Last day

The last day of the trip. Today we will reach our final destination, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.

To get there in reasonable time we have to start early, in the crack of dawn as usual.

Today we are just driving, so we have to pack our lunch at breakfast to eat while driving. We just do a few quick stops for bush-toilet. 

After approx six o hours driving our driver stops at the side of the road and Morrison won't start again. They have to get to the engine and do something and after a few minutes he is ready to go again. 

We are now pretty close to the border, but it still feels like we are driving forever before we finally get there. The border procedure goes pretty smooth and we get in to Zim. They give us a quick tour of town before we go to the activity centre and confirm our activities before we check in to our hotel.

Suddenly the group is splitted without us even realising it. 

Myself, roomie and the four Americans are going on a sunset cruise on Zambezi river and I manage to just have one of the best shower in four weeks before departure.

The cruise was nice. All drinks and snacks were included, so this was our happy hour of the day. We saw not only a beautiful sunset, but hippos, a crocodile and some elephants.

We managed to get dropped of at the restaurant, Mama Africa, where we had reservations for tonight. The dinner was great and we had such a great time.

After walking back to the hotel we needed a night cap in the hotel bar, even if eyes and bodies were tired now.

Tonight I have no roomie, a strange feeling to be on my own again.

Christmas Eve

Waking up on Christmas Eve, the sun is shining and the frogs has sang for us all night. 

This was to be a bit of a different Christmas Eve since I had to spend most of it in Morrison going to Lusaka, the capital of Zambia. 

We drove along mountain roads and a green landscape was passing by outside our windows. It was very forest looking. Every now and then there was a little village or a farm, but mainly vegetation for most of the route.

We stopped at a local market along the road. They sold baskets on the one side of the road and fish on the other, with some different stalls in between.

I tried something they deep fried and turned out to be a piece of dough. It was like a savoury doughnut. 

We got to Lusaka and had to drive straight through town, which took a long time due to traffic. On the other side we stopped at a shopping mall. We where told they had wifi so that we could contact our friends and families for Christmas, but it wasn't working.

At our campsite we were met by a small herd of zebras walking around the chalets. Pretty cool!

Due to getting upgraded and installed I never got to see them really up close. Anyway, we set up for our last Happy Hour and because it is Christmas we had bubbles.

Dinner tonight was really different from other nights. Lots of food. It was a nice last meal together. We even got ice cream for pudding that was specially delivered to the camp. 

The evening ended with a few drinks in the bar. Great night!

However it was time to go to bed. The trip is not yet finished and we have a long days drive ahead of us tomorrow.  

South Luangwa NP, Zambia

Even tonight it was raining. For every night I'm more convinced we are doing the right thing by upgrading.

Our lost soldiers was brought back and the group was complete again, ready for new adventures.

Today we are leaving Malawi to cross the border into Zambia. Just before the border, at a road block, a police officer decides we don't have all our papers in place and we are kept there by the side of the road for quite a while until it is all sorted and we can proceed. 

Border passing goes rather quick this time. 

Welcome to Zambia!

We stop at the first town and a supermarket to stock up and then just outside town we stop for lunch at a nice camp site. 

The last part of today's journey goes through a green bushy landscape. Not as much farmland anymore. Unfortunately we are passing through quite a bit of rain, but rather while driving, than when we reach our destination. 

Our destination today was South Luangwa NP. The camp was beautifully placed on the river bank. 

Tonight me and my roomie upgraded to a great permanent tent. We had our own bathroom and a beautiful view, comfortable beds and I was a happy puppy.

Together with our neighbours we had our Happy Hour as the sun set, overlooking the river and its hippos, elephants etc... 

Life can be hard sometimes! :)

Tonight I will go to sleep listening to hippos and that is such a lovely experience.

Six of us were up in the crack of dawn to go on a game drive. It turned out to be such a beautiful and successful morning. We saw lots of animals including a big group of wild dogs, about ten hyenas, all full and tired after a big meal at the look of them. We also saw giraffes, impalas, zebras, elephants etc. But unfortunately no cats.

On return back to the camp we got a nice second breakfast and then joined the others by and in the pool. It was a lovely sunny day. 

After lunch three of us went for a little walk. We were told about a lagoon but when trying to find it we passed some chalets and there we saw acme elephants wandering around, it turned out to be six of them. We got a little bit too close for our own good and a guy from the lodge came running telling us to get in the one building. It was an open bar area from where we had full view of the elephants. They walked around looking for fruits to feed on and they were right up by the building. If we were allowed to we could have reached out a hand and touched them. What an experience!

However, we now had a problem. One of the big bulls didn't want to leave the property and we had to be back at camp for a sunset game drive. Then a second bull came back. When they both went behind the on chalet the guy escorted us out of there.

The sunset drive wasn't as successful as the morning. However the sunset was amazing!

A late Braai waited for us on arrival. Lovely day!

Another early morning. We packed up and left the camp in two safari vehicles. Morrison will meet up a little later. 

First we visited a village and was shown around and told how the people lived. At the end of the tour they sang and danced. A very good visit.

Lots of kids here too, but better behaved than in other places we've been.

After a stop at a textile workshop, that was closed in December and only the shop was open, Morison came to pick us up.

A found a new friend in that shop, a tall man, and I'm taking him home. But the thing is a think he is a her.

We drove back to Chipati where we stopped at the same supermarket as two days ago before we continued to Petauke where we will stop for the night.

We got some heavy rain and there was nowhere to sit inside for dinner, why we all stood outside the truck and the ablution block. Even our happy hour before dinner had to move due to the rain and became a picnic on the floor of one of the cabins.

Yip, sleeping in a bed tonight too...

History lesson

Today started with a guided tour around the local village, Ngala. We passed the fishermen who had been out fishing during the night and was now cleaning nets and letting the fish dry. Along the beach was lots of women dong washing. 

We continued into the village where we was told about how they get land, build houses, what they grow etc.

They took us to the local school. It is a primary school standard 1-8. They have 1400 learners and 9 teachers. A class is often just over 200 learners.

Schooling is free and most families in the village send their kids to school. They might not finish the eight standards and few move up to secondary school and further. 

We visited the health clinic. Two doctors, three nurses and the rest of the in total 26 staff look after around 220 patients a day. In average 3 babies are born here every day.

The most common illness and reason to come to the clinic is Malaria. 

They also have hiv testing and family planning on top of the medical help.

The last stop for our walk was the little local market where people tried to earn some money on their crops and to buy things they don't have or grow themselves.

It was an interesting and very hot morning. Back at the resort most of us spent the time around and in the pool. A lovely relaxed afternoon. Before dinner was served our little group of course met up for our "Happy hour". Coming to the dinner we were met by a set table and candles. We got served a very nice dinner of fish. 

Me and my roomie went to pay our bill and got stuck there sorting that out and chatting to the owners of the resort. Very nice people. Due to this we missed a dance performance by some local kids. Not a big miss for me, I'm sure we hade a much better time chatting in the bar.

The next morning we left early going to the capital, Lilongwe. On the way we stopped in Nkhotakota, a village with a lot of history, from both former country leaders and Dr. Livingstone. In the village was also some runs of a mosque that used to belong to the village Bonga, a village nowadays under water.

At our lunch stop along the road we got to eat with an audience, a group of children stood a few meters away watching us carefully. It felt a bit uncomfortable I must admit. 

When we reached our camp there was a bit of a problem. The rooms for the accommodated travellers had been given away to another Nomad truck arriving just before us. So after happy hour and dinner our friends got moved to a different accommodation. But, for me and my roomie there was a room available. A room they normally don't rent out as their accommodation, but there were two beds, toilet and a shower and we even got towels. What more can you ask for for a few bucks?

Going to Malawi

I slept so good in that thing we found, surrounded with only fresh air.

We started our journey before sunrise, and depending on the border control we may reach our destination after sun set. We were of course hoping for the best!

We only stopped for bush toilets for the passengers or diesel fill up for Morrison. We even had lunch in the truck while driving.

As we reached the border, the check out on the Tanzanian side was pretty smooth and easy. We just for some reason had to fill in entry forms - on our way out! Anyway.

We drove the 500 meters across no-mans-land to the Malawian border. This took a bit longer. We hade to fill in two forms, pay the money for our visas, hand in the passports and just wait.

It took us approx 1h30min, so it wasn't too bad.

I was the last one to get my passport back with a stamped visa, I was officially in Malawi, a big highlight for me on this trip.

As soon as we crossed the border the scenery changed. It was so different to Tanzania. Even though a lot of the houses are more primitive it all looks much nicer and "cleaner" in a way. That doesn't mean clear and clean from rubbish, because that is not the case at all, it is very dirty that way. No another feeling of clean, as for mor organised and structured when it comes to how the houses and the land is organised.

Also the vegetation is different. We came from rolling green hills and now it is flat and yellowish. Very pretty.

Our first home in the new country is right on the beach of Lake Malawi. Me and my roomie try to find out if it is possible to sleep outside, but they don't recommend it. However, someone mentions upgrade and cheap in the same sentence. That being heard we check it out and yip, for a few dollars we have our on en suite room. Only one bed and one sheet, but we are both ok with that, so we are happily moving in.

In the middle of the night we got to be very happy and thankful for our decision, a huge thunderstorm was right over us. The rain was heavy, and boy was I lucky I took the upgrade.

Three tents got really wet, one even flooded. Three people ended up sleeping in the bar.

When we got up in the early morning the sun was up and it was difficult to find tracks of the rain except for the wet people and tents. 

Our journey continued down south, we climbed up the mountain roads. The scenery changed again to fresh greens and the views were amazing. Every now and then we got a glimpse of the lake.

We stopped at a small craft market where I bought some small things, mainly to support the locals with a few bucks.

The resort we arrived to was lovely. Of course me and my roomie decided to upgrade to accommodated. We had to pay quite a bit more here than last night, however we got loads more for our money too... 

I think I have given up camping now. Let's see if it works out as well for the rest of the trip.

Morning game drive

I was the only one of the campers to go for the game drive this morning so I tried to sneak out as quiet as I could.

We got served breakfast in the sunrise before leaving.

I think I can say that more or less for every game drive the Impala is the first animal seen. So even for us this morning.

However, what waited around the corner is probably not very common and was not expected. There are always wishes when you go for a game drive, but they hardly ever happened.

About three minutes drive from the gate, just by the little dirt road lay ten, TEN lions. Three males and five females. 

How awesome was that?? 

One couple stayed a little bit away from the other eight. We approached them first, which didn't seem to bother them too much, the continued their business and in three months time there might be some cubs being born. :)

What a brilliant start of this glorious morning. The luck continued the coming hours, we got to see lots and lots of animals. First group of giraffes we bumped into, also next to the road, were 18. All in all we must have seen hundred giraffes and the same or more elephants. This together with herds of Impala, buffaloes, some hippos, a couple of jackals, warthog and more, made our early morning well worth both money and the early start.

When we got back to camp an early lunch was served and then it was time to hit the road. We only have 200km to go, but in our truck and on this roads that means a six hour drive. We climbed two mountain passes and stopped in a baobab forest. 

When we finally got to our destination and it was time to set up camp three of us decided to not put tents up and instead sleep in a thatched gazebo type of building. 

Tonight's dinner was a traditional Masai dinner served in an old Masai ruin that now is preserved under a new roof. Peanut butter soup and beef with ogali and vegetables all from the farm we were staying at. It was a great meal.

A treat for today was that this place had hot water. The water is heated with a constant fire. The only problem with that was that after a while the water got far too hot! Not being used to hot water makes it even hotter.

I crawled into my sleeping bag and felt that this was going to be a good night out in the fresh air. The only not so nice thing was the alarm, set for 04.25!

Well, tomorrow is another day!

Long day on the road

Got woken up by raindrops coming through my tent windows landing on my sweaty body. It took a few seconds to react. I checked the time, 02.30. Hmmm...

Crawled out to put the rain cover on the tent, only to find there wasn't one by my tent. Strange since I did put it in the bag when I packed it up in Bagamoyo. Anyway. I helped some of the others to get theirs on and I closed my windows and door and hoped for the best.

The rain wasn't too heavy and it disappeared rather, just to come back a bit heavier shortly after. Together with some thunder.

I struggled to get back to sleep and was constantly checking that my tent didn't leak. 

Not until a few hours later I got back to a deeper sleep, but at 05.30 it was time to get the day started. I was still dry from the rain.

By 7 o'clock we were packed up and on the road again. We had to go back towards Dar Es Salaam and go round the way we "short cutted" yesterday by taking the small ferry. 

Shortly after we departures we met some rain, and then more rain, some thunder and lightning. The roads were flooded at times and traffic very slow. 

After six hours driving we stopped for lunch and had only got 100 km out of our 280 for today.

I had set my mind from the beginning today, that it was to be a pretty long day sitting and bouncing around in our Morrison so the last part went ok after all. 

I'm trying to take in as much as I can from the environment and surroundings as it passes by outside my window.

We did a shopping stop at a "real" mall, the first one I've seen since this adventure started. The pantry and fridge got stocked up and so did we passengers. 

The last 50 km to our camp went through a National Park, so we could spend it looking for animals. We were not allowed to stop but we got to see a few while driving.

As we got to camp me and my newly arrived roomie put up our tent and moved in for the night. 

A lovely dinner was served and a great, but little too hot for the area, bonfire was lit for the evening. Some of us spent time there, while others fought for the wifi.

I signed up for a game drive in the morning so a shower and sleep was next on my agenda. The shower was a bit so so. About twenty different kind of bugs and very very many of each kind had decided that our bathrooms was a great place for the night. I don't freak out by bugs, but having a shower in these masses was, how should I say it, not pleasant! 

But hey, as we say: "It's part of the adventure!" :)