From waterfalls to lakes to the Indian Ocean

Hellooo,

Sorry this has been a bit of a long time coming, with visa issues, truck problems and university deadlines looming over us the last few weeks the blog got put on a bit of a back burner.

So last time Malc wrote we were in Victoria falls, he had a ridiculous haircut and was attempting to grow his beard until Cairo. I am happy to announce the hair cut has grown out but sadly the beard is still going strong and he has taken to putting cocktail sticks in it now haha. Anyway, as it was our last time to Victoria falls we thought we would pay to do the walk around the falls, something I hadn’t done since my passenger trip. At high water the walk is definitely an experience at times you struggle to see what’s in front of you, with what feels like buckets of water raining down on you. The power of the falls always amazes me!

                                

From Victoria Falls we passed through Zimbabwe, another big stop was Antelope park… Antelope park is not as its name suggest. Alongside its springing antelope are hundreds of lions. It’s always a highlight on the trip as passengers can walk with lions, play with lion cubs, see massive lions feed and lots more, all while contributing to the ALERT programme which aims to release captive bred lions into the wild. This time round Malcolm and me did our final lion walk as well as sampling their full range of accommodation. Antelope park is one of the nicest places to upgrade and as it was our last trip and low tourist season they kindly upgraded Malc and me from our usual crew room for free. We sampled the river lodges where we awoke to the sound of monkeys and lions, then the honeymoon suites which had a free standing bath over looking the river and finally a luxury safari tent. We didn’t have many complaints there!

   

The rest of Zimbabwe flew by stopping at Great Zimbabwe, Chimanmani mountains and Harare (where Tatonka got some TLC). Next we were enroute to Mozambique, our aim was to buy the visas at the border, a risky process as Iain our old driver once spent a whole day waiting for the power to come on, only to have to turn around and head back to Harare and process the visa their instead. We arrived hopeful but with this in the backs of our minds. The lights off in the immigration office was a bad sign and indeed the power was off but they did have a new purchase of a generator, an empty generator however. So $20 later we had a working if slightly dodgy generator printing our visas and we were soon to be on our way. We shot through Mozambique only stopping for a roadside beer (not Malcolm) and 1 bush cap before entering Malawi.

                 

Malawi’s is after much deliberation my favourite country on trip. The landscape is gorgeous, the beaches are stunning, the people are amazingly friendly and just the atmosphere is so laid back. We spent 6 nights in Malawi, 1 in the capital Lilongwe, 3 in the overland hotspot Kande and 2 in the chilled out Chitimba. Kande was our destination for the amazing day of Truck Olympics, pig roast and Bad taste party. The group went all out, they bribed the judges (Me and Malc) for truck Olympics brilliantly, stuffed themselves silly on the pig and bought the ugliest clothes imaginable for the bad taste party. We then recooperated at Chitimba with a truck quiz and beer can up the bum chicken.

Finally, we had 2 bush camps in Tanzania before ending up in Dar es Salaam with a view of the Indian Ocean. Now it was time for some serious rest and relaxation as we headed over to Zanzibar for 4 nights. Which conveniently is where I am typing this from and means we are up to date!

I hope all is well with everyone reading this, love to all

Grace

Running between countries.

So we have made it to Zimbabwe safe and sound after a great time in South Africa, Namibia and Botswana. After a lot of drinks on one of the first nights our truck (may have been after a wine tour) has now been named TATONKA, a very fitting name for such a beautiful truck.

                               

                      Some of the TATONKA group, Barrie on the top left likes to be different!!!

On the same night the idea for everyone (the boys) to get mo hawks…..so we now look like a bunch of crazy rock stars travelling on a truck, it does make the constant dealings with Zimbabwe police even more exciting and interesting.

                                       

                                                   After a hard day at the wine tour.

Well in Namibia, where we do a lot of bush camping (just pull of the side of the road somewhere and camp), which is technically illegal there, without getting caught. We did find one spot that had Zebra and Oryx (antelope) everywhere and thought it would be a great place to camp, but our excitement was short lived as we found out we were in a national park and by no means could we camp here. We knew it seemed to good to be true.

As we are going a long way on this trip through a lot of different countries, when at home I got a second passport. So I have one almost full but with my visa for Ethiopia in it and one empty. I wanted to change onto my empty one so I would have a much easier time getting to Zanzibar. Zanzibar likes to charge anyone with a lot of stamps in their passport $200 for a working visa as they must work for an overland company. It is true, I do work for an overland company but I do not work in Zanzibar…..and as I have told the immigration a lot when getting to Zanzibar…you are no longer a country….you are part of Tanzania and I don’t need a working visa for there so I don’t for here, it never seems to go down too well though haha.

So when entering Botswana I tried to change onto my new passport…but they wouldn’t do it unless I get an exit stamp from Namibia in it. So the Namibia side of the border isn’t to far back so I start running back there with both passports to get it stamped. I don’t recommend to anyone running between borders, but lucky for me this border is very quiet and the police don’t seem to mind too much that I am running back. I then need to convince the Namibia side that I need a stamp in my new passport. With this done I then run back to Botswana and get my new passport stamped. Success!!!

As my parents can confirm there are a lot of elephants in Botswana, great things to be dodging on the road. This also means there is a lot of signs warning of elephants. Grace and I have thought a lot about getting something everyone can sign from the trip that we can hang in Snake Park (great overlanding camp in Tanzania) to remember our trip and we thought an elephant warning sign was a perfect choice. So we found one that fell off the back of a truck and onto TATONKA, with the help of a hammer and spanners.

We have just spent 3 nights in Victoria Falls where our last night was spent at Bomas, translates to place of eating, it is an all you can eat buffet with game meat….ideal. It also involves face painting, palm reading, drumming, dancing and eating worms, all in all it is a full nights entertainment. It also involved being told not to go outside as there is a leopard outside, got to love Africa.

A plate with five different meats and the Boma man, making ideal cocktails!!!!!

                                 

The mo hawks at Victoria Falls hotel for high tea, luckily we didn’t get kicked out. If you can’t read the sign it had the distance to Cape Town and Cairo on it….we are steering the ship…..still a way to go.

                                          

Everything looks better from the air

So, while home in the UK a month or so ago I had my birthday. Now presents between Malc and me are always a little tricky as we are limited to what we can use and store on the road, we have done most of the activities out here and we are both generally unhelpful with offering any suggestions to the other. That said, Malcolm delivered a winning present in the form of a foam airplane toy with a message inscribed which said “Everything looks better from the air- exchange this for a flight over the Delta”.

The Okavango Delta in Botswana is one of the largest inland deltas in the world and is home to the biggest migration of animals worldwide. It’s always a popular stopping point on our trips with most people (myself and Malcolm included) who opt to do the 2 night Mokoro canoe excursion which entails being poled through narrow waterways to a remote patch of land which you make your camp for the 2 nights while spending the days on bush walks, relaxing reading a book or messing around in the canoes.

               

There is also the option to do a scenic flight over the delta yet the opportunity never really arose for me to go, cue Malcolm’s present…

So armed with my foam airplane which I could exchange for a flight we hunted for other willing passengers to bring the cost down. Given that the guys off our truck were on the canoe trip we thought this may be a little hard, but much to our surprise a lovely British couple David and Tish bumped into us and were also looking for willing passengers. (If you get chance you should look them up www.bigorangebedford.com they have some awesome travel tales and an equally awesome truck) So quick call around and we were booked onto an hour long flight in a 3 seater plane.

The flight was amazing for showing the vastness of the delta, the water level is low right now but you can still easily see the waterways and the distance they stretch is as far as the eye can see. We got lucky and saw a lot of wildlife including giraffe, zebra, wildebeest, hippos and crocodiles. I managed to catch this pic of a huge group of water buffalo in a big group all going for an afternoon dip. 

               

We also saw hundreds of elephants on the flight which was great but whenever we spotted them the pilot would swoop down causing my stomach to do backflips and causing me to look fairly pale by the end of the flight!!! Still it did mean we could get some cool photos…

              

               

We’re now in Victoria Falls, which is the opposite of the delta and is actually high water right now!

Grace x