Into A f r i c a Written by Rowan Dixon

Africa is a continent often heard about in the press, but rarely for good reasons. Over its long history it has been home to some of the earth's most powerful and beautiful empires, and the greatest minds to ever walk the planet. It is home to beautiful animals, huge deserts and stunning coastlines.

Unfortunately over the past 400 years this incredible continent has gone through incredible hardship and suffering, triggered by external forces, as well as from within. I am not a historian, nor a political expert, or politician, I am however someone who has always dreamt of Africa, and has wanted to see the continent (or as much as possible) from the ground, not behind the curtain of the western media or politics.

In the summer of 2019 I was at a friend's BBQ; university exams had finished, and we were celebrating what would hopefully be a fantastic summer. Little did I know that I would meet a guy called Neirin that evening, and that 6 weeks later we, along with a mutual friend of ours called Scott and a medical student named Orla, would be heading to North West Africa in a 2002 90 series Toyota Land Cruiser, christened Lennie the Land Cruiser.

This is the story of an incredible adventure which was planned in just 6 weeks, which took us through beautiful mountain ranges, across deserts and minefields, and into the tropics of Senegal and The Gambia, all on a shoe string budget.

Scott and I are both petrol heads, but neither of us owned a car that we would be able to take us on our 17,500km journey through northern Africa. After extensive research we decided that the best vehicle for the group would be a 90 series Land Cruiser, and headed to Manchester, with just 4 weeks until our planned departure, to pick one up.

The 90 series is a very tough, medium duty 4x4, loved by many in the UK for their reliability and practicality, however, we would be running close to the GVM (Gross Vehicle Mass) of the car, so ordered some OME suspension from France, and installed it over a long weekend in Scotland, with the help of Scott's two spaniels, along with a roof rack to help carry our equipment.

Many overlanders love to fit rooftop tents, fridges and drawer systems to their vehicles, however this really isn’t necessary and can add thousands in costs. In total we made 3 modifications to the 90 series, the aforementioned OME suspension, roof rack and some BF Goodrich KO3 tyres. This is all you need (if your vehicle is newer you don’t need the new suspension) to have the trip of your life, and what a trip we had!

At the start of September Scott and I headed off from London to pick up Orla, who I'd never met, from a train station on our way to the Eurotunnel. On the first day the 3 of us drove for 17 hours, covering 1,300km through France. It was a fantastic start to our trip, stopping off in Le Mans for lunch and soaking up the French countryside. The only downside was the extortionate diesel costs, but thankfully we had filled up our tank before leaving the UK, as well as two, 20 litre jerrycans which helped cut the costs a little. This gave us a total of 130 litres fuel capacity, equating to a range of just under 1000km, the minimum generally recommended for overlanding in Africa. The funny part being we only ever used the jerry cans in France during the whole trip, and never needed them in Africa.

Even though Lennie is a bit rusty underneath he didn’t skip a beat, and the next morning we continued south to Seville where we picked up Neirin. That night we drove down a dirt track 10km from the ferry port, and slept under the stars lying on a tarp, excited for the next day.

In the early morning of September, 10th we bundled our kit into Lennie and headed for the ferry. During the 90 minute ferry crossing the excitement was incredibly prevalent. We watched as the rock of Gibraltar disappeared behind us and the coastline of northern Morocco rose up out of the water, with the Rift mountains in the distance. I’m not quite sure what we all expected getting off the ferry and arriving into Morocco, however the immigration officers couldn’t have been nicer, and after spending about 40 minutes sorting out Lennie’s paperwork and getting insurance, Orla hopped into the driver's seat and we headed to Tangier.

Little did we know; Orla had never driven an automatic, in fact she hadn’t driven any vehicle since passing her test 9 months earlier. This made for a very interesting drive along the coast and into Tangier, but we arrived without incident, and had breakfast in Café de Paris, the iconic café in the heart of the city where British and French spies used to meet.

Tangier was alive with locals selling everything from beautiful silverware to vibrant spices. Children were running around in the street and old men sitting on chairs smoking, watching the world go by. We went through the local markets, buying food for dinner that night, and olives, lots and lots of olives, before saying goodbye to this fantastic city.

We headed south towards the rift mountains and had our first proper taste of the local driving. It was brilliantly crazy, with drivers overtaking on blind bends, horns blazing and people packed into the back of pickups. It was like Scott had been born to do this kind of driving, and he really got into the rhythm of the hysteria.

After an hour of snaking up the stunning mountain roads, and being thrown around in the back of Lennie, thanks to Scott’s enthusiastic driving, we arrived at one of the most beautiful towns I have ever seen, Chefchaouen.

The city is painted in a beautiful blue, with stunning cobbled streets snaking in between stone houses and market stalls. It was a fantastic assault on the senses, not only with the vibrant blue walls, but also by the spices and soaps being sold. This was the first time we had seen any Europeans, not many, just a handful, and it would be the last time for over 2,000km.

That evening we continued south, climbing higher into the rift mountains, through stunning gorges and past hundreds of eucalyptus trees. We had been recommended to use an app called iOverlander, where people can post places they have camped with their 4x4’s. We were heading to a location on top of one of the peaks, but with only a rough description we were slightly nervous that we wouldn’t be able to find it as the sun was quickly setting.

Actually, we had no problems finding the turnoff up a rough track, just as the sun was setting. We pitched the tents, and Orla cooked a fantastic meal with the food we had bought earlier that day.

We had only been in Africa for 14 hours and were already buzzing with excitement. The next day we would be heading farther south, on our way to The Gambia, a journey which would take us through contested territories, across the longest minefield in the world and through tropical storms flooding the landscape.

(more to come in the next issue)