PLAN C

“What’s the plan?” Resisting the urge to duck into the garage to tinker with the lawn mower, I decide to man up. “Eerm. Ja, well, I’ve scoped out this interesting route across the Northern Cape, circling back to Cape Town. About three or four days on the road… “The silence is too long. The Prof (one of those serial overachievers), is in-between Zoom meetings where weighty, multi-syllable matters are no doubt being discussed. “Where do you plan to stay over,” is fired back, eventually. “I thought, you know, just camp on the side of the road. Or wherever.” This is not going well. “Look, if you want me to join you for long days of driving, we will stay in proper accommodation. With showers.” OK. So that’s it then. The oracle has spoken. “And I hope we are driving a comfortable car…”

At least there is good news on the last matter. Jaguar Land Rover has finally let go of one of their new Defender 90s, and I’m pretty excited to get behind the wheel of this completely re-imagined beast. Andrew St-Pierre White has dissed it, calling the redesign a huge disappointment. A former colleague was sceptical, saying it had all the axle articulation of a skateboard. But I think it looks pretty cool. Even better, we are getting a 240 S, with steel wheels, proper Wrangler off-road tyres and the so-called Explorer Kit.

My plan, sketchy as ever, is to link a few remote towns in the northern and Eastern Cape in a broadly circular route. It so happens many begin with a “C”. There’s another link, to do with planning, or lack of it, and Plan C is what happens when the contingency for Plan A falls through. This, as the Prof knows, is familiar territory. Guilty, your honour. But, as every overlander will attest, you must be able to roll with the punches, take it as it comes, make another plan.

The first glitch happens when booking the vehicle. I set a tooearly date, then move it ahead