What name do you give a not very attractive but very functional and reliable vehicle which was built by Toyota more than a quarter of a century ago and is very popular amongst relief organisations and warlords alike? Toyota names it the HZJ 78. Aficionados call it the “bush taxi” and in French- speaking parts of Africa, it is fondly referred to as “taxi de brousse”. And we have given it the name Mahangu(link to picture gallery).
In southern Africa,Mahangu is the name for a type of sweet corn and means “food of the local people”. And traveling is food for itchy feet…
Accessories: tyres on bold split rims (6 tyres), Safari snorkel, Webasto auxiliary heating, Scheelmann heated seats, Engel fridge with
capacity
of 32 l, 2 sand ladders made of aluminium, ARB air compressor, 2 snow chains; lifting bag (4 t), tow rope (10 m, 4 t),
2 fire extinguishers, 3 additionals door locks; Awning Shady Boy
Navigation system: 2 Garmin GPSmap 276C and a Nüvi 1300 including world map and many others
Water tank: 50 l tank made of chrome and steel, SHURflo water pump, 2 Katadyn filters plus 2 additional (foldable) plastic water tanks of 10 l each
Energy: 2 solar panels for supply of 2 batteries (Optima yellow Top), 3 bus bars of 12V
Means of communication: Motorola Iridium satellite telephone, HTC Smartphone (synchronisation with PC), Apple Powerbook G4, Acer Notebook Extensa 5630Z, Canon Printer PIXMA iP90
Photography equipment: Nikon digital camera D200 with two lenses ( AF-S Nikkor 17-55mm 1:2.8 G ED and AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm 1: 3.5-5.6 G ED)and 2 compact flash memory cards SanDisk Extreme III (1.0 GB und 2.0 GB); Canon PowerShot SD870 IS and Canon waterproof case WP-DC17
Film camera:Sony digital Handycam (DCR-PC9E) with Sony wide conversion lens x0.6 (VCL-0630 S)
