In 1993–94, I drove an ex-British Army Land Rover named Twiga from Luxembourg to Cape Town: roughly 35,000 kilometres through 19 countries in twelve months.
Twiga had a 70-horsepower engine, room for 300 litres of fuel and a top speed of about 85 km/h. The trip also brought some 40 punctures, breakdowns, border crossings and wild camps. Plans changed constantly.
I earned my pilot’s licence in Zimbabwe along the way. After reaching South Africa, I shipped the Land Rover back to Europe. A year on the road gave me time to travel through North, West, Central, East and Southern Africa at a pace no flight could offer.