{"id":651,"date":"2018-03-04T09:59:07","date_gmt":"2018-03-04T17:59:07","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2021-10-08T15:07:26","modified_gmt":"2021-10-08T22:07:26","slug":"the-story-so-far","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stuckinlowgear.com\/staging\/1919\/the-story-so-far\/","title":{"rendered":"The Story So Far… (read this one first)"},"content":{"rendered":"

We Bought A Car in Africa<\/span><\/p>\n

“Why Africa?\u201d, or “Uh, what are you doing?”<\/p>\n

These are the questions we are asked. \u00a0And frankly, I’m unsure how to answer because I’m a little unsure how we arrived here ourselves.<\/p>\n

In 2013 Jenny and I had the good fortune to be able to tag along on a discounted safari in Namibia. \u00a010 days through some of the highlights, Damaraland, Etosha, and the Africat foundation. \u00a0It’s a long way to fly from California, and we since\u00a010 days wasn’t enough we thought we’d add on a bit of travel of our own after the tour.<\/p>\n

Years ago a good\u00a0South African friend of mine said he wanted to drive from his farm in South Africa to Victoria Falls someday. \u00a0This was something of an epiphany for me, “You can do that?” \u00a0Well, yes you can, there are roads after all.<\/p>\n

This hazy memory rose back up to the surface and\u00a0I started searching around, could we drive from Windhoek to Vic Falls? \u00a0Yes, and not only that, you can rent a 4×4 to camp in all on your own.\u00a0Veterans of overlanding will be laughing at this point, and to many South Africans this is simply referred to as “a road trip”, nothing too spectacular, but for us it was a revelation.<\/p>\n

So we did. \u00a0I arranged to hire a Toyota Hilux<\/a> with roof top tent and off we went (theres a tent on the roof?!). \u00a0Suffice to say, it was a success, and not nearly as intrepid or difficult as it might sound to some.<\/p>\n

This experience stuck with us and we vowed to come back for more. \u00a0As time went on and we dreamed and schemed of our return, the idea took hold to buy our own vehicle. \u00a0There is something about buying the vehicle that makes you fully invested, and not just financially, in the journey. \u00a0We are now planning our own little expedition. \u00a0No longer is there a company arranging all the paperwork, or planning the perfect itinerary for you. \u00a0It’s just us, lost in a morass of logistics and dirt roads and conflicting information, savoring the uncertainty of all of it.<\/p>\n

The Vehicle Purchase<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2016\u00a0I began researching the vehicle purchase, still thinking that maybe we should look for a long term rental. \u00a0And could we buy outright? \u00a0Can a foreigner without residency own a vehicle in South Africa, or another country? \u00a0Which country? \u00a0Could we buy here and ship? \u00a0The questions are legion.<\/p>\n

This lead to a very deep, very long, trip down the rabbit hole of the internet. \u00a0In 2017 our plans firmed up to go for the purchase as apposed to a long term rental. \u00a0In the summer, \u00a0with a lump in my throat, we put the deposit down on a used 2014 Toyota Land Cruiser 79<\/a> double cab, 4.2 liter diesel with 165,000 km on the clock. \u00a0Just broken in.<\/p>\n

As a side note, buying any car is a pain in the ass. \u00a0Buying a car sight unseen is a pain the ass, and possibly foolish. \u00a0Buying a car sight unseen in Africa…well, you get the idea. \u00a0It can be risky. \u00a0The South African version of craigslist is called Gumtree, and just like in the USA has its fair share\u00a0of scammers. \u00a0Dealing with this remotely, or flying in to inspect a vehicle at the last minute seemed impractical. \u00a0I would have preferred to spend time in the country checking out various vehicles, shopping for the best price and so on, but we just didn’t have the time.<\/p>\n

In the end we purchased the vehicle from Bushlore<\/a>, a reputable 4×4 rental company that sells their rental vehicles after they get older. \u00a0Dieter Marx was our contact there, and he was highly professional, very patient and a pleasure to work with.<\/p>\n

\"bought
Our first ever morning camping in the land cruiser<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Sea Trial<\/span><\/p>\n

In September 2017 we came to South Africa to pick up the vehicle and do a shakedown trip. \u00a0The actual purchase of the vehicle was shockingly smooth. \u00a0Bushlore picked us up at the airport and drove us to their depot in Midrand (Johannesburg). \u00a0We were given a thorough tour of the vehicle and all its equipment, followed by a chance to ask questions and poke around the vehicle and look for issues. \u00a0We\u2019re not mechanics, so our investigations were limited, but it came with a 30 day warranty, so we felt less pressure than if we\u2019d been buying from a private seller.<\/p>\n

4000 kilometers and three weeks thoroughly acquainted us with the cruiser, and we had a great trip through South Africa and Lesotho. We parked the vehicle on my friend’s farm with plans to return for our big trip to Kenya next year. Africa awaits!<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We Bought A Car in Africa “Why Africa?\u201d, or “Uh, what are you doing?” These are the questions we are asked. \u00a0And frankly, I’m unsure how to answer because I’m a little unsure how we arrived here ourselves. In 2013 Jenny and I had the good fortune to be able to tag along on a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1253,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[55],"tags":[54,53],"class_list":["post-651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travelogues","tag-car-purchase","tag-starting-out"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/stuckinlowgear.com\/staging\/1919\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/The-story-so-far.jpg?fit=1200%2C797&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbRTYJ-av","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuckinlowgear.com\/staging\/1919\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuckinlowgear.com\/staging\/1919\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuckinlowgear.com\/staging\/1919\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuckinlowgear.com\/staging\/1919\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuckinlowgear.com\/staging\/1919\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=651"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/stuckinlowgear.com\/staging\/1919\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2397,"href":"https:\/\/stuckinlowgear.com\/staging\/1919\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651\/revisions\/2397"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuckinlowgear.com\/staging\/1919\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuckinlowgear.com\/staging\/1919\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuckinlowgear.com\/staging\/1919\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuckinlowgear.com\/staging\/1919\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}