Sarah has been diagnosed with Idiopathis plulmonay fibrosis for 10 years now…(IPF), which is caused by repeated injury to small areas of your lung. This results in inflammation of the lungs and then scarring, which stop the lungs doing their job – taking oxygen from the air and passing it into the blood. So Sarah may at times have breathing difficulties or get breathless from simple activities such as walking and talking (but she seems to do ok most of the time, well, talking at least…!!).

It’s not known what has caused the condition but in Sarah’s case, we are pretty sure it was a result of a virus.  It is also known as called ‘cryptogenic fibrosing alveolitis’ – (CFA).

IPF is one of the less common lung diseases and is most common in people over 50. People may need treatment for the rest of their lives. This is because IPF is suppressed rather than cured, therefore, we hope to raise money to do our bit of help towards the on-going research needed to understand the disease more and perhaps one day find a cure.

Friends have told us that the work Water Aid have provided has produced amazing results for the local communities.

So get clicking and please help support our charities.

Many thanks.

Alfie, Rob & Sarah.

The last border crossing of our trip was made at Noordoewer, which turned out to be the most efficient and ordered. Upon entering SA, you are given a card numbered 1 to 3. Pretty easy logic…each one represented either immigration, customers and police and all we had to do was move between booths. The only entertaining part was from two immigration people who asked for another name for England as they couldn’t find it on the computer, United Kingdom was soon found.

Gone are the days of the chaos of north Africa, the fixers and money changing touts swarming around the Land Rover and us having to lock our doors to stop them joining us in the cab!

With our card fully completed we entered South Africa at 1435 in the afternoon with very mixed feelings.

Some 120 kms down another very long and straight road we pulled into Springbok for an overnight stop. There we bumped into the people who we met at Henties Bay and were again staying at the same campsite as Team Alfie.

Later that evening, we were also joined by a couple of Austrians who had travelled a similar route through Africa in 1996 and were keen to see how roads, borders, bureaucracy etc. had changed over the years. Ingrid was impressed with the iron cooking pot and was surprised to hear it was bought from Ikea many moons ago. It was also reassuring to hear that they also hid meat at Vet fences. Even into their 70s there are still travelling around in their trusty Land Rover.

The ease of SA was apparent as we found a slew of well-stocked supermarkets.

Kms travelled: 360 kms.

Tuesday 22^nd February/day 141. Springbok Campsite, Springbok – Clanwilliam Municipal Campsite. Odometer: 101544.

Today, we just needed to travel south again towards the Wine Lands and find a tourist information centre as we hadn’t got any information on us about where to go, what to see etc. A stop in Vanrhynsdop and a half-hour with a very helpful Tourist Information lady set us up with plenty of reading and planning. I don’t think we realised how many vinyards, wine-routes and towns there were to visit in the eastern areas of Cape Town!

The terrain was now changing. Rob was having to turn the steering wheel a bit more than once or sometimes twice a day, as in Namibia, to accommodate the novelty of bends in the road.

We stopped mid-afternoon at Clanwilliam in order to plan the next few days and also factor in our route to Cape Town in order to meet up with our friends Dave and Donna who we had first met in Cairo and rendezvous in time to watch the rugby!

Kms travelled: 365 kms.

Wednesday 23^rd February/day 142. Clanwilliam Municipal Campsite– Burg River Resort, Paarl. Odometer: 101909.

Our wine-route was in place and so we were off early to explore the area. We are now within three hours of Cape Town but have no desire to make it there just yet!

Our first stop was Citrusdal, a town nestled along the banks of the Olifants River – where we drove through rows upon rows of citrus orchards. This was also a great spot for breakfast although Rob soon regretted ordering ‘bubblegum’ flavoured milk-shake and big breakfast and chips for breakfast.

Next stop, Porterville – a great spot for a cup of tea. Sarah tried the local Rooibus tea which turned out to have a very flowery flavour and decided she preferred her Twinnings, English Breakfast.

Just in time for lunch-time we arrived at Riebeek-Kasteel and our first wine-tasting. A visit to Kloovenburg Vineyards and Allesverloren Wine Estate where we tasted whites, reds, roses, pink sparkling wine and port. Along with the wine the two vinyards grow olives and fruit so there was a good amount of olive and jam tasting going as well!

Both visits yielded a few purchases so with Alfie now laden with boxes we headed south towards Paarl and our campsite for the night.

Another lovely spot was found on the edge of a river. A great excuse for sundowners and a bottle of our newly purchased rose wine. Chicken casserole was cooked in the iron pot on the braai.

It’s been a great day exploring the area and as we are now within a stone’s throw of our final destination we have time to slow down and take a few days of just tootling around driving through acres of vinyards and stopping off at any of the tens of wine-tasting opportunities available.

Kms travelled:

Thursday 24^th February/day 143. Burg River Resort, Paarl.

Another day sitting by the river, sadly no grunting hippos to listen to, swimming in the pool and reading. Just wished the gardeners would take a break from the lawnmowers and strimmers!

Apart from the diary updates and reading, we watched a photo-shoot take place all day. We think it must be for a clothes magazine as there were the ‘perfect family’ scenes…picnic scenes, children splashing around in boats and paddling pools, family BBQ etc. all of which needed a full change of clothes and many different set items. We had hoped they would donate some of the props but sadly it wasn’t to be!

Kms travelled. 0 kms

Friday 25^th February/day 144. Burg River Resort, Paarl – Mountain Breeze Campsite, Stellenbosch. Odometer: 102185.

What a lovely day!

We arrived in Franschhoek for a late breakfast and a wonder around the town. Both of which were fabulous. With a heavy French influence, Franschhoek is set amongst a backdrop of towering cliffs and terraced vinyards with a boulevard dotted with many street cafes, shops and galleries. We’ve read that it is well worth being here for Bastille Day as well. But for the moment we enjoyed the amble around despite Rob’s boredom levels increasing with each cry of “let’s just have a look in here”.

At last we found some Wifi so we could update the web pages with diary notes and photos. We found there to be a drought of Wifi/internet in Namibia and we were conscious that we were lagging behind!

Fun was had window-shopping for property as well, but we decided not to buy on this occasion.

The afternoon’s excursion was to Franschhoek Motor Museum where some 220 cars are on display, ranging from a 1898 motorised Beston tricycle, fantastic old Rolls Royce cars to more modern stuff.

It was a short drive through some great countryside to Mountain Breeze Camp near to Stellenbosch where we met another English couple who had ridden down on motorbikes. A good night around the fire sharing stories was had by all. Oh, and a couple of beers.

Kms travelled: 75 kms.

Saturday 26^th February/day 145. Mountain Breeze Camp, Stellenbosch – Oatlands Holiday Village, Simon’s Town (Cape Peninsula). Odometer: 102260.

Today we met up with our friends from Dublin, Dave and Donna, who we last saw at Kim and Tim’s in Ethiopia. We were still trying to avoid going into Cape Town, as that would signify the end of the trip, so we decided to travel down the Cape Peninsula and explore the area.

We may have accidentally squeezed in two more wine-tastings this morning which made for a great start to the day. Firstly, a stop at the Ernie Els Wine Estate which is set overlooking the Stellenbosch area. The drive to the main building is through a lovely avenue of perfect grass and blue agapanthas. Tasting rooms are adorned with various trophies and pictures whilst outside you can test your putting skills with a hope of winning some wine. We didn’t try as we didn’t want to embarrass ourselves!

There are no end of wine estates in the area with only a short hop and a skip or a trundle away we arrived at our second tasting. Eikendel Wine estate had been recommended to us. Again, a lovely setting. We liked all of these wines and decided to buy a couple of bottles of sparkly in readiness for our celebrations once we had drive to Point Agulhas, the southern most point of the continent.

As the six-nations were also in action today, there was also a great need to find a bar which would be showing the rugby as well!

It was wonderful to meet up with Dave and Donna again and with the both Alfie and Mucky parked up, we headed for some food and drinks in Simon’s Town, a small coastal town. We found a bar showing the local rugby matches and they agreed to put the Six Nations on the small TVs with the local games on the main big screen. Result.

With the TV signal constantly dropping out it was tricky to keep up with the action. Then suddenly we’d won. Huzzar!

Much later that night, we arrived back at the camp. With the wind still blowing about force 10 (slight exaggeration) we managed to put the tents up but virtually no sleep as the wind was deafening and shook us all night. We made it to the morning suffering only minimal damage.

Kms travelled: 82 kms.

Sunday 27^th February/day 146. Oatlands Holiday Village, Simon’s Town – Back-packers, Agulhas. Odometer: 102342.

There have been many memorable days during our adventures through the continent but today was memorable for two reasons and two very different reasons!

Having left Oatlands Holiday Village after a truly incredibly blustery night and a very refreshing swim. There was also huge relief that the roof-tent was still in one piece. We headed back along the coast towards Point Agulhas. We made a stop to see the penguins looking well, very penguin-like. It was a lovely tootle back along the coast watching the waves crashing, fishermen and people enjoying a saunter along the waterfront.

Memorable moment number 1: We happened upon a police road check, but having been stopped so many times now we didn’t think much of it. The interest occurred behind us as we drove off we saw a guy in a mini run over a police officer. Ooops.

Memorable moment number 2: The second memorable part of the day arrived later in the afternoon. With 31,620 kilometres behind us, 146 days in Alfie, through 18 countries and being accompanied by ‘Land of Hope and Glory’ blaring on the stereo, we arrived at Point Agulas, the southern most point of the Continent.

We had made it, achieved our target and felt pleased as punch!

The plan was to open a bottle of the Champagne* we had bought at Eikendel Vin-yard but  we decided to hold fire until we were in the safety of the campsite before cracking open the fizz!

(*Champagne – read sparkling wine as we know you can only call Champagne Champagne if created and bottled in Eperney. But the sparkling wine we had was just as good.)

The back-packers/campsite was great and we cracked open the bottle and toasted each other!

Kms travelled: 258 kms.

Feel good factor = jubilation level. Albeit, after the shock and wake-up call earlier in the day.

Monday 28^th February/day 147. Agulhas Back-packers – Voortrekker Park Resort, Somerset West. Odometer: 102600.

A gentle morning before heading back up the peninsula to Somerset West where Dave was taking the Toyota in for a boost to the suspension whilst Rob and Sarah checked out a couple of camp-sites.

As we were now back in a town, we also took the opportunity to check out a 4×4 centre which sold off-road camping trailers. We have seen a fair few of these in the latter end of the trip and been very impressed but Europe doesn’t really warrant such a trailer but if we were to think of another trip….

A leisurely afternoon was had, albeit windy again which we hoped would subside by the evening.

We are now very close to coming home, therefore, time was spent sourcing flights, some of which would mean us flying half-way around the world and arriving back in Blighty some days later! None of which appealed. It is now only a matter of time before we drop Alfie with the shipping company.

Sadly, the wind did not give up and we had another night of high winds. Things weren’t really helped as a local guy explained that one of the trees had been blown down ‘just the other day’, Great! True to form, a branch did fall off near-by which rendered all hope of sleep for the rest of the night as we started to wondered whether Eezi-Awn had not only tested the tents for ‘gale-force’ but the strength of the material as well and whether or not it would protect us from a falling branch(es)/tree.

Kms travelled: 202 kms.

Tuesday 1^st March/day 148. Voortrekker Park Resort, Somerset West – Mountain Breeze Caravan Park, Stellenbosch. Odometer: 102802.

With another sleepless night behind us we thought a justified treat was called for in the form of another couple of wine tastings (for girls only – sorry chaps) plus a return to the Mountain Breeze Campsite which we knew would be wind-free!

Lourensford Wine Estate, some 10 kms north-east of Somerset West was our first stop. With the heat soaring we took refuge in the cool tasting room where we enjoyed some fantastic whites and roses. The other attraction of Lourensford was a chocolatier and cheesery. Having worked through a handful (read ample) of cheese tasting we settled on a purchase of Gorgonzola to accompany the wine later in the day.

As we had enjoyed Eikendel so much earlier in the week, we took Dave and Donna back. The owner was there this time and was keen for us (girls) to try all her wines. The chaps were by this time starting to pace up and down a little but were still very well behaved. We didn’t keep them waiting for long, that would be too cruel!

Next stop, Shoprite and the camp-site for a much needed swim. With food done, Rob came across a flight centre in the shopping mall and thought it would be a good idea just to check flights. Ten minutes later, direct flights with Virgin were all booked. A booking in a four-star hotel within spitting distance of the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront followed. We thought it was only appropriate to treat ourselves at the end as the realisation that we were only a matter of days away from being home again began to sink in!

The swim did take place and was much needed. Apparently, today was one of the hottest days for a long time and certainly felt like it too. Probably in the region of 40 degrees.

A great steak supper followed with some of the fantastic wines we had found earlier in the day. Above all, no wind. We all slept like babies.

Kms travelled: 37 kms.

Wednesday 2^nd March/day 149. Mountain Breeze Caravan Park.

A day of lots of ‘lasts’, but before all this we said our goodbyes to Dave and Donna who were starting to head north to Namibia and Botswana. It’s been great to rendezvous again and catch-up with each other. We wished them safe travels for the next five months during their journey up the west coast.

Alfie was emptied, cleaned where possible and our ‘stuff’ sorted into the flight pile and Alfie pile. Rob was relieved to see that the Alfie pile greatly outweighed the flight pile!

Plenty of discussion was had around ‘why did we bring this?’ and kitchen-sinks. For all future overlanders we will be writing up a summary of what we did take which we used, what was superfluous to requirements and the ‘wished we had brought’ list.

Lunch was made up of the last of cheese, pickles, hams, all half-empty-jars etc – a right-ole mix but tasty all the same.

A call to the Shipping company confirmed the final details and drop-off point for Alfie.

Our last dinner was cooked in our trusty crock pot over logs on the open fire and we toasted each other and Alfie to a great trundle down a very long road.

We were greeted by many of the folk as we packed as word of our adventure spread through the campsite. It’s been great to meet so many friendly people wherever we’ve stopped.

Kms travelled: 0 kms.

Thursday 3^rd March/day 150. Mountain Breeze Caravan Park, Stellenbosch – Protea Hotel, Victoria Junction, Cape Town

A momentous day.

The final sort and pack was completed by 10am and with good-lucks and waves from the lovely fellow-campers at Mountain Breeze we drove away to drop Alfie off.

A couple of hours later, with the paperwork all signed, payments made, keys and Carnet handed over, we left Alfie behind and headed for Cape Town for the last four nights of our trip.

With Table Mountain moving closer we arrived at the hotel, we checked in and were greeted with a welcome drink of pink fizz which was just ideal.

A really really good scrub, glorious fluffy white towels and a change from our travelling clothes into our ‘saved for the last few days’ clothes before we headed off to wander around the V&A Waterfront for the afternoon.

The W&A Waterfront in fact turned out to be very like Gun Wharf in Portsmouth or Ocean Village in Southampton but with a few African carvings and singing thrown in. Oh, and Table Mountain as a back-drop!

Kms travelled: 58 kms.

Friday 4^th March/day 151. Protea Hotel, Victoria Junction, Cape Town

A leisurely hotel breakfast followed by sitting and reading by the pool all day. Some TV was also thrown in as there was a need to catch up on the world news and in particular Rob needed more info as to why the first F1 race has been cancelled.

Another stroll down to the V&A waterfront for some food and a saunter around the many many shops.

All in all a very relaxing day and our first day when we haven’t had to plan our next route or campsite stay.  A very odd feeling indeed.

Kms travelled: 0 kms.

Saturday 5^th March/day 152.

Following another very slow start to the day, we walked up to the Castle of Good Hope and then back to the hotel for a swim as it was so hot!

We found a lovely restaurant at the V&A Waterfront and were able to listen to a German  brass band playing.  Rob’s favourite was their rendition of “Vot a Vonderful Vorld”.   Great fun.

Sunday 6^th March/day 153.

Bimble, bimble, blimble. That’s all we achieved today!

Monday 7^th March/day 154.

Today is our last day on the Continent. Having had a lovely few days at the very end of our expedition we have packed for the last time and will be heading home later this evening. A mixture of sadness and excitement all rolled into one. However, we are looking forward to seeing family and friends once again.

We will making our last update to our blog over the next couple of days. In the meantime we trust it has brought happy and informative reading.

Odometer: 97604.

We couldn’t leave Botswana without a jaunt into the Delta. We therefore booked a couple of hours on a speedboat to explore the Panhandle. As we were visiting in low season we had the speedboat and guide to ourselves. The benefit of which is that we could quiz Salvation (what a great name) as to the best places to go without too many people adding their tuppence worth.

Salvation was able to take us to various hippo locations, a sandbank adorned with crocs, although the buggers buggered off as soon as we arrived, fish eagles, and a drive past an island which is owned by the President before a whiz around some of the smaller channels and inlets before heading back to camp.

Final checks were made to ensure we hadn’t left anything behind at camp and a quick goodbye to the owners before we heading the short distance to the Botswana/Namibian border.

The border was a breeze. The customs lady on the Botswana side wins the prize for the ‘jolliest border employee’ of the trip. So much laughter and humour! Sarah again loved Botswana and was sad to leave.

Probably our greatest observation for Namibia was the standard of the Immigration/customs office. Unbelievably modern desks, chairs and seating area. Such a contrast to the ropey ones in the north of the continent where the customs officers ask to borrow a pen from us!

We entered Namibia without a bean of local currency as this was the first border crossing where there wasn’t a bureau de change or any dodgy black-market dealers swarming around the car. Payment for the road tax was made in Botswanan Pula. We also entered without any car insurance as there was no-where to buy it from and just hoped we wouldn’t get stopped.

Our destination for the night was Ngepi camp which was only a hour-ish down the road. The other great thing about the southern countries is that there is ample sign-posting around. With this in mind, our navigator still managed to find a turning too early and nearly ended us back in the Delta.

Ngepi campiste had been recommended to us by a few people for its comical toilet and ablution blocks. After finding our pitch we went exploring and the stories were all true. Loos were positioned overlooking the delta with such themes as ‘Royal Flush’ and ‘The Throne’. The showers were ‘Tarzan and Jane’ – a shower within a jungle enclosure but the tin bath overlooking the delta took the prize overall. What a great place to relax after a drive. (see pics)

Following the bath, dinner was another great braai success.

Kms travelled: 60kms.

Friday 11^th February/day 130. Ngepi Camp – Roy’s Rest Camp, Grootfontein. Odometer: 97664.

Namibia is a big place and today’s plan was to cover a tiny proportion of the country. Our overall aim at the moment is to head to the very north of the country to see the Epupa Falls which are on the border with Angola. We have anticipated this will take us three and half days of driving to get there. Therefore, a stop was made in Rundu for fuel and supplies before driving on.

We had also read that there were some pretty big distances where there would be very few fuel stations so the decision was also made to fill-up at every opportunity going forward and not repeat the experience of nearly running out of fuel as we did in Zimbabwe.

During a quick sandwich stop on the side of the road, a guy on a bike asked if we had a bike pump. Sadly, no bike pump but we have got an on-board compressor and air-tank. At this point the guy looked a little cautious as we think he thought we were about to blow his tyres to smithereens rather than just pump them up. The 150psi air tank took only a couple of seconds to fully inflate the tyre.

Roy’s Camp sounded like an ideal stop and somewhere I couldn’t really miss especially in memory of ‘Uncle Roy’ – hope Auntie Amazing Grace is reading this. And indeed the drive from Ngepi via Rundu to Roy’s Camp was long and pretty dull, but we arrived mid-afternoon and managed to squeeze in a swim and sunbathe around the pool. The campsite was great with good sized clean pitches. There’s a kitchen area with a gas cooker, fridge and plenty of hot water.

Over a drink in the evening, we made our first change to the Epupa route and decided to explore the Etosha National Park over the next couple of days as we felt we couldn’t really visit Namibia without doing this.

Kms travelled: 440kms.

Saturday 12^th February/day 131. Roy’s Rest Camp, Grootfontein – Okaukuejo

We headed off to Grootfontein to find a garage to get an oil change for Alfie, the last one of the trip before heading north to the eastern gate of the Etosha Park. The drive was good and we arrived mid-morning therefore had most of the day to explore.

Etosha is designed for self-drive exploration so off we went into the park at which point it started to rain again but never mind. Within 15 mins we had come across a pair of black-back jackals sploshing and drinking from a large puddle, a giraffe, an ostrich and zebra.

Good stuff…off we went again, this time town Rhino Drive but sadly nothing to be seen. The Pan viewpoints had received a good write up in the Bradt guide which was therefore our next stop, again nothing there. Bit of rain, couple of good sized puddles for Rob to drive through and a couple of hours later again we had seen absolutely nothing!

Hey ho, the camp was beckoning so we trundled on through the park occasionally coming across a coach-load of tourists. NB – we would never recommended doing this type of holiday in a coach!

The hub of camp was huge. Restaurant, fast food/kiosk outlet, post-office, swimming pools – the lot! Reception was busy with people arriving. It was good to see some other people again and a mix of nationalities. Just a pity the tour guide from Nomad jumped the queue in front of us which meant to wait for 12 people to individually pay for their night drives.

The campsite was flat, very hot and very little shade. We shared our pitch with the biggest birds nest we had ever seen! The smell was pretty pungent too.

Settling down for a cup of tea and whilst contemplating lighting the fire, we were visited by a very inquisitive black-back jackal. Now, thinking back to Hwange days in Zim where we were so excited to see one, we now had one trying to edge in on our dinner! (see pics)

We also had a chance to chat to a few people and gain advice on where the flooded riverbeds were etc.

The other attraction of the Okaukuejo camp was a flood-lit water-hole. But, I guess you don’t really need to read much further to learn that luck was not on our side this evening either. After sitting very quietly and very patiently well into the evening the African wildlife failed to visit whereas the night before Rhino had (apparently) been grazing at the water-hole!

That night our friendly jackals visited and emptied all the bins around the campsite. Don’t blame them really if the campsite hasn’t invested in locked bins but we wish they had been a bit quieter about their mid-night snacks!

Kms travelled: 407kms.

Sunday 13^th February/day 132. Okaukuejo Camp, Etosha – Khowab, Sesfontein. Odometer: 98511

Up and away by 6.30am, a cool 20 degrees, in the vague hope of seeing something with four legs out in the park. I don’t really have to give any clues as to what we saw – diddly-squat!

Today was to be the mega drive day up to Epupa falls. Sally sat-nav gave us a ETA of 1630 which although a long way-off was achievable in one day.

Some 200 kms north, along another amazingly long flat road with only bush either side Rob stopped to take a look under Alfie. Not sure what actually possessed him to do this, but it revealed a slight seaping of oil from the transfer box. Blow, not good, but not the end of the world either.

What do we do next?

We decided to keep checking the oil level in the transfer box and continue driving.  Good idea.

We headed on North to Opuwo agreeing that we would see what the place looked like and whether or not we would stay there, carry on north to Epupa or turn left to Sesfontein.

Arriving at the only garage within miles to fuel up, we were soon swamped by locals telling is where to stay, what to do, selling us bracelets, necklaces and virtually getting in Alfie to do so! We soon made the decision not to stay here and hastily drove away from the fuel station.

Rather than drive any further north following tales of the swollen uncross-able rivers, we decided to head towards Sesfontein with the aim of heading back to Swakopmund and a garage.

The afternoon’s drive turned out to be a total contrast to the morning. Flat open lush green bushland was replaced by rolling hills which soon became mountain ranges. The road went from a tarmac one as far as the eye could see to a gravel track through many dips and rises. Some filled with water, others empty. With each dip we wondered how deep the water may be. Surviving all of this we were hit by another massive thunder storm.

Some four hours later we arrived at a T-junction. We were now in the middle of the desert where we turned right to Sesfontein. Not too sure what we were expecting but it was certainly a bit more than the splattering of brick buildings! Anyway, we had made it to Fort Sesfontein, a hotel which also allowed camping only to be told that they no longer permitted camping!

Hmmm, they did recommend ‘Fig Tree’ campsite down the road but this didn’t look too inviting – more like a refugee camp; so a quick u-turn and another 30 kms down the road, we rolled into Khowarib Lodge which is a community based project and campsite. It’s billed as ‘Experience the remote north-west’ and that’s pretty good description as there was nothing around us for miles.

The campsite nestles on the banks of he Hoanib river in the Khowarib Gorge surrounded by mountains. We were there just in time to watch the sun go down. Rain threatened but thankfully it didn’t arrive. The surroundings were so quiet, all we could hear was the wind and the rumble of thunder.

Despite the campsite being in the middle of no-where (S19 15.753 E13 52.861) there were pristine flush-loos, showers, although the boiling required a few logs therefore forward planning was needed and all open to the elements above.

A huge drive today, through a vast topographical range and hardly saw anyone. The temperatures ranged from mid-20s to high 40s.

Kms travelled: 749kms.

Monday 14^th February/day 133. Khowarib Camp – Buck’s Camp, Henties Bay. Odometer: 99260.

“Oh what a beautiful morning, oh what a beautiful day”.

Up and away again relatively early and with the sun coming up over the mountains we headed for the Skeleton Coast, where many a ship has come unstuck.

Passing through the Palmwag Valley, the mountains and hills melted away. We had another vet fence to get through but all ok and nothing to feel guilty about on this occasion. The scenery gradually moved to sand, sand and sand again, reminiscent of the days when we were driving through the Sahara.

With temperatures creeping up to the high-forties we arrived at the entrance to the Skeleton Coast National Park, filled yet another form in but didn’t have to pay anything which was a big brucie bonus for Team Alfie.

Soon we saw the sea, hurrah!

It was on New Year’s Day when we had our feet in the Indian Ocean on the East Coast of Africa and today we had our feet in the Atlantic Ocean today. Hurrah! The Atlantic was a bit more lively though!

Wow, the feeling of desolation was soon all around us and we understood once again why the guidebooks recommend not travelling alone or ensure you are properly equipped. Sarah was not allowed out of the Land Rover without being covered head to foot in factor 50.

We had already come across a Toyota with a flat tyre but their friends in a Landy were there to assist. However, they soon caught up and passed us with what looked like they were still lop-sided. Ten minutes down the road we saw them stopped at the side of the road with puncture number two. Toyotas with indestructible BFGs ‘eh!

We then came across three Japanese/Korean people who were stationary on the side of the road with two tents up. Surely, they hadn’t been there all night? Yes they had!

They had run out of fuel and were waiting for friends to return with supplies. Not the most sensible place to run out of fuel. It turned out that they had hired the vehicle from Windhoek for a few days but the hire companies should take some responsibility and check where these people are going and at least make sure they know what distances they are covering and ensure they have basic supplies.

We checked they were ok and asked if they had sufficient water. One of them produced a 0.5 litre bottle with a thumb full of water left which we were quite shocked with. (at this point we were back to drinking flaggons of water each day) Therefore, we re-filled all the water bottles they had on them from our on-board water-tank. This really is not the place you want to get stranded in and run out of water.

With much bowing and dipping with thanks from our new Japanese/Korean friends we headed off.

We stopped off to look at two sea wrecks, that of the ‘South West Sea’ which was still pretty much recognisable as a boat, but as for the second, the ‘Winston’, there’s very little left. Although, Rob did think he saw some funnels sticking out of the sand at one point. Far too much sun we think. Not to mention the co-pilot’s “lack of enthusiasm” about the drive down the beach in search of bigger wrecks.

Next stop Henties Bay for an overnight stop.

Henties Bay is predominantly set up for fishing folk but they did have a supermarket so at least we got some fresh bread. In fact, the lay out of the town, proximity to the beach etc. reminded Sarah of Hayling Island years ago…without the climate that is!

The campsite was the most regimented we have come across. Each pitch being given the same size plot adjacent to your own loo/shower and washing up area. It served the purpose for the night. Despite the regimented build of the pitches, the numbering scheme didn’t appear to follow the same logic.

Our next door neighbours soon arrived for a chat and kindly gave us some fish-cakes, fresh from the day’s catch.

Kms travelled: 482

Tuesday 15^th February/day 134. Buck’s Camp, Henties Bay – Dunedin Star Guest House, Swokopmund. Odometer: 99742.

Heading off towards Swakopmund we passed Wlotzkasbaken, which had been described as a ‘colony on the moon’ and a ghost town. Quite a lot of imagination is needed to liken the town to the moon and it looked very much alive and freshly, not to mention vividly, painted to us.

Arriving in Swakopmund by mid-morning we were greeted with a very organised yet very much a touristy town. We also expected the town to be a lot busier than it was so it was a pleasant surprise to drive around with minimal traffic. We headed for a garage to get Alfie sorted out, and then into town to find accommodation and a bank.

Accommodation was sorted quickly and we headed to find a bank. Crikey…the German influence is still in place! With Sarah just minding her own business whilst queueing in the bank, the bank clerk from the Bureau de change bellowed at Sarah “if you want to exchange money, stand here”! Well, Sarah didn’t want to change money but still she was called over to stand and wait. Two seconds later, following some further questioning we were sent on our way to another bank as they were not able to issue money again visa cards.

Sarah thought she needed a stiff gin after this but settled for a latte instead.

Swakopmund turned out to be a very relaxing stop-over. We had time to explore the town, visit Peter’s Antiques (a shop with everything from old colonial stuff to Nazi memorabilia and even some African tat) and relax in the afternoon. We rounded the day off with sundowners, a fantastic meal and some exquisite rose wine at ‘The Tug restaurant’ (an old tug raised up above the seafront at the land-end of the pier) overlooking the sea.

Kms travelled: 482 kms.

Wednesday 16^th February/day 135. Dunedin Star Guest House, Swokopmund – Solitaire Guest Farm Desert Ranch. Odometer: 99827.

A gentle morning as we waited for Alfie to be finished but soon we were off heading towards Solitaire to a camp where we had heard that they had tame meerkats.

The changing scenery that afternoon was incredible. As we left Swokopmund we drove through hot, flat, harsh desert again for some 120 kms before we started to see terrain dotted with green vegetation. The flatness gave way to rocky outcrops and trees. Soon we were insight of hill-sides, then mountains flanking both sides of the gravel road and a very black sky loomed ahead of us.

Yep, the storm came in, engulfed us and moved away as quickly as it arrived. At this point we driving through “Gaub Pass” and could have been in the Lake District again! Thank goodness the river crossings had bridges over them, although the approach to one was a bit sticky but good ole Alfie trundled through.

We made it to the campsite to experience a memorable sunset.

Temperatures today ranged from early 20s to high 40s whilst driving out of Swakopmund to the cooler temperatures of Solitaire camp where Sarah even had to put a fleece on.

A momentous afternoon as Alfie passed the 100,000 km mark.

Kms travelled: 306kms.

Thursday 17^th February/day 136. Solitaire Guest Farm Desert Ranch.

Today was a rest and potter around day. Having nicely settled ourselves beside the pool we were approached by a very friendly Springbok who started to lick Sarah’s legs (yuk) and eat Rob’s book! With a few shoves the Springbok got the message and wondered off to annoy some of the gardeners.

With the heat soaring we retired to the banda back at camp only to be visited by the Springbok again who this time tried to charge Sarah. Really not funny but she was grateful that the owners had thought to put corks or something similar on its antlers or Sarah would probably have a Springbok shaped dent in her leg. Put it this way, the stick we were given to protect ourselves and beat the thing off broke when the Springbok tried to headbut Sarah. Rob took surprisingly swift and effective action by turning the hosepipe on it. (and laughing a lot)

The next visitor was a friendly meerkat who scurried around for a while before disappearing into the bush again. They do make a funny grunting sound.

Solitaire Campsite was another camp in a fantastic spot. Set at the foot of the rugged Rand Mountains with wonderful views over the Namib Desert and Naukluft Mountains. There are only three camp spots each with their own loo, shower and kitchen area. If you are in the area this is another spot we would recommend but would suggest you ring ahead to check availability. (we will be listing all the campsites where we stayed once we get home)

Kms travelled: 0.

Friday 18^th February/day 137. Solitaire Guest Farm Desert Ranch – Sesriem Campsite. Odometer: 100133.

Only a short drive today as we headed to Sesriem to seek out the infamous sand dunes of the Namib Desert. A stop soon made at the centre of Solitaire which turned out to be a garage, cafe and shop but also a general dealer who is famous for its apple crumble. The bakery was indeed scrumptious with more than just apple crumble on offer so we decided we would sample a range of sweet and savoury options! Have to say the sausage rolls won.

With fat and cholesterol levels stoked we drove the short distance down the gravel road to find Sesriem and Sossusvlei. A few wilderbeest and Ostrich were spotted along the way.

It was also a novelty to see some traffic this morning. We were also flagged down to ask about river crossings but we were able to reassure the driver that his Hilux would be fine through the river we had come across. He told us about a river which was about a metre deep but we never found it and infact were quite disappointed as Rob was looking forward to sending Sarah out to walk the river first to check the depth and current!

Sesriem was hot hot hot. We opted to stay at the campsite just inside the park as this allowed you entrance to the park at 05:30 to see the sun-rise. Before settling down at camp we needed to send get some more quotes for shipping as Cape Town is looming fast but we managed to find the slowest internet cafe to date…a very painful experience and hence why loading the diary up is so very far behind.

The rest of the day was spent sheltering from the sun.

Kms travelled: 97kms.

Saturday 19^th February/day 138. Sesriem Campsite – Klein Aus Vista, Aus. Odometer: 100230.

04:45 – alarms went off = very early.

05:30 – we were through the gate and trundling in the dark along the 60 km stretch towards the sand dunes. It felt like a race against time as we wanted to get to the edge of the Soussesvlei Pan in time to see the sun come up over the dunes. We had decided not to climb Dune 45 as we would have needed to start the day before to cater for Sarah and it wouldn’t have been much fun for her either.

It was very eerie just before the sun emerged. Turning one way the view was of moon and the mist, yet if you turned 180 degrees you were greeted by the sun climbing up over the dunes. The temperature had dropped as well. The silence was amazing and apart from another group of people who had headed off to climb some dunes we were the only people in this part of the desert.

06:45 – on queue the sun loomed up over the sand-dunes. A fantastic sight and well worth the effort.

We trundled back across the sand trying to re-trace our tracks! I’m sure there were a few extra turns but we made it without getting lost or stuck. Hope the photos reflect the landscape we saw this morning.

We made a quick stop at the Sesriem Canyon, although I think we were both expected something slightly more impressive.

Duwisib Castle was next on the excursion plan. A small square castle with battlements and high turrets in the middle of the African bush, quite an amazing sight and pretty much intact.. Originally built and owned by Hansheinrich von Wolf, he lived there with his wife, developing a farm and was a fanatical horseman. As war broke out he reported for duty but was killed at the battle of the Somme. His wife never returned to the castle.

As we didn’t have the correct money for the entrance fee and there was no change in the till we put ourselves down as South Africans so we paid the smaller entrance fee and avoided the need for anyone to find change!

There followed a long drive through vast areas of Namibian nothingness. It’s a lovely country but you can drive great distances and see no-one and nothing more than flat bush and farmland. We did drive through one stretch on a D-road which is a smaller track out here and did come across a few flooded points but Alfie had no trouble. Driving such tracks at 80kph makes them seem even more nothing-filled.

We made it to Klein Aus Vista where we found a tarmac road and a beautiful lodge set amongst the Aus Mountains. Once Rob was settled in the bar it was going to be impossible to move him (Oi!) therefore, we opted for their evening meal before heading back to camp. Rob ate the Oryx while Sarah opted for the chicken. The chocolate desert must also get a mention!

We also managed to catch up on some news and realised that most of the northern continent was in turmoil. It wasn’t us…promise!

Kms travelled: 552kms.

Sunday 20^th February/day 139. Klein Aus Vista, Aus – Hobas Camp, Fish River Canyon. Odometer: 100782.

A bit of bad planning today for team Alfie. The aim was to drive to Luderitz and Kelmansdorp but we didn’t realise that there was only one tour on a Sunday which started at 10am. At 9.30am we were just settling our bill and with 124kms to drive there was no way we were going to achieve the 10am tour time!

Hey ho, never mind, another excuse to come back to Namibia and Africa to explore some more. Next stop was now Fish River Canyon and Ai-Ais Hot Springs.

We had the novelty of a tarmac road for start of the journey before turning back onto a dirt track to head south. No more than a couple of Kms down the road we came across a rather imposing ‘road-closed’ sign blocking the road. Hmmm. Thankfully, there was a hotel virtually next door so we made a quick visit to check the local knowledge. It turned out that the road was closed due to the high river and a lot of the road had now disappeared but “with a 4×4 you should be ok”. This was good enough for us and off we went.

A few low-range moments passed before we eventually found the river. Thankfully, it had receded a lot and we were able to get through without any problems. Some of the road had indeed been virtually washed away but with any 4×4 it was going to be ok. Although, there was no way this road would have been passable in the height of the rainy season. No great surprise but we didn’t see anyone else!

We arrived at Hobas camp on the edge of the Fish River National Park to find a shady campsite and some very jolly park staff. After a good chat we discovered that they were also at Sesriem camp the night we were there. The late night sausage-braai that Team Alfie had caught wind of was them on a company jolly

As the larder was devoid of anything interesting to eat we had to resort to some of the ‘emergency tined food’ (which may or may not have come all the way from the UK with us) turned out to be meatballs and mash. These have to the most disgusting meat balls ever created even with gallons of Bisto gravy mixed in, we donated a fair few to the local wildlife. ( No we didn’t, that’d be irresponsible, wouldn’t it ) The mash and Bisto gravy was lovely though!

Kms travelled: 402kms.

Monday 21st February/day 140. Hobas Camp, Fish River Canyon – Springbok /camp, Springbok. Odometer: 101184.

Another great day on our travels. We had decided to head south as the temperatures in Namibia were limiting and we felt we had seen enough of endless roads and desert. Therefore, the decision was made to enter South Africa a little earlier than planned but head off into the Wine Lands to explore.

The day started well as a couple of overlanders from Finland pulled into the car-park at Fish River Canyon. With a Land Rover very similar to Alfie we were able to compare vehicles and share stories about our routes.

Our other new friends, the jolly park staff then asked us to act as couriers and take a load of mail over to Ai-Ais hot springs. We, of course, obliged.

The view of Fish River Canyon (second largest to the Grand Canyon) was awesome with great views over Hell’s Bend and the Sulphur Springs Viewpoint.

After a drive of about an hour we arrived in the bed of the Fish River at Ai-Ais, a lovely spa location surrounded by mountains. Ai-Ais means ‘burning water’ and indeed this was pretty much spot on! The hot springs were very, very hot and too hot to swim in to be honest. We had a good chat with another Land Rover enthusiast who had seen Alfie parked up and came to find us.



A new month and a new country.

Sarah’s excitement was barely contained as we approached the Zimbabwe/Botswana border. Having spent three months in Botswana back in 1990 with Raleigh International (then Operation Raleigh) Sarah was looking forward to returning, and possibly visiting Phuduhudu where she made bricks and learnt to brick-lay in order to build a clinic for the village.

The border crossings went well – all over in under an hour. The only hic-cup leaving Zim was that we didn’t get the vital tiny slip of paper signed despite already having it stamped and asking the customs guys whether we had done everything. So we were refused at the exit gate and had to return to customs.

Botswana are very strict about allowing meat into the country and for the first time since Egypt the Land Rover was searched. There was also a Foot and Mouth control at the border for both feet (ours and any other shoes we had) and Alfie. Rob was left to sort this out as Sarah had been sent through passport control by the official and then sent back again to the dip as they didn’t actually see Sarah put her feet in the first time!

Within a few Kms from the border, the difference to Zim was noticeable. Brick houses sat aside the mud huts, people were at shops buying goods. Even the Chinese road builders were here!

We headed onto Khama Rhino Sanctuary, Serowe, where again we were the only ones there, apart from a family of Hornbills. The campsite was therefore very very quiet and we weren’t too sure how close the Rhinos were.

Kms travelled:

Wednesday 2^nd February/day 121. Rhino Sanctuary – Drifters Campsite, Maun. Odometer: 96038

Team Alfie were driving around searching for Rhino and we weren’t to be disappointed.

A couple of hours later and just in time – as we were leaving we passed four safari vehicles crammed solid with Chinese.

Animals seen: Giraffe, Birchall’s Zebra, Warthog, Blue Wilderbeest, Impala, and Rhino so we have now seen the ‘Big Five’. Very happy.

The good thing about Botswana’s roads is that they are in excellent condition (so far) but the drive north is not very exciting. We had planned to stop at Rakops to break the journey up, but the Motel/campsite was in a terrible state so we decided to drive another two hours north to Maun.

It was now hot again, back into 48-50 degree area. Lots of drink was needed to try and stay hydrated.

We found Drifters which was approx 30 Kms south of Maun and pulled in for the night. A lovely spot overlooking the Boteti River. Just us again, but it didn’t matter as we were able to have a lovely chat with Olivia the current manager.

Kms travelled:

Thursday 3^rd February/day 122. Drifters Camp, Maun – The Old Bridge Backpackers, Maun.

Odometer: 96632.

Blow…one mouthfull of cereal and Sarah’s teeth disintegrate again. Not painful, thank goodness, but may just need another visit to another dentist.

Maun has changed dramatically in 20 years, as one would expect and the town is now a modern sprawling place with plenty of shops to choose from, but the town had a lovely feel to it all the same.

We decided to head for Backpackers as the campsite advertised a TV and we want to watch the rugby on Friday night! Pitched and in place by early afternoon, the rest of the day was spent reading and cooking beef n beer for dinner, delicious.

We also caught up on emails and news and didn’t realise how bad the political situation was in Egypt. When we were there we didn’t get a hint of any trouble. Thankfully, we went when we did.

A great night talking to a whole host of different people from a range of countries followed. It wasn’t a very late night as the bar closed at 10pm.

Frogs were very loud.

Kms travelled:

Friday 5^th February/day 123. Old Bridge Back-packers, Maun.

A lovely day of nothingness. Books, internet, emails, updating the web site and realising how much we had written and seem to be writing more each day. Hope it’s keeping everyone updated and amused with our travels.

Sarah also complained a lot about her mosi bites. Another batch this morning.

The time has also come to start our plans for our return so emails were sent off to source information for shipping plus a check on flights from Cape Town to LHR. Boo.

We are also in the process of working out where to visit within Botswana. The short list is: Okavango Delta, Moremi, Chobe and Baines’ Baobabs. Oh, and a search for Phuduhudu. However, we are hearing some hairy stories about the level of flooding and cars/trucks/tractors getting stuck, so we will head down to the tourist office in the morning to see where we can get to.

Rob was given some netting from a bunch of Isreali overlanders to put in front of the radiator to avoid a build up of grass etc when driving through any of the pans. Otherwise, there would be a good chance of the radiator clogging up, overheating and Alfie catching fire. There are a few stories out there of this happening and even waypoints in T4A where burnt out Toyotas and Land Rovers can be found!

A great evening was spent watching the rugby and a good win for England. Fingers crossed they will maintain the winning streak and end up with the championship.

Kms travelled: 0 kms.

Saturday 5^th February/day 124. Old Bridge Back-packers, Maun.

Great intentions today…just didn’t get much done! After some discussion with people, the advice was probably not to head out to Moremi alone as the waters were high and there is a good chance of sinking.

Therefore, the plan was to go to Baines’ Baobabs and Nxai Pan, camp overnight at one of the campsites, however, after an impressive few hours of team faffing we didn’t get packed up and away from the Bridge until late morning.

We ventured into Maun to refuel, buy some food, and find the ‘Dept of Wildlife and National Parks’ which we needed to do in order to advance book the campsite near to the Baobabs. No longer can you roll up to campsites in Botswana as the rules have changed and pre-booking needs to be done, even in low season which we found to be crazy.

Anyway, having found the porta-cabin situated behind the police station and courts, we were able to check the access to the Pans and Baines’ Baobabs but low and behold were sent off to another place in town to check the camping. A prime example of where Botswana has privatised many of their campsites. Having then found the safari company we discovered that the campsite fee was over four times the amount we were spending at the Bridge so we abandoned the overnight plan, decided to hit the Baobabs tomorrow and headed back to the Bridge for a beer and the hope that our shady pitch was still free…which is was!

Just before that beer, Sarah persuaded Rob to drive out to Island Safari Lodge in Maun which is where Operation Raleigh based their HQ, and where Sarah camped for the last few days before heading home. All much the same, but seemed a lot more overgrown than it was some 20 years ago and Sarah can’t remember there being swimming pools!

Kms travelled: 41kms.

Sunday 6^th February/125. Old Bridge Back-packers, Maun – Baines’ Baobabs (Nxai Pan), Phuduhudu, Old Bridge Back-packers, Maun.

Odometer: 96725

A day out!

This morning we were up and away by 8am heading on the very straight road to Nxai Pan National Park. Can’t say the drive was that exciting apart from the constant need to dodge cows, goats and donkeys who are determined to graze in the middle of the road.

After parting with the park fee and a chat with the guides so Sarah could once again check the state of the Pans and gain reassurance that we were not going to get stuck, we headed off down the sandy track towards the Baobabs.

As it was still the rainy season the grass was high, but we were lucky enough to see plenty of Giraffe and a mother and baby elephant. Ahh.

Once piece of advice the guide did give us was to take the ‘high’ road or loop (rather than the lower turning) when we had to turn right off the main track towards the Baobabs which was better for access. Well, all we could find was one right turning so off we went thinking it was only a matter of time before we got stuck! But we were in luck and as it hadn’t rained for the last few days, the track was pretty good and we arrived at the edge of the Pan in good time.

Next stage of driving involved scouting around the edge of the Pan until we could just about see the island where the Baobabs were. As we were new to this Pan driving experience we left it until the last moment before turning left to cross the Pan. A few crunching moments but we made it to the other side with no problems and arrived at Baines’ Baobabs with the place to ourselves.

The views across the Pans from Baines’ Baobabs was terrific and likewise, a short walk onto the Pans and looking back over the baobabs was also a lovely picture. It was all so quiet as well. (see pics) We also found some massive elephant foot prints and just hoped he or she wasn’t too close!

For the route back we were much much braver and Rob headed for the shortest distance over the Pan to get back to the track. This time it did involve mud and the need to just keep moving otherwise we would have definitely got stuck! With Alfie having a few slippery side moves with mud flying everywhere we made it across – great fun!

On the way back to the main gate we were again in luck and saw a herd of Oryx or Gemsbok which was our first sighting of these. We also came across a very very shy bull elephant, who wanted to try and hide behind a bush and play peek-a-boo with us. Sadly the tusks sticking out to the front and a very round bottom protruding from the rear of the bush gave him away! (see photo)

Next stop Phudududu, where Sarah made bricks. The village was vast compared to what Sarah remembers and with many more brick buildings together with a new brick-built school. We had a drive up and down a fair few tracks looking at a whole host of buildings but nothing resembled the clinic. It was such a pity as Sarah had such high hopes of having a picture taken outside the clinic. Never mind, the exploratory excursion was just as good fun.

Back to the Bridge for one last night and a quick check of emails. We are receiving some wonderful emails from people. Today, Sarah heard from Chris who was also a venturer with Raleigh and who also made bricks in Phudududu. Chris – great to hear from you and glad to see you have found the site. Maun and Phuduhudu has changed loads!

Kms travelled: 380kms.

Monday 7^th February/day 126. Maun – Swamp Stop Campsite, Sepupa. Odometer: 97105.

Old Bridge Back-Packers:

An excellent campsite and one we would highly recommend. The pitches are a good size and swept clean each day. The ablutions are all open-air but are spotless and the showers have steaming hot water. Stevie the bar-man is a star and ensures everyone has a drink in their hand at all times. Helena and David who run the place are extremely helpful, welcoming and offer a whole range of activities. If you are arriving late or visiting during high season we would suggest that you ring to book as there are only 3 or 4 overland pitches and probably space for approx six to eight ground tents.

We also left with a pair of shoes we retrieved for Andy and Diane, two bikers who we had first met in Cairo and who had been at the Bridge a week before us. We will meet up with them again in Cape Town to hand the shoes back to Diane!

Maun – also greatly different compared to 1990, but no real great surprise there. Maun is awash with safari companies arranging trips into the Okavango Delta or Moremi or further afield. But a good base to spend a few days. Plenty of shops, banks etc.

We started to head north today en-route to the Tsodilo Hills. The roads are very straight in Botswana, the shrub-land goes on for ever and it is very flat, but we soon woke up when we came across and bull-elephant sauntering across the road. What a fantastic sight.

We arrived at Swamp Stop late afternoon and having just come from a great campsite in Maun, we were a little disappointed with Swamp Stop. The pitches were a good size, but untidy, the shower blocks were in need of some repair (the gents had completely collapsed so Rob was told to use the ladies) and what’s more, it was more expensive. Oh, and the electric hook-up at the pitch didn’t work. We were the only ones there as well so all a bit quiet. Not to mention creepy as the electricity is turned off from 11pm – 5am so no lights and lots of odd noises from the other side of the wall.

We overcame all this by cooking up a scrumptious meal in the big pot on the braai.

Kms travelled: 355kms.

Tuesday 8^th February/day 127 – Swamp Stop, Sepupa – Tsodilo Hills – Drotskys Cabins, Shakawe.

Odometer: 97460.

“The only is way is up” (Yaz, 1988ish)

Why oh why oh why are all the interesting things to see at the top of hills!

The approach is along 40kms of gravel track all of sudden the hills come into sight, rising above the flat land.

We arranged a local San guide from the village to take us around the rock-paintings and caves. The circular route takes two hours and the first hour is mostly on flat ground but at about the half-way point, we clambered up the rocks which was great fun but also a bit hot. The views and rock art higher up the hills were well worth the effort though.

The descent was also as entertaining as the ascent with moments where we had to slide down the rocks on our bottoms to get down (Ahem, not everyone did. Some of us continued to use our feet). It’s a wonderful place to go but not ideal if you are not up for a bit of rock scrambling.

Arriving back at the car-park we saw that Alfie was surrounded by cows, but looking more closely we realised that the cows were licking Aflie! It must be the salt they are after. They even licked parts clean. A hilarious sight and sound.

By now we were in need of showers. There was a campsite at the Tsodilo Hills which was also free, a bonus, but we had been told to find a place called Drotsky’s Cabins, which is apparently excellent and was only 45 mins up the road so we headed off.

Wow, within minutes of arriving at Drotsky’s and with Alfie parked up in the largest pitch we have had so far, on the edge of the Panhandle of the Okavango, Sarah had made a sortie to the loos and showers to discover a perfect white-tiled shower room. Bliss.

Vet Fences – confession time:

There are three between Maun and Drotskys. The aim of which is to control the movement of cattle and red meat in particular.

Now, we left Maun with another stock up of food which did indeed include some steak and chicken. We were stopped at the first one and the back of the Land Rover and the fridge was searched. Sarah had packed the chicken on top of the steak, both wrapped in a bag, at the very top of the fridge. The lady looked in the fridge, opened the bag and saw the chicken and even commented on it but didn’t notice the steak below it. Not really sure how she missed the stuff but we weren’t going to bring it to her attention. Phew, we drove on…

Second stop and third stop….just before each of these, the meat was wrapped in newspaper and hidden in Alfie. Bad bad team Alfie…we did feel a bit guilty.

The T-bone steak was cooked this evening on the open braai (fire) and was just perfect. Our moments of guilt wafted over us once more, especially as the meat only cost the equivalent of £1.24!

We had a great fire this evening, sat along side the Okavango River listening to another pod of hippos grunting and farting the night away.

Kms travelled: 144kms.

Wednesday 9^th February/day 128. Drotsky’s Cabins.

Life’s tough.

A morning of reading up on Namibia as we are only a handful of kilometres from the border for our penultimate country. Panic! Where’s the time gone!

Camp staff arrived and the pitch was swept, bins were emptied to avoid the monkeys helping themselves to leftovers, and new wood was delivered. What a good service. If only the managers of the Zambezi Waterfront in Livingstone had such a work ethic, then they wouldn’t have the monkey problem that they do….. anyway.

During the afternoon we took a walk to the main site of the lodge. Wow. The new and huge thatched restaurant and bar is are set on stilts overlooking a swimming pool, lush green grass and the Panhandle of Delta.

The great thing about what we are doing is that you can spend relatively small amounts on a campsite, albeit in this case, a super duper one, and then enjoy the 5 star facilities.

Tonight we have opted to eat at the main lodge. We will be picked up and delivered back from the camping/bar area by boat. Can’t wait.

7.15pm: As promised by the owners, there was a small speedboat waiting for us at the bar area to take us up stream to the main lodge. We had time just to have a couple of pre-dinner drinks with the Mr Drotsky, his son and three guys from Cape Town University who were researching and/or working with local communities to further fishing within the area.

The meal was a ‘help yourself to as much as you can eat buffet’. Approx 9ish our chariot awaited to take us back down to the campsite.

NB: We learnt from the owners, that Drotskys is being put up for sale/tender early April so if you have a few spare million, put your bid in, its a wonderful retreat.

Kms travelled: 0.

Odometer 94113.

Border day… we headed off with some trepidation into Zimbabwe.

With a very easy border crossing behind us and no questions asked from the Zimbabwe border guards, we crossed the world famous bridge over the mighty Zambezi river. Although, do make sure if your are travelling through you get the vital piece of 2cm2 paper stamped otherwise the border barrier will not be raised!

Rob was very strict with Sarah who was eager to take photos as we crossed but thought we may be shot if we were caught doing so. Although, we did pass a bungee jump set up and thought people must be taking photos of that.

Wow, we were not disappointed with the falls. Vast, thundering, spiffing, slippery, very wet and great fun. One of the seven Wonders of the World and as the indigenous Makololo, who brought Livingstone here, called the falls “the smoke that thunders”, but at times we could have been in the lake district with the fog, haze and wet but low and behold there was a very large waterfall behind all of this.

We were soaked and after squelching our way back to Alfie we headed for the Victoria Falls Hotel as we had heard great things. Sarah made good use of the very flash ablutions and changed into dry clothes and dried her hair with the hand-dryer.

We had hoped for a slap up lunch or at least an early cream-tea which people have raved about but the hotel was a bit quiet. No-one was about, so we headed out to locate a campsite…the other end of the accommodation scale!

We opted to stay at the Victoria Falls Rest Camp which was in the Bradt guide and seemed to be the only one about. Apparently, it has now been taken over by a new group and standards are improving. The ablutions were all newly decorated and had steaming hot water. We hope the next stage is to upgrade the pitches and braai facilities as these are a little tired.

Anyway, opening up the back of Alfie revealed yet more ants! So out with everything once more and another sweep and doom moment.

The restaurant Da Belly was lovely. Sarah opted for ‘Wart-hog’ and Rob went for the safe, albeit lightweight option of ‘Ladies steak’ which was a smaller portion to that of the blokes!

The only downside of this campsite was the nearby nightclub which boomed until just after 4am.

Kms travelled:

Tuesday 25^th January/day 113. Victoria Falls Rest Camp – Sinamatella Camp, Hawange National Park. Odometer: 94159.

A lot happened today…grab a cup of tea and settle down for a read.

Between cups of tea, Sarah suddenly noticed a Warthog family and felt a sharp pang of guilt. Surely, last night, she didn’t eat one of the family?

We had time to potter around Victoria Falls town, known locally as ‘the village’ which is made up of a colonial boulevard with a range of tourist shops selling local tours, local goods and loads and loads of tourist tat. From what we understand, Vic Falls suffered very little from the troubles. We were hounded quite a lot by touts wanting to sell us ‘experience’ excursions but politely we declined. Overall, it is a compact town and easy to walk around. However, Rob did give in to buying a batch of the old Zimbabwean notes which ranged from 20,000 to 20 trillion.

The road from Victoria Falls to Hwange National Park is very straight and pretty uneventful. No-one was on the road and best of all, none of the dreaded police stops. Hwange is ranked amongst the top National Parks in Africa in terms of size and sheer numbers and variety of animals so we were hopeful of a plethora of sightings.

We aimed for Sinamatella Camp which is in the NW area of the park and arrived around 1.30pm and pitched camp on the hilltop overlooking the river and plains below. The Bradt guide describes Sinamatella as the most attractive. Sadly, the camp was not that great, very overgrown, broken fire pits etc and the loos were the most spooky yet. There was even a bath, only in the the female block though but Sarah still opted not to put toe in the water.

We accepted the standard of the campsite in view of Zimbabwe’s years of troubles, and wondered what it must have been like in its heyday. The staff were all very helpful though and we even got fire wood as part of the camping cost.

Low and behold, the storm arrived.

We had also been told that we could get fined for having a dirty vehicle. As we didn’t want any reason for the Zimbabwean police to stop us, regardless of how crazy the rule is, Rob took the opportunity to utilise the rain and wash Alfie.

It was a very dramatic storm and the loudest lightening/thunder strike/boom we had both ever experienced as the flash landed only a few meters in front of Rob. Blimey, did we jump! And then giggled nervously at how close that crash had been!

Having pulled ourselves together we then had some time to watch elephants on the plain below which was a great sight and very relaxing, and listen to the roar of lion which sounded quite far away, thank goodness!

As we were the only ones at the campsite and what felt like the entire game park we took a relatively early night. All seemed fine until the we experienced our second most scary moment of the trip so far…the most compelling/deafening/singular gun shot we have ever head. As we both shoot at home, we were aware of the sound of guns, but this had to be a high-velocity rifle. Our minds were racing, and we thought this can only be poachers. Quite a sleepless night followed. Not helped by a second pride of lions much, much closer then than the first.

Kms travelled:

Wednesday 26^th January/day 114. Sinamatella Campsite, Hwange NP – Municipal campsite, Bulawayo.

Odometer: 94315.

Not a good night. What with the fear of the potential poachers and the roar of the lion we were glad to see day break!

Sarah climbed down the steps to be welcomed by a herd of Impala which was a welcoming sight and a calm start to the day. We didn’t hang around and headed off to explore more of the park.

The park has lots of look out points and hides, we opted to stop at two:

Masuma Dam – roofed platform and campsite. Met a great ranger called Godfrey who welcomed us into his look-out for a chat. Although, he did keep hold of his two guns throughout our visit and bearing in mind what had happened the previous night we were a little cautions. Soon we discovered that he hadn’t seen anyone in a week and then there were two cars in the space of 24 hours (us and two SA campers)….Sarah did comment that it was a bit like buses, but he didn’t understand the English sense of humour.

Next stop was Guvalala Pan – where there was a platform erected by the Kent Scouts in the late 1980s and has been recently re-roofed. It was a fantastic spot overlooking a water hole where we saw our first Ostrich, but no elephants. You can overnight on the platform but as there was only us two we opted out of this, but perhaps if there had been a few more, we would have got our brave pants on. See photos.

With temperatures climbing back in the mid-forties every venture into the game parks throws up new sightings and stories and we were lucky enough to come across a Black-back Jackal who hung around sufficiently long enough for us to get some photos. Still no elephant though but lots of elephant poop.

Next stop was Main Camp – as the name describes, the main camp for the park. It was as though time had stood still. The restaurant was set back in the 70s but in perfect order. Linen table cloths and serviettes but sadly there was no-one about, something we are starting to get used to. The menu looked good, although we Sarah wasn’t too confident about the ‘Cowslow’.

All the rangers were great and each time we were stopped we were asked what we had seen, asking us to come back and wishing us a safe journey. We left the park having seen very little wildlife in fact despite the claims the park makes. Never mind.

We arrived in Bulawayo late afternoon and drove through streets lined with marvellous old colonial buildings. A busy place and a city which even had working traffic lights. The city is easy to navigate as it is built up around Rhode’s trademark grid system. The roads are also very wide as they were built to accommodate a wagon with a full span of oxon (24 pairs) to perform a u-turn, so Alfie had no problems when the satnav took us on a wild goose chase or two!

The campsite was yet another time-warp. More baths! But only bulbs in the bathrooms and not in the loos. Oh, and only one working hot shower which was in the mens so a very quick shower for Sarah! There was also a large frog in the ladies loos.

Met John and Anika from Harare who were also driving around in a Land Rover 110 along with Anika’s parents from Holland. A good chat was had by all.

Kms travelled: 428 kms.

Thursday 27^th January/day 115. Bulawayo Municipal Camp.

A great day as Norman came over, the Scout leader we had met in Mwanza on Christmas Day. Over the tea during the afternoon we had a good catch-up on our mutual travels and adventures. It was great to share stories about Malawi and Zambia. We did feel like there were police all around us listening to our conversations. We made plans to meet up again in a few days.

We ventured off into Bulawayo to eat and visited the Golden Spur restaurant which Norman said used to be very good. The restaurant had been closed for some months, like so much of Zim, but had been re-opened only four days earlier by a South African couple. Serving either steak and chips or chicken and chips at $4 a go, we thought this sounded like a pretty good deal. They didn’t have their alcohol licence as yet, so it was an opportunity to walk around Bulawayo and experience some of the shops. All shops were stocked but hardly anyone in them. Sadly, a lot of the supermarket food is still far too expensive for the locals and this is also backed-up by the amount of street sellers on the side of the roads and pavements selling fresh fruit, veg, CDs, household goods etc.

As we arrived back at the camp, by foot, the camp guards nearly fell off their seats when they realised we had walked. Apparently, we had walked through a very dangerous path where people often got mugged. Hey ho, we’re here to tell the tale….

Kms travelled: 0 kms.

Friday 28^th January/day 116. Bulawayo Municipal Campsite – Norma Jeans, Great Zimbabwe. Odometer: 94743.

It rained throughout the night and didn’t stop until something around 7pm. Co-incidentally listening to the ‘Thunder and Lightening Polka’ as we drove through more rain! The rains are late and they seem to be following us wherever we go these days.

The plan for today was to head out to Antelope Park, at Gweru, for the night where we had read you can play with Lion Cubs which sounded right up our street. The road from Bulawayo was good albeit we hardly saw any traffic as there was a current diesel and petrol shortage. However, the approach to Antelope Park was a bit soggy and having driven through the first flooded river we came across a second. Hmmm…. Sarah was not very brave with the first one and as the water was now flowing twice as quickly and twice as deep we came to a grinding halt as a result of lots of noise (OMG/no-way/you’ve got to be joking if you think…) coming from Sarah. Sarah was now in a cold sweat and after a light-hearted discussion with Rob…not…the decision was made to turn around. A very quiet drive followed as we headed back down the track.

The next stop was to be Great Zimbabwe which we could still make in the same day, however, re-fuelling was in order and as mentioned there was a shortage. After a good tour around all petrol stations in Gweru, we found a queue for diesel at the Shell garage and joined it. Sadly, a 52 seater coach was in front of us and naturally took ages to fill, but the good news is there was still diesel available for us, hurrah, not such good news was the by the time we had reversed adjacent to the pump the electricity had gone off! Bugger.

There we sat. And sat some more. Some time later we gave up and headed out to Great Zimbabwe with the hope we would make it on the fuel we had and that there would be petrol stations in Masvingo.

Some distance up the road we arrived at Masvingo and with the arrow on the lower edge of empty and to our delights we found petrol stations and what more they had diesel and what’s more, electricity as well…always a good combination. Hurrah! Bearing in mind the tanks take 120 litres, we put 118 litres in. I know we’ve mentioned our close call with low fuel before but this truly was our nearest to just coming to a stop somewhere on a roadside in Zimbabwe, not one of the most sensible actions to potentially take.

There’s not much to see in Masvingo so we headed 30kms towards Great Zimbabwe. We opted to stay at Norma Jean’s rather than the campsite inside the park. It was another example of a lovely colonial-style building with a dining room and lounge area straight out of a UK hotel. The gardens were magnificent (see photos) and when the rain stopped for the rare moment, the views over Lake Kyle (colonial name) or Lake Mutirikwe was fantastic.

Kms travelled: 415 kms.

Saturday 29^th Jan/day 117. Norma Jeans, Great Zimbabwe – Antelope Park, Gweru. Odometer: 95158.

Great Zimbabwe – A World Heritage site: The largest stone structure ever built south of the Sahara, with the first structures believed to have been built as far back as AD1100. It has been a base for a succession of Kings and rulers spanning four centuries and has subsequently had the whole country named after it. The carved wooden birds which were found here have also provided the country with their national symbol.

We spent a good couple of hours here, climbing up to and clambering around the Hill Complex which proved a huffing and puffing exercise for Sarah again. (Hope people are donating as this lung disease needs to be cracked!). It was a great site to explore and even better as we seemed once again to the be the only ones there.

The weather was much kinder to us today and with no rain with we pondered about heading back to Antelope Park to play with the lion cubs. Therefore, quick call to Antelope Park confirmed they were open, the floods had subsided (phew) and the prices for the cubs, which seemed less than was quoted in any of the literature we had. With all this good news, we headed back.

En-route a UN vehicle passed us pulling their own fuel bowser – a very sensible move. Although, we were surprised to see the UN but judged this as a positive move for the country.

Soon after we were stopped by the Police at a check-point. The check-point being located approx 100 metres after a defunct single-gauge railway line. The, very young policeman with his cap perched to one side of his head, told Rob he should have stopped at the railway line. Rob very calmly asked where the road signs were indicating this. The policeman explained that they had been taken and as we didn’t stop we were to be fined $30 – not on your nelly were we going to pay for anything. So following a little discussion Rob utilised some more valuable advice and asked for the policeman’s badge number.  “I don’t have a badge, Sir.  Enjoy your journey”.    Subsequently, we found out that there was no such law about stopping at railway crossings, just a whizz to get some US $.

Our first surprise upon nearing Antelope Park was that Sally sat-nav took us to another entrance to the Park which meant zero river crossings…now, if we had only known that the day before! The second surprise was that the prices quoted over the phone bore no relation to the ‘actual’. The worst of this was that we had especially asked about the cub feeding only to be told that the cubs only get fed every three days and this didn’t coincide with our visit. Grrrrrrrrr. So a bit of a wasted trip for us.

Having stayed at Antelope Park and subsequently discussed the location with Norman we wouldn’t recommend a visit. It is very ‘zoo-like’ and not a bit of the real Zimbabwe. For example – the lions are kept in very small compounds and frequently taken out to be walked with. The place claims to release the lions into the wild, but to do so with habituated animals would mean an early and certain death for them.

We also found the staff quite unhelpful at times…. at other times they proved elusive.

Kms travelled: 246 kms.

Sunday 30^th January/day 118. Antelope Park, Gweru – Matopos National Park.

Odometer: 95404.

A quick stop to grab some food from a supermarket resulted in being given change in the form for two pens and a piece of bublegum!

A dry drive back to Bulawayo and much more traffic on the roads as fuel was now getting back into the petrol stations. We passed acres and acres of redundant farming land, but we guess the only bonus here is at least the land is returning to the original shrub-land.

We met with Norman and Chris, where we spent a very relaxed afternoon exploring some of the 200 acre Scout camp, and something UK Scouts should be very envious of. The camp even had its own Chapel where services are held twice a month.

We were then thoroughly spoilt…first of all we had sundowners overlooking the Koppies. This was followed by a slap-up meal cooked up by Chris.

A little more about the meal…the beef and vegetables were cooked in a cast-iron pot within an outside over heated by wood. The oven was constructed from old oil drums and resembled a pizza oven. Superb. Anyway, we have taken lots of photos as Rob was making sounds about a similar oven appearing in the back garden!

The dinner table was set up overlooking another view of the koppies and forest. The table was covered with cloth Chris had bought whilst visiting the Maasi in the Ngoooooorrrooooo Crater. Wine was served in engraved glasses and we ate from crockery which were made during the second world war for RAF pilots who had come out to the park for a break. Coffee was served in commemorative mugs whilst sat around a roaring fire. We even managed to see the Southern Star.

Norman was great to talk to about scouting and life in Bulawayo and Zimbabwe. We have to commend Norman for being the Scout leader for the 1st Bulawayo Scouts for 32 years. Keep going Norman, you are doing a truly fantastic job!

Kms travelled:

Monday 31^st January/day 119. Matopos.

A full English breakfast, cooked on the outdoor stove, set up us for a day exploring the Matopos.

With Norman at the wheel of his series 3 Land Rover, our first stop was Rhode’s grave at ‘View of the World’ as Rhodes called it. With Norman also being a tour guide for a couple of companies we were provided with an impressive historical overview of the Matopos and Rhodes.

The views over the Matopos were incredible (I’m trying to avoid using ‘fantastic’ too often) and I hope you can see this from the pictures. I’ve also shown a photo of a small hole in the rock, which was a securing point for the 12 oxon (all black) to pull the carriage bearing the coffin up the steep rock-side.

To the right of Rhodes is the grave of Jameson.

Our next stop was Silozwane Cave to look at the rock paintings. Another venture up steep rock rewarded us with a spectacular cave adorned with many paintings of animals – some recognisable, some not. The theory is that the cave was probably a meeting place or site of spiritual importance. See photos.

Mesilume Dam was next on the agenda where Norman drove across the Dam wall and then back again. Sarah was very calm.

Our last stop for the day was at the Pomongwe Cave and museum, but a lot of the paintings had been lost or were very faint. Largely due to early efforts to retain the paintings which in turn damaged them even further. The doors of the museum are worth a mention though. These were rescued from the Old Motopas Hotel and have Rhode’s portrait engraved on one of the glass doors.

Rhino search…………

Back to camp.

We have to thank Norman and Chris for their very generous hospitality over the last couple of days. Excellent company and some great cooking, but above all, some new friends and we look forward to another visit to Zimbabwe, Bulawayo and the Matapos in particular.

Kms travelled: 0 kms.



Border day to Malawi.

We had decided to go and see the Mbozi Meteorite, but for whatever reason forgot and arrived at the border completely missing it!   We blame a mixture of everything for this margin of team Alfie stupidity.

Border crossings were a dream and we were through both sides within 40  minutes.   We even remembered to check the time and put the clocks back by one hour.  Changing money was also very straight forward with minimal hassle.

We headed off into Malawi and towards the lake.   The drive was easy and roads were all relatively good tarmac.  Traffic was virtually non-existent and we did not see any suicidal coaches which was a relief.

The comedy moment of the day was at one of the police stops.  Conversation went along the lines of…
Guard: “A very beautiful car”  “Where are you from”
Rob: Thank you.  England (we have now decided this is the quickest answer and stops most of the officials thinking we are from Kenya as Alfie has a K reg).
G: “Where are you going”
R: Malawi, Zimbabwe, Botswana and then to Cape Town.
G: “Ah, but you are the children of Tony Blair, there will be problems for you”
R: At which point Rob couldn’t hold back the “certainly not, good god!”
G: “ah, but Mr Mugabe doesn’t like Mr Blair and Mr Obama”.

At which point we thought we would cut our losses, smile and agree with him which seemed to shut him up and we were allowed to go on our way.

We arrived at Chitimba Camp at 3pm. Another lovely setting on the sandy shores of Lake Malawi.  Temperatures now creeping up again to mid-40s and rather humid.

We had heard that this campsite was sometimes overrun by the big overland trucks but were relieved to see that there was only one when we arrived (Nomad za) and there was a good mix of age groups so no great worries.

We decided that this would be another good place for a bit of R&R especially on the eve of Sarah’s 21st….pardon!  Cough, cough, splutter…. ok, ok…31st…!   And the rest!  Oi!

Chitimba Camp:     S 10 35.077    E 034 10.541.

Distance travelled: 281 kms.

Friday 7th January/day 95 – Chitimba Camp.  Odometer 91326.

Happy Birthday Sarah!

“21 again, 21 again, Sarah’s got the key of the door”…wishful thinking Sarah!

Thank you for my cards which were expertly ferried all the way from Blighty and for the text and messages received.  Can’t say much was achieved today apart from a day of pottering, updating the diary and watching the world go by.

Rob did treat Sarah by allowing washing to be done by one of the local ladies.  Wow, Rob, you know how to spoil a girl!   Rock on! – Oi, I paid, too

The weather was rather boisterous today with rain showers throughout the day however, this was only a warm up to the down pour around 9pm.   The lightning storm over the lake was lively, but suddenly the wind picked up and we had dash off to take down the awning at exactly the same time as the dinosaur-sized drops of rain arrived.  We were soaked within seconds, soon abandoning the awning we sheltered under the cover of the roof tent until the rain subsided in order to finish off the awning!

Back to the bar to chat with some of the back-packers we had met and toast Sarah’s birthday.

Distance travelled: 0 kms.
Saturday 8th January/day 96 – Chitimba Camp.  Odometer 91326.

The three overland trucks (Yes three.  Two more snuck in and swamped Team Alfie whilst no one was looking) were up and away early ( in a nicely staggered formation from a bright and breezy 5am clattering and banging all the way through until just before 8am) so by the time we surfaced, we had the site to ourselves, apart from the couple of back-packers!

Um, just another very chilled day spent between the beach and Alfie, reading up on the history of Malawi and planning our route for the next few days.  The weather was hot hot though which meant we really didn’t want to wander too far so we didn’t. The two back-packers joined us and the afternoon was frittered away with idle banter.

Chitimba Camp:  We wouldn’t recommend this camp for anything other than an over-night stop.  The owners hardly interact with anyone, the food is of poor quality and very small portions and is served on plastic plates.

There is no flexibility either.  Three back-packers arrived around 8.30pm having been travelling all day and asked for some dinner only to be told “you didn’t order dinner before 17:00”…end of story. There was nothing the girls could order.  The bar then shut at 8.30pm as the barman wanted to get home before the rain came. Not sure why the owners didn’t then take-over the bar as there were approx 20 people about and all were happy for a few more beers.

Distance travelled: 0 kms.

Sunday 9th January/day 97 – Chitimba Camp – Njaya Lodge Camp, Nkhata Bay. Odometer 91326.    24 deg @ 07:30.

A very rainy night and therefore an early start to head down the lake towards Nkhata Bay.  We had planned to visit Livingstonia but the bad weather meant the road (which was actually closed) would be treacherous to say the least.

We had some great views of the lake as we climbed up the mountain road.  There were plenty of fishermen out casting their nets, plus rows of tables on the shore line ready to lay the fish out on.  Very smelly too!

We stopped to look at a traditional suspension bridge which was originally built in 1904 of bamboo poles.  We duly clambered across – see pics.  Pity it was so wet as it meant the wood was very greasy and one slip could result in a quick dip!

A quick shop by candle and torch light in Mzuzu as the electricity was off again, before heading downhill towards Njaya Lodge and campsite.  The rain had stopped  with the  temperature back into the 40s and humid as well.   The views over the lake were fantastic.  As it was Sunday we treated ourselves to the roast dinner which was fantastic.  The staff were great fun, particularly Gilbert whose catch-phrases were left over from Only Fools and Horses…everything was cushti and lovely-jubbly!

Distance travelled: 201 kms
Monday 10th January/day 98 – Njaya Lodge, Nkhata Bay – Luwawa Lodge,
Odometer 91527. 31 deg @ 07:00.

It’s still so hot and humid so we’ve decided to take to the hills to find a cooler area.  The plan worked as we headed into the Viphya forest, south-west of Nkhata Bay.  We drove through vast areas of forest, some of which was being cleared – at least it looked like it was being managed sustainably.

Apart from the workers around the deforstation areas we saw virtually no-one on this drive, but the roads were good and the temperature was dropping and arrived just before lunch at Luwawa lodge which was in the middle of no-where.

The afternoon was spent dodging another rain storm and getting our bearings around the Luwawa Forest Lodge.  The lodge is set deep within the south Viphya forest which is Malawi’s second most extensive mountain range and Malawi’s largest reserve.  There are a number of walks on offer, along with mountain biking, village visits etc

We have to mention the showers for two reasons: 1) they were the creepiest showers we had been in so far and 2) the hottest.  The locals stoked the fire as if they were catering the for dozens of people rather than just two!  See photos.   We felt a bit guilty that so much wood and then so little hot water had been used.  It wasn’t long before we discovered the real reason for so much hot water…. every member of staff took buckets of hot steamy water back home with them, so it wasn’t wasted.

We ate dinner in the lodge which was lovely inside. Something akin to eating in someone’s house with a large open hearth.  There was even a bath but we didn’t pluck up the courage to ask whether we could make use of it.  Anyway, Sarah didn’t pack any bubblebath which Rob can’t quite believe as we seem to have brought everything else!

Distance travelled: 174 kms.

Tuesday 11th January/day 99 – Luwawa Forest Lodge.  Odometer: 91701.

The temperature was ideal for a good night’s sleep.  The morning was taken up with washing, but at least we made use of the scorching hot water.  Rob changed tyres and did a spot of regular maintenance on Alfie.

Some of the staff’s children wandered by and made us laugh bucket loads when they started asking for ‘beefburger, bubblegum’ – our only thought must have been that it was the ‘B’ letter at school today.

After another downpour we headed out on one of the walks through the forest for the afternoon which took us a little longer than planned as we took a wrong turn.  We blame the map rather than our map-reading abilities!   Anyway, another fantastic dinner soon made up for it.

Two very gentle days.

Distance travelled: 0 kms in Alfie, about 10kms on foot.



Wednesday 12^th January/day 100. Luwawa Forest Lodge – Barefoot Camp, Lilongwe. Odometer 91701. 24 deg at 07:00 but no humidity.

A good drive to Lilongwe, only a few police stops to deal with and arrived around mid-day and hit civilisation for the first time in weeks… out of town shopping centres! Shelves of food, counters full of meat and fresh milk. Can’t remember what the food bill was, but confidently blew any sort of daily budget we may have had!

We also made a de-tour to a pharmacy to get some Malaria treatment. Malawi is probably the worst area for Malaria and in particular cerebral malaria and as we had both been bitten we thought it was a good idea.

Headed for Barefoot camp which is approx 10kms out of town. A lovely campsite where we were able to camp on a freshly cut lawn. In fact the lawnmowers seem to be still hard at work for the the next two hours, just like being back at home and glad for the peace and quiet when then stop! Ahhhh….silence.

Another fabulous storm passed over.

Distance travelled: 276 kms.

Thursday 13^th January/day 101. Barefoot Camp, Lilongwe – Chembe Eagles Nest, Cape Maclear. Odometer 91977. 30 deg at 8.45am.

We headed off to Cape Maclear in order to locate the guys who made wooden Land Rovers and tailor them to reflect individual vehicles. We were told to look out for the ‘Toys R Us’ sign on the side of the road and true to the advice we found the guys really easily. The land Rovers were fantastic so after a little bit of haggling a price was agreed, the guy scrambled over Alfie to see what was on top etc. The only down side was that the guy needed three days to create a wooden Alfie, bit longer than we had planned to be in Cape Maclear.

Not to worry though as we found a campsite right on the edge of the lake. The views, food and staff were all great so we managed to settle in very quickly.

Distance travelled: 282 kms.

Friday 14^th January/day 102. Chembe, Eagles Nest, Cape Maclear.

Just one of those days where time went very quickly but very little was done. Rob got a fix of the History Channel and Sarah did a few pink jobs. We were also able to watch some of the 20:20 cricket which was good to see – pity there were no Aussies near by! Again.

Distance travelled: 0 kms.

Saturday 15^th January/day 103. Chembe, Eagles Nest, Cape Maclear.

Probably the most impressive storm last night. We are camping within a stone’s throw of the beach and therefore very limited cover. The wind, then the rain meant we spent a good couple of hours sat upright wondering whether or not we will still have a roof tent in the morning! Anyway, all was good by the morning.

Rob had another fix of the history channel, Sarah managed to read some of a book. Rob was also a hero for rescuing a lizard which had got stuck in a bin.

We spent the evening with another overlander couple who had travelled down the west coast. Only to discover during the evening that Ian and Ruth (http://insearchofthunder.weebly.com/) had lived in Chichester and had played for Havant Hockey Club between 2004-6, knew Jim Drury, Warren Gilmour and worked up at Blues at the Fort. What a small world we live in!

Distance travelled: 0 kms.

Sunday 16^th January/day 104. Chembe Eagles Nest, Cape Maclear – Mabuya Camp, Lilongwe. Odometer: 92259 kms.

A gentle start today as we weren’t due to pick up our Land Rover wooden model until mid-day. We said our goodbyes to Ian, Ruth and Ian’s brother Andrew and headed off.

The Land Rover was fantastic and we continued onto Lilongwe where the temperature was lower – which was good.

We did aim to stay at the Golf Club as it had received a couple of good reports but after sitting at the gate to the camping area for 15 mins because no-one could find the key to the lock, we gave up and headed for Mabuya Camp.

Mabuya Camp is definitely geared up back-packers but not so much for roof-top overlanders. The camping area is a bit shabby, but at least there were hot showers.

Distance travelled: 265 kms.

Lilongwe is a great place to stock up; so we did! We also seemed to faff quite well and didn’t get going to the border until mid-morning. Hey ho.

The border crossings went very smoothly and we were through both sides in 45 minutes. The process is so much smoother when borders have both customs and immigration in the same building and people are happy to help.

For Zambia we had to pay 150,000 Kwa for Carbon tax and buy 3^rd party insurance. An added bonus was when the insurance man gave us four free pens.

Heading for Chipata we once again found the dreaded speed bumps. Why so many?! Chipata was a sizeable town and it was good to see markets and street stalls in full action again with plenty of fruit and veg for sale in perfectly stacked pyramids.

Soon after Chipata, we took a right hand turn off the main Lusaka road to South Luangwa National Park and left the luxury of tarmac. The first 20kms weren’t too bad as the road alternated between some limited tarmac and roadworks but we soon encountered some big potholes and puddles! (see photos and video). They were deep and managed to cover Alfie in a think red grime. What’s worse, Sarah got hit by water coming up through the bottom of Alfie! You can see this on the video…

Anyway, 3 hours later and 109kms under our belt we rolled into Wildlife Camp which was set adjacent to the river. We chose a spot over looking the river, cracked open the beers and listened to the snorting hippos and watched them leave the river to graze on the land. Fantastic.

All was going well until the storm once again ruined the moment of relaxation. But we are getting better at judging how soon the first drops will arrive. Everything was packed away in double quick time. What we didn’t bank on was the volume of rain again. The area at the back of the Land Rover soon turn to deep mud. So much so we had to put plastic bags over our shoes to somehow get into the tent…so very very English and wow, did we look silly!

Distance travelled: 308kms.

Tuesday 18^th January/day 106. Wildlife Camp, South Luangwa National Park.

First things first, we moved pitches only to be moved again as a dreaded truck was coming in and the low and behold the pitch we had moved to was booked by the truck…boo.

Next… the main reason for heading all the way down a very soggy road was to go on a night drive with the hope of seeing a whole host of different wildlife.

The day was relaxed leading up the 4pm. We had time for a swim, a bit of a read and we were even treated to a heard of elephants walking through the camp – with the hippos burping away in the river and the trumpeting of elephants the scene was just brilliant and set us up for the night drive.

During the first part of the drive while it was still day-light, we saw a number of hippos, elephants, puku, Waterbuck, Impala and Thornicroft Giraffe. After a quick stop and a sundowner, the safari moves onto the search for nocturnal animals. The main aim for us was to find the elusive leopard.

Time was moving on and we seemed to be trundling a lot with very limited sightings of anything apart from a lot of hippo’s bottoms. We realised we were heading back out of the park and Rob decided to put his camera away, only to turn a corner and come across a female leopard plonk in the middle of the road – superb.

The camera was out of the bag and Rob was snapping away. The leopard made a turn into the bush which didn’t deter the driver, Billy, but sadly we lost sight. But not for long, Rob looked to his right and there she was. See pics. It was amazing how close we were to the most infamously elusive of the Big Five.

Distance travelled: 0 kms.

Wednesday 19^th January/day 107. Wildlife Camp, South Luangwa National Park – Bridge Camp, Luangwa. Odometer: 92832 kms.

Still on a high from the previous night’s Leopard’s sighting, and after Rob had stopped talking to the resident monkeys, we headed back down the 130km track to the main road to Lusaka. We must also say that the monkeys are far too confident. Sarah turned away for one moment and a cheeky monkey jumped into the back of Alfie and was hunting for goodies (luckily they were all securely stashed away in the boxes).

We made a stop at Tribal Textiles as we had read that this was one of the best places to see Zambia’s hand-painted textiles which did turn out to be a great shop with some lovely prints, bags, t-shirts etc. Sarah may have had a little bit of a shop!

What we hadn’t expected was the road being quite so water-logged from the rains. One stretch in particular was more interesting than Sarah needed, which we managed to capture on video. Sarah just manages to miss the moment the water comes over the top of the bonnet though but you may just hear a sharp intake of breath followed by some excellent filming of the dash and assorted not-out-the-window shots.

The road was much slower going back and it took us the best part of four hours to get to the junction of the main road (approx 110 kms/66miles). There was an option to stay at Mama Rulas campsite in Chipata which had been recommended to us, especially for the t-bone steaks but as it was only mid-day we decided to head on to the half-way point to Lusaka and Bridge Camp.

The road was good tarmac and there was hardly any traffic but it still seemed like a slow drive. The scenery is very monotonous forest. There were a few police road blocks but I think we were waived through all of these.

We arrived at Bridge Camp approx 4.30pm in the rain. (see video) It was all a bit odd. The location was lovely, albeit a bit isolated. The restaurant and bar sat overlooking the Luangwa River which was high and fast moving due to the rains, (the Luangwa river drains into the Zambezi), but the owners weren’t perhaps at their best. Very welcoming to start with, then the lady owner, who was English, soon made it clear that she was bored and just wanted to head back to either Cape Town or England. We later witnessed a lot of shouting at the staff as the meals were being prepared which wasn’t great to hear or witness. A fellow biking overlander later told us that he had heard the site was up for sale last year – we can understand why!

Anyway, the food was good and showers hot. The campsite was perfectly OK, but you wouldn’t fit more than three or four Land Rovers in, but all in all, it is a good spot for an overnight stop to or from Lusaka.

Bridge Camp: S 15 00.191 E 30 12.547.

Distance travelled: 495 kms.

Thursday 20^th January/day 108. Bridge Camp, Luangwa – Eureka Camp, Lusaka. Odometer: 93327 kms. 28 deg at 7.30am and humid.

We wanted to get to the Land Rover garage in Lusaka in good time today as we needed to buy new brake pads. The road again was again good tarmac with only a few death buses and trucks on the road. Passing through more forest we could almost touch the Mozambique border to the east.

We did come across a fellow white Land rover on the side of the road with the bonnet up so we pulled over to see if we could help. We tried to reattach one of the pulleys for the drive belt, but unfortunately the threads had already stripped. Luckily they had already called for recovery.

There were a few villages which we drove through, all varying in size and activity but all of them seemed to have the furniture and coffin shops again. Not sure if I’ve mentioned this before! We also passed guys with pigs and goats strapped to their carriers on their bikes – the charges were still alive as well. We will try and get some photos of these.

Next stop was for the testse fly control where a man walks around the vehicle with a butterfly net and then looks in to see if we have any inside. Believe me, they would have been ejected many moons ago if they had flown in – they are horrible and hurt when they bite! Rob pointed out that Sarah was partial to blatting bugs with a lengthy spray of DOOM and the chappy smiled and disappeared back into his hut.

Approaching Lusaka, it must be the centre for chicken production as we passed endless chicken processing plants.

We also desperately needed fuel and this was probably the closest we had come to running out! Fuel stations are far and few between on the road from the border to Lusaka – ensure you leave with a full tank and full jerry cans. We have the extra fuel tank which was a relief but some 1050kms down the road this was even making us feel nervous!

But soon we were driving on dual carriageway towards the Arcades shopping centre to find a Barclays bank and fresh bread. In addition to the bread we came out with some juicy hot sausage rolls and pies. Yum pastry. Oh, and the the ex-pats weekly Telegraph edition to get our fix on the home and overseas news.

Next stop was the Pilatus Land Rover and BMW garage. What a swizz! Parts were incredibly expensive and that was before we had even to check the price for labour. At which point, Sarah dug out the number for Foleys Africa, who are based in Livingstone, and called to see if they could help with brake pads.

It was a blessing to speak to Nick. A quick chat through the prices and labour costs easily forced the decision to drive down to Livingstone. It was also fantastic to hear Nick ask “can I take your name please?” “It’s Sarah and Rob” “ah, are you Alfie?” yes

Nick had been following our exploits and wondered whether we would be popping in.

We wouldn’t recommend Pilatus unless you are in a desperate need to talk to a stroppy Afrikaner or have more money than sense. You’d be far better off taking time to head on down to Livingstone.

We stayed at Eureka Camp, which is Lusaka’s best campsite. Set on a private farm within a game area which was protected with an electric fence. We camped on newly cut grass, with plenty of space around us. The site ranks so far as the best for showers with both the ‘Sheilas’ and ‘Bruces’ being immaculate. There is also a lovely bar, TV room and pool area.

As we sat under our awning that night, sipping ciders and wine, dodging another downpour we heard the first plane and police sirens for months. That coupled with the shopping centre we suddenly felt that we had left the villages and wide open spaces of Africa and returned to civilisation and could almost be back in Europe.

Our early start the next day provided more than enough information as to what the sirens were for. A rather spectacular head on crash aftermath left little to the imagination.

Eureka: S 15 23.537 E 28 18.975.

Distance travelled:

Friday 21^st January/day 109. Eureka, Lusaka – The Zambezi Waterfront, Livingstone. Odometer: 93614 kms. Cool at 20 deg.

Up and away early as we had some 7 hours of driving to get down to Livingstone and Foleys. In fact the road was great and we arrived at 1pm just as everyone had gone to lunch so Sarah took the opportunity to go shopping once again where we discovered that Shoprite is about 20% cheaper than Spar. And, check out a few campsites.

Back to the garage for 2pm where Nick was on hand to check Alfie over. New brake pads, fluid and a bush and bolt on the panhard rod and we were off again. It was good to see a number of other overland vehicles and get the low down of what really happened to Neil Morrisey’s trailer in Men Brewing Badly!

Foleys Africa: S 17 51.956 E 25 51.243.

The Fawlty Towers campsite is not geared up to take roof top tents, only ground tents therefore we headed to The Zambezi Waterfront some 4 kms down the road towards Victoria Falls within the unfenced area of Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park. Wow, what a spot. The pitches have their own BBQ, sink, electricity and light. The bar and restaurant overlook the river. There are two swimming pools, one in the campsite area and one adjacent to the bar. Plus internet which was a big bonus.

Zambezi Waterfront: S 17 53.199 E 25 50.651

Distance Travelled:

Saturday 22^nd January/day 110. Zambezi Waterfront.

Ants! Loads of them!

The day was mainly spent updating the web site, loading photos and video clips as we hadn’t had any decent internet since Christmas, which we hope everyone is enjoying.

However, upon returning to Alfie early in the evening, Sarah discovered that we had been invaded by an army of ants. They were everywhere….crawling along the side of Alfie, along the base of the tent and then horror of horrors, into the tent. Everything had to come out. Rob was volunteered to ‘doom’ the tent and then sweep it out.

It turned out that they were crawling from a palm tree onto the back of the tent. Aflie was also moved and a little bit of palm tree cut down to ensure the ants couldn’t jump to complete their house moving mission.

What is it with us?! First a spider, now ants, not worth thinking what may be next!

Distance travelled: 0 kms.

Sunday 23^rd January/day 111. Zambezi Waterfront.

Thankfully, no ants in the tent last night but Sarah still woke up with another four mosi-bites, gawd, they are frustrating.

The morning was spent planning the next few days’ exploration to both sides of Victoria Falls. There are a huge number of activities which can be booked from the hotel, from bungee-jumping, white-water rafting through to a whiz up the Zambezi in a speed boat which Sarah quite likes the sound of! Also, microlights, oodles of them as they seemed to buzz around overhead for most of each morning. Ahhh, the sound of low flying lawnmowers.

The afternoon was spent around the pool until another storm came in and as we hastily vacated the sunbeds, a branch from a palm tree fell off with a huge splosh and ended up straddling the pool and sun beds! Crikey.

Kms travelled: 0 km.

We then shone the torch at our watches and realised it was 5.30am!

Crikey, the guard must have been bored, or, did he forget we were meant to be asleep  above in the roof tent?!  He did a good job though.

Rob went onto change around the tyres, check the suspension, oils etc – all with a small audience gathering.  We don’t think they had seen anything like Team Alfie before and were all fascinated.

Today was border day as we set off towards Tanzania.  We were sad to be leaving Rwanda as we had found the country fascinating.  Perhaps one day we will go back and explore some more.

Border crossings went well apart from the Tanzania Passport/Visa man not accepting a $50 note with a small tear in it ‘as the machine would not accept this madam’.  Arghh.  We also got a good rate with the money changers.  Sarah is just getting better and better as this black-market money exchanging racket!

We decided to head on the road to Kahama rather than the Northern route via Geita.   There were long stretches of road with nothing much about however, we weren’t ready for how poor this part of Tanzania was.  We think that a lot of the villages were made up of refugees from Rwanda as we did pass some redundant signs to refugee camps.

Extra care must be taken on these roads as there are some spectacularly sneaky pot holes (as mentioned by the Namibians we met at Bunyoni Lake).  One in particular managed to catch out an articulated truck and throw it right off the bridge.  Sobering stuff.

We trundled towards Kahama on pretty good roads only to hit the biggest rain storm we had experienced so far.  Rob slowed down to a sensible speed as visibility was greatly reduced only to be overtaken by one of the suicidal coaches which we have come to hate and watched it aquaplaning across the road.

We were due to arrive at Kahama around 5pm which was ok for us as we had found a lodge in T4A which sounded lovely and had visions of a relaxing drink in the lodge bar.  Turning left off the main road into a very busy dirt road comprising of very many shops, people, cars, trucks and nothing like a ‘lodge’.  Perhaps as this point we should have realised that our lodge was not going to be up to our expectations!  A few minutes later we found the lodge down an even more rutted dirt track-cum-back-street and quickly decided not to stay there!

We headed back out to the main streets to start to look for somewhere half-decent to stay and rocked up outside ‘Hotel Mongo’ which looked modern and had secure parking.

The price was a agreed by a ‘manager’ on the side of the road and we drove in and parked up.  Funnily enough the price had then risen by 10,000 TZS by the time we were checking in – this should have sounded alarm bells to us but it was now dark and we had been on the road all day and thought of a hot shower was so welcoming.

We were shown to a room with air-con and a decent bathroom so agreed to stay for the night.  Rob headed quickly for the ‘so-looked-forward-to’ shower only to re-appear within seconds to say “there’s no water”.   Sarah was dispatched to reception to find out what the problem was, only to be told “we have no water, it is a problem in Africa you know…”.

Now, the part of this tale that we still can’t get over is that the reception manager, Rob and Sarah all stood in the bathroom and discussed the need for a good hot shower and nothing was mentioned about the vital ingredient being missing!

Anyway, after much huffing and puffing and “you’ve just sold us a room with a bathroom” conversation from Sarah, water materialised from somewhere, but sadly it was cold. Hot water was just too much to hope for.

Next, was the need for hot food and a cold beer but sadly this all got a bit mixed up too and we were given warm beer and cold food.   Rob’s food was virtually frozen.  Upon enquiring as to why the food had turned up cold, the chef was sent up to us who explained, very politely, that he first cooked Rob’s and then Sarah’s meal, therefore Rob’s meal sat on the side awaiting Sarah’s food to be cooked.  The chef couldn’t grasp the need to ensure both meals were cooked simultaneously!   We therefore, very politely, refused to pay for Rob’s food and retired to the room where Rob had cream crackers and peanut butter washed down with all the remaining cold beer from our fridge!

But, at least we still had water in the bathroom.

Mongo Hotel: S 03 49.860 E 32 35.783.  May be fully functional in a few year’s time.

Distance travelled:   438 kms

Wednesday 22nd December/day 79.  Kahama – Mwanza.  Odometer 88355.

A new day and an early start leaving the hotel behind us, we headed for Mwanza where we aimed to spend Christmas before heading into the Serengeti.

The roads were good and the landscape soon started to change from flatlands to marshlands and then onto green fields with stony outcrops with at times huge boulders.  We passed numerous men and boys on bikes.  Again, the boys seemed far too small for the bikes and the men were having to push their bikes as they were so over-laden with charcoal, wood or water.  We are still convinced there is only one size of bike out here.

We arrived at the Mwanza Yacht Club at 11:30 which was easy to find and was on a great spot just outside the town.  The views out to Lake Victoria were fantastic and we quickly came to the decision that we could spend a few days here.

Alfie was parked up and we headed to the Talapia Hotel next door for lunch which was all very relaxing.   A storm rolled in over the mountains so we took the opportunity to have a little afternoon nap before heading back to the Hotel for dinner, although the food wasn’t that great which was a pity.

Mwanza Yacht Club:  S 02 31.745  E 032 53.652.

Distance Travelled: 287 kms.

Thursday 23rd December/day 80. Mwanza Yacht Club.  Odometer 88642.

We had seen a garage on the way in with a load of Land Rovers outside so we took Alfie over to get a new rear diff seal as this was leaking a bit.  An hour later, we were all done and heading for the overpriced supermarket to buy our Christmas meal.

T-bone steaks were purchased along with a few other Christmas goodies. 

An afternoon of reading by Rob and faffing by Sarah then followed before we were alerted by one of the staff to a crocodile which had crawled up the slip way at the Yacht club. Thankfully, it was only a baby croc!   However, it was enough to ensure that Sarah made Rob move the table in front of Alfie a little way back from the waters edge whilst having dinner just in case Mum and Dad were lurking somewhere as well!

We had hoped that we would meet other overlanders at this campsite but no-one had appeared just yet.

Oh, and another very impressive thunder storm rolled over during the afternoon.

The Yacht Club was very similar to being at home.  A well stocked bar, basic but good food, trophy cabinet, boards of honours albeit a lot seemed to stop at 1994 ( presumably when the Rwanda trouble erupted).  We would recommend this place as an overland stop.

Distance travelled: 7 kms.

Friday 24th December/day 81.  Mwanza Yacht Club – Christmas Eve.  Odometer 88649.

Spider!    Big bloody spider!

Sarah was just about to reach for the rug from the back of Alfie when low and behold there was a spider the size of the moon (slight exaggeration) sat on the side of one of the boxes.   Rob was in the loo (no surprise there), so Sarah ran to one of the locals who was  minding his own business, getting on with his own yacht club duties, and virtually hauled him over to Alfie.   The poor guy was a bit confused but once he had focused on what Sarah was gesturing at quickly got a stick to kill the little monster with, at which point the spider moved!  Arghhhhhhhhhhhh.

The local guy was brilliant and got into the back of Alfie and started to pass all the gubbins out to Sarah.  Rob returned at this point and was a little bemused as to what was going on but soon caught up and helped the evacuation procedure.   The local then managed to see that the spider had crawled through the dog-guard to the back of the fridge.   He was out and round the side of fridge and with one quick stab had killed the beast and thrown it into Lake Victoria.  Phew….

Alfie was then completely emptied, fumigated and cleaned and then fumigated some more followed by lots of ‘what ifs’ and ‘how long has he been there’.

What ifs…Sarah had put her hand in and been bitten.   ….it had crawled out while we were driving…  what if there are more which have crawled into all the nooks and crannies of a Land Rover…far tooooo much to consider!

How long had it been there?  We think we may have picked it up at Kim and Tim’s in Ethiopia as this was one of the last times all the boxes were out.  Some three weeks ago.  We also found the nest and discarded skin in the recess of one of the boxes.   Shudder, shudder.

For any budding entomologists out there, the spider was khaki with black stripes over the body and legs.  Size – approx the size of a clenched fist.    We think it may have been a sand spider.

The rest of the Christmas Eve was calm and collected.  We had burgers for dinner, that old traditional Christmas Eve ritual…not…but good enough for us!

Suddenly, there were lights at the gate to the camping area and there was Vince and Karin, two Dutch overlanders we had met in Aswan. It was great to see them and catch up on each others tales.

Later that evening whilst sat in the bar at the hotel next door, we then saw too other vehicles pull in and by the shape of the vehicles and lights we could tell then were old Land Rovers (we are turning into Land Rover nerds).   Christmas Day was going to be good.

Oh, and the daily thunder storm came over.

Distance travelled: 5 kms

Saturday 25th December/day 82.  Mwanza Yacht Club – Christmas Day.  Odometer 88654.

Merry Christmas everyone.

A very gentle start to the day, with us opening our Christmas shoe-box of goodies from Shirley and Tony and cards from friends and family.  All of which were fantastic to receive and in particular the Duchy biscuits, Christmas crackers and serviettes and new M&S pants!   You can never have enough M&S pants and certainly cannot have Christmas Day without crackers!

Alfie was decorated with cards and a few of the smuggled decorations Sarah had brought along.

Norman from the ‘old Land Rovers’ came over to introduce himself and we discovered that he was the Scout Leader from 1st Bulawayo (Pioneer) Scout Group, Zimbabwe, who were on their “Roof of Africa Expedition” for five weeks for their centenary celebrations.

Norman soon returned with offerings of Christmas cake, ( complete with marzipan and icing) yum.

Calls were made to family at home although it was a pity that Sarah’s family couldn’t hear her but at least she could hear them.

In return for the Christmas Cake, we went armed with our wine box and gave all the Scouts a glass of cold crisp dry white wine and made a toast to our friends and families all around the world, to one ‘n’ other and to a very different Christmas Day.

Rob took up residence in the hammock whilst Sarah prepared lunch of t-bone steak, mashed potatoes and vegetables.   The steak was fantastic! (Oi, and so was the mash).

Harrods Christmas pudding and Bird’s custard made for a perfect pudding for the day.   What’s more, all of our celebrations had been completed without the daily storm we had been experiencing.

See pictures and video.

Later in the evening, the Scouts headed off to the hotel next door for their Christmas meal and we, still stuffed with our Christmas lunch, headed for a few ‘light’ drinks in the bar which overlooked the campsite.   Ho ho…

…within no time, the wind was picking up to the level where empty glasses were being blown off the bar.  The staff were fighting against the wind to pull down the shutters and batton down the hatches.  We could see that the roof tent was being buffeted a little and soon afterwards we saw the Scouts feverishly running around moving their camping gear and Land Rovers away from the lake shore back to the relative safety and shelter of the sizeable squash courts.

At this point, we quickly calculated how much we had spent on the roof tent, and the cost of the loss, damage and replacement..drinks were finished rapidly and an Alfie was moved to an adjacent spot to the Scouts.

The Scouts had set up their camp beds in the squash courts, but as we didn’t have any camp beds we opted to brave it out in the roof tent.  Thankfully, the storm did blow over relatively early in the night.  So much so, that some of the Scouts opted to vacate the squash court and sleep under the stars.  We just wished they had warned us they were going to do this, as one decided to tie his mosi-net to the bull-bar on the front of Alfie, which once again rocked Alfie half-way through the night and gave us yet another fright.

A different, but very lovely Christmas all the same and thank you to everyone who sent messages.  They are great to receive when you are away from home.

Distance travelled: 0.

Sunday 26th December/Day 83.  Mwanza Yacht Club – Nigiri  Campsite, Serengeti. Odometer 88654.

Team Alfie packed up early as we were off to the Serengeti – hurrah!

We arrived at the Ikoma gate entrance at 1.30pm, parted with a wad of cash and headed straight into the park.  Oh, have to say, the guy at the gate still managed to overcharge us despite him having to calculate the exact same amount for the car in front of us!

Within 20 mins we had come across Zebra and a female elephant and her baby – so wonderful to see.  A stop at the hippo pool was great fun to see and hear, they have so much character all splashing around in the water, grunting away.  ( A noise Rob is familiar with.  Sarah has been practising the Hippo noise since Botswana all those years ago).

Thereafter, we saw, giraffe, warthog, Kanga, fox, baboons, African buffalo, Jackson’s hartebest, Thomson’s gazelle, Impala, steenbok, dik dik and a marmoset.

We settled in one of the many (basic) campsites, managed to make a successful call to Sarah’s family and met up with a great bunch of people from an overland truck where we shared stories around their camp fire.

There are no fences around the campsite therefore all night we could hear the noise of the bush, and let our minds race for what was out there – superb.  (We could see Jackals at the foot of our ladder from our seats at the fire ).

Ngiri Campsite:     S 02 25.109  E 34 51.479.

Distance travelled: 358 kms in total.  63 kms in the Serengeti.

Monday 27th December/day 84.  Serengeti National Park – Ngorongoro Crater. Odometer: 89012.

Up and away by 6am as we wanted to find Lion, and we weren’t disappointed.  One of the guides from the overland truck had told us where to head for and he was spot on.  There was a pride of some ten – sixteen females and cubs watched over by one huge male.

We left after about forty minutes – off in search of other wildlife.   It was great to just roam around the Serengeti in Alfie, and we weren’t to be disappointed.  Soon we had come across more elephant and giraffe and even a cheetah or three, who we watched move from rocks and cross over the track in front of us.

Heading off towards the plains we came across the scene we had both been hoping for,  thousands upon thousands of migrating wilderbeest and zebra (see photos and video).   Simply amazing.  The most astonishing thing was how silent they were was their migration passed first in front, then behind Team Alfie.

We did have one moment when we got a bit too brave and ventured down a track away the main road.  It was a little bit more than soggy and Alfie did have a moment when he slid sideways for a fair while, we soon got back onto terra-firma on the main track!

The pass for the Serengeti is in 24 hour chunks and the game reserve is fastidious about the timekeeping  therefore in order not to be charged another $200 we ensured we were clocked out in good time only to part with another $200 to enter the Ngorongoro Crater reserve.   (What a bloody swizz!)

Spotted today were:  Lion, wilderbeest, giraffe, zebra, hyena, elephant, impala, cheetah, buffalo, hippo, babooooons, rock hyrax, dwarf mongoose.

Heading off to the ferociously overpriced N’goro Crater we hit red dirt track and Alfie started to suffer from a stutter and we had fears that we were about to break down in the middle of the game reserve!  However, good ole Alfie got us to the campsite where Rob was able to clean out the sedimenter.  Duff African fuel strikes again and a sludge of pink dust and crystals were fastidiously removed.

More perfect timing from Team Alfie meant that the discarded fuel from the sedimenter could be used to kick-start the camp fire of expensive, freshly cut, wet wood provided by N’goro. Pah!

‘Simba A’ campsite was the venue for the night which turned out to be very expensive for something very grotty.   There were very limited options for roof tents as we were not allowed to drive onto the main grass area, therefore, we opted for the spot with a view of the crater but unfortunately also close the the shower block.

We did manage to have a home cooked meal with a glass of wine overlooking the crater as the sun went down.  We were also within sight and ear-shot of the resident bull elephant and just hoped that he maintained a respectable distance during the night. The night guard did come up to us and introduce himself and he did reassure us that the elephant ‘was harmless’.  Let’s just hope so!

Team Alfie was ‘on-show’ for the duration; or that’s how it felt anyway.  We had a steady stream of people from many nationalities either looking from a distance or plucking up the courage to come and chat and find out what we were up to.  We had no idea so many people wanted to talk to us.  We met two great girls from Arusha who were working as lawyers for the Rwanda war crimes tribunals and children welfare who were very interesting to chat to.

Sadly, the rain arrived and we were all off to bed! (in respective tents that is!)

Simba A campsite: S 3 13.647 E 35 29.445.  $30 pppn.

Distance travelled:  279 kms in total.  181 kms in the Serengeti.  98 kms to N’Crater campsites.

Tuesday 28th December/day 85 – Simba A camp, Ngorongoro Crater – Masai Camp, Arusha.  Odometer: 89291.

It was quite a cold night and thankfully the elephant behaved. We had opted not to pay the extra $200 to enter the crater so we listened to vehicles heading off to the Crater around 6am and had a snooze until well after 8am.   Unfortunately, it was raining a little and the crater was submerged in a mist so first views of the crater were a little limiting this morning.

Even before we were up and about, we could hear last nights tales being retold to new visitors.

No sooner was Sarah down the steps but she was met by Mel, one of the lawyers from the night before. She had opted to stay back in camp and wanted a lift back early to Arusha and we were happy to oblige.

A quick stop at the look-out point for a photo opportunity before heading in Arusha, some 3 hours away. A good drive on decent roads meant we were arriving just in time for lunch.

Mel told us where the local café was and the best supermarket to head for.   All good tips.  Once fed, watered and stocked up, we headed for Masai camp, which we had read and heard about as being the ‘overland/local nightclub’ but as it was mid-week we just hoped it would be relatively quiet for us oldies!

Our prayers worked and there was only one German truck in with a bunch of older overlanders.  In fact, they asked for the music to be turned down later into the evening!

Hot showers…bliss.   The only down side were the mosquitoes.

Milk & Honey Café – on main road in from the Crater, last block on left, approx 200 metres south of the main roundabout in Arusha.

Masai Campsite: S 2 23.120  E 36 43.218.

Distance travelled:  192 Kms.

Wednesday 29th December/day 86 – Maasi Camp, Arusha – Elephant Motel, Same.  Odometer: 89483.

A quick stop at the Landrover garage in Arusha to get some new hub caps (having had a couple half-inched in Arusha the day before) before heading off eastwards towards the coast of Tanzania.  We are planning to spend New Year somewhere on a beach and maybe try to get to Zanzibar as well.

Although we have been in Arusha for less than 24 hours, we have found it to be a good stop for us.  There are loads of reports about the town being swamped by safari trucks transporting hundreds of tourists to and from the Serengeti and N’Crater and whilst some of these stories can be upheld, we didn’t feel totally engulfed.  We even found a post office!  And since about 40% of those safari cars are Land Rovers, no shortage of bits available should you require them.

Whilst stopped at a fuel station, we were again approached by a guy, who had seen us in town the previous day. He pulled into the fuel station to have a chat.   He ran a fleet of 14 Land Rovers and was eager to chat and asked us whether we would sell Alfie….another request!   The answer was ‘no’ ….again. Alfie is far too precious to us, apart from being our home for the next 3 months.

We headed for a place called ‘Same’ and the Elephant Hotel which was a good half-way point between Arusha and the coast.  Although, they advertised camping there were only areas for ground tents, so we camped in the car-park but no probs for us. We were the only campers there, had the shower and loo block to ourselves and our own Masai-warrior (fully kitted out) guard as our protectorate for the night.   We think we made his day, as we set up Alfie, with awning, table, wine, cheese and biscuits and music.  He just stood and watched!

The only downside of the day was when Rob went to close the back-door and managed to shatter the rear window.  Bum!  Oh, and Sarah’s mosi bites kicking in during the night.
Oh, and the bar staff and waitresses being taken home around mid-night but before this, filling some 50 million containers of water.  We didn’t realise that we had parked adjacent to the only outside tap in the hotel!   But all in all, if wasn’t a bad stop.  Hey ho!

Distance travelled: 201 kms.

Thursday 30th December/day 87. Elephant Motel – Bagamoyo Beach Resort.  Odometer  89684.

Shattered windows and bites = early start.

But where do we go to replace a window?  Hotel staff were suggesting we went back to Arusha, but one of our rules is that we never go backwards.  We tried to ask the friendly Masai guard, but sadly, sign language failed to live up to explaining what we needed and where to go.

We, therefore headed into Same, and just started asking around which was pretty useless as no-one could really understand us.  Rob spotted a Land Rover logo on the wall of a Bush Mechanics place and did a quick U-turn into their yard.  They did understand what we needed and soon produced a second-hand replacement window.

The price was agreed, albeit we knew we were paying over the odds.  Various guys were sent off to get mastik, rivets and a rivet gun to secure the grills back onto the rear window and Bob’s your mother’s brother.  Superb.  Job done.

An hour and half later, with a new window that the eagle-eyed may notice has the  registration of an old Tanzanian Land Rover engraved upon it, lighter in Tish we were off again heading for the coast.

The great observation about Tanzania is that you don’t really get much hassle.   People watched but didn’t bother us, girls came up to sell bananas but hey, that’s how they make a living, children walked past, smiled and waved but not begging and certainly no high-pitched cries of Muzungoooooo!

The roads were good, so good that Rob managed his first and we hope last speeding ticket.  57 kph in a 50 zone.   After some quick negotiation, the fine was reduced and we set off again…slowly.  (Ahem, I think you’ll find that’s called a bribe, actually… anyway).  The roads were all good tarmac up until Msata when we turned left towards Bagamoyo.  We then had 63kms of bumpy dirt track where we passed through villages which seemed to have been flattened.  Was that weather which caused this?  Let’s hope not, fingers crossed.

We arrived at Bagamoyo, approx 70 kms north of Dar-es-Salaam, late afternoon and blimey the temperature had soared.  Again, well in to the high 40s deg C and mega humid.   Rob headed for the bar, while Sarah opted for tea.  So very English.

The hotel had a fantastic setting, overlooking the Indian ocean, white sands, and no-one about.  Lovely.

The evening entertainment was in the form of the French female manager who was absolutely 100% pickled.   She made us a welcome drink which tasted like it was made of 100% proof rum (with a whiff of mango) but somehow we managed to sink both of these!

Distance travelled: 403 kms.

Friday 31st December/Day 88 – Bagamoyo Beach Resort – New Year’s Eve.

Wow, hot night, reminiscent of Sudan.

A mega clothes wash took up most of the morning, oh, how Sarah misses her washing machine.  Soon, the pool was begging and we were both in need of a good dip and it was like getting into a warm bath.

We met Bob who was a trumpet teacher in the Army based in Cyprus.  We had a great chat whilst cooling in the pool around trumpeting and overlanding.   We are sorry that we didn’t all meet up for the beer around the bar, but hopefully Bob is reading this!

New Year’s evening started with another fantastic home-cooked meal by Team Alfie before retiring to the bar for entertainment by a troupe of superb dancers before seeing the New Year in.

We had spoken to a few people during the day about visiting Zanzibar and the advice was that it would still be packed and accommodation would be unavailable until after the 5th so we decided not to go.  Perhaps a visit some other year!

Bagamoyo – played a part in the history of the slave trade during the 19th  century as the mainland terminus for slave trade between Lake Tanganyika and Zanzibar.

Distance travelled: 0.

Saturday 1st January 2011/day 89 – Bagamoyo Beach resort.

Merry New Year!

Sarah had a second wave of bites, another sleepless night and had a bit of a sense of humour failure.  Without much consultation with Rob, Sarah had decided that our time was over in Bagamoyo.  We were packed and away in probably one of our quickest time yet!  Thank goodness Rob wasn’t quite awake and for the power of antihistamines…anything to quell 16 monster bites.

A long day of driving followed but we had read in the Bradt guide about Kisolanza Farm, approx 50 kms southwest of Iringa and wanted to make it to the farm in one day.   Driving from the coast we passed through Makumi National Park but didn’t see much apart from zebra and baboons.  We also passed row upon row of sisal. The road then climbs up to Iringa providing us with some more breathtaking views over rich green hill-sides.  The steepness of the road was also providing a challenge to many of the trucks and we think this was the worst stretch of road we had seen yet with broken down and smashed vehicles on virtually every corner.

Kisolanza Farm – a 2000 acre farm owned by the same white Tanzania family for over 60 years, Kisolanza is divided evenly between cultivation and natural vegetation, and its atmosphere and climate fall somewhere between the English countryside and the African bush.  Accommodation is a made of a mixture of farm cottages, lodges and camping pitches.  There is an area for overland trucks but this is set up in another area of the site away from the pitches and lodges.

Nicky the owner inherited the farm during the socialist government and times were tough. However, she was sufficiently brave enough to stick her head out and start farming again. Soon diversifying into the lodge and camping business and what a success with some 10,000 guests visiting each year.  A great spot  for a few days off.

We arrived at Kisolanza Farm at 5.45pm and were not to be disappointed. We were quickly shown to an immaculate pitch and asked whether we would like to take up the option of the three-course meal.  Yes please!

We were ‘drummed’ into dinner which was a novelty for us!  The Kihehe Hut restaurant was housed within an old brick barn which Nicky had restored.  As there is no electricity at the site, old lanterns provided the light and small charcoal burners provided the heat.

Dinner was lovely – steak, a fantastic variety of vegetables, and rich chocolate and mango cake and cream for desert.  We even had linen serviettes – superb.

Kisonlanza Farm: S 8 8.748   E 35 24.767.  www.kisolanza.com

Distance travelled: 575 kms

Sunday 2nd January/day 90 – Kisolanza Farm.  Odometer 90662.

The temperature here was so much cooler than the coast, approx 24 degrees, ideal for sitting and reading.   We then noticed that another English couple were vacating what we judged as the best pitch so after a quick check with the staff Rob manouvered Alfie around the corner to pitch number 5 (info for other overlanders).  The staff were great and helped us move as well.

Having settled into our new home we decided to explore the farm estate via the Sunset Walk, which took us in a loop around the lodge/camping area providing us with views of  vast open African landscapes – straight out of ‘Out of Africa’.  Hours could be spent just looking out as far as the eye could see.

Now camped in the best pitch we took up the opportunity to purchase some beef from the farm and cook on the open fire with great results even if we do say so ourselves.  Beef in red wine was left to simmer away slowly for a couple of hours, only to be consumed within a matter of minutes! A sign of good food or was it down to two starving hungry people?

Distance travelled: 0.

Monday 3rd January/day 91 – Kisolanza Farm.  Odometer 90662.

As the site was so lovely, clean, hot showers and wonderful staff it didn’t take us long to convince ourselves we should remain in-situ for another day.

We took another walk down to the lakes and wind pump, passing the flower farm as we went ( it exports thistles and flowers to Amsterdam ).  Lunch consisted of fresh bread and eggs from the farm with the plan for the afternoon to catch up on some more reading but we were visited by an English guy who decided to stay and chat for best part of two hours!  Most of the conversation was made up of that old Land Rover vs Toyota conversation.  Bored by being told they had the wrong car Team Alfie asserted themselves and suggested in no uncertain terms that he was pissing up the wrong tree and should change topic or go away.  His son was already cringing at his tales and pointed out that the new Prado was rubbish in the wet and mud, to which begrudging agreements were made.

Soon, it was time to stoke the fire and start to prepare for another gourmet beef meal cooked on the fire.   Just in time for when people started to arrive and check into the lodges.  We even heard the manager tell the guests “they’ve driven all the way from England”.

Distance travelled: 0.

Tuesday 4th January/day 92 – Kisolanza Farm – Mbeye Forest Hill Motel, Mbeye. Odometer: 90662.

Today’s plan was to make it to a Landrover Garage in Mbeye which Nicky had recommended to us, which we made in approx four hours which was pretty good going.

The Kaibuni Mission Garage is run by a charity and proudly owns a fleet of 14 Land Rovers so we were pretty sure they would know what they were doing.

The best mechanic – Workshop Manager, Christopher, was soon assigned to us and Alfie was given the once over and the fuel system checked for any blockages.  None found we also got the rear differential seal replaced properly this time and one of the front castor arm bushes replaced, having only survived the 3000kms from Entebbe.  This meant we needed to be back at the garage for 8am the next day following the challenge of finding a bank with a working Visa ATM.

We checked out two places to stay, one of which was non-existent and the other looked to be at the back of a truck stop so we ended up camping in the car-park of the Forest Hill Motel.  Not great, but very cheap.

Kaibuni Mission Garage:     S 08 56.261    E 033 21.490
Mbeya Forest Hill Motel:    S 08 54.732    E 033 26.467
Peace guesthouse – closed
Kaibuni campsite – looked to be behind a truck stop.

Distance travelled:  338 kms.

Wednesday 5th January/day 93 – Mission Garage – Utengule Coffee Lodge: Odometer 91000.

All morning was spent at the garage whilst the exhaust gasket was replaced (following  Rob’s discovery of an exhaust bolt wedged by the starter motor) but we were pleasantly surprised to find that they didn’t charge us for labour and we only had to pay for parts.  We thought this to be extremely generous and despite checking a couple more times we were assured that this was correct, therefore, we made a donation by way of tips to the garage.

Bank and supermarket followed before heading off to the Utengule Coffee lodge to stay which we found under the Bradt guide’s upmarket section so we had high hopes.

The lodge was indeed in a spectacular location overlooking the Tanzanian countryside.  Just the spot for a cold beer and a fantastic pot of tea.

The campsite also doubles up as the helicopter pad for which we hoped we may get some warning should a helicopter decided to land!   We were soon joined by another Land Rover, this time a Discovery 3, driven by Mel and Paul who were driving up from Cape Town to Cork, who were able to provide us with some great ideas about where to spend our next (and last – boo hoo) 10 weeks.

Great conversations followed around Land Rovers and we were able to share our stories about our route south and the infamous Moyale – Marsabit – Isiolo road!  It was also good to learn that Mel’s son was moving to Portsmouth University and Paul often visited QA in Portsmouth as a ENT Consultant.   Mel and Paul are on a slightly quicker time frame than us (this is the second bunch of Irish guys who are trying to cover the route in a matter of weeks!) and plan to make it to Cork and fly back to Cape Town by the time we arrive there… when we will rendezvous for another few drinks and more stories.

The downside of the stay was the food – expensive, overcooked and luke warm (Rob’s rare T-bone was so tough, it could have re-soled the local’s flip-flops and the veg and chips were cold).   Such a pity as the location is excellent, just be aware of the unreasonable prices.

Distance travelled: 45 kms.

5.45 am and we were up, quick cup of tea, sandwiches made, backpack sorted and we were away by 06.45am.

We arrived at the National Park offices by 06.48am, permits handed in and ready to trek.  Sadly we then had to wait about 30 mins for the many tour groups to roll in before anything happened. Then before we knew it, everyone seemed to be directed to a guide except for a handful of odds & sods for which we fell into.  A group of 7 was formed.

The guides initially asked us how far we would like to walk. The responses ranged from 1 to 2 hours, for which the guide must have liked as he told us this was about right for the group we were going to see.

The group was infact a research group and therefore we were lucky to see them.

After about 30 min drive we parked up and started the trek.  Straight up-hill we went and continued for the next 2 hours. Sarah’s lungs were busting so a fair few stops were needed, along with a little help from one of the porters who dragged Sarah up a few of the steeper inclines.

As we got closer, we were told to leave our rucksacks, walking poles etc. and only take cameras as we were now very close to the Gorillas.

As we crept around a tree we saw our first Gorilla which was a black-back/young male.  Everyone within the group was encouraged to go forward which of course we all did, but before we knew it the black-back was thumping his chest and was off heading directly for us all.

“Fear” – we don’t have the dictionary definition to hand, but we would like to define it as the feeling you have when a black-back gorilla is thundering towards you for the second time, after already knocking you for six, with clear intent on repeating the exercise.

In an instant Sarah had been pushed over and Rob was also somewhere in the jungle undergrowth having been shoved by the Gorilla.  Good god that was scary!

After picking ourselves up off the floor we headed off once again following the guides and again we were in sight of the black-back.  Rob and the main group was now ahead of Sarah with the black-back between us.  Yet again the black-back was thumping that great chest of his again and he was off, but this time it was just terrifying.

Sarah turned away quickly but was hit first on her shoulder and landed in the undergrowth, only to quickly look up and see the gorilla heading directly for the other group which Rob was part of.  Bodies were soon everywhere as the black-back made his way through.

In hindsight, the Gorilla didn’t hit us as such, just pushed us to one side but with an almighty shove. Sarah has a Gorilla hand print on her shoulder.  Rob escaped with bruises to his forarm.

Once we had all got over the shock of what had just happened we edged forward once again to see the silver back laying on his stomach with the rest of the gorillas around him.  The lively black-back who was showing off and hit us had now calmed down and was asleep under a tree (thankfully), but there were still a few juveniles in the trees and  we were all a bit nervous that they would also decide to suddenly descend and use us a target practice as well!

With adrenalin pumping, we then had the rest of the hour watching the silver back sleep with his family around him.  One of the younger fluffy members of the group put on an excellent display for us and descended from a tree onto the back of the Silverback and played for about 30 mins, while others either slept or moved leisurely around us.

We were also able to move around them quite easily and were within two meters of them most of the time.  So much for the seven to fifteen metre guidelines we were given.

Soon the afternoon siesta was over and the Silverback was off.  At this point I think the whole group took one massive step backwards. Having been hit by a black-back there was no-way any of us wanted the same welcome handshake from a Silverback!   We managed to follow the Silverback for a short distance into the jungle and watch him eat whilst some of the teenagers played in front of him.

After an hour we were on our way back down the hillside.   A exhilarating experience, yet terrifying as well.   We are extremely glad we made the effort, paid the money and dragged Sarah up the hill-side.   We hope from the photos and video you can get an idea of how close we were.

We had seen the Ugenda group, a research group of 13 gorillas and climbed to 2800 metres.   We are still not sure who was researching who though.

A truly fantastic day.

Distance travelled:

Sunday 19th December/day 76 Kinigi –

Ouch.  Sore knee, bruises….

Sarah had a lovely bruise developing on her left shin, however, can’t remember the pain yesterday.  Would have been the equivalent of a good thwack of a hockey stick.

After a quick check to ensure all body parts were still in tact, we headed off for our next adventure.

The Namibian couple we had met at Bunyonyi recommended the drive down the east of Lake Kivo towards Kamembe and they were right, it was a very scenic route through more volcanoes; high hill-side terraces packed with crops, banana and rows upon rows of tea plantations.  The Volcanoes National Park is a range of six extinct and three active volcanoes that straddle the Ugandan and Congolese borders and protects more than half the worlds population of the charismatic mountain gorilla.

The villagers were again great to see.  The countryside was all very clean and the people busy either working on the crops, washing clothes, walking their cattle or simply walking along the road with umbrellas to protect them from the sun.  A mixture of age groups but we didn’t see that many old people but we did see lots of women with babies strapped to their backs.

We did start to see a number of Genocide memorials within in villages.  These varied from a small cross set within a small brick shrine, through to a larger plot covered with bright flowers.  All seemed to be painted blue and white.

However, we didn’t realise how bad the roads would be along this stretch which slowed us up significantly.  A rain storm arrived and darkness fell quickly reducing visibility to almost zero.

The challenge with Rwanda is that after the Genocide a number of towns have had their names changed to help with the rejuvenation programme, however, the maps and sat-nav haven’t got all the information loaded as such.  With the help of a torrential down pour and the rapid onset of darkness, we missed a turning for the town we wanted to stay at. The sight of an army patrol should have given it away but  before we knew it we found ourselves driving directly towards the red and white barrier gates of the border with the DRC.

An evasive left turn led to Rob driving Alfie slightly off the side of a wooden bridge with a bit of a loud crunch.

It was time to stop and find a hotel.  The Bradt guide recommended a couple within the border town and so we opted for the hotel run by Nuns.  Based on the assumption that they wouldn’t allow anything to harm us or Alfie.  (The Nuns weren’t that honest in the Sound of Music although we do understand why they took that part out of the German’s car…)

Hotel Francois, Cyangugu.  S2 29.555  E 28 53.585

Distance travelled:

Monday 20th December/day 77 – Hotel Francois, Cyangugu – Jambo Pleasure Beach Lake Muhazi.  Odometer: 87543.

As there was no great reason to hang about at the border with the Congo, we headed off early towards Kigali via the Nyungwe Forest so that we could visit the main Genocide museum there.

We had read about the new Nyungwe Forest Lodge which had been built earlier in the year and which was set within the Gisakura Tea Estate.  We decided that it was only right that we should go and have our breakfast there following our near visit to the Congo, a bad night and nearly breaking Alfie.

We think we were the only people there as we were greeted with such enthusiasm.   We were first shown to the lounge area and then onto the veranda area overlooking the tea plantations to have our breakfast.  Wow.   And there we were being fed on freshly made yoghurt, juices, bacon and eggs still dressed in our scruffy overland gear!  The chef even came out to check that our breakfasts were to our liking.  We just wished we had found this place last night as we are sure they would have let us camp in the grounds as long as we had eaten in the restaurant, which neither of us would have needed much persuading to do.

What a great start to the day and well worth the treat.

Nyungwe Forest lodge:  A lovely setting within the Gisakura Tea Estate on the forest boundary. Timber chalets overlook the forest, with the estate owned by Dubai World & managed by the  Mantis Collection.  Thoroughly recommended if you happen to be in the area.  Or even if you aren’t.      http://www.nyungewforestlodge.com

We were soon out of the tea plantations and winding our way up through a dense tangle of trees, again along a road clinging to steep forested slopes.   The views were amazing.  There was very little traffic so we had time to stop and gaze into the distant forest canopies ahead (and to the side) of us.

The Nyungwe Forest stretches over the mountainous south-west area of Rwanda. Nyungwe protects the largest remaining tract of medium-altitude forest anywhere in Africa. The forest provides water to some 70% of the country and its central ridges form the watershed between Africa’s two largest draining systems, the Nile and the Congo – see photo.  It is here that it was recently established as the most remote source of the Nile.

The road improved greatly and we were soon within reach of Kigali, Rwanda’s capital, only to be welcomed by another rain storm. The Genocide museum is easy to find and costs $15 pp but this also includes a audio-guide.

The museum was incredibly interesting and was very informative.  Surrounding the main building there are rose gardens planted in memory of the adults and a fruit garden to remember the children.   There is a wall of names which is just starting to be completed.  Although, sadly, there are just rows of the same surnames – very thought provoking.

We would recommend to anyone who is visiting Rwanda that they visit the memorial as you realise how far this country has now moved on.  By comparison to other African countries we have travelled through, it is clean, people are working, fields have strong and healthy crops in them and from talking to some volunteers working here, both Tutsis, Hutus and Twa want to make everything work.   They even have a rule that on the last Saturday of the month, everyone must help clean the streets, towns etc.   Great stuff.

The evening was spent at Jambo Pleasure Beach  – Thanks Bradt, couldn’t be further from the truth. Wouldn’t recommended it to anyone.  The food was very poor and the music was just too too loud… It’s not just us getting old, it was loud, rubbish and distorted.  I think the feed came from a satellite channel that wouldn’t quite lock on.  Dreadful !

Distance travelled:  374 kms.

Ugandan roads were such a relief compared to the Kenyan ones and we were back to good tarmac and were making good time.

It rained. Properly.

Getting through Kampala was slow as we hit the now standard Africa city chaos where no-one really obeys lanes or traffic lights.  The road out to Entebbe was pretty easy to find and would have been an easy 30kms away but for an accident which brought us to a standstill and added another hour to the journey.   It was pretty nasty with someone flat out on the roadside, we think he was dead.

We found the rendezvous point and met Jodi for that welcome beer and an opportunity to catch up with news from home.

Food, campsite, bar, superb.

Friday 3rd December / Day 60 – Entebbe Backpackers. Odometer 85665 km.

We plan to stay in Entebbe for a few days as Alfie needs a service and it’s a chance to catch up with Rachel and Jodi.  Today was another excuse to do very little apart from saunter around Entebbe and take a walk down to Lake Victoria and the Lake Victoria Hotel where we had a lovely lunch overlooking the lake.

That evening we met up with a whole load of Rachel’s friends, all ex-pats, who were keen to hear what we were doing, where we had come from and which route we were taking.  There also had some great stories to tell from their years in Africa and Uganda!

Their hospitality was fantastic.   With one hoot of a air-horn another round of drinks arrived, shortly followed by our initiation ceremony….eating deep fried grass-hoppers!  We did our bit and chewed on a few, but politely refused the second pot.   To be honest, we were relieved to learn they were grass-hoppers as the tub which arrived look like it was full of huge grubs.

Rest assured the evening was pretty lively, although Sarah couldn’t keep up with the pace and left Rob to represent Team Alfie well into the wee small hours.

Distance travelled 0 Kms.

Saturday 4th December / day 61 – Entebbe Backpackers. Odometer 85665 km.

We had to get Alfie to Rachel’s bosses place by 9am as Mel had kindly offered to have his guys help service Aflie.  Well, we made it by 10am…Africa time!

Mel and his guys were fantastic and checked Aflie all over, changed oils, fixed the broken horn and agreed what needed to be ordered. The good news is that Alfie was in quite good shape despite the 14,693kms driven, buckets loads sand and dust plus some appalling roads.   Mel will order the required parts on Monday ready for the remaining part of the service to be completed on Tuesday or Wednesday.

In the afternoon Mel took us to the Entebbe Sailing Club on Lake Victoria.   Good sized beach, swimming pool, lasers and motorboats.  Great spot, with a cool breeze.  Another truly tough day.

Ex-pat, Dutch Christmas party, beers.

Mel building lodges.

Gentle evening back at the camp.

Distance travelled – 0kms

Sunday 5th December / day 62.  Entebbe Backpackers. Odometer 85665 km.

Hmmm, over the next few days, you will probably notice a trend…a day of reading, people-watching, faffing and not really doing very much apart from clothes washing for Sarah.

Entebbe is very relaxed town.  We are able to walk from the campsite into the centre within 15 mins, but above all, people leave us alone.  There is a large ex-pat contingent here with some UN thrown in as well.   But it all appears very safe.   Although, we still need to make sure we are camping somewhere where there is a perimeter fence, gates and a guard!

Distance travelled 0 kms.

Monday 6th December/day 63, Entebbe. Odometer 85665 km.

We explored the Botanical Gardens in Entebbe during the morning which was all very relaxed. Well, all relaxed, once we had found the entrance.  Africa does like to keep things hidden.  Also, added to this, is the fun and chaos which follows when asking the locals for directions….”go across three roads” – if we did that we would have been swimming in Lake Victoria, followed by “it’s up the road and turn left after the tree” – but the person directing was pointing to turn right…so we replied with, “up there and on the right (using hand directions)”, to receive the answer, “yes, up there on the left”!!

A lazy day of sun, coffees and another restaurant followed.

Distance travelled 0 kms.

Tuesday 7th December, day 64, Entebbe. Odometer 85665 km.

Action!   Rob took Alfie over to Mel’s for a service.  Sarah and Jodi took a saunter around the weekly market which was fun.  Predominantly, a fruit & veg, second hand clothes market with a few dodgy meat stalls thrown in.

We all met up for lunch at a lovely pizza restaurant set on the sandy shores of Lake Victoria.   It was a such a hot afternoon Sarah and Jodi retired to the pool and Rob ventured back to Alfie to see how the work was going.

More food, beer, wine, well into the evening.  Plus another power cut thrown in for good measure.

Fantastic lightning and thunder storm throughout the night, a great sight although we both managed to get rained on through the mesh of the tent.  Sarah also thought we may get electrocuted as the fridge was plugged into the mains without any sort of power breaker in place and it was bucketing down.

Distance travelled – 0 kms.

Wednesday 8th December, day 65. Entebbe Backpackers.

The day so far has been very overcast therefore no pool for Sarah.   Rob continues to work on Alfie at Mel’s place with the help of the local mechanics.

We’ve got plans to head off to the north of Uganda for the weekend to visit Murchison Falls and National Park for our first game  drive whilst Sarah was left in charge of discussing where to stay with Rachel and Jodi.

The aim is to be away by mid-morning as we need to wait for a new part to arrive from Kampala for Alfie.  We decided to stay at Rachel’s that night in order to swap out some stuff from the back to make room for our guest overlander, Jodi.

After a lot of tinkering by Rob and thinking by Sarah, the decision was to go out for lunch.  All good, until we got to the garage to fuel up. At which point Alfie refused to start again.  The Stop Selonoid had jammed again.  Thankfully, we were able to call for Mel’s mechanics to come and get us.  What was left of the afternoon was spent removing the “fixed” plunger from the solonoid until the new one arrived.

Later that evening, Sarah decided to have an early night following a good feed at ’4 Points’ restaurant, while Rob went on to the Drunken Frog to play darts with the ex-pats.  None of us are totally sure what time Rob rolled back in but it was between 2.30am and 4am, but he needed a little help to get in.  Crash, bang, wallop!  “Rob…sshhhh….”

Distance travelled – 1 kms.

Thursday 9th December, Day 66.  Entebbe Backpackers to New Court View Hotel, Masindi.  Odometer: 85685.

Not sure how Rob did it, but we were packed up and at Mel’s place by 9.30am.  The part arrived around 11am and after a little more tweaking we were away by mid-day.

Just one little mistake negotiating Kampala put us behind a little so we decided to stay in Masindi, the gateway to Murchison Falls, for the evening.   The recommended accommodation was New Court View Hotel (N 1 41.146  E31  43.047. Camping 10,000 UGX pppn)  It has a good restaurant, friendly staff and clean ablutions.   Unfortunately, there was a fun fair directly opposite the hotel which was thumping music out well into the night.

Distance travelled:

Friday 10th December/day 67.  New Court View Hotel, Masindi to Red Chilli Campsite, Murchison Falls National Park.  Odometer: 85991.

“The rain in Spain falls mainly on…Rob and Sarah…”

After a short half-hour drive, we arrived at the park gates, parted with lots of   $US bounty and headed on, soon to be set upon by Tsetse flies much to everyone’s distaste.  There followed a very hot and bumpy ride to the Falls and then onto the campsite as we opted to evict  all flies and drive with the windows up!

Murchison Falls National Park is Uganda’s largest protected area, 3,840 km2.   The Murchison Falls – the wide, languid Nile being transformed into an explosive froth of thunderous white water as it funnels through a narrow cleft in the Rift Valley Escarpment (see photos) – is easily the most impressive waterfall we’ve seen so far and outstrips Thomson Falls by bucket loads.   We were the only people at the top of the falls as well which helped as well.

The Victoria Nile flowing in a westerly direction splits the park in two.  We stayed on the south side and would take a pontoon to the north side for the game drive tomorrow.

The plan was to take a boat to the bottom of the falls in the afternoon. Having had lunch and made our way to the boats and met Andy, our very helpful contact, he quickly advised us that we may want to take cover in the bar as there looked to be a rain storm coming over.  Rob needed very little persuading as he’d already pointed at the sky several times, so we retraced our steps and thank goodness we did.   A fantastic rain storm followed – again see photos and video.   We just feel a bit sorry for anyone who was out on the Nile during the storm.

A quietish night followed as we had to be up at 5.45am in order to get on the first pontoon for the game-drive.

Distance travelled:

Saturday 11th December/day 68.  Murchison Falls National Park.

“Mud, mud, glorious mud.
Nothing quite like it for cooling the blood.
So, follow me follow, down to the hollow.
Where we can wallow in glooooorious mud.”

For anyone who does not recognise the chorus above, refer to Flanders and Swann.

We were first on the pontoon and into to the park by 7.30am. Prizes were on offer for the first wildlife sighting but we didn’t need to wait for too long before we started to see Uganda Kob and Jackson Hartebeest (deer like animals).   Shortly followed by our first sighting of Elephant and Giraffe.   The highlight of the morning was the mass of Hippos happily settled in the water and the inquisitive bull elephant -again see photos and film.

Other animal sightings were:
Warthog, buffalo, Oribi, Fish Eagle, Colobus and Red-tailed monkeys and Crocodile.

We tied to get back to Red Chilli for lunch but after the storm some of the tracks were a tad tricky.  We had to take a couple of detours to avoid fallen trees and stranded vehicles (see vids).  Finally we got back in time for a bite to eat and then the boat ride to the bottom of the falls in the afternoon which was very relaxing and provided some excellent photo opportunities.

Distance Travelled – about 60 kms.

Sunday 12th December/day 69.  Red Chilli Campsite, Murchison Falls National Park – New Court View Hotel, Masindi.  Odometer: 86199.

We decided to go Chimp trekking in the afternoon as the lodge where we had to meet was still within the Park but would take a good couple of hours to get there.   Jodi opted out of the trek therefore Rob and Sarah headed off into the rainforest in search of Chimpanzees.   Hmmmm, sometime later…still searching, listening and staring high and low the little buggers were deciding to be a little too elusive.   Eventually, after approx 2 hours we found them!   A great sight and glad we made the effort.  We also saw plenty of Colobus and Red-tailed monkeys.

We arrived back at the New Court View Hotel for Sarah to be met by the owner, a lovely  British lady.  Sarah must have looked a right state as the lady kindly offered us the free use of the one of the bandas (basic lodge) “ to go and have a hot shower and relax”.   Rob thought he must send Sarah in first far more often!

Distance travelled:

Monday 13th December/day 70 Masindi to Entebbe.  Odometer: 86266

A steady drive back to Entebbe only impaired by the frustrating Kampala traffic.   In fact we have decided that the traffic is made worse by the crazy traffic police who seem to make things ten times worse.  At one point we were sat at a set of traffic lights which changed 10 times without us moving an inch.

We arrived back mid-afternoon and chilled for the rest of the day back at the Back-packers hotel.

Distance Travelled:

Tuesday 14th December/day 71.  Entebbe for Rob, Kampala for Sarah.

Sarah headed off to Kampala with Rachel and Jodi for a bit of girlie shopping at the craft market and practised her bargaining skills once again.

Rob stayed put at the Back-packers hotel and managed to do some washing, despite this being a pink job!

As this was our last night in Entebbe before heading off towards Rwanda in search of Gorillas,  and the last time we would see Jodi until next March we thought we would go back to our favourite restaurant ‘Faze 3′.   A great meal and great company to round off a fantastic stay in Entebbe.  I think we both rather enjoyed the ex-pat life that Entebbe had to offer.

Wednesday 15th December/day 72.  Entebbe – Lake Bunyonyi. Odometer 86552 Kms.

A early start, ready to face Kampala for the last time.  Kampala’s chaos didn’t disappoint but as we were driving west we didn’t have to fight through the traffic for too long.

A good drive down to Lake Bunyonyi listening to HMS Pinafore whilst driving through plenty of banana plantations and green rolling hills. Again, we could have been back in the UK.  (except for the bananas, obviously.  Oh and the weather. And the mud huts. And the lack of traffic… )

We arrived at Bunyonyi Overland Camp at 2.45pm and were wowed by the location.  After approx 12kms of yet another bumpy track you enter through the camp gates, down a short slope and onto a grass area overlooking the lake.   The location for Team Alfie was simply fantastic and we had soon set up camp.

Alas, about an hour later the dreaded overlander truck arrived and Team Alfie was soon swamped by 11 tents…really not good.   One of the tents was virtually hanging off the front bumper.

The temperature dropped quite significantly and a sudden bout of rain sent the group of overlanders to bed early – much to our relief.

Distance travelled -

Thursday 16th December/day 73.  Lake Bunyonyi.

Nightmare.   First group of tents were woken at 5.30am, breakfasting and then washing up in an extravagantly noisy fashion (why didn’t they leave it for the rest of the group?!) and then off in a minibus.    After hours of even louder banter between the cooks we finally heard “this is the last call for breakfast” for the remaining group.  Then, from across the shores we heard drums!  Not a great start to the day.

Anyway, can’t say we achieved much today apart from updating the website, Rob finishing the book he’d been reading and…. planning for our Gorilla trek on Saturday morning!  w00t!

We are sooooo excited.   We plan to leave Lake Bunyonyi mid-morning on Friday to head for the Rwandan border and check into a hotel which is just outside the park gates for where we need to meet for the Gorilla trekking at 7am Saturday morning.

We hope to be able to join the group who will head off to see the Susa group, made famous by Diane Fossey  (Gorillas in the Mist). Apparently the Susa group is made up of some 40 individuals, including Silverbacks and youngsters.  We are hoping the terrain won’t be too bad for Sarah but we are sure the steady climb will be achievable.

We hope to update everyone ASAP afterwards.

Distance travelled: 0

Friday 17th December/day 74  Lake Bunyonyi, Uganda – Kinigi, Rwanda. Odometer xxxx.

We were entertained by children from the local orphanage last night with singing and dancing around the camp fire which was great fun and if you click on one of the video clips you should be able to hear them.

It was the coldest night so far so we had a slow start to the day. The overlanders were a lot quieter this morning which was good too.

Another landy arrived late last night as well.  This time, the two people travelling were white Namibians travelling from Cape Town to Cairo so we were able to swap information on routes and places to stay. We were eventually on our way around 1.30pm.

The border seemed to arrive very quickly and we were through in about half and hour which was good. The Rwandan Immigration people were welcoming and very interested in what we were doing.

The route from Uganda to Kinigi, Rwanda should have taken us somewhere between 2-3 hours but somewhere we took a wrong turn and took the even more scenic route around the mountains and through our first tea plantations.  Simply fantastic views and once again small tracks and mountainous drops! But Rob did a great job as we trundled.

Not too sure the villages had seen many overlanders in their time as most of the adults just stood and stared and waved back when we waved, whereas the children went wild.  Whenever the children saw us, there were shrieks of ‘Munzungu’ in an ever increasing shriek.  The shrieks can even be heard from above us somewhere in the hills.

We arrived in Kinigi and found the Kinigi Guest Lodge very easily. It is a great location for the National Park HQ for where we rendezvous for the Gorillas.   After dinner we spoke to some people who had trekked this morning but only for 20 minutes and sounded a bit disappointed in the short walk but the sight of the Gorillas made up for it.

An early night ready for our trek tomorrow.

Distance travelled: