the guide book researchers would have operated more anonymous and seen how a place actually was with "regular people". So beware of the info in guide books and try to get as much fresh info from other travellers as possible. Hopefully some useful info can be found in our "Diary" pages on this website, but this too will of course be "outdated" after awhile.

Erik D.

www.dunia.no