On Friday morning we have another appointment for maintenance of the heating system of our house – yes, something like that is of course part of the seemingly endless preparation program. Afterwards we set off for one last tour before we hopefully REALLY get started.

With a stopover in nice Bernburg an der Saale, we drive to Langenaltheim on Saturday. We booked another training session in the off-road park in a quarry south of Ingolstadt to get to know our car a little better.

Btw: Now it's finally revealed, the car actually has a name! That's how far we've come :-) But after a Facebook contact from Namibia wrote "what a nice bakkie" when he saw a photo of the newly purchased Hilux, "Becky" was simply chosen as the name! The baptizing took place in Hüll when the cork from a Cremont bottle popped onto the car's roof as if by itself.

But back to Langenaltheim. Tonight we stand in the so-called paddock and realize how new we are to this scene and that there are much, much weirder ideas than driving into “difficult” terrain in a pickup truck with a living cabin.

The driving training proves to be absolutely useful! Almost two hours of theory in the morning, from “How does a differential work” to “Why are crossing water problematic” to “Which banal but ultimately annoying mistakes can you simply avoid?”

In the afternoon on the site we go on inclines (which feels horrible, but seems completely harmless in photos), up and down inclines, along washed out curves. We learn that our car does a lot of things well on its own (hill start and descent assistants), that it is long and that we have to be careful later when crossing fords or strong bumps so that we don't hit the back. We realize once again how deep the differential is and we are surprised at how quickly a wheel can hang in the air. An important insight is that you should always look for the direct route – if in doubt, the car will take that route anyway. Driving diagonally into inclines and declines and then steering is usually suboptimal. There are also a lot of other tips from our extremely friendly and competent trainer Roger.

Funnily enough, we spend the Sunday evening after training in the town of Pappenheim, which, excited as we are, tempts us to make endless jokes about the people of Pappenheim. On Monday we continue to Sinsheim to visit family.

And on Tuesday we have an appointment with Markus Gruse from Offroad Motorhomes in Mainz. The long-distance travel software should be installed so that our “too modern” car in Africa can cope without Adblue and with bad or high-sulphate diesel. Somehow it still feels strange to have to technically modify a car that was built in South Africa for a trip to the African continent.

Unfortunately, the whole thing doesn't work straight away: the software is designed for the year of manufacture 2021, our car is built in 2023 and therefore the software has to be revised. As we sit and wait in a desolate industrial area at lunchtime with a Coke, we hit an emotional low point. Can the whole thing even work? At least we understood the principle and were given the necessary tools (flasher and OBD dongle). We'll actually install the software next Friday and find a really good solution to protect the Adblue pump plug that needs to be disconnected: the good old kitchen rubber glove :-)

In Cologne-Rodenkirchen we find a large but still very pleasant campsite right on the Rhine for this evening. Also practical: There is a really good restaurant and delicious freshly tapped Kölsch.

The last stop is Leverkusen again. At Toyota-Weigler there is a new fuel filter, a lot of spare parts to take with you, the all-terrain tire for the spare wheel and the last part of the underrun protection.

Complete! Off to Hamburg for the final sprint. It's time to pack!