One of our first orders of business in Botswana was to collect the 2001 5-door Mitsubishi Pajero “Exceed” (North American market Montero) we purchased from the outgoing Fulbright Scholar. Remarkably enough, he had stored the Mitsu only 300 meters or so (switching to metric now) from our hotel on the very same street - this was a complete coincidence.
The landlord at the apartment complex where it was sitting had given the keys to the housekeeper, who handed them over with nothing more than a shrug and a smile when we introduced ourselves.
So far, we’ve put approximately 100km on the thing running a few errands around town, and a quick, two hour self-drive tour through the local game reserve that’s about 15kms out of Gaborone.
These are pure surface impressions - I’ll do a much more thorough write-up as soon as we get some more time behind the wheel.
- Judging by the kanji on the radio, visors, and VIN tags, I am declaring this particular Paj to be a Japanese market vehicle. Japanese imports are quite common in Botswana, so not much of a surprise there. We are the fourth owners, the previous being our local mechanic (more on him later), and the two previous visiting American scholars.
- The exterior condition is in fantastic shape - the paint is still shiny and deep, and the plastics remarkably scratch-free. It seems to suggest that this Paj has lived a fairly easy life. Of course, I already managed to pin-stripe the front right fender yesterday piloting just a little too close to an acacia tree while gawking at a giraffe. I’m sure it will suffer worse in our time with us. The wing mirror, which I’ve always wanted, is missing. But there are a lot of pick-n-pulls here, so I’ll find one eventually. The hefty doors and side-swing tailgate all shut with a satisfying “thunk” that speaks to the solidity of this particular truck.
- The interior is in similarly excellent condition. Zero funky smells, little to no wear on the seats, clean carpets, and tight panel gaps - all befitting a vehicle with only 88,000 km on it. There are few broken/missing trim pieces, the latch on the center console lid is snapped off (just like the XJ back home!), and there’s a pretty fierce rattle in the passenger-side of the dash on rough roads, but otherwise all is well inside. The window tint is nice and dark - which hopefully will keep things cool. I haven’t checked out the third row seats yet, but they’re there. It also includes a 110v AC plug and cigarette-style plug in the rear cargo area, which should be handy.
- The 3.5L GDI direct injection V6 started up without drama after sitting for four weeks, and the PO left us with a full tank (90L/~23.5G) of petrol. It runs quietly and smoothly with no untoward noises. Throttle travel is long, and the tip-in is very slow compared to my Jeep, but that’s just a matter of getting used to a new truck. The brakes are strong, and the brake fluid clear.
- It’s rocking the 4 speed INVECS II Sports Mode automatic transmission, which means a PRND, plus a gate for manual shifting through the gears. It’s thankfully also quiet, smooth, and free from weird behavior or noises (transmissions on these trucks can be a weak point). The transfer case includes high-range 4WD, high range 4WD with center differential lock, and low range 4WD with center diff lock. It seems to work perfectly in all modes (we had a chance to experiment them on the rough tracks in the game reserve).
- The aircon and radio are currently intermittently inoperable. The radio is not too much of a concern, but the A/C definitely is. The previous owner had noted this, so it’s not a surprise, but we’ll need to remedy that ASAP.
- Like our current President, the headlights are desperately, hopelessly dim (zing!). I think the combination of clouded lenses (typical 90s/00s haze) and old bulbs is to blame. I’m going to fix this problem right away, because it gets dark here fast, and both humans and animals populate the road in great numbers. It’s best practice in Africa to avoid driving at night as much as you can, but good headlights are a must.
- The gear and engine oils are completely fresh, as is the coolant. The most recent service invoice also notes greased drive shafts, a couple of new coils, and all new plugs.
- It’s riding on Hankook Dynapro A/Ts (C-class) that look to have lots of life left. I’ve never driven these particular tires before, but they seem serviceable. The spare is an older Cooper Discoverer that’s looking a little brittle and sun-baked. It might be worth replacing that one.
- The PO threw in some tools/recovery kit, including an extinguisher, safety triangles, gloves, shovel, compressor, booster cables, tire repair kits, flashlights, one fuel jerry can, and a small tool roll. This will need to be supplemented before we attempt any real expeditions in the future.
- The owners manual suggests that the seats can be configured to create a “lay-flat” bed - we’ll have to experiment with that since we’re still debating about our camping strategy. Since it’s also our daily driver around town, it was strongly suggested to us that keeping our vehicle as anonymous-looking as possible reduces the chance of theft and break-ins. A RTT screams “tourist”! But I hate sleeping in the car, especially when it’s 100 degrees out. We’ll have to weigh the options as we live with the Paj more.
On our first off-road excursion, we spent a couple of hours near sunset yesterday tooling around the Mokolodi Nature Reserve southwest of the city. It’s a fairly good size (small by Botswana standards, though), and we only saw a tiny fraction of it, but we did come across absolutely monster kudus, shy impalas, baboons, Burchell’s zebra, African fish eagles, African goose, guinea fowl, francolins, and three giraffes just hanging out.
We bought a Reserve membership for about $48, and that gives us unlimited access for a year. The roads and tracks are just barely maintained, and some are even challenging in places, which is great. Road-wise, it’s no Yellowstone. I’m sure we’ll be out there frequently, because in addition to freakin’ giraffes, cheetahs, and rhinos, the Reserve also has a pretty awesome restaurant.
Julie has a lot of prep to do before classes start on August 14 at the uni, but we’re really hoping to get a few days camping in the Kalahari before the semester really sets in.
More on the Paj (including more photos), our hilarious Montenegrin mechanic, and the Nature Reserve in future posts. In the meanwhile, follow us on Instagram, @cosedivine (Julie) and @mt_drift (me). And the blog, of course, where we’ll be posting more non-automotive Africa-related content.