What does it take to overland day in and day out for two years (and counting)? Manon Verijdt and Tobias van Krieken of Rafiki on Tour share their approach to full-time overlanding.
You’ve probably seen Rafiki on Tour on Instagram. Pictures usually show the green Land Rover Defender 110 in a wild and beautiful place, often nothing else for kilometres. Manon and Tobias, plus their dog, Nimba, love travelling to remote corners of Africa. In their vehicle, Rafiki, they have everything they need to live on the road. Tracks4Africa asked them about full-time overlanding, going off-grid and navigation.
Where and when did your overlanding journey through Africa start?
We started two years ago, July 2022, from the Netherlands. The first five weeks were spent exploring Europe, getting to know each other (we had met only five weeks before we left). After seeing if we needed anything else gear-wise before our crossing to Africa, we took a ferry to Morocco (Tanger) and started our African Expedition!
Our trip has a long background: Tobias wanted to ship the vehicle to South America while I (Manon) was in the middle of a job application in Kenya. Due to my job application, I had a strong preference for the African continent. And so, after some discussion about where to go, we decided to drive south to Cape Town, and back home via the East Coast. It was all quite spontaneous. We both really wanted to leave home to explore the world by vehicle.
How would you describe your approach to overlanding?
Overlanding to us is a way of life. It isn’t necessarily about driving the most difficult tracks day after day, but more so about having the comforts of a home with the ability to drive anywhere and everywhere, whenever we want. In doing so, we have a preference for off-the-beaten-track travel to remote regions. It includes remote places where not many people go, and where we can be in the solitude of nature.
We love to observe nature, photograph our lifestyle and the wildlife around us, and cook great meals in these places. With this in mind, going off-the-beaten-track means also being self-sufficient. We don’t want to spend a full day trying to get as remote as possible, only to drive back to civilisation the next day because we ran out of water, food, power or fuel. Having the ability to stay off-grid for multiple days is the ultimate feeling of freedom, and we thrive when we have this.
What challenges does remote travel pose and what do you do to be prepared?
Our love for remote and self-sufficient travel has grown over the years. Therefore, we have improved our way of travel and our setup. Soon after arriving in Africa we learned that finding great off-grid tracks works differently than back in Europe. We started using different information sources, such as Tracks4Africa. This helped us to find the right tracks that lead to interesting destinations.
Again, everything works differently in Africa compared to Europe, and we really had to learn the hard way. Travelling to remote regions comes with a different set of challenges, as we have to prepare for long days without supply stops. These days we stock up on water whenever we have the chance, and always carry enough food supplies to last us a week or two. To make sure we are as self-sufficient as possible we carry a LifeSaver jerry can that enables us to purify almost any water so it’s drinkable. That way we don’t have to return to civilisation as long as there’s a well, river or waterhole around. Still, with only a 70-litre water capacity in total, we have to be very mindful. We’ve almost run out of water more than once, scouring dry regions for the slightest sign of a little pool.
When it comes to our food supply, we have a fridge-freezer combination and like to bring enough veggies (fresh and in the freezer) to last us a few weeks. The freezer really enables us to eat fresh, even after a few weeks in a desert environment. Besides, we love to cook and always carry enough raw basics to bake our own bread or pizza.
What are your essentials for staying off-grid for long periods?
When we plan long and remote stretches, we always take four essentials into consideration: fuel, food, water and safety.
Safety
This consists of a few factors:
- connectivity with the outside world
- the ability to (temporarily) fix a breakdown
- the environment we are driving through (thinking about flash floods, etc.)
- finding a sleeping spot
All in all, we aren’t that afraid of external factors impacting our safety. We are confident in our vehicle and our ability to come up with a solution should something happen. Besides that, having an InReach Mini enables us to connect with others via satellite. Recently we also added the Starlink to our setup, which provides us with infinite ways to ask for help if something unplanned occurs.
Supplies
Of course, you can’t always rely on others to come to the rescue right away. So we always try to set off well prepared. We roughly estimate how long a trip will take, and calculate the amount of supplies accordingly. We add a buffer on top of that to mitigate the risks if something unexpected happens. For example, our route calculations could be off. More than once we’ve also arrived at a supply stop only to discover they had run out of diesel or water. Aside from bringing more than enough supplies, we also like to compartmentalise our provisions. Spreading our water, diesel and food over multiple storage compartments or jerry cans minimises the risk of losing the entire supply in an accident.
We always try to bring enough food to last us the estimated number of days, and often a lot more. In general we just stock up on as much food as we can before taking on any major remote stretch. Additionally, we have extra cans of beans and some freeze-dried food. Carrying some basics also helps, as we love to get creative with pasta and canned tomatoes, or bake our own bread and pizzas wherever we are.
Lastly, we have the ability to carry 70 litres of water, which isn’t much. However, by including a water purifier and a backup filter we are confident enough to take on a challenge. Of course, it takes some planning and we always fill up when the opportunity arises. But having this flexibility by not relying on water bottles is amazing, and good for the environment too.
For you, what are the benefits of using Tracks4Africa maps?
Tracks4Africa maps stand out as a highly reliable tool to plan our adventures. It’s great to know what tracks to expect, and what points of interest (POIs) might be present along our routes. We found the T4A maps to be far more comprehensive than other maps, making it easy to plan a route, and also map alternatives in case of unexpected events. For us, it’s great that T4A mentions not only touristy POIs, but also water taps, as it helps us to stay out there for longer.
Having this complete dataset of tracks and POIs has been vital in giving us the confidence to take on even the remotest of areas.
Tracks4Africa says: When travelling off grid, always take sufficient water plus a bit extra. Although Tracks4Africa maps indicate water taps, it is best not to rely on these as water cannot be guaranteed. Wells may run dry or the tap itself may be broken.
Have the maps gotten you out of a difficult situation or brought you to a particularly beautiful place?
Yes, for sure! If we have to go from point A to B, we always check if there is anything special to be seen during our drive. Recently, in Zambia, we saw the Bilili Hot Springs just 10km from our planned route. But our hopes for taking a nice, warm bath were quickly thrown out: it was a heavily used stream of hot water, covered with logs to prevent cattle from stepping in it. However, it was a great find as it showed us how much effort local people need to put into their daily task of getting enough water. All of them were so happy – also a bit surprised as we suddenly drove up to their little oasis – and kind. It humbles us every time to see the perseverance people in remote places have.
Besides this little surprise, the maps have really helped us to find interesting places, or ways out of a tricky situation. In the north of Namibia we almost ran out of water, for example. Thanks to the maps, we knew what to expect in terms of track connectivity. We were able to navigate our way around the area, knowing what to expect and when we could reach the next water tap and/or settlement. In that regard Tracks4Africa has been vitally important for finding local gems. It provides us with an information foundation on which we can plan our trips – or adjust them if necessary.
To see more of Tobias and Manon’s adventures, check out Rafiki on Tour on Instagram or visit their website
