CAPE TOWN-NAIROBI-CAPE TOWN 18 000KM IN A TUK-TUK
“Eish!” “What are you Mzungus doing?”
“From there? To here?
In this?”
“Barefoot?”
“Ah, no, man!”
A fairly typical greeting from people we met – including policemen. Friendly, but puzzled and amazed. Fair enough. It’s not often you see a couple of young blokes in remote Africa in a little cargo Tuk-Tuk.
Getting started
The idea stemmed from the time we – two long-time mates – undertook an epic 8500km road trip in a trusty old Hilux 4x4 through Botswana, South Africa and Namibia. That was a great trip, but it left us wanting more.
With a hankering for more travel and adventure, and an urge to give something back to the continent we love, we cast our minds about - looking for something challenging (and a little bit crazy) that people could get behind.
What to do? Something long, something hard, something different. Taking a Tuk-Tuk from Cape Town to Nairobi seemed crazy enough.
Why? Having been born and raised in Africa, we feel a deep connection to its sustainability, and with conservation a hugely pressing issue on the continent, we chose this “Expedition for Endangered Species” as a valuable cause to promote.
Four months of creating proposals and targeting corporates (a completely new process and hard learning for us) generated more and more interest in the idea. We finally acquired the needed capital through five corporate sponsors (see box) and the generous support of friends and family, as well as some crowd funding. (We’ve since been told that a lot of the support was from older people who wanted to re-live their former adventures vicariously through us – the spirit of adventure never dies!)
The Tuk-Tuk
There are a few places to buy Tuk-Tuks in South Africa. Ours came from Port Elizabeth. Most people know the “taxi” Tuk-Tuks which have a shaded passenger seat behind the driver, who sits centrally up front. Instead, we chose a 400cc diesel Atul-brand cargo carrier, as it meant we could carry all the required gear for the trip safely, as well as occasionally sleep in the back.
Made in India, it is slightly slower than the conventional Tuk-Tuk, having a top speed of 40km/h. However, it is more fuel efficient, getting up to 30km per litre.
Given that it was a one-person vehicle that was now required to carry two (and more), we needed to make some modifications to the cargo box. Grinders are wonderful things - in no time, we had three windows including a transition window from the driver’s seat to the cargo box, an extra-wide front seat and – what every