Of course buying all the other camping and survival paraphernalia that would go into the Beast was another matter entirely as you can’t just go to one shop for all your requirements. Once more we turned to the pages of 4x4 and camping magazines, books and blogs of those who’d already done a trip like ours and anybody willing to spend a few minutes telling us what they thought were essential items to bolster our knowledge of what lay ahead. We basically researched the hell out of what we were getting ourselves into (which I must admit was a really enjoyable part of the whole travel experience).

And so in the spirit of knowledge expansion we began making lists. Long, long lists of everything that we had read or heard about that we might need to have on our expedition. We soon had copious amounts of information containing not only those items considered essential but also those ‘just in case’ items such as tools, spare parts, medical supplies and the like. And of course being the conscientious person that I was I went window shopping for all of them, both in stores and online until I had an Excel spreadsheet to rival the budget of a small developing nation and I could tell where to buy what item to get the best possible price.

What I had meant to do then was to set a budget, study the lists to decide what we needed and what we could live without and then over the course of the next few weeks, go out and buy just those things.

However, like all well thought out plans, the moment I saw a FOR SALE sign in a shop window, I was forced to rush in and buy whatever 4x4 and camping gadget I could lay my hands on – the list a now distant and fading memory.

And that was how, in a very short space of time I had managed to buy everything that looked cool and was somewhat practical, until at last our little house literally bulged at the seams and Nedbank was phoning to ensure that my credit card hadn't been stolen.