Finally something I like about South Africa!

So we actually ended up staying in Zim for another day as the bus was booked up, I don’t think either of us was sad by this decision, We spent our last 24 hours going to the cinema (twice! It’s only $1 so we saw Date Night - alright, had some funny bits and Leap Year - rubbish although it made Ireland look very nice), sending postcards (Cathy you’ve got a great one coming your way!) and using our amazing bartering skills at the tiny market. I ended up swapping a top and a shirt I never wear for a keyring, a tiny wire gecko and a beaded pumba (not sure what I’ll do with any of that when I get home!) and my too small hiking shoes for some awesome keishi dancing guys. I actually swapped my top with a guy who then proceeded to put it straight on which was quite embarrassing as it fitted him better than me!

We got the greyhound late afternoon, it was relatively comfortable and they played two films to pass the time to the border. The border was one of the biggest and busiest I’d ever seen (it reminded me of Tijuana in Mexico and lets just say the last time I was there it didn’t end well!) and took about 3 hours to get through, what was particularly annoying was that we had to take all out stuff off the coach just to walk through the ‘nothing to declare’ isle and then load it all back on again…not fun when your bag weighs at least 20kg. After an alright few hours sleep we were dropped off in a grey, rainy, cold (welcome back to SA!) Pretoria at 5am, very annoying and to add to that the bus station is outside so we had nowhere to sit. We passed the time by walking (past crack heads, heroin addicts and grey skyscrapers  - I though Pretoria was supposed to be pretty!) searching for McDonalds (we eventually found it 45 minutes later by folliwng empty wrappers) and arrived just as it was opening at 6. I had my first ever Maccers breakfast (not actually that bad!), used their strange toilets (they were so high your feet didn’t touch the ground) and managed to nurse our hot drinks there for about 2 hours. The next few hours before we picked up our hire car we spent on the internet and marvelling at some incredibly tacky wedding dresses in a very tacky mall. I feel we got the whole Pretoria experience!

It was great having a car again, I loved Zim but it was difficult getting around and carrying our bags all the time was an arse (and also I have a huge bruise on the side of my hip from my bag which I’m sure is not good!). We headed out of Pretoria past the incredibly pretty University and Gardens (turns out there are some nice bits) and onto a ridiculously expensive toll road (again….welcome back to SA!). We drove basically all day (having a quick stop at a huge mall in Nelspirit which had been built especially for the World Cup and now looked like a ghost town) and arrived in Graskop late afternoon. The next day we were up early to go and see the Blyde River Canyon, apparently it’s the third biggest in the world (Grand Canyon is the first and the Fish River in Namibia is the second), we were slightly disappointed but it was grey and drizzly so the visibility was bad but it was a nice drive and some of the waterfalls we saw were cool.

That afternoon we drove south towards Swaziland (this time avoiding the tolls) and crossed the border late afternoon (here’s a tip - if you’re crossing a border and want to be allowed into the country, try not to accidentally almost run over a policeman on the way…oops!) and arrived at a nature reserve just as the sun was going down.

The next day we gatecrashed a wedding! Turns out the king of Swaziland was getting married (to his 15th wife) and it’s not too difficult to get into the ceremony (although trying to park in a spot reserved for a diplomat is a BAD idea!). The whole day was pretty surreal, we drove into the grounds and were told by the police I would need to cover my knees but wasn’t allowed to wear trousers (seriously the bride is going to have her boobs out and I have to cover my knees!). It was certainly not like any wedding I’ve ever been to before! There were upwards of a thousand people (mainly women) dancing in long lines facing the king. The new wife was the in the middle wearing a special headdress and the dancing involved lots of singing, stamping and topless woman. This literally went on for about 4 hours, randomly interspersed with warriors getting up and running around and some small children doing a traditional Swazi dance which involves kicking your legs so high you hit your face with your knee! Apparently it goes on like this all night and into the next day so after watching for about 4 hours we decided to call it a night and headed back to the hostel.

We woke up the next morning with torrential rain pouring down on the tent so we had to speed and put it down, the biggest problem though is that we were camped in the middle of a (very hilly) national park with only our tiny Chev Spark to get us out. We waited it out a few hours but decided to chance it, we had a few hairy moments, and a few puddles where we just closed our eyes and crossed our fingers but we finally made it out in one piece. We drove to Manzini where there was supposed to be a great craft market (Alice is on the quest for a wooden giraffe) but unfortunately it was closed so we went to an upmarket craft place along the road which had some awesome things but everything was about 10 times the price it would have been at the local market (Alice paid £7 for a magnet!!). After stopping for lunch we carried on back to South Africa (across the world’s quietest but most confusing border) and to St Lucia where we pitched our tent next to an overland truck and it felt just like old times! After exploring the town a little (there is nothing there although Alice bought a ostrich cuddly toy  and I got a great postcard for Cathy) and buying the world’s smallest pineapple (seriously it fits into my hand!) we returned to the hostel to some Zulu warriors dancing, chanting and jumping around next to the campfire. We watched their performance which was very similar to the dancing in Swaziland, resisted the obligatory tip you’re supposed to give and were about to leave when one Zulu (called Vivien) came up to Alice and asked if he could have his photo taken with  her. Turns out he’d had his eye on her throughout the dancing and only needed 11 more cows before he could afford her to be his wife, he’s got her contact details so he’s going to let her know once he’s saved up.

The weather was bad the next day and there’s only really beach at St Lucia so we decided to drive on to Durban, we’d both heard really good things about Durban and its beaches so we were excited to get there. Unfortunately, it’s just like any other city (although with a shocking crime rate) and after almost getting mugged, walking through some slightly sketchy areas, falling asleep on the beach (only to be woken up by rain) and going to a really badly organised museum (thanks LP - it’s listed as an excellent museum) we left feeling pretty disappointed (although the hostel was nice!). The drive from Durban was awful, along rubbish roads with varying speed limits (they seem to do this a lot in SA…change the speed limit from 100 to 60 to 120 to 80 to 100 all in the space of about 5km) and super slow lorries  interspersed with towns where the people just step out in front of you and arrived at our half way point, Port St Johns, in the pissing rain with hailstones the side of golfballs. We decided not to pitch the tent so spent the night in a shitty dorm, with rubbish beds and no mosquito nets so we were bitten alive (despite us both sleeping in full length clothes with shirts over our faces) by morning. The next day was another bad day of driving on much similar roads before we got to East London which is another ‘lovely’ South African industrial city. We checked into the hostel, explored the town (I.e. went to Shoprite and KFC) and played scrabble before bed.

Now, my South Africa experience hasn’t exactly been the best so far - considering apartied ended over 15 years ago, the country is incredibly segregated (which I find really uncomfortable especially coming from somewhere as diverse as the UK), the weather has been bad too (although I guess I can’t really blame this on the country), the accommodation is expensive (seriously £15 for a rubbish bed in a 10 person dorm), and everything too geared up for tourists ( I like to go places that aren't full of people all paying over the odds!). It’s not like I’ve had a bad time here but it’s not been anywhere near as good as some of the other countries we’ve been too, maybe I’m getting travel fatigue but still, I would not be rushing back here in a hurry. Anyway on a positive note, this was all about to change…we had decided (mainly due to lack of money) that we should volunteer somewhere for the last few weeks of our trip and the place we picked was an organic farm called Peas on Earth about 40km away from East London. The farm is run by a lovely couple called Nicky and Colin and they grow herbs, veg and fruit and have chickens, horses, ducks and pigs. In return for free food (and it’s good food!) and accommodation Alice and I have been working here for the last week or so. We’ve done loads of stuff including feeding the animals, weeding the beds, picking fruit and veg and preparing it for market, chopping down trees, trying to communicate with the two farm hands who only speak Xhosa, painting rooms, brushing down the horses, selling at the local market and building fences…basically anything and everything they need doing! It’s been awesome to be in one place for longer than a few days and it’s great to have nice (and healthy) home cooked food again. The other good thing is that I’ve actually found some dogs which not only am I not scared of, I actually (I hate to admit this) quite like! it’s a bit of a breakthrough so hopefully I will be less weary of other random dogs in the future now. The only downside has been the weather has been rubbish (it has rained A LOT) but we’ve come to expect that of SA now!

I will have to upload more pictures later, my internet time is almost up!

The best and worst of Southern Africa

So, I think I spoke too soon about Mozambique….I actually wrote that blog post the day before we left and the last day was a bit of a nightmare! We had to get up at 3.45am to get the bus at 4.30am, after a very expensive taxi ride ($12 for about 3 minutes), we arrived at a packed bus station with people milling all around the bus. We had bought the tickets the day before and had been assured we would have seats as our tickets had been relatively expensive. First we had to argue about not paying for our bags which involved them putting our bags on the trailer and then taking them off again when we said we wouldn’t pay, we wer tired, it was 4.10am and we were worried that they would re-sell our seats if we didn’t go and sit down so we paid in the end but it’s so annoying that noone else had to pay. We need not have worried, they re-sold our seats anyway! They packed 5 people across a row of seats intended for 4 people which wouldn’t have been so bad except everyone has luggage as well and the lady next to me took up at least a seat and a half so in reality we were 4 people on 2 and a half seats. Needless to say, 6 hours later when we finally got off the bus I was not a happy bunny and I‘m not sure my spine will ever quite sit right again! We took a minibus to Chimonio (again we were squashed but at least you expect that with a minibus) and again we had to argue about not paying for our bags and walked to a hostel (followed by a slightly crazy drunk guy) in town. The next morning we were up early again, and got a bus to the border town (which is called Machapanda - how cute!) and got stamped out of Moz (wooop!). Unfortunately, it’s not possible to exchange Metical (Mozambique currency) in the banks in either Moz or Zim (I don’t know why this is!) so the only way to do it is on the street in no-mans-land between Moz and Zim- no problems we thought, we know all the tricks as we had been doing it in North Africa. It was all going well and I got my USD and then counted my MTC into the guys hand (as Karl had told us to) and then as I walked away the guy was shouting saying that I had given him 7,000 instead of 8,000 now, I know this wasn’t true as I had counted it more than once and it’s the oldest trick in the book. We tried to just walk away (once you get to the border you’re sweet) but then they started following us, there were at least 5 guys all shouting ‘give me my money’, as I figured our safety was worth more than 1,000 (about £25) then I threw the dollars back at him, grabbed my 7,000 and shouted that I would never return to Mozambique as the people only want to rip you off and are just a bunch of criminals. Too harsh maybe, and I will return, especially to the north but that was just the icing on the cake of our Mozambique experience. Worst country in Southern Africa. 


Anyway, now to the best country in Soutern Africa….we crossed the border and were straight into Zimbabwe. We took a taxi and then a bus and we arrived in Harare early evening. The journey was pretty painless and it was nice as the locals were so helpful and we didn’t feek we were getting taken for a ride. The next day we explored the beautiful city of Harare (there are parks, trees and gardens everywhere and it’s pretty clean) and bought some souvenirs at the local market and then went to the cinema in the evening (for $2!) which was very exciting as I hadn’t been since Nairobi and that was to see a rubbish film (they had good cinema food too although no diet coke! unfortunately).

Crazy hyperinflation in the past!

Lovely Harare

The next morning we got a (nice) bus to Masivingo which is a town about 250km south west of Harare, from there we had a minibus ride and then a long walk (in the heat, with our bags, not pleasant) until we got to Great Zimbabwe. Great Zimbabwe is the oldest medieval city in Southern Africa and one of Zim’s World Heritage sites - it’s basically the ruins of an old settlement. It was pretty cool, and still quite intact although after seeing how well things have survived in Egypt it was pretty run down. The best bit was on top of a hill as the walls were all built around these huge stones which were already there. They were all dry stone walls as well so it’s pretty amazing that the whole thing didn’t fall down.

Great Zimbabwe

Built around the rocks

We camped right next to the ruins as well which was cool as we were the only tent and this nice lady who ran the shop cooked us a traditional dinner (spinach and peanut butter - strange, beef stew - good and mealie pap - good but pretty bland as it's just maize really) which was really sweet of her. We also met a Zimbabwean couple who were so impressed that we were travelling without a car and invited us up to their hut for drinks. They had lived in England but wanted to return home, it was very interesting to chat to people who had been here during all the ‘rubbish’ as they called it and they were curious about the UK’s perception of Zim. We had another long walk back to the road the next day and then a minibus ride to Gweru which is basically right in the middle of Zim. That minibus ride was funny as the driver slowed down for some baboons on the side of the road (which you literally see every day!) and all the people on the bus were really excited watching the baboons. When we got to town the drover offered to take us to the Antelope Park which was to be our next stop. Although it is called antelope park it is more famous for its lions and I secretly think the driver just wanted to take us so he could get a glimpse as he drove really slow through the whole park! Anyway, we arrived at the beautiful campsite and pitched our tent. The next morning we went out on a lion walk with two 18 month old lion cubs. The cubs are bred in captivity and then they walk with them to get them used to social interaction and the bush, they also encourage them to hunt on the walks as well. Once they are old enough they release them into parks and eventually the wild. The walk was amazing, and the cubs were pretty big considering they were so young. The lions were  brothers and they would play fight and then make up and then play fight and make up again, it reminded us of Tom and Phil, the two twins we used to have on the truck as they would bicker like that all the time!  It was awesome to get up so close to them and they quite often passed right by your legs and you could scratch their backs. There were some impala on top of a hill which one made a half ass attempt to chase but the impala got away which was a shame - our guide was very jealous we’d seen a leopard kill though, apparently the chance of seeing one in 1 in 100,000 (!). 

Hello lion

Thinking about going after the impala

We spent the whole day at the park, played some scrabble (obviously) and then managed to catch a free lift to Bulawayo with the owner who was headed that way. Today we're just killing some time in Bulawayo before getting the night bus back to South Africa (sadly) tonight


Thank you Zim....you've been awesome and I'll definitely be back soon!

Hmmm.....Mozambique

Quite a strange blog title but it sums up exactly what I think of Mozambique….I’m not sure!

We had two easy flights and a very painless and uneventful 8 hours in J’burg airport before we touched down in a grey, rainy Maputo. After paying $82(!!) for our visas (which involved having photos and fingerprints taken - the most advanced African visa we’d come across yet) we were out of the airport and a man was immediately trying to rip us off by charging us 3000mtc (about $90) for a taxi into town. We found a more reasonable one (300mtc) and headed to a hostel in town. The only space there was to camp and the only place to do it was on the roof so we climbed a rather rickety ladder (it was a wonder neither of us fell down with our huge bags) and pitched our tent in probably one of the strangest locations yet which unfortunately I forgot to get a picture of. That night was eventful, now our tent cost us $30 so you can image a) how small it is and b) how great quality, needless to say it fits me and Alice in (just) but with nothing else and we have to leave all our bags and stuff outside. This is fine, until it rains! At about midnight I woke up to the familiar sounds heavy raindrops falling on the tent, we had to drag our bags into the tent and arrange ourselves around them. I had also left my pillow in J’burg airport (stupid girl!) so lets just say it was probably the worst night’s sleep I have had on the whole trip. Couple the uncomfortableness with the fact I was convinced the tent was going to split at the seams and we were going to get soaked and I wasn’t sure if you’re supposed to be a tent with metal poles when it’s thunder and lightening outside! I was pretty glad when the morning came, even though I was knackered and at least we know now our tent is waterproof even in a thunder storm!

The next day we explored ‘Southern Africa’s most attractive capital’ (according to our good friend the LP), now I like to give the LP the benefit of the doubt but I seriously doubt anyone has ever actually been here and if so they must have had their eyes closed. Maputo is just like any other industrial African city - concrete buildings, rubbish everywhere, manic traffic and decaying pavements, nothing to write home about but at least we were back in ‘real’ Africa. There wasn’t much to see so we just ate and headed back for an early night. The next day we got a bus to Tofo beach, the journey was 7 hours (although it started at 5.30am - the buses leave early here!) and very uneventful as I slept/listened to my ipod almost the whole way. Unfortunately the weather at Tofo was just as bad - rainy and grey. We pitched our tent and spent the whole afternoon and evening watching movies (well Alice did - I generally fell asleep after the first 20 minutes and woke up somewhere near the end!). It was a shame because the beach we were staying on was so nice. The next morning I woke up to bright light and an incredibly warm patch on the side of the tent - from this I deduced it must obviously be sunny and jumped out of bed. Unfortunately I was mistaken and it was just as gloomy as it had been the last three days. We moped around a bit hoping the sun would come out and eventually decided that we would head further north and hope the weather would be better there.  It was quite a treck to get north, we had to get a minibus (where we got royally ripped off, and we knew we were getting ripped off but there’s not much you can do when you don’t speak the language. We ended up paying £2 for something that should have been 35p, obviously not huge sums of money but still annoying), then walk to a ferry port and catch a tiny little ‘speedboat’ (which I was convinced was going to sink) the 20 minutes across the bay, then take a proper bus for 5 hours up the road and then finally another minibus into Vinalculos where were going to stay for the next few days.  We made our way to a backpackers in town, we were not intending to stay there but it was late by the time we got into town and the place we wanted to stay was 25km north of town and you needed to call to arrange a pick up. The weather still wasn’t amazing but we could at least see some stars as we walked to the place. The next morning we were (finally) woken by sun (not a cloud in the sky), sea (right outside the door of out hut) and sand (in our dorm!). We took advantage of the good weather and spent the whole day getting burnt, we basically did the same the next day as well as there’s really not that much else to do here! I didn’t like that place that much expect that it was cheap and right on the beach but it was twinned with the only boat company in town which was just made up of 20 something Mozambique guys looking for white wives, and boy are they pushy. We had originally been planning to spend a day on the boat and go and see one of Mozambique’s Marine National Parks but the thought of spending 8 hours with these guys constantly harassing us made us have second thoughts. In the end we decided to take Moz for what it was (some really nice beaches) and head north to Zimbabwe and the money we saved we could use to go to the Mana Pools.

Overall, I’m completely undecided about Mozambique, some things have really surprised me - the transport is nowhere near as bad as people make out (although it does all leave at a ridiculously early hour in the morning, anywhere between 3 and 5am) and it doesn’t take that long to get around. There are backpackers here even though the internet and overland companies would like you to think otherwise. The beaches are some of the nicest in the world (out of those I‘ve seen), especially when the weather is good and the sea is beautiful and warm. But the most disappointing thing about Mozambique has been the people who have been nowhere near as friendly or welcoming as I expected. Maybe it’s just a language thing (English is one of the official languages of most countries in Southern Africa whereas it’s only Portuguese here), so people are more reluctant to talk to us or maybe they just get lots of annoying South African’s holidaying here that they just put us in the same boat but we have met 2 or 3 nice helpful people whereas everyone else either just ignores us, rips us off, asks for money or tries to marry one of us (where is Briar when you need her!). Having said all that it’s sad we couldn’t make it to the north (you have to enter from Tanzania or have LOTS of time as there’s not really such a good road network in the middle/north) and I will definitely come back as I don’t think I’ve spent long enough here to make a proper judgment but it’s just not been the cool, laid back paradise I was hoping for.

Oh well, Zimbabwe in the morn…I might be hiring a car there so maybe this will be my chance to bribe a cop!!

Ok, so I guess the beach in Mozambique was pretty nice!

Our hut in Vilankulos

Going it alone in South Africa....

I am currently trying to kill time in J’burg airport (i'm escpaing the rubbish weather and heading to Mozambique but more about that later!) and I’m managing to steal some wifi from somewhere so I figured this would be a perfect time to update this.

We arrived in Cape Town early Sunday morning after a short drive from Stellenbosch, it was weird being on the truck for the last time but I think most people were ready to get off.

Last day on the truck!

We spent the first night in an expensive dorm (of course Af Trails would drop us at an expensive dorm when they’re not paying!) in the suburbs in Cape Town. I spent the whole afternoon packing my bag/organising my stuff/throwing stuff out and then we headed out for dinner one last time with the group. The next day Alice and I moved into a much more reasonable dorm (£7/night as opposed to £15!) right in the centre of town which was nice and then we walked down to the waterfront. It was really nice and sunny and we were pleasantly surprised as it‘s still winter and it had been cold in Swapopmund and Stellenbosch. The waterfront was nice (it reminded me of a cross between Leeds and Sydney) but it’s just like any other city really. We had a look in some of the (expensive) shops, not able to buy anything and then had cake before heading back for an early night. The next morning we had to get up super early but it was cool because we were going shark cage diving! We got picked up and then after a quick breakfast and safety briefing (just keep your hands inside the cage!), we were off on a super fast boat into the middle of the ocean. After about 20 minutes of waiting the sharks appeared, as the water was so clear you could get a great view just from the top of the boat. I was amazed how big some of them were, one was at least 3m long. After that it was time to get in the cages, we were in groups of 4 and we were the third group to go. The guys on the boat have some fish heads tied to a pole which they use to attract the sharks to the cage. The first 2 groups were really lucky - they saw two different sharks and they swam right up to the cage (one even hit the cage with its tail). Then it was our turn, the water was freezing even though we were wearing full wetsuits and boots and its not like you can swim anywhere to warm up! The guy informed us that those two sharks had got bored and had gone but some more would be coming soon...40 minutes later, I couldn’t feel my legs, my hands were blue and there were still no sharks so we asked if we could sit on the side of the boat for a bit. Of course, the moment we did this a huge great white swam up so we quickly got back in the cage again and were able to watch him for about a minute or so before it was our time to get out and the next groups go. I was kind of disappointed by it on the whole - I know they’re wild animals and you can’t predict their movements but we’d paid a lot of money (£135) and when we had been sold it they said we’d be out all day, there would only be the 7 of us on the boat and we’d be able to get in and out of the cage as many times as we wanted.  Oh well…TIA and it was still a good day.

In the cage (the first time, when we were still happy and optimistic)

Shark! (unfortunately that is not me in the cage!)

The next two days we spent shopping (with no money!), eating (for a cheap as possible) and visiting the slavery museum (quite interesting but badly organised) and the District 6 museum (maybe the best museum I’ve been to - it’s all about the relocation of black people in the apartied period from District 6 in Cape Town. We were taken round by a guy who was forcefully moved and still lives in a township even thought it officially ended in 1994. It was pretty sad as none of those houses are there anymore but really interesting and it was good to be able to speak to someone who it actually affected). 

Bench in the District 6 Museum - these were actually all around SA up until 15 years ago

Thursday night we went out for one last ‘goodbye’ dinner with those in our group who were still around. Friday morning, Alice and I took the cable car up Table Mountain which was pretty cool as the views from the top were phenomenal, we were lucky as well as it had been cloudy all week but the visibility was still pretty good. We walked around at the top for a bit (it really is pretty flat) before taking the cable car back down (we were going to walk but ‘the tablecloth’ was beginning to ascend and once that hits you can’t even see you hand in front of your face so we didn’t think it would be that safe.

Up Table Mountain looking down on Cape Town

That afternoon we picked up a hire car and me, Keith and Alice drove the 5 hours east to Oudtshoorn. That evening we stopped at an awesome little backpackers (with two beautiful cats) and pitched our tent (we bought a £20 tent as we were fed up of shelling out loads for dorms….lets see how waterproof it is!). Oudtshoorn is famous for its ostrich farms (it used to be the feather capital of the world apparently), so the next morning we went for a guided tour of the safari show farm. The main reason we had gone for the tour is that we’d heard a rumour you could ride the ostriches there…and yes you could! After the 1 hour tour (which was actually very interesting) and the chance to stand on some eggs and feed on ostrich the guy asked if anyone wanted to sit or ride on one. I was up first so I had no idea what to expect but they basically sit you on their backs and you lean back and hold on to its wings and then the thing belts around the pen. It was pretty fun although it was so difficult to stay on. 

Sitting on an ostrich (easy)

Riding an ostrich (hard)

The other thing we’d heard about Oudtshoorn is that you could do croc cage diving at a wildlife ranch there. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to do it as it wasn’t hot enough so none of the crocs were in the water but the ranch was still pretty cool and we saw meercats (finally!), a tiger, some white lions and a porcupine.

Meercat!

The next day we went to the Cango Caves which are huge underground caves - they were huge and really cool and lit up really nicely although the pictures don’t really do them justice. 

Cango Caves

Originally from Oudtshoorn we had planned to drive to Mossel Bay but we kept seeing these adverts for foofie sliding in the national park at storms river so we figured we had to go down and check it out (foofie sliding is actually what south African’s call zip lining). It was really good fun - whizzing down between gorges and over rivers and stuff in the national park. We spent the night at a hostel with a scary dog just west of there in George which had nothing much going for it except a nice pizza restaurant. 

Foofie sliding! (notice the nice white sock/trainer look!)

 The next day we drove all the way (650km) back to just outside Cape Town (past a town called Scarborough!) where we stayed in a slashed inspired dorm on a very windy, rainy hill. We passed the time playing risk and eating fish and chips (which were almost as good as home). Before dropping the car off we spent an hour in Simon’s Town ,which is famous for its penguin colony, watching some lame penguins attempt to get in the sea but then decide it was too cold! The way they waddle around is hilarious though and watching them was a lot of fun.

penguins

After the short drive back to Cape Town to drop the car off, Alice and I said goodbye to Keith and headed to Robben Island. Both of us had high expectations of Robben Island (Nelson Mandela’s autobiography had been on the truck although I’d only read 1/3 of it so I was interested to see what happened!) although we had been warned against going as it was supposed to be rubbish. Unfortunately those people were right, although the prison was good and our guide was awesome (he was an ex political prisoner himself) we were ferried around the island in buses and we had no time to look at any of the exhibits/explore the prison. There were 50 of us on the tour and we were given about 5 seconds each at Mandela’s cell before the next group was rushed in. It was such a shame as I would have liked to talk to the guide more but it was interesting to see and hear his stories of the prison.

We spent the whole next day on the internet umming and arring about what we were going to do next. We finally decided to follow the weather (it’s been freezing in SA) and head to Mozambique so we booked two last minute flights (Cape Town to J’burg, J’burg to Maputo) and jumped on a plane. I am now trying to kill time in J’burg airport (that’s the problem with cheap flights - they’re never at good times!) but I will be in the sun in Mozambique this evening!

Botswana and Namibia....where there are more KFCs than home!

I just realised how long it’s been since I updated this - things have been a little busy recently (lots of activities!) and there’s been a lack of free wi-fi so I haven’t had the chance. I’m in a cute little hostel in George, SA now though with not a lot to do so it seemed like the perfect opportunity. So here goes, back to Zambia…..

Upon leaving Livingstone Karl told us we would be getting a ferry across the border between Zambia and Botswana. This news was met with groans from us guys who had been on since Egypt (remembering the 36 hour Egypt Sudan ferry) and excitement from everyone else as it was something different from the truck. Luckily it was only a 5 minute journey and we were soon on the other side getting stamped into Botswana.

No sooner had we piled back into the truck we were told that we had to get out again for a ‘foot and mouth check’, I really thought they were having a laugh but apparently foot and mouth is rampant in some parts of Botswana. This wasn’t the only check we had to do though and for the next 5 days we spent in Botswana at least once every 2 hours we would get stopped by some health officials who make everyone get off the truck with all their spare pairs of shoes and walk through one of those disinfectant things. You are also not allowed to transfer (and I quote from the official) ‘any meat products…..including milk and cheese’ so when we are all off they get on and search the truck for any contraband goods. Obviously we just hid everything (it’s a huge truck with loads of floor compartments), but it’s still a bit nerve wrecking as they’re searching that they would confiscate our meat and cheese and we’d have to have veggie for dinner and salad sandwiches for lunch!

The other strange thing we noticed almost immediately about Botswana is that there are fried chicken places on every corner, even in the smallest towns there are KFCs and Hungry Lions (their local chain - because lions are known for eating chicken apparently which I guess could be true) everywhere…I don’t know why I bother coming away sometimes as everywhere is just the same! Everyone was very excited at the prospect of western food except me as there were no McDonalds (have to wait to SA for that culinary delight!)

We drove straight to Chobe National Park which is famous for the 45,000+ elephants which live there, I chose to sit by the pool rather than take the optional game drive (there’s a bit of pattern developing here) but the campsite was nice and we had scrabble to entertain us for the afternoon.

For the next three nights we stayed at a really nice campsite in Maun, the gateway to the Okovanga Delta. A few of us had decided not to go into the delta (as it was just MORE game walks/drives) so we hung out by the pool and watched movies which was really nice as we were away from the group for a while (no matter how much you like people, it’s difficult spending 24 hours a day together and it’s annoying always being in a group of 20+). Not having wanted to have missed out on not going into the delta we took to the skies for ‘a much better view anyway’. It was pretty cool (and cheap - $65 for an hour!!) as we were in a 5 man plane (me, Alice, Keith, Laura and Sam) and I hadn’t been in a plane that small since my Caltech flying club days. The views were awesome though and really makes you appreciate how big the delta actually is, we saw crocs, elephants, hippos and the usual array of antelopes too. The only downside was that our pilot looked about 12 and he didn’t do any tricks or stunts or anything (the other plane were flying about 5m away from the ground at one point and they did loads of dives), it was still fun though.

Elephants in the delta

Okovango delta

Sadly we left Botswana the next day, which was a shame as I had wanted to see the salt pans there (they are the biggest in the world) and also meet some more local people (the woman we had seen on the sides of the roads were wearing almost Tudor style full dresses and hats) but apparently we would meet many more in Namibia.

After crossing into Namibia at a slightly creepy deserted border post we had two days of solid driving and bush camping (well I say bush camping - we literally slept in two laybys right by the road although one was about 1km away from Angola which was relatively exciting) we were at Etosha National Park. Now, Etosha is (according to the LP), one of the best places in Africa to see game. The animals must have got sick of all the tourists though as in out 6 hours of game driving (leaving at 5.30am - anyone who knows me knows that I would have been in a great mood) we basically saw nothing except the usual elephants, zebras, antelopes and a few lions but even that wasn’t that exciting considering how many we’ve seen. 

Lions in Etosha NP

The highlight of the park though was the beautiful campsite we stayed in right in the centre of the park. There was a really nice pool (which Alice, Charly and I spent all afternoon sitting and playing scrabble next to while everyone else went on another game drive), nice toilets and possibly the best showers we’ve had on the whole trip. The other really cool thing about the camp though was that it had a floodlit waterhole and because it’s right in the middle of the park it is always full of animals. We went down for a few hours after dinner (night is the best time to see most things) and saw hyenas, lions, black rhinos (which was actually the first black rhino I’ve seen) and a jackal (who was the cutest thing ever running all over like a crazy chicken). It was pretty cool as I felt like we were intruding much less than usual when we’re in vehicles and the animals didn’t seem to know we were there at all. It was annoying though as a leopard came just after we left (Antony got an amazing picture), I would definitely go to the park again just for that campsite. The next morning we had another 3 hours of game driving (again not seeing a lot) before hitting the road again. 

Rhino at our campsite

Beautiful Etosha sunset

The next place we stopped at was a cheetah park. It’s basically a reserve for cheetahs that have been orphaned/injured and would die otherwise. There are around 25 cheetahs living there including 3 ‘domesticated’ ones who live in the house with the owners. We were allowed to go in a pet these ones which was so surreal as they purr and meow like regular cats but are huge and you can feel how strong they are. They also like to steal/play with peoples shoes. In the evening, they took us out in trailers to watch them feed the ’wild’ ones. It was pretty amazing, watching them jump and dive for the meat the rangers were throwing them. At the end as well they threw in a whole dead donkey and we watched them demolish it in a few minutes.  

Cheetah!

Me, Charly and Alice patting the cheetah

Even a cheetah thinks crocs are ugly!

The next night we camped in a place called Spitzkoff which is similar to Uluru in Australia. The rock formations were amazing and made a great backdrop for camping and it has been one of my favourite locations for ages. In the evening we climbed one of the smaller formations to watch the sunset which was beautiful and the pictures really don’t do it justice.

Spitzkoff campsite

Pre sunset

The next day we drove down the shipwreck coast (surprisingly we passed a number of shipwrecks) to a town called Swakopmund. The first thing I think hit us about this place was that it was freezing, it looked like Germany and there was free wifi in the place we were staying. We were also staying in dorms so it was the first bed most of us had slept in since Zanzibar. Swakop is the adventure capital of Namibia and were lots of locals, South Africans and Germans go on holiday. It has also been the most ‘western’ built up place we’ve been to since I left the UK so it was a bit of a culture shock really - lots of white people wearing normal clothes, looking like they’d showered and having loads of cash to splash around. Definitely not what we were used o but we had a nice few days eating, shopping and drinking beer on tap (first time since Ethiopia….although it was about 5 times the price!). While we were there a few of us went quad biking on the sand dunes which was cool although I wasn’t allowed on a fast bike as I can’t ride a manual. Still great scenery though and the bikes got up to about 60km/hr. 

Other people in the group also went sandbording ( I was jealous until I found out there are no lifts and sand is HARD to walk up….it also costs more for a pass than a ski pass and I figured it could be no way as good), and skydiving (which I was very jealous but I couldn’t justify the £200 (!) considering I’d already done it in Fiji and this was only from 10,000 ft). I think everyone was sad to leave (especially the free wifi and hot showers) but Swakop was eating away at my money.  The next day we drove all day and bush camped in an incredibly windy spot next to the road. Our tent blew away twice after we’d put it up (we really should get some pegs!) and then it was incredibly difficult to sleep as the sides kept going over our faces the wind was so strong, I don’t think anyone got much sleep that night!

We were up early (well not quite as early as we should have been - both me and Alice slept through her alarm) the next morning to drive to Sossusvlei which are some of the biggest sand dunes in the world. Normally I’m not a fan of early starts but this was really incredible. We began to climb the 400m dune which didn’t seem or look big until after walking in very deep sand for 15 minutes with more sand/wind blowing in my face I announced that I had ‘hit a wall’ and Troy informed me we were less than a quarter of the way up! It was well worth it at the top though and even more worth it as we ran/rolled/jumped/fell down the steepest side and back to breakfast which was awaiting us at the truck. 

Top of the dune

Falling on my ass on the way down!

From there it was another very long driving day (with hardly any stops….there aren’t many towns in the middle of the desert) onto the Fish River Canyon where we spent the night and I cooked for the very last time. We had another early start the next morning and we drove to check out the canyon which is the 2nd biggest in the world (after the Grand Canyon), it was pretty cool although nowhere near as big or as impressive as the Grand Canyon but Charly and I had quite a lot of fun (you can tell we were tired) reinacting  the Britney Spears, I’m a Girl, not yet a woman video. That afternoon we crossed the border (with no fuss and a tiny tiny stamp for South Africa even though they insist you have to have 2 consecutive blank pages and almost meant I had to get a new passport before I came out here) and drove on to the Orange River where we spent the night. 

The drives in Namibia have been awesome, and some of my favourites since North Africa. I think it’s because they’re quintessentially African - deserts and sand dunes and big rock formations. it’s also one of the most sparsely populated countries in Southern Africa so we haven’t come across many big towns which means the people are friendlier and there’s more bush camping :)

We spent the next two nights in wine country (Stellenbosch) just east of Cape Town. I didn't take the wine tour as I saw many vinyards when I lived in CA but I did enjoy two days of eating (there was a McDonalds there - my first Big Mac since Aswan!!), drinking and shopping (now we're back in the 'western world' it's not so acceptable to dress in your pjs!) . 

Post McDonalds!

From there we had an easy drive (although we burst one last tyre on the way) to Cape Town. 

and that's it! My overland trip is officially over, it's been tough at times especially being around so many people 24/7 but I've had an amazing time and seen so much more than if I'd done it alone. It's still two months until I go home though....here's to going it alone (well with Alice) in South Africa (and beyond!)

Camping with the animals in Zambia

After a painless crossing from Malawi we spent our first night in Zambia in a very unremarkable campsite in Chipata (we thought it was called Chippatti at first, probably the most interesting thing about the place!). From there it was a 4 hour drive along a particularly dusty, bumpy road (although nowhere near as bad as the one in North Kenya) to South Luangwa National Park. Tris had already told me that this was her favourite park in Africa (which is a pretty good achievement being as her and Scott have been travelling around Africa for the last 20 or so years) but nothing could have prepared me for the beautiful view we were greeted with when we arrived. After a quick talk about elephant safety (I’m not kidding), we were jumping in the pool to ease the midday heat somewhat. 


The camp is situated on the Luangwa river, on the other side of the river from the camp is the South Luangwa National Park, the river is the park boundary. As the river is so low at the moment and there is a food shortage in the park a lot of wildlife crosses the river to the campsite. The first night we had to hide under the truck as a large bull elephant changed through the camp (they can actually run surprisingly fast considering how big they are), luckily we had packed all our food away but the other truck was in the middle of eating when they came. The elephants basically destroyed their camp, ripping open boxes and stamping on plastic containers while the guys had to sit on the roof of their truck and watch - there was a particularly cheeky one who opened a whole bag of salt and then turned to everyone watching and poured it all over himself….hilarious. They even had a little walk through the bar, knocking peoples drinks all over the place, I was a little concerned about my laptop as I’d left it in the bar in all the commotion, but it was alright, apparently elephants haven’t discovered facebook yet.  That night when we were sleeping we were visited by elephants, giraffes and a hippo. Alice tried to wake me up but apparently I just muttered something about not knowing where I was, asking where Alice was and then went back to sleep….dam sleep talking!


The next day, the same stupid truck left all their food out again (actually it was our food - we had donated them breakfast as we felt sorry for them) and surprise surprise the elephants came back for more. As it was the middle of the day I have much better pictures/videos of them annihilating their camp which I will try and upload.  That night we had a whole family stood less than a foot away from our tent which was amazing, I actually woke up this time and it’s amazing how huge yet silent these amazing mammals are. Unfortunately they were the only animals we saw that night although I think we were secretly glad as apparently a pride of lions had wandered through the camp only a few days before!


I think everyone was sad to leave South Luangwa, it was a awesome place to chill out and it was cool to see wild animals actually in the wild rather than chasing them on a game drive. We spent the next two days driving (with a cool bush camp in the middle where Alice freaked herself out with Tris inspired stories of the slasher and a night in Lusaka just so Karl could go to Nandos) and arrived in Livingstone just in time for a sunset cruise on the Zambezi river. I say, sunset cruise, there was actually free food and alcohol so it turned into a bit of a booze cruise - most people were home and in bed by 8pm - lightweights! I was, of course, out until the wee hours. If my mother has taught me anything about alcohol its definitely stamina! 


The next day we were up early to go and watch Amy do a bungee jump over Victoia Falls. Rather her than me for sure - even watching I thought I was going to wet myself. She did it though and liked it so much she even did the gorge swing and zip line as well. Crazy girl. The afternoon we went to see the falls which were just as in the pictures and the spray was pretty amazing. Charly, Alice and I went out for some great Mexican food that night (with real cheese….bonus!). The next day most of the group went rafting so after the success of our wood carving school we decided to go and check out the local art centre. It was pretty cool, I wanted to do stone carving but we didn’t have time so I made a giraffe out of wire and an old fanta can instead. It actually turned out pretty well, I could probably sell it at some of the markets here for at least $10! The next morning we took a trip out to Devil’s pool which is basically a place right at the top of the falls where you can swim and look over. The whole trip was a bit of a disaster and was so overpriced but we got what we wanted in the end…pictures of us swimming right at the top of the falls. It was quite scary actualy as there was a really strong current dragging you towards the edge, when we had finished they also decided to tell us all these stories about people who fell off the edge and died. Gotta love the H&S in Africa!


I am now taking advantage of the meat pies and the free wifi in the bakery here. We’re leaving to Bostwana tomorrow and I’m quite sad, Zambia has definitely been one of my favourite countries in Southern Africa so far. 

Beautiful South Luangwa

The view from our tent in South Luangwa

Elephant in camp!

Elephant watching from a safe distance (top of the truck)

Pretty cool spot for a bush camp

Pretending to be monkeys (why not!?) just outside of Lusaka

Victoria Falls

Jumping in to the devils pool...yes that edge is actually the top of the falls

Marvellous Malawi

We spent five nights in Zanzibar and got the ferry back to Dar (which was ridiculously choppy and we all got seasick) where we were staying for one night before heading south. That night I was lucky enough to be able to catch up with one of my friends from uni who is working as an engineer out here (with a good job and an even better wage….maybe I should start investigating). We went out for dinner at this great Thai place and then on to some bars and the casino (turns out I’m pretty good at blackjack…. I came out about $35 on top) and finally rolled into bed about 4am. It was fun though and it was nice to see someone other than the people who are on my truck for a bit. 


The next two days were just driving and very uneventful - we stayed the first night in a pretty nice campsite in the middle of nowhere but they had comfortable sofas so I was happy (it’s the small things). The next night was our first bush camp since Samburu (over 5 weeks!) which was really exciting (well it was for me, Charly and Alice, most of the people who had joined us in Nairobi just looked a little scared and bewildered). It’s weird, I never appreciated bush camping when we were doing it all the time as it was just what we did, but now we haven’t been doing any I realised how much I missed it. This wasn’t the best site (it was no quarry that’s for sure) as it was next to a rather ominous forest but still, the sunset was amazing and it was awesome to be out in the middle of nowhere in the silence again. 


It was a good job it was so quiet as we had a ridiculously early start the next day (even earlier for me as I had to do breakfast) as we headed south/west to the Malawi border. Again, the crossing was stress free and the nice border official even asked me where I would like the stamp in my passport (which was great as I am very quickly running out of blank pages). Immediately as we crossed over the landscape changed (it is amazing how this happens) from lush green trees in Tanzania to brown wasteland with sporadic trees in Malawi. 


We are whizzing through Malawi as there’s not actually that much to see here other than the lake and the landscape. The first camp we stayed at was in a beautiful location on the lake surrounded by mountains. Unfortunately we only stayed there for 2 nights, I could have easily stayed longer as there was loads to do there with the local people. One day me, Alice, Amy, Daniel, Johan, Steph and Keith went to wood carving school in the local village (Malawi is famous for carved stuff) which was fun, although we were more like the entertainment as people came from miles around to watch us (one kid told me he’d walked 2 hours when he’d heard that we were there). The carving was much more difficult than we’d expected although we all managed to make something (Alice & Amy - masks, Keith - leopard, Johan - hippo, me & Steph - keyrings and Daniel - a man) with a little help from all the locals/kids/chickens that were gathered around. I actually got offered a baby by his sister, I held him for a while until he tried to pull down my top so I would feed him….I had to draw the line there as it was getting a little freaky. 


That evening me, Charly, Keith and Galbyn (and a few others) did what we do best and headed out to find a local disco. We semi succeeded, in that we found a bar with music but there was no disco ball unfortunately. Also, when we arrived they decided to play the two songs they know westerners like (Wavin Flag and Waka Waka - google them if you don’t know them, they were played incessantly here during the world cup) which was great, except they just had them on a loop so after the 7th time we were going a little crazy. We also learnt some new dance moves (the bird dance and the synchronised leg kick) to add to our repertoire so I’m sure we will be bringing out at some point in the near future (I will try and upload a video). We also got to try the local brew Chubuku or Shake Shake as the locals call it (so called as it’s so gritty you’ve got to shake it up pretty well before you drink it), it was probably the weirdest local drink we’ve tried as it comes in what looks like milk cartons and it’s made from white maize, it’s thick, sour and gritty and after about 3 mouthfuls I was beginning to think the Simien Mountain brew wasn’t so bad at all (I think the best way to describe it is if you went out drinking all night, came home, drunk a litre of milk and spewed it up into a old milk carton…lovely). We did manage to finish one though (with a little help from the locals), and we were back drinking our trusty Carlsberg (they own all the breweries in Malawi…very strange). I think the only thing missing was the prostitutes, other than that it was a great night.


The next day we stopped at this carving market, it was pretty crazy even though there were only 11 stalls the people were ruthless, literally trying to swap the clothes of our backs for wooden stuff they’d carved. They had some pretty nice stuff (coffee tables, chess sets, bowls etc.) but it’s difficult to imagine how stuff would look at home, especially as I won’t have a house when I get back. In the end I swapped the England shirt I had bought in Sudan for a mini Malawi chair which was pretty cool and a wooden ring. I actually got a scarf out of the day as well as Alice was about to swap this really nice one she’d bought in Turkey until I said I would buy it from her, in the end I swapped it for my wooden ring. Result  J




We spent the next two days chilling at Kande Beach on the lake although after the first morning I was going stir crazy as there were so many people there (we counted 9 other overland trucks at one point!) and we were right in the middle of nowhere so there was no local village/people to go and see (just an expensive tourist craft market). In the past I would have just sunbathed/listened to my ipod/read a book but when you spend so many hours doing that every day on the truck you want to do other stuff. The second day we hired a paddle boat to go out to this Island about a kilometre away where there was supposed to be good snorkelling. The whole thing was a bit of a disaster, the snorkels we hired let water in, the boat we hired let water in and both Amy and Tash don’t like open water. We managed to get there alright (although we couldn’t snorkel because of the masks), and moored up the boat (although we couldn’t get off as the rocks were way too slippery) and started playing scrabble (scrabble is a bit of truck obsession). After about twenty minutes we realised that we were actually sinking as the boat had let so much water. We all jumped off and basically had to swim back to the beach towing the boat - funny now, but it was a bit stressful at the time as there was quite a strong current and as I mentioned Tash and Amy aren’t that keen on water. When we got back we found out that the guy shouldn’t have even been renting out boats anyway and he was using someone elses boats and pocketing the money. Only in Africa. After that expedition, reading in the sun didn’t seem like such a bad option so I spent the rest of the day doing that. 


I’m currently on the truck on the way to the Zambian border. The people hate Madonna here which I think is hilarious, we actually passed through the village where she bought one of her kids from, she’s built a school there but no one wants to send their kids there. Stupid rich famous people. I’ve really enjoyed Malawi but I feel like we’ve rushed through a bit, I guess that’s the issue with being on a truck.Oh well, I guess its an excuse to come back!


Apparently there are elephants wandering through the campsites in Zambia....awesome :)