The Car
From a practical point of view, the motor bikes had to be accompanied by a car. In this way we could take more people and especially more equipment with us. And because Africa is not known for its good roads, the car had to be a four wheel drive. And while there are a lot of SUV’s nowadays, we preferred a old fashioned terrain vehicle. On our wish list were a Toyota Landcruiser, a Landrover Defender, a Nissan Patrol and a Mitsubishi Pajero.
On top of our list was a Toyota Landcruiser. Toyota is well known for its hybrid cars which have a better fuel efficiency than ordinary cars. Because this is all about sustainable technology, our first choice was a Toyota. But after a first phone call with Toyota we had adjust our wish list. According to them they were approached with similar requests daily, and they had no room for cooperation like this. Even after several emails and phone calls they did not change their mind.
Almost simultaneously we approached the three other car producers. Landrover was the first to drop out, because they “never did things like this” and their policy was not focussed on sustainability. With Mitsubishi we communicated a few time on the phone, by email and talked to them on the AutoRai, but although they were interested, they didn’t have anything to offer in the area of sustainability.
At Nissan it was at first hard to get to the right person, but after sending a inspiring promotional mail, we were invited for a presentation. Armed with a customized Powerpoint, we presented what our plans were. Nissan had just launched the “Nissan Green Program”, an ambitious plan, to reduce its own carbon dioxide emissions, produce car with better fuel efficiency, develop hybrid and alternative fuel cars and to use more environmental friendly materials in their vehicles. Because Nissan saw the opportunities to promote their Green Program through us, and we could justify our choice for the car by this, an agreement was reached on short notice.
The practical executions however had some difficulties. They had a perfectly suited Patrol, but this car was “borrowed” by the Senegales army during a trip to Dakar and it was not clear if this car was ever getting back. A second suitable car, a Pathfinder, was at that moment on its way to Singapore as a backup vehicle for the Cabrio Challenge and would arrive back in Rotterdam exactly ten days before our departure. After a few calls to the company that shipped the car, in which they assured us that these boats rarely had any delays, we decided to go for it. We would hear a month up front if the car was on the boat and than the chance of delay was even smaller.
But guess what? The boat was delayed and arrived eventually four days before our leave. Because we had a lot of alterations to make, we twice got a substitute car from Nissan for a couple of days, to measure and prepare everything.
Read in the Alteration section what we have altered during these four days.