Zambia

Zambia is a country that has been touched by civilization and yet it has a personality and a character that is so unique. Piglets, lambs and chubby babies hide behind their mums as you drive through the many villages with smoking huts and millie crops that dot the countryside. Village woman balance improbable loads on their heads, landscapes are lush and green right to the horizon and the thin ribbon road meanders through the mountains to meet the lacey mists at the mountains base. Families proudly display the fruits of a hard day’s labor on fashioned tables and props for passersby to purchase, although you should know what you are buying as few villagers speak English.

Campbell and I pulled over to buy what we thought were potatoes and melons but we came unstuck. No-one in the village could tell us what these porcupine-looking green things were nor the mangled root-like-potato-looking things which we later discovered was Cassava. I am yet to find the name of the green vegetable but apparently it is like butternut except you boil it and eat only the inside. Now that we know how to cook it, we will try it tonight.
We agreed that quite a few Zambians could enter the Tour de France and put Lance Armstrong to shame. As Zambia is not the wealthiest of countries the transport system is unreliable and terrifying at best, instead everywhere you look there are bicycles laden with precarious weights of produce of all sorts. You can barely see man nor bike for produce and they cycle extremely far distances and crazily steep mountain passes. The common cargo are large sacks of local charcoal which has an unusual smell that is very different to western charcoal but you grow accustomed to it.

The major towns are all hustle and bustle in a chaotic manner that would shake any Londoner or New Yorker. Bright colors almost leak into the streets as hawkers come at you with their wares of electric colored clothing, foreign exchange, brilliantly carved African art, guavas, tomatoes, Nyaminnyami’s (necklaces carved in the shape of Zambia’s Valley River God) and bracelets.

Before leaving Livingstone we stopped in at the first of our Seven Wonders of the World sites, the glorious and breathtaking Victoria Falls. I will let the pictures speak for themselves. After wringing out all our clothes from the falls, our adventures then took us from lovely Livingstone to the appropriately named Eureka campsite in Lusaka. All I can say is that we were begging for a decent shower and a good nights rest by the time we got there. Bad roads, torrential rains, no street lights and manic drivers had both of us on edge by the time we got there – Eureka!! We met a seasoned traveler, crazy Craig who had done West Africa and is now doing East Africa by himself, as well as some unfortunate Belgians who had flipped their Land Rover Discovery days before and were now stranded at camp Eureka with a car literally held together by tape.

After stocking up in manic and rather disheveled Lusaka Town we tried and failed to make it to Chipata in one day. Our only other option at the time was to stay in a kraal campsite in Petauke village which is so small that you can drive through it in 5minutes. The kraal made my skin crawl and we were gauked at like animals in a zoo, which we probably looked like it at the time. Torrential rains soaked our boerie rolls, turned our tomato sauce to soup and to make matters worse the butternut we had bought from Spar to braai that night had already been eaten from the inside out by maggots. I think it’s important to mention, for our mothers, that the butternut was eaten in-store and that we haven’t stooped that low in the hygiene department, not yet anyway. It was bleak times! We figured our health would be better served to not shower at all than to use the kraal ablutions. A particularly rude cock (easy Chunky!) crowed us awake at the early hours of the morning but we were grateful for the excuse to pack up and leave for Malawi.

Adrenalin Rush (Day 2)

With great apprehension Campbell and I made our way to the Bakota Gorge. The gorge is 96m at its deepest point. We abseiled 54m and we had a 53m freefall during our gorge swing.

First up was the abseil where we could choose to do a regular abseil or rap jump...we both took one look at the drop and decided to abseil. The scariest part was trusting the security line and the guide on that first lean into the abyss, but otherwise you can take things as fast or as slow as you like. I got the hang of bouncing off the wall quite quickly, but then again I have more padding than Campbell ;)

Conehead, hee hee >>>

The flying fox was our next clifftop thrill and by far my favourite experience. You know those dreams you have of being able to fly, well this is an awesome substitute. The best is that you are in control. You run off the edge whenever you're ready and there is no downward plummet, you just fly.

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's SUPERMAN!!

The last activity was by far the scariest thing I have ever experienced in my entire life. That sinking feeling you get in your stomach when you are flying and the plane hits an air pocket. Times that by 100, remove the seat and add a whole bunch of rushing nothingness all around you and you'll still not come close to the pure panic of free falling for 53m before the rope catches.

Campbell thought he bellowed like Tarzan all the way down. However...even the guides thought it was a woman jumping. I am proud of him, he faced one of his biggest fears and lived to tell the tale, even if he did sound like a wailing woman all the way down.

I sounded like a hyperventilating baboon, so unladylike.

With aching and bruised bodies but awesome memories we are sad to leave Fawlty Towers tomorrow for Lusaka and then Chipata where we'll spend one night each before heading into our fourth country of the trip, Malawi. No more easy camping, it's back to dust and rough sleeping, but we'll have many more amazing adventures.

Adrenalin Rush (day 1)

White river rafting down the Zambezi is fantastic and classed at category 4 and some rapids were category 5. Scheduled with Fawlty Towers but run by Safari Par Excellence, we have had the most memorable experience.

We joined a group from the overland company GAP and met some sponky people. The day was run very safely and professionally. After being briefed on security procedures we set off in the converted cattle bus 10miles upstream from Victoria Falls. Passing the stunning and mind-boggling site of one of the seven wonders of the world, we made our way to the steepest gorge I have ever climbed down to get to the start of our rafting experience.

I will let the pics tell the story. In our raft, from back left: Andrew, Campbell, Sandra. From front left Steve, me, a very crazy Irish guy named Ray and our guide Baby Face.

I thought I was in the winning team until the first major rapid called "The Mother" and with names such as Oblivion, Terminator, Gnashing Jaws of Death etc we thought The Mother would be a pretty tame rapid. It swallowed us whole.

What goes down, must come up ... >>>

...and over. I am the one second from the bottom who is about to get face planted into the Zambezi >>>

As the American boys said "Mommy spanked us bad!"

At the time I couldn't quite work out how I was the only one to fall out of the raft on this occasion. The photos provide all the evidence...I was kicked out!!

Step 1. Campbell looks like he is on a rodeo ride, I am directly opposite him. >>>

Step 2. Campbell...still rodeo riding with well placed foot behind my bum. >>>

Step 3 . That's my leg in the air going overboard while everyone else survived the rapid. >>>
We all lived to tell the tale >>>
After the awesome rafting experience we treated ourselves to a sunset booze cruise which was stunning. We saw a croc and some hippo. Very cool.

Tomorrow we will get our adrenalin fix from extreme height thrills.

Crash course in 4x4 101

Savuti campsite in Chobe National Reserve, north east Botswana, gave us a unique siting - the Savuti Channel. This channel is a bit of a mystery in that it doesn't flow in one direction year in and year out. Geologists believe it has something to do with tectonic plates swelling every few years that causes the channel to start and stop flowing as well as to change direction of its flow. Most Batswanas have not seen this in their lifetime and on this occasion the channel hadn't flowed in over 30years. So we counted ourselves lucky!

We have discovered that Botswana is a mecca for 4x4'ers, especially this time of year when the rain turns the roads into an obstacle course. If it wasn't for the advice we have received from friends and family (Andrew, Michael, my pops and Coops to name a few) we would not have made it this far. Mokolodi gave us rocky terrain, Khama Rhino Sanctuary and CKGR gave us manageable wet and dry beach sand, Moremi and Savuti gave us black mud, deep deep dry sands, dried craters, dodgy bridges, corrugated stoney roads and river crossings.

Campbell and I have had a major crash course in 4x4'ing and we are loving it.

The majority of our landy was covered in this muck >>>

We thought this sand was bad until we got to the other side of the hill where we had to keep swapping between diff hi, diff low and hi through the Chobe Forest Reserve >>>

Campbell wading into the Savuti Channel to test the depth so we could drive through it - notice that it is flowing >>>

Believe it or not there is a "bridge" underneath the car. The narrow planks sounded like they were breaking under the weight of the car as I drove across it >>>

We then rattled our way over corrugated roads following the Namibia/Botswana border with the stunning Caprivi strip to our left . We took it slow to try and save our shocks. It was painful.

1 night in Thebe River Campsite and many many mosquito bites later saw us on the ferry to Zambia with Botswana behind us and the crossing of the Chobe and Zambezi to our left.

Zambia border crossing was quite possibly one of the most stressful things we have experienced so far. There is no other way to describe it but CHAOTIC! We were hassled by runners as soon as we got onto the ferry. Before you are allowed into Zambia you have to pay road toll, ferry toll, 3rd party insurance, carbon emission fee and a council fee. Our fixers were a team of three speedy guys - one to do the running, one to client face and one to manage the other two. The other compulsory car accessory in Zambia are white front and red rear reflectors for your car. We thought we had been duped and didn't really need all this shenanigans, but three road blocks on the way into town left us thankful for our team of fixers at the border. Phew!

We are now chilling out and recovering in Fawlty Towers Backpackers in Livingstone while our landy is having a service at Foleys Africa. Tomorrow is white river rafting during the day with a booze cruise down the Zambezi in the evening. Saturday we are going abseiling, gorge swinging, rap jumping and will be doing the flying fox. I am nervous about the rap jumping...eeekkk!!!

Charging Elephants, de ly-ons and 4 bee 4’s

From CKGR we drove to Maun were we literally rolled into Caltex on the dregs of our fuel tank. Maun is a funky town where old meets new, tourists mingle with the hawkers from the markets and Campbell negotiated his first successful bargain. It went as follows:

Campbell approaches a drinks stand on this 40degree hot day, opens our ASDA portable braai, points at the display of drinks and says, in very broken English, "Two cokes, one braai". At which point the lady's eyebrows disappear into her hairline and she replies in perfect English "Ah, no!". Feeling dejected and a bit silly, my pooks was about to pack up his offer when a keen Indian at the next door stand took the braai and shoved two cold cokes into Campbell's hands. Score!

Next stop, Moremi Nature Reserve in the Okavango Delta where we went on a very scary but totally awesome game drive and saw hippo, elephant, giraffe, zebra, warthogs, a massive lizard and of course lots of buck (buck are everywhere).

I say scary because we were mock charged by two elephants and Campbell risked a lot to climb on top of the landy to get a better viewpoint of a family of hippo, before realising that there was another much larger hippo not far away. I don't think you can call it a mock charge but the hippo definately thought we were up to no good and left it's watery and I'm sure quite cosy spot in the delta to shoo us away. We didn't get any pictures of the hippo out of the water because we were desparately trying to get Thomo off the roof of the landy and into the car so we could leg it!

Then as we were being chased back to our camp by an ominous storm on roads that put our 4x4 skills to the test, we came upon a particuarly bad ditch. As we are still amatures in the world of 4x4'ing we stopped to discuss our approach when a herd of elephants jumped out from behind the dense bush 4metres to the right of us. The female mock charged us to make sure we weren't a threat to her family and when she'd had her say one of her young males clearly thought mom was losing her touch, so he mock charged us again. Wow, did we p**p ourselves. See the panic in her eyes below...ahhh!!!!!

Stressed elephant >>>

Chilled out elephant >>>

Once again we heard lion but did not see them. A cheeky hyena also scared the begeeeezers out of me. Campbell had gone to shower and having read about how to pack all your food items away when camping in a game park with hyena, I turned off off the lights except a small torch so I could appreciate the fireflies and stars. After about 30seconds I realised how stupid I was being and thought I better pan the area with my torch. One pan to the right, one pan to the left ...HYENA 2metres away from me. Ahhhhhhhh!!! Thinking it was a lioness on the hunt, I forgot everything I'd read and bolted to the tent. I had two seconds to regroup when I thought I heard Campbell coming back from the bathrooms, well I couldn't let him get eaten while I was hiding out in the tent. So I stuck my head out to find a hyena happily licking our braai pit. So, taking a page out of the elephants book, I mock charged it and ran to the car to turn on all the lights. It worked, the hyena bolted. I am mock charging machine and I saved Campbell's bacon...well if it had been a lion I would have!

Apart from 4x4'ing through white sand, massive ditches and black mud, Moremi also threw us a few really dodgy bridges which literally sounded like the bridge was breaking underneath us. We are a great team.

We also discovered several baby bees in our landy. They haven't surfaced since so we hope they flew into the landy rather than originated there. 4 bee 4 experience and half.

After negotiating what I think will most likely be our easiest border crossing for the trip, we drove into Gaborone with expectations of roughing it. Minutes later we drove passed a shopping centre that rivals Cavendish Square. Needless to say Gabs eased us into Africa!

Our first night in Botswana took us to the privately owned Mokolodi Game Reserve just south of Gaborone where we camped in the “wild” for the first night. Our campsite was clean with an outdoor shower, flushing toilet (we discovered later that this is rare in African camping), a braai pit and sink. We even had sturdy trees to test out our hammocks (wow, what a great buy those were). Campbell said he felt like the tall blue people in Avatar and how they sleep in cocoons!! All I can say is 19,000miles…eish!

We didn’t get much sleep that night. First lesson learned – always sleep with ear plugs. I love nature but I love my sleep more. I was convinced that every sound was a large animal coming to step on us in our ground tent. Ignorance is bliss! I have since slept like a baby thanks to my Superdrug earplugs.

Our first game drive in the landy took us over rocky and occasionally sandy terrain but Caspuur sailed through it without having to use the diff lock. We saw quite a few buck, giraffe, zebra, warthogs and many stunning birds.

We were meant to leave the next morning for the Khama Rhino Sanctuary but were delayed in Gaborone trying to find the Department of Wildlife and Nature Parks. The guide sent us one way and the Batswana sent us another, but we found it in the end. After taking several hours (African time) to book our weeks accommodation in various game reserves we stayed at the Mokolodi Backpackers as we would never have made the long drive to Serowe.

Apart from the excitable owner and the tick-ridden mangy dogs the place was great. They had a pool, a pregnant pig named New Year and some funky guests who we had drinks with later that evening.

Crack of dawn the next morning saw us at Exact Exhausts in Gaborone to have our rear break discs skimmed. I think the whole of Gaborone was thankful for that. Talk about nails on a chalkboard effect. After the minor delay we were back on the road and rhino bound.

Khama Rhino Sanctuary with its 4300 hectares of land has been my highlight of our trip so far. With 33 white rhino and 3 black rhino, among other game, it is well worth the visit. This is by far the best camping we have had to date. Lovely HOT showers, a tap with drinkable water in your campsite, a braai pit, shady trees and tons of secluded space - it was so peaceful. That evening we spent part our booze cruise game drive practicing the functionalities of the diff lock on the beach-like sand. In fact we were able to put our skills to the test on our way back to the campsite when we came upon a 2WD Toyota corolla stuck in the sand. All I can say is we looked like professionals! In gratitude we were treated to several drinks with Michael (Toyota corolla) and the manager of Khama Rhino Sanctuary. Botswana’s local beer, St Louis, is extremely light and not too shabby.

We were chased into the Central Kalahari Game Reserve by the biggest blackest storm clouds I have ever seen. The first of our rainy season torrential downpours only lasted for a few moments before it washed away and the only signs of its presence was two wet tourist ringing out their clothing.

Apart from its massive expanse of land, and I mean HUGE (52 800 km2 - it’s the size of Denmark), I am sad to say that Campbell and I were a little disappointed. This is also largely down to the fact that we hadn’t read up enough about the place. The campsites have NO running water, a pit latrine and no dustbins. You are totally self-sufficient and the park officials don’t offer emergency help at all. We made a rookie error and didn’t fill up with diesel in Mopipi when we should have. Thinking there would be diesel in Rakops we drove right passed the only diesel/petrol spot within 300 kilometers of the CKGR. To be fair, the map we are using did say that there was petrol/diesel in Rakops. Hmm, it’s obviously outdated. So we have to conserve the fuel and do short game drives, but with such a massive area to cover and rations on diesel we haven’t really seen much other than buck and ground squirrels here. Oh well, live and learn.

The highlight of the CKGR was hearing lions roar throughout our last night and into the early morning. We were both too scared to move.

We are heading to Maun tomorrow where we will stock up on water, fresh food and diesel. Then it’s on to the Okavango Delta and Chobe National Park. We have decided against seeing the salt pans which is a pity, but we have spent longer than planned in Botswana already and need to get on the road.

We are both really excited for the delta!!

Botswana

We are now through the Botswana border. It turns out no-one really knows what a carnet is. We had to instruct both sides of the border on how to fill it out.

Our first stop has been the Riverside shopping mall. Very first world. It has all the shops you would get in SA.

Our cell number is 26772878098

Off to by food and find our campsite for the night.

Some snaps on the way to East London.
Our first sign of wildlife :)

East London was amazing. We stayed on Andrew and Cherry’s game farm in Morgan’s Bay and were treated to stay in the Nyala room named after the Nyala buck. What luxury!

Some snaps at the horseshoe bend in the Kei River.

I don’t know how we are ever going to eat just pasta and rice concoctions after the yummy foods we have eaten - stews and sushi in Cape Town, roasts and divine meat in East London. Hmmm, I think Campbell and I will have to resort to a nice restaurant every few weeks. Hee hee.

After a stunning game drive on the farm and lots of bubbly, mint and cherries (cherries from Cherry..heehee), Campbell and I headed to Masselsport, just passed Bloemfontein, for our first real night of camping. One thunder storm later we made camp for the first night in the Landy to London expedition. We also had our first “overlanding” experience down a 13km dirt track littered with potholes hidden by floods of water. Tidal waves splashed over the bonnet and with nothing but our spotlights and the lightning to guide our way it was AWESOME!

Celebratory drinks!

Game spotting.

Campbell's first giraffe sighting!

View on the way to Masselsport.

Our first successful camp - check out that awning!!

On Monday morning we made our way to Klerksdorp to do some best man admin at Bona Bona game reserve. Stunning place and I can only imagine how gorgeous it will be for Kayne and Anelia’s wedding.

Next stop Joies. I can’t believe a week has gone by and everyday has been a whirlwind of lists and tasks to do for the trip and to repair the damage to the landy. I won’t bore you with the details; I will let Campbell do that. Just teasing!

Heading off into deepest darkest Africa today and we are SOOOOO EXCITED!! We will camp just before the Gabarone border and then negotiate accommodation in game reserves on Monday.