Today, after much searching, I picked up our 1999 Toyota Land Cruiser from an Afrikaans guy in Paarl. This pushes us over the point of no return – we are irrevocably committed to the madness now. I settled on a Land Cruiser after doing a lot of research on potential…

After tonnes of research on the internet and endless mind-boggling conversations with all the 4×4/safari specialists in Cape Town, I’ve developed a fairly exhaustive list of things we need to add to the vehicle or take with us. Before you mock and deride, keep in mind that this is going…

The Land Cruiser came back from the Safari fitment guys today with a new roof rack, new air suspension (which is filled using a bicycle pump from the rear of the vehicle – very high-tech) and a very styling new snorkel. 3 things off the list. I looove the snorkel.…

Fiona and I have never shied away from the realities of living in Africa. Fortunately, we live in a pretty civilized part of it. No, the most civilized part of it. “Africa”, as an Afrikaans friend puts it, “is not for sissies.” Too true. But we’re, in some ways, tempting…

We were not looking for just any fridge. We need an “offroad” fridge and all the gurus left us with only the choice between two brands: Engel or National Luna. Everything else, according to the experts we consulted, would either fail, explode or leave us starving under a baobab tree.…

Many thanks to our friends, Trevor and Valentina Knight, we now have a 2 man (or 3 kid) roof tent installed. I had to take the tent to the manufacturer (Hannibal Safari Equipment) in Cape Town to have a new ladder made (the car is taller than the Kinight’s) and…

I’ve booked the Namibian campsites and we have a route planned. Our Namibian route is going to be a little more harried and a lot more planned than other countries as we have a deadline: to meet our friends, the Lloyds, in Maun, Botswana on December 30 for New Years…

So I’ve spent the better part of almost 3 weeks getting most of the equipment we need, building custom “drawers” for the back of the vehicle, buying the big 8 man tent we needed and putting it all into or onto the Land Cruiser. A very productive (and expensive) 3…

I am not easily spooked by stories of crime in South Africa. On the other hand, you tend to hear a lot of them. In our 11 years of living here, I’ve been the victim to a lot less crime than I was in Toronto where my car would get…

Now that I have built this infernal blog thing, and feel oddly compelled to share every inanity and banality with my friends and the world at large (tweet, tweet), I’ve had to put some thought into how we’re actually going to update it and upload photos while travelling. So I’ve…