In Swahili, the lingua franca of East and Central Africa, ‘kumbu’ means memory. Kumbu-kumbu, as you may have guessed, means memories.

To a certain extent our journey is a drive down memory lane. I worked and travelled in this region forty years ago. Now my wife, Annie, and I are both retired and have the time to spare, I would like to show her and share with her some of the places that have stayed prominent in my mind, despite the passage of time, our marriage, twin boys and a time consuming business here in Blighty.

We lived together in Kenya for four years in the early 1990’s, when I was working for AMREF, the public health charity based near Wilson Airport, Nairobi, who also run the Flying Doctor Service. Our connection with East Africa was finally severed in 2006 when we handed over the knitting project Annie had started and developed for disadvantaged women in Nairobi.

Our journey begins in Johannesburg, South Africa at the end of November; when we fly down to collect the Landrover Discovery I bought there after a brief trip to Cape Town and Jo’burg last July. Since then it has been in the capable hands of Peter Street, who runs Landyworx, an independent Landrover service agency and who prepares ‘Landys’ for overland trips such as ours. Using Whatsapp, the free messaging, photo sharing and voice calling app, we have managed to deal with all the issues arising on a thirteen year old vehicle and have agreed the extras necessary to make the trip reasonably bearable and safe for a couple of old codgers like us!

We have also bought - and Peter is preparing for us - an off-road camping trailer, built locally by Camptech. It unfolds to provide an easily accessible double bed, raised off the ground, but not as high as a roof top tent, the sleeping arrangement preferred by most overlanders. Frankly we don’t fancy the climb up the steep ladder that comes with this arrangement (or the climb down it in the middle of the night for the toilet) and the difference, security wise, is minimal. We will be carrying a two berth safari tent, as well, for guests we expect to travel with us along some sections of the journey.

Our Kumbu-Kumbu Safari will take us approximately three months and will include passage through Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi and Tanzania. Our end point will be Dar es Salaam, where our son Tom lives and works with his wife, Gemma.

I will do a journal, which I'm calling 'occasional views from the road'. Please pitch in with any comments or suggestions; especially with campsite recommendations.

Sounds like a great trip! I'm planning on doing a similar trip with my parents who are just retiring too next year. The only difference would be turning left in malawi and heading across zambia, through bots, and down through namibia ending in Cape Town. I would be very interested to know what issues you had with the disco 1 and what mods you did to prepare it? I presume its a 300tdi?
Enjoy the trip and keep us in the loop

We bought the car in Jo'burg in August. Since then its been in the capable hands of Peter Street @ The Landyworx, Randburg, having a thorough service and overland extras fitted. It's a 2003, one owner, TD5 ES, auto, with c. 90,000 miles on the clock. I can guess what you are probably thinking now - that the 300TDI would have been a much more reliable option. Possibly, but both Landyworx and Seven Landy's, Cape Town, who also specialise in preparing Land Rovers for off-road and overland adventures were adamant, when I went looking for a good 300TDI, that the TD5 - properly prepared - was well up to the task and a more comfortable and civilised option, albeit a bit more expensive.

The 300 tdi are getting a bit hard to find without a million kms or a hard life. Yep have been reading up on the td5 and it does look like a very good option. I am interested into what preparation you did to the vehicle? what mods, preventative maintenance etc you did to the car? I am also strongly considering a td5 for my trip too, (will be a toss up betweem td5, prado or pajero) a whole lot of car for the money.

Wow! That sounds awesome! Visiting Tanzania, Zimbabwe and South Africa is my biggest dream. Good luck! And please post your journal here so we can follow your adventures!

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Charles