1 year on the road anniversary

Zimbabwe - Tanzania

On the 24th May 2013 I stepped onto a plane in Melbourne that would start a journey of a lifetime. One year later I am sitting in a ferry terminal in Dar Es Salaam looking back on what has already been an epic adventure that has taken me through 36 countries so far and I still have 7 months left on the road. There have been many highs and many lows and as much as I miss my friends and family at home I still find myself loving the travel lifestyle as well as the people on the truck, who have unknowingly become my 2nd family. 9 other people on this truck are doing the entire Trans Africa trip and we have been together now for 6½ months, 24 hours a day. This brings a group pretty close together and I am not looking forward to having to say goodbye further down the road.

 

After leaving Antelope Park in Zimbabwe where I finished my last blog we made our way across to Chimanimani where I took up the option to do a day hike through Chimanimani National Park which was good to blow out some cobwebs and do a fairly challenging hike through some incredible scenery plus we had the next day off to relax and recover. We stopped at a waterfall half way through the walk in an area called Paradise where some of the group had a quick dip before marching back to our transport where about 10 of us crammed into the back of a ute which drove at ridiculous speeds with us hanging on for dear life back to town so some of the boys could watch the Premier League season decider games involving Liverpool and Manchester City. Unfortunately for Alex, a mad Liverpool fan on our truck, his team lost and Manchester City took the title this year.
 

 

Chimanimani National Park

 

Waterfall at Paradise

 

 

From Chimanimani we moved on to the capital Harare for 2 nights where we had to say goodbye to our tour leader Ishy for health and personal reasons. Our driver Nick is now running the show on his own and is doing a great job but we all miss The Squish very much. Tour-leaderless we crossed the Mozambique border where driver Nick got off to a good start by being fined $20 for standing on the base of a flagpole which is apparently an offence (either that or the police officer was being very creative for a bribe which is the more likely). Luckily our large yellow truck doesn't stand out much so we were able to slip through the crossing before the police officer found him again to collect his money. Mozambique was basically a transit country enroute to Malawi for us but we did take our time and spent 2 nights bushcamping as we went through. The country was quite undeveloped and run down mainly due to its recent civil war and it reminded me very much of a lot of the West African countries we’ve been through with similar stories.

The rolling hills following Lake Malawi

 

Entering Malawi was quick and easy and allowed us to get to our next destination Kande Beach by the afternoon. This stop and our next at Chitimba were right on the shore of Lake Malawi, one of the biggest freshwater lakes in the world and relaxing by the water in a hammock amongst the thatched huts was hard work but we seemed to manage. Chitimba was also the scene of a fancy dress party and pig on the spit day which was...... interesting to say the least. We all picked names at random and had to buy an outfit for our poor victim in a small town on the way with a $5 spend limit. Some of the results were hilarious and I must admit I gone done over fairly well (thanks Di).

Pig on the spit

 

Lottie, Matt, Bec, Myself & M

 

Driver Nick, Vin Diesel & Nick

 

Jess & Me

 

After all our fun in Malawi were entered Tanzania which got off to a poor start right on the border. 3 of our passengers had money stolen by currency exchangers all within a few minutes of each other with 1 getting away with $400 US. Darren who was one of the unwilling victims watched his nemesis run off and stupidly dive into a group of bushes. Quite calmly Darren walked up the road in the direction of this clown and then suddenly charged into the bushes and caught the guy off guard while he was still lying on the ground. Lets just say Daz gave him a bit of a hiding and then proceeded to relieve this man of a large wad of his own currency resulting in a very good exchange rate in the end.

 

After 2 bush camps and some very long driving days we arrived into the capital Dar Es Salaam. Here we caught up with Jyoti, a passenger and a friend from the first leg of the Trans Africa who lives in Dar and she has joined us for our 4 days in Zanzibar. Before arriving in Zanzibar however we had an interesting, almost typical African experience in getting there. It started at about 2am before we left when from my tent I heard Stanley having a heated discussion with staff and some locals about his wallet which went missing from around the pool. He found the wallet the next morning thrown under our truck with his bank cards still there but the cash stolen. At 5:30 our tuk tuks didn't arrive to take us to our ferry so we had to jump onto some passing buses last minute and after trying our hardest to all lose each other in the crowds we reached the ferry office only to discover there had been an error in our booking and instead of leaving at 7 we were put on a 9:30 ferry. Mishaps aside we did get to Zanzibar and immediately organised our Egyptian visas before heading to the north of the island to Nungwi where I have been able to sit and finish my blog in peace and quiet. I now have the difficult choice of deciding whether to shave off my beard to go snorkelling or not, whether to invest in parasailing and at what time I can crack a beer without it being socially awkward. Such is life.
 

Doing it hard at Nungwi Hotel

 

 

 

 

 

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Botswana & Zimbabwe

Travelling the easy road

The last 2 weeks has been some of the easiest travel I have done in a very long time. 3 night stays have become the norm, campsites are equipped with bars, pools and Wi-Fi and travel between towns has been short with stops at bakeries and supermarkets common. From the Okavango Delta we trucked our way to eastern Botswana and spent the night at a campsite called Elephant Sands. This camp was special for obvious reasons, the fact that elephants frequented the site most evenings to drink from the watering hole which was right next to the bar. Despite our best efforts at drinking loudly we did get visited right at the end of the night by a lone elephant. I didn't have my camera with me at the time so no pictures but it was a surreal 15 minutes while this huge elephant quenched his thirst just 15-20 metres from us with nothing in-between.

Continuing north we went up to Chobe National Park and had a river safari. I must admit I didn't expect to see much game from a boat in the middle of a river but we saw more in the 3-4 hours here then anywhere else in Africa. Crocodile, elephants, hippos, monkeys, antelope and buffalo all greeted us along the shoreline and made for a great day, made all the better by good company and a bottle of Captain Morgan.

Hippos in the Chobe River

Elephants having a drink from the Chobe

 



Spectacular sunset to finish off a great day

 



 

Having had a awesome time in Botswana we decided it was time to move on and drove the 20 minutes to the Zimbabwean border which was a quick crossing compared to West African standards but definitely the slowest since Cape Town. A further hour after the border we made our way into Victoria Falls, the largest waterfall in the world (based on it having the largest sheet of falling water). This stop was another highlight for the adrenalin junkies among us as they offered activities such as bungee jumping, gorge swings, helicopter & plane rides and microlite flights. Myself and 3 of the boys did a half day adrenalin activity run which included a flying fox, a zip line and 2 jumps on the gorge swing. The gorge swing was definitely the best, I find it better than bungee jumping as you are allowed to jump from a variety of positions as you can see from the pictures below.

 

 

The Zambezi River where we did our jumps

Jump 1 - Handstand

Jump 2 - Backwards

Fuelling our adrenalin after our jumps at 10 in the morning

 

After Vic Falls we found ourselves in Bulawayo for 3 nights where we all had the opportunity to go Rhino trekking with 2 excellent guides in Motopo National Park. We spent the full morning tracking this bull below and then continued on to find 3 females not too far away. After lunch we had lunch by a pristine lake and checked out some cave paintings which were littered all throughout the park, remnants of the bushmen that lived in Southern Africa for thousands of years before.

• The bull rhino we tracked

 

A short drive up the road after Bulawayo we checked into Antelope Park which was of course a Lion Breeding Park. This was our third 3 night stay in a row and it has been really nice to travel at such a leisurely pace, the main reason being that we have to stay in Zimbabwe until our passports return as they have all been sent to our home countries so we can grab Ethiopian visas. The 3 days here have been bliss, camping right on the side of a lake, excellent facilities and of course a multitude of activities that we could do with lions. I opted into the package that allowed me to do them all so in the last couple of days I have watched some adult males released and fed, walked with two 11 month old cubs, fed the cubs in their enclosure, visited the breeding program and then went on a night drive with 3 adult females while they were being taught how to hunt game. If anyone reading this is ever planning on coming to Zimbabwe this place is a must.

Lions being released for their feed

Walking with the cubs

Cub feeding time

 

Antelope Park has been as good as my day with the cheetahs. I definitely have a soft spot for the feline family and really don't want to leave but the journey must continue.

 

 

 

 

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Northbound

Following the East African Tourist Trail

Having spent the greater part of 2 weeks in Cape Town I have re-joined my group along with 9 new companions who will be travelling up the East Coast with us. We now almost have a full truck with 23 of the 24 seats occupied and once Jack returns we will be full which will be great to have so many people to enjoy the journey with but it will be a bit cramped. I normally update my blog once a fortnight but decided to skip my entry in Cape Town as I was very busy doing absolutely nothing, didn't take a single photo and figured anyone reading this would not be interested what I had for breakfast and how it was readjusting to flushing toilets and hot showers. The latter 2 weeks however have been a fair bit more interesting as we started the second half of our Trans Africa trip.

Leaving Cape Town with 17 (7 from the 1st leg of the trip took extended breaks in South Africa) we headed east to Stellenbosch, the heart of the South African wine growing region. What better way to get to know a bunch of new people then to go on a wine tour. 4 vineyards later I knew that this collection of misfits were going to fit right in despite their tent packing abilities. Here the truck also underwent final repairs on its springs after we had broken them 4 times so as well as a new group we had a healthy truck. Travelling north we made our way to the Namibian border where we picked up all the wood that the truck had been forced to abandon upon entering South Africa and spent a night at Orange River which creates part of the border between the 2 countries. Myself and one of the new passengers, who I must admit has a creative and memorable name, went on a canoe ride down the Orange River the next morning and just let me say that attending the meeting that describes what you are actually getting into is advisable. The ornithologist in me was absolutely jizzing my pants but the rest of me was quite underwhelmed, the only saving grace being that I got a bit of exercise. To spice things up a bit me and Matt decided to take a different route to the rest of the group and despite our expertise in river navigation we soon managed to find ourselves beached in the shallows. Non-deterred we walked our canoe over the rocks and into the river again to join the smug group of bird loving oldies further down the way.

Beached along the Orange River

Further into Namibia we dropped into Fish River Canyon, the 2nd largest canyon in the world and we were revisited by our favourite West Africa weather condition. Rain aside we still managed a short walk and grabbed some happy snaps but not the stunning sunset we were promised. We returned for sunrise the next morning then continued onto Sossusvlei where we got to visit Dune 45, a sand dune set in the Namib desert famous only for the nice pictures you can get early and late in the day and aptly named because it is 45km's from the gate. This is also the night that one of our oncoming passengers taught us a new game, Mafia, which has become a hit with the truck.

Fish River Canyon

Dune 45

Meeting one of our sister Oasis trucks

Children of the Himba tribe

Our journey back through Namibia took us back to one of my favourite stops on the way down, Swakopmund. As I mentioned in the last post the food here is excellent and I did not waste a single meal on my return. Over 3 nights I managed the Game platter consisting of Zebra, Oryx, Ostrich & Kudu as well as pork ribs larger then my head on the 2nd and 3rd nights. The best meat I have ever tasted all for about $15. I am not one to take pictures of food and post them on Facebook, in fact its a pet hate of mine and the simple fact I'm even mentioning what I ate is testament to how freakin good it was.
I managed to sneak in a quick quad biking session in Swako as well but was fairly disappointed as the instructor would not let us go on manual bikes without experience and when one of the bikes broke down half way through the ride he had to tow it behind him which pretty much brought the already slow ride to a crawl.

Quad biking in Swakopmund

As well as revisiting Swakopmund we also returned to Etosha National Park for the viewing pleasure of the new people that had joined the trip. Despite not seeing any lions this time we did manage to see quite a few rhinos, a lone elephant, hyenas along with the more common zebra, giraffe and many varieties of antelope. I did manage to get to the floodlit waterhole near the campsite in the evening this time and was able to watch a few rhinos quenching their thirst and having a gossip session by the water cooler.

Game driving back in Etosha

Oryx...... make the best steak ever

After our bush camp in Spitzkoppe where we got to scramble among the granite hills we spent a night at Cheetah Park. Being a cat person I was always going to enjoy my time here but the 30 minutes we got to spend with 4 tame cheetahs was definitely one of the highlights of my trip so far. The park is a sanctuary for wild cheetahs brought in by local farmers who are not happy with them consuming their livestock and are thus kept in large fenced in areas where they can continue to run around rather than being shot. The 4 tame cheetahs at the owners property however have been raised from cubs as their mothers have refused to raise them due to some defect at birth, none of which was apparent during our visit. They are quite simply large house cats with several small differences. They purr louder then half the people on the truck snore, its not quite as comfortable when they sit on your lap and when they lick you it feels like someone is scraping sandpaper over your skin. I was lucky enough to experience the latter with one of the cheetahs taking a liking to my odour and promptly deciding to lick my appendages for about 5 minutes until I literally had small specks of blood on my legs at which point I decided that we had got to know one another quite well enough and that I would go and mingle with the other cheetahs. Said cheetah straight away moved onto the next person, licking their legs, removing any feelings of significance I may have had :(

View from the Spitzkoppe hills 

 

Camping in the shadow of Spitzkoppe

 

Getting licked to death



Feeding the semi wild Cheetahs



At the time of writing I find myself at Maun, Botswana having just crossed the border. Here we have options to go and explore the Okavango Delta, a vast wetland wilderness in the northern part of the country. It is also a 4 night stay which is more than welcome as having been on the road for 11 months now I am quick to take any opportunity to unpack my backpack and settle into 1 spot any chance I get. The mind needs a rest as much as the body.






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