| Overview |
| With an overland expedition there is more than your normal swimsuit and sun cream to worry about when preparing to go. Within this section we have split the areas of preparation into a number of sections, based on the area they affect. We have included details of what training we have personally carried out as this is possibly more important than getting that additional gizmo, especially as if you have no idea how to use it. |
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| We started the preparation and research for this adventure back in the beginning of 2007, giving us just over 2 years for decision making and sourcing what we need. Most of this time so far has been research as we only obtained the vehicle in July. Since then we have been getting used to it and slowly fitting it out. |
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| It may seem like a lot of time, but we feel that there can never be enough research. The last thing we want to do is end up getting into a situation without any idea of what to do. As with most things available spare time is delaying a few things, however the wheels are in motion and the adventure is on course. |
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| If you want to chat about any of our decisions I would welcome you to get in touch. |
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| Vehicle Choice |
| Like many people, our decision was easy; the dream of doing the trip and owning the iconic vehicle that is a Land Rover Defender. It is not the most comfortable of vehicles to use, actually probably the worst! Any other 4x4 would be much better at that. However it does have the following plus points above other vehicles: reliability, simplicity, quantity in Africa and the large ability to customise. |
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| Land Rovers have many different shapes and sizes to choose from. We have opted for a Defender 110 County with a 300TDi engine. The reasons for making this choice are as follow: |
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| - 110 provides the most space. |
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| - County gives 5 doors, allowing storage space to be divided. |
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| - 300TDi was the last of the simple Land Rover engines, before computers took over. Meaning it is still simple to fix. |