The Land Of The Land Cruiser

On an 18-month, 50 000km journey from France to South Africa, Patrick and Marie Gurney cross the border into Tanzania.

- Patrick and Marie Gurney

The Swahili word safari simply means “journey”. Ours had been an epic one so far, and now we were in Tanzania, which occupied a prime spot on the itinerary.

Like most nature lovers, we’ve always drooled over the amazing wildlife photographs in all the glossy travel magazines. We needed to decide what we really wanted to see, and how to plan our route. Tanzania isn’t small. We couldn’t manage all of it, so we aimed for the big-ticket parks in the north of the country: Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro Conservancy, Tarangire and Serengeti, with a short stopover at Lake Natron.

Africa’s “Garden of Eden” promised a busy schedule of scenery and animals – we were ready!

Troopy tracks

The Namaga border post between Kenya and Tanzania was a breeze – customs officials weren’t even interested in looking at the vehicle. We drove directly to Arusha airport (100 km) where we met Marie’s cousin Aksel Kibarer and his family – they’d jetted in from France to join us on a short safari. They have two kids, Elio (7) and Thelma (10) – camping in the bush was a novel concept!

We hired them a Toyota Land Cruiser 70 series, also known as a Troopy, from Arusha Car Rental. It came equipped with two rooftop tents, a fridge and gas hob, plus some other camping kit. We overnighted in Arusha, checked all the gear and left for Lake Manyara National Park the next day. We opted to stay outside the park at Migombani Campsite, which cost US$15 (R220) per person per night. The campsite was high on a hill overlooking Lake Manyara, and there was a massive pool next to an even more impressive baobab. We met the first group of many overlanding South Africans there.