U
Uncle Bob
Guest
The start,
When I was a little boy, my Dad used to play a game with me on long car trips, we used to name things we would take along if you had to go on a long journey through Africa.
This obviously had a bigger influence on me than we both ever expected as when it came time to study or go overseas for a year, I rather opted to venture into Africa, I worked, saved up and bought an old Land Rover (which was sadly destroyed by an ex-girlfriend before I could ever leave for my adventure)
So for years I have had a semi dormant fascination with the dark continent and when I saw half a chance I grabbed it and off I went.
This is my journey through Botswana, Zambia, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland and back to South Africa, I can only write down some of what happened to me as writing all of it down will have all of you thinking of me as another boring Charlie Boorman.
Planning such a long trip meant a lot of planning and organizing. Late nights sitting behind my desk â?? google earth and Mapsource/Tracks for Africa running constantly on the PC and my bed covered in maps I spent a lot of time dreaming of Adventure.
(now as a quick footnote, I went to Countrytrax to refresh my memory and to feel how the BIGGER pig handles compared to the old one, there I met this amazing couple â?? Chris & Celia, one night after dinner we were discussing why we were all there, they were there to prepare for their upcoming trip to Zanzibar â?? hahaha, Iâ??m going to Malawi I said, they said if we are there at roughly the same time we should catch up, so we exchanged numbers)
Late nights spent planning, packing and repacking.
Finally the morning of departure came and I was up nice and early, it was -2C when I clicked the Adventure into gear and started making my way to the Botswana border post Metallicaâ??s â??wherever I may roamâ? playing on the IPod.
Border formalities were quick and soon I was on my way again, this time to the sound of Axel Rose screaming â??Welcome to the jungleâ?
Botswana looks a lot like the RSA Bushveld and I was looking forward to my first â??differentâ? scenery â?? The Makgaligadi Pans â?? oooh boy was I in for a treat â?? nobody said anything about SAND â?? ESPECIALLy not THICK THICK sand (did I say it was thick?)
Kanzangula was going to be the first time that I ever whet on a ferry and I was quite excited at the prospect, much to general upset of everyone there I promptly jumped the queue, rode through the muddy sand up onto the ferry, some of the trucks actually hooted at me, they got theyâ??re own back when one of the trucks pulled up next to me and flipped the bike over â?? luckily no damage was done and I was off to the Zambian side of things.
Wow do you ever have to fill in a lot of registers and forms when going trough African border posts, the same thing over and over again, just in various offices.
Went to the Victoria falls â?? man are they a sight â?? absolutely breathtaking, photoâ??s do it NO justice.
Old man Livingstone would have been proud of me I think.
This campsite did have a sign up warning you about Hippoâ??s in the camp, I didnâ??t take them too seriously at first, but waking up with a Hippo only 10m from my tent changed my mind.
Route planning for the next day.
Zambia is a most Beautiful country with a lot of varied terrain, from grassland with mountains in the background to mountainous with grassland down below, foresty and farmlands â?? HUGE farmlands Iâ??m talking 200Hectares covered by one â??spulpuntâ? and off course The other side of lake Kariba (the less corrupt side)
Unfortunately not all was plain sailing and in one day I had this huge puncture, hit a goat (thanks to training for not falling) and almost ended up in hell in terms of a place to stay â?? but hey allâ??s well that ends well.
It was time to go to Tanzania, now at this point I should probably point the following out, remember I said I told Chris and Celia that I was going to Malawi, well that was the idea but I figured â?? hey Iâ??m here so I might as well go To Kilimanjaro (a mountain that has for long fascinated me)
Only 2 small problems though, they do not exchange Rand for local currency (Stood in a queue for 2 hours to find that out) and I donâ??t have any maps for Tanzania on my GPS â?? hey all in the Adventure right!
Border was easy-ish, luckily I had taken some dollars and could therefore get round the whole â??no moneyâ?? thing.
Things are different in Tanzania
Sometimes the road I wanted to take was â?? well uhm not quite all there.
So when you canâ??t take the road you want to take at least take the road you CAN take. And lo and behold â?? guess who I run into in the middle of nowhere.
So I arrange with Chris & Celia that I will try to catch up with them @ Nkhata bay in Malawi in about a weeks time (Africa time).
The Africans are EXCEPTIONALLY friendly and when I enquired about the safety at this lodge they let me park the bike in the hall, the cleaning lady wasnâ??t all too happy but hey, I was!
African Take aways.
When I ordered food here they didnâ??t serve me from the display cabinet, oh no, they sent a little pikaneen down the road to go fetch a live chicken which they slaughtered right behind where I was sitting and enjoying luke warm tusker(no fridges), and put it on the fire. Chicken Ugali(pap) the food of Africa the waitress told me in her broken English.
Made it up to Moshi which is the town close to Kilimanjaro, what a beautiful ride up!
The Mountain is almost constantly covered by clouds and I was maybe never going to get to see it.
So I played around in itâ??s foothills
And then she came out.
Well, it was finally time to come to terms with the fact that I cannot only drive in a northerly direction and that the time to turn around has come.
More to follow.
EDIT - Continues Here - https://wilddog.net.za/forum/index.php?topic=9098.0
When I was a little boy, my Dad used to play a game with me on long car trips, we used to name things we would take along if you had to go on a long journey through Africa.
This obviously had a bigger influence on me than we both ever expected as when it came time to study or go overseas for a year, I rather opted to venture into Africa, I worked, saved up and bought an old Land Rover (which was sadly destroyed by an ex-girlfriend before I could ever leave for my adventure)
So for years I have had a semi dormant fascination with the dark continent and when I saw half a chance I grabbed it and off I went.
This is my journey through Botswana, Zambia, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland and back to South Africa, I can only write down some of what happened to me as writing all of it down will have all of you thinking of me as another boring Charlie Boorman.
Planning such a long trip meant a lot of planning and organizing. Late nights sitting behind my desk â?? google earth and Mapsource/Tracks for Africa running constantly on the PC and my bed covered in maps I spent a lot of time dreaming of Adventure.
(now as a quick footnote, I went to Countrytrax to refresh my memory and to feel how the BIGGER pig handles compared to the old one, there I met this amazing couple â?? Chris & Celia, one night after dinner we were discussing why we were all there, they were there to prepare for their upcoming trip to Zanzibar â?? hahaha, Iâ??m going to Malawi I said, they said if we are there at roughly the same time we should catch up, so we exchanged numbers)
Late nights spent planning, packing and repacking.
Finally the morning of departure came and I was up nice and early, it was -2C when I clicked the Adventure into gear and started making my way to the Botswana border post Metallicaâ??s â??wherever I may roamâ? playing on the IPod.
Border formalities were quick and soon I was on my way again, this time to the sound of Axel Rose screaming â??Welcome to the jungleâ?
Botswana looks a lot like the RSA Bushveld and I was looking forward to my first â??differentâ? scenery â?? The Makgaligadi Pans â?? oooh boy was I in for a treat â?? nobody said anything about SAND â?? ESPECIALLy not THICK THICK sand (did I say it was thick?)
Kanzangula was going to be the first time that I ever whet on a ferry and I was quite excited at the prospect, much to general upset of everyone there I promptly jumped the queue, rode through the muddy sand up onto the ferry, some of the trucks actually hooted at me, they got theyâ??re own back when one of the trucks pulled up next to me and flipped the bike over â?? luckily no damage was done and I was off to the Zambian side of things.
Wow do you ever have to fill in a lot of registers and forms when going trough African border posts, the same thing over and over again, just in various offices.
Went to the Victoria falls â?? man are they a sight â?? absolutely breathtaking, photoâ??s do it NO justice.
Old man Livingstone would have been proud of me I think.
This campsite did have a sign up warning you about Hippoâ??s in the camp, I didnâ??t take them too seriously at first, but waking up with a Hippo only 10m from my tent changed my mind.
Route planning for the next day.
Zambia is a most Beautiful country with a lot of varied terrain, from grassland with mountains in the background to mountainous with grassland down below, foresty and farmlands â?? HUGE farmlands Iâ??m talking 200Hectares covered by one â??spulpuntâ? and off course The other side of lake Kariba (the less corrupt side)
Unfortunately not all was plain sailing and in one day I had this huge puncture, hit a goat (thanks to training for not falling) and almost ended up in hell in terms of a place to stay â?? but hey allâ??s well that ends well.
It was time to go to Tanzania, now at this point I should probably point the following out, remember I said I told Chris and Celia that I was going to Malawi, well that was the idea but I figured â?? hey Iâ??m here so I might as well go To Kilimanjaro (a mountain that has for long fascinated me)
Only 2 small problems though, they do not exchange Rand for local currency (Stood in a queue for 2 hours to find that out) and I donâ??t have any maps for Tanzania on my GPS â?? hey all in the Adventure right!
Border was easy-ish, luckily I had taken some dollars and could therefore get round the whole â??no moneyâ?? thing.
Things are different in Tanzania
Sometimes the road I wanted to take was â?? well uhm not quite all there.
So when you canâ??t take the road you want to take at least take the road you CAN take. And lo and behold â?? guess who I run into in the middle of nowhere.
So I arrange with Chris & Celia that I will try to catch up with them @ Nkhata bay in Malawi in about a weeks time (Africa time).
The Africans are EXCEPTIONALLY friendly and when I enquired about the safety at this lodge they let me park the bike in the hall, the cleaning lady wasnâ??t all too happy but hey, I was!
African Take aways.
When I ordered food here they didnâ??t serve me from the display cabinet, oh no, they sent a little pikaneen down the road to go fetch a live chicken which they slaughtered right behind where I was sitting and enjoying luke warm tusker(no fridges), and put it on the fire. Chicken Ugali(pap) the food of Africa the waitress told me in her broken English.
Made it up to Moshi which is the town close to Kilimanjaro, what a beautiful ride up!
The Mountain is almost constantly covered by clouds and I was maybe never going to get to see it.
So I played around in itâ??s foothills
And then she came out.
Well, it was finally time to come to terms with the fact that I cannot only drive in a northerly direction and that the time to turn around has come.
More to follow.
EDIT - Continues Here - https://wilddog.net.za/forum/index.php?topic=9098.0
