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The fleet of three Nissan vehicles - a Nissan Patrol SUV, a Nissan Pathfinder and a Patrol Safari-Pick-Up - have covered over 13 000km on the last leg of the Voetspore adventure over Africa from Kilimanjaro to Cairo.
"Apart from some impurities in the fuel filters because of contaminated diesel, and a few punctures, we haven't had any problems with the vehicles," said Johan Badenhorst, KykNet producer and leader of the Voetspore adventure.
A month ago the party reached the top of Africa's highest mountain, Kilimanjaro. Although a personal victory for each of the four Voetspore team members, it marked the start of the fourth and last leg of their journey by road from Cape Town to Cairo.
On the morning of May 5, the convoy slowly got underway from the Keys Hotel, their base for the Kili onslaught - 4 328 km from home. They left for Arusha for the actual start of the adventure, where they also caught up with their guide for the following few weeks, Deo, member of the Masai tribe out of East Africa.
"Deo is a guide who knows Tanzania, Uganda and Kenia like the back of his hand," says Badenhorst. "He's always telling tales, giving facts and filling us in on everything. He takes us to places he recommends, like Mto Wa Mbu, a small town where we stopped at a local market to buy red bananas, and Karatu where we had coffee at a tiny little shop most passers-by would have missed."
The Nissans have proven their worth all the way up to the halfway point at the origin of the Nile from where their adventure to the Mediterranean Sea will start in all earnest. Unsuspected rain turned part of the route into a serious 4x4 challenge.
Johan expressed his surprise with the Nissan Pathfinder.
"The Nissan Pathfinder navigated anything and everything in its path," he said last Saturday in one of his weekly Radio RSG interviews via satellite phone from wherever they are.
The Voetspore team of four adults - team leader and TV director Badenhorst, cameraman Lourens Human, Van Rensburg as photographer and 4x4 specialist, and technician and logistics manager Francois Marais, as well as Badenhorst's 11-year old son, Streicher - have travelled over 13 000 km from South Africa and are planning to follow the course of the mighty Nile all the way to the Mediterranean Sea. They post daily reports on the website www.voetspore.co.za, with weekly satellite interviews on Radio RSG (Saturday mornings at 09h00).
