africa – Page 3 – Where is Phil now?

Truck crash – no, not us !

Day 300, Tuesday 30 October 2012 – Landmark Hotel, Tukuyu, Tanzania

On the road again today so it was another early start, breakfast at 6:00 and on the road by 7:00.

It was a shame we were not here for another day as the lake was stunning – I could have got my lake dive in.

The road was quite stable so I got some photo uploading and typing done – any opportunity to try and catch up. Our first stop was a road side curio market, I was traded out after yesterdays dealings so stayed on the truck – in some blessed silence.

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We had a long coffee break in Mzuzu, the administrative capital of northern Malawi. Driver Will had to get his international driving permit renewed and this was the best place to get it organised. We all waited in a local coffee shop that had reasonable wifi and good coffee – no one objected to the hour long break. I use a program called Blogdesk to compile blog posts offline and then I upload to WordPress when I have internet access. I have been doing a little bit of typing in the truck, though it is tough. I did have three posts ready to go though so got them uploaded when I had the chance.

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We wound our up through some quite steep hills overlooking Lake Malawi.

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As we were heading down the other side we found an overturned truck with its rear wheels in a ditch. Will spoke to the truck driver and he had been there over night – fortunately he was unhurt. I am guessing it will be a long wait to get the load removed and the truck on a tow truck. We stopped for lunch and gave the left overs plus some water to the driver.

We crossed into Tanzania at Kasumulu at 4:00pm, where we had to put the clocks forward an hour – we are entering East Africa now.

I love boabab trees – this was the first good one I have seen from the truck.

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Tanzania is definitely the most developed place we have visited since leaving South Africa, the towns on the road side are bigger, with more sophisticated structures – there are also a lot more cars and a lot more people – it still looks very poor, even as we move into the wealthier highlands area.

Our stop for the night was the Land Mark Hotel in Tukuyu, the town is quite big and populous and the hotel looked modernish – even if it was a bit 70’s Stalinist in style. Everyone decided to use the hotel rooms rather than sleep in tents, at 10 USD a person it was a pretty good deal. The rooms were basic, two saggy double beds, bathroom and a TV. It sounds like every had slightly different issues, at least we had lights that worked and hot water. Everyone seem to have a toilet seat problem, some missing altogether, one had a lid but no seat, ours was cracked in about twenty places and I am not sure how it held together. The shower was great though!

After dinner we ended up in the hotel bar, mis-ordered drinks were highly amusing and frequent. I was only going to stop for one, but ended up having a couple of whiskies and a good laugh – still in bed by 10:30 though.

Mobbed

Day 299, Monday 29 October 2012 – Kande Beach, Malawi

Wow, a new record – three good sleeps in a row, and I didn’t even need to get up before seven either, fantastic. After breakfast we had a tour of the local village Mbamba led by one of the villagers Samuel l. Jackson. The local people are from the Tonga tribe and are farmers and fishermen, though their income is supplemented by tours and selling local crafts. The people involved in tourism take on western names so it is easy for us to remember. Like Zambia, the local people learn some English at school and take whatever opportunity they can to learn English from westerners.

As we were cleaning up the breakfast dishes, Samuel L. And his brother arrived with the freshly slaughtered pig that was going to be spit roasted over the day for the nights dinner.

We met at the gate of the camp, as I approached I could see the feet of the local hawkers waiting outside, I snuck my camera out of my bag to get a shot before the gate opened or before any of the rest of the group saw what I was doing and changed the dynamic. I wanted to get the whole gate in, but was unable to. I was fairly happy with this though.

The visit was interesting; it was split into two parts – a one hour village walk followed by a walk up to the school and clinic for us hardier types.

As soon as we were out of the gate we were mobbed by the hawkers, we were nicely split up and had two hawkers each, mine were Sisco and Gift. They were 19 and 18 respectively and great guys, Gift especially had fantastic English and over the couple of hours we were together we discussed a number of topics, from politics, through HIV/AIDS to football and village life. I assume they have a prescribed script they start with, though I was pleasantly surprised at how well informed they were. Of course the whole thing was designed to make me spend more money !

We started the walk with a look at a couple of houses, brick making and the water pump that was funded by the Canadians. Samuel L. and the chicken house, the chickens walk up the ladder at night where it is safe from predators.

It was then time to visit the village kindergarten. The kindy is funded by the village and all pre-school children are encouraged to attend. There are about thirty children there, though impossible to count. We arrived just on morning tea and after a couple of minutes of shyness from the kids it was all on as we were flooded with children wanting their photo taken. It was hilarious as they piled in and climbed over each other, it was a lot of fun.

Just as we were leaving the kids sang a few songs and even did a form of the Kamate haka which was really funny. Apparently there was a Kiwi volunteer at the local school a few years back.

The group split into two after the kindy and I went with the group that walked another couple of kilometres to the local school. The school has about 1000 students and 10 teachers, this class has 160 pupils and they all sit on hard concrete floors.

We were given a talk by the head teachers, which was basically a plea for donations, though we had stories that the money does not necessarily go to the school so were hesitant to give cash. The meeting was in the library and there were a few books – a lot of donated paper backs that were totally unsuitable for children, the rest of the books looked dusty and unused – I was disappointed to be honest.

We visited the clinic next, a similar situation, we were shown to a room that really did look rarely used and given a plea for donations. I will say it must be tough to run a clinic here, there are a lot of people with a lot of illnesses and only a couple of nurses, the doctor comes by once a month.

After the clinic we walked back through the town and back to the campsite where we were given an opportunity to invest in the local community and buy some art works. I paid way over the top for four small paintings, but I liked them and they will go with some of the pictures I bought in Asia. I also traded two pairs of used socks for a bracelet Sisco was wearing – hopefully I wont lose this one.

The rest of the day was spent mooching, doing laundry, writing and photographing.

A few of us had a play with photos as the moon rose over the lake shore and then it was dinner time.

After dinner Leonie, Brett and I had a few wines by the chalet overlooking the lake and it was time for sleep at 10:30.

A road side day

Day 298, Sunday 28 October 2012 – Kande Beach, Malawi

I had another great sleep, that is two in a row, it cannot last. It was of course ruined by the need to be up at 5:00 to continue yesterdays attempt to make Lake Malawi. We are getting good at early mornings now and everything was cuffed and stuffed and we were all on the truck well before the 6:00 am departure.

We reached the Zambia/Malawi border at 6:45, it was a long process again as there was only one person working in immigration in each country. We got held up for an hour on the Malawi side waiting for the insurance paperwork for the truck. It was a Sunday so nothing was happening fast, TIA – this is Africa.

We were taking a new route to Kande Beach on Lake Malawi, Will had been talking to some Malawians at Wildlife Camp and they suggested a route that avoided a massive dogleg through the town of LLongwe. The new route was on a very good road and I knocked off a couple of emails on the phone in the (ultimately futile) hope of having wifi at Kande Beach. P1020059

We stopped for a roadside lunch and I mooched around and I wandered off and took a couple of photos. I need to do spend some time doing some stuff on my own I think, it has been too long since I had some decent solo time. Much as I moaned about it in the past I think I have gotten used to being able to spend time by myself. I missed myself !

We were about an hour and a half from the camp site when we stopped for lunch at mid-day, however the afternoon really did turn to custard for a couple of hours. About an hour after lunch I was dozing away in the truck when there was a massive bang from under my seat and the sound of a tyre thrashing itself to death on the underside of the truck – rear tyre blow out! Will took a very slow approach to pulling the truck over to the side of the road and we stopped safely. He is a very safe and capable driver, I have massive respect for his abilities.

The tyre blow attracted a massive amount of local attention, especially from the kids – I counted 41 of them at the end, they were very friendly and posed for loads of photos for the strange white folk standing on the road side. I snapped a couple but helped out where I could with the tyre change. The kids love pulling marshall arts poses.

We stole some bricks from this deserted building to use for chocks.

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The tyre was really shredded and did a bit of damage to the rear mud guard and a storage cage behind it, the tap from the drinking water tank was completely missing.

It took three quarters of an hour to change the tyre as well as bash the guard out and get back on the road.

We were soon back on the road and well down the sandy, bumpy road to the lake side when we had to take a long way around an ambulance parked in the middle of the road, as we were negotiating a ninety degree bend the front tyre dropped into a small ditch in the sand and we were stuck!

This of course attracted lots of local attention again and we had loads more kids and quite a few adults watching the action. The Malawians were lovely, very friendly and chatty, very keen to practice their already good English and learn about where we are from.

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The taller girl took a shine to Leonie and wanted a photo of just the two of them, the smaller child had other ideas.

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Once out of the sand we were a further ten minutes to our campsite for the next two nights at Kande Beach on Lake Malawi. Lake Malawi is the second biggest lake in Africa – after Lake Victoria, and the ninth biggest in the world. It was windy when we arrived so the lake was quite choppy, it didn’t stop me from getting straight into my swimmers and jumping in the lake, it was nice to get the dirt and dust off from changing the tyre. The lake temperature is around 27 c all year round, so it was like jumping into a warm bath.

The rest of the afternoon was spent lounging about – in my case drinking beer either by the lake or in my room with my computer until dinner time, we had a prepared dinner in the campground cafe for a bit of variety from the normal camp dinner. I had a vege pizza, I loved it – very similar to how I make pizza at home – maybe without the peas though ! Ebron (our cook) and I left the dinner as soon as we finished eating to go and watch Chelsea v Manchester United in the bar. It was a noisy crowd and good fun watching some decent football.

The evening and night was then spent on the lake side drinking G and T’s with Leonie, Ewa and Simon (the young couple) until we went down to the beach for a while and someone took my jandals from where I left them in the bar. Apart from that, it was a good night – the latest I have stayed up since the trip started – 12:30 am – wahoo, finally made it past midnight.

uh oh…..

Day 297, Saturday 27 October 2012 – Mama Rulas camp, Chibata, Zambia

It was another hot start to the night and even though I had a cold shower just before hitting the sack I was still soaked in sweat after half an hour. Though I did appear have slept as I woke around 1:00 and almost to schedule at 1:40 am I heard munching outside the tent, we unzipped the bottom and stuck our heads out and about ten metres away was the large black wall of a hippo side, munching on the grass in the campground. it ate for a few minutes before turning its back and wandering off into the dark. A great experience, Africa’s most dangerous killer, that close and eating grass.

There was no hippo about when we got up, but there were a few vervet monkeys.

We had all agreed to skip tonight overnight stop in LLongwe, it was only to break up a long drive and apparently had no features worth mentioning. The intent was to head through the Zambia/Malawi border and shoot for Kande Beach on Lake Malawi a day early over one really long drive day. This meant a really early start, 5:00am for breakfast and on the road for 6:00.

We left on time and made good progress through the nightmare section of road by the camp and on to the sealed section into the main village at Mfewe. We were passing through the town, when I guy on the road side started waving us down – it was too late for our driver Will and we plowed into some low hanging power lines. It was too late too stop before doing damage and possibly an issue to stop after the damage was done, so Will floored it and we passed through town, ripping down two or three power lines on the way through.

The truck was abuzz with post danger excitement until we got too the airport end of the tar-sealed road and were stopped by the police!

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Will the driver was asked out of the truck by the police, there was no drama, it was all very civilised, very British. There was a bit of hanging around waiting for the power company guys to turn up and go back to the village to look at the damage and prepare a report. Two hours later they returned, with good news. The power pole had earlier been hit by a truck belonging to a bore hole drilling company. They had damaged the pole and caused the lines to droop. Fortunately, the evidence was clear so the guys were allowed to leave without any fines, bribes or hassles. While they were gone we waited under trees or at the nearby airport cafe.

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It was almost 11:00 am before we were under way again, this left nowhere near enough time to make it up to Kande Beach in Malawi so the guys decided we would stay just up the road at Mama Rulas camp outside Chipata, still in Zambia. We had to drive back along the terrible temporary road back to Chipata, though at one stage we were lucky enough to be allowed to drive on a section of the new road, but mostly we drove on the narrow section to the left in this picture.

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The new road will of course bring more traffic and more tourists to this quite secluded national park – a shame in some ways.

We stopped in a small village outside Chipata to get some fresh fruit and vegetables. I got out to stretch and saw this cool shop name. I just love the & hardware.

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We arrived in time for lunch, the campsite is great, a lot of tree cover, a pool and a bar. I set up the tent as far away as possible from all the snorers and early morning talkers and then we went into Chipata for a quick supermarket shop. The rest of the day was spent lounging around the campsite until dinner and drinks before bed at 9:30ish.

“The lions are so dusty”

Day 296, Friday 26 October 2012, Wildlife Camp, South Luangwa, Zambia

I had a great sleep last night, probably too good as I missed the hippos that came and visited the camp at 1:30 or so. I did hear the elephants trumpeting at 4:00 which was pretty cool. It was game drive day today so I was up at 5:20 again to be ready to get on the 4WD at 6:00.

We had two vehicles between us so this time I managed to get a seat near the side of the vehicle. Sth Luangwa park is approx 7500 sq km and has no fences so the animals are free to roam the surrounding area as well. The drive to the park is 8 or so kms from the campsite and we were not 200 metres away from the camp before we spotted a small group of elephants. Our guide, Joseph, said that had been in the nearby village, as it is the end of the dry season there is not much food left in the forest so the elephants visit the village at times and raid their crops, plus the elephants get bored with eating grass all the time! Before we reached the park we had seen a number of baboons and at least a dozen elephants.

The entrance to the park itself is across a bridge over the Luangwa River, you can see the river is quite low at the moment so the hippo pods are massive. These normally territorial animals will group together at low water.

The game drive was pretty cool, we didn’t see a leopard, which was a shame, but we did see all the usual suspects.

Zebra, eating sausage tree fruit.

Giraffe

Warthogs – I still love them.

Plus some unsusual suspects, like a monitor lizard.

Elephants

The impala are called the fast food of Africa, they even have an arched M on their bums!

Yesterday afternoon lions took down a water buffalo and the body has been almost completely stripped of flesh already. We watched this group of vultures feeding for a while.

Until there was a gap in the tour vehicles near some very full lions.

Awesome – love that belly!

We took a coffee break on the side of a mostly dried up pool, I watched this puku for a while and was lucky to get it jumping over the pool made by hippo trails.

And some birds

The game drive finished at 10:30 and it was back to the campsite for a lion sized brunch and a relax by the pool, and for me in the shade with the laptop to listen to music and blog in relative peace.

At 4:00 we loaded up into two game vehicles and went back to the park – half of us for a game walk and the others to start the afternoon game drive.

Like the game walk in the Okavango Delta we were given specific safety instructions before we left, but unlike the delta this time we had a guy with a rifle escorting us as well as the guide and the back marker. The walk was an hour and a half long and we didn’t see much game on the ground – a few impala was about it. We were given a good introduction to the nature of the area including another good overview of animal dung. Including some dung beetle balls.

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We walked down to the upper river bank to see the massive hippo pod and spotted a couple of fishermen in canoes that were really upsetting the hippos. There was a fabulous chorus of bellowing and snorting from the disturbed hippos as they moved from one side of the river to the other to avoid the fishermen. I think we were all hoping for some action from the hippos, but they all seemed too lethargic and didn’t even raise their heads in a display.

After the game walk we went on a night time game drive. The only thing we wanted to see was a leopard, though the first thing we found of interest was a lone hyena. He, like all the wildlife, was completely un-phased by our presence and just carried on strolling along the side of the road, ignoring the spotlight shining on him.

We didn’t see anything for quite a long time after that until finally our spotter saw what we had all been waiting for, a small male leopard hiding in a bush, he was incredibly hard to photograph, low light, in a bush at a distance. This was as good as it got, but I have seen a leopard! I have now seen all the big five – lion, elephant, rhino, buffalo and leopard, though I still want some decent photos of the last three.

On the drive back to the main gate we caught up with a group of trucks and to our delight they had spotted another leopard, we managed to get a great spot as she walked out of the bush to cross the road. She looked like she had been injured, she was limping a bit and looked very weary. I felt sorry for her in the end as she was pursued by us and a bunch of other trucks loaded with camera toting tourists. I was glad when we left – but equally glad to have seen such a magnificent animal up close!

Dinner was a late affair over a glass or two (well a plastic beaker) of a very warm shiraz.

A fabulous day – again!

Another big days driving

Day 295, Thursday 25 October 2012, Wildlife Camp, Sth Luangwa, Zambia

I (and I was not alone in this) had a terrible nights sleep – for the early part of the night the heat coming up out of the hard rocky ground made it very uncomfortable and I was hot for hours. As the heat abated the mossie invasion arrived and we had to spray the tent in the middle of the night.

It was another early morning, up at 5:20 for the second half of the long drive to South Luangwa Park. We left at 6;00 Am again and stopped for a roadside breakfast on the way.

The countryside is quite attractive through here, in a flat, dry African way. We pass through lots of villages and get waved at by almost every child as we do. Due to a lack of electricity in most of the villages cooking is done on open fires so there are very few trees.

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We stopped in the town of Chipata to visit the supermarket and then headed off on the final run to Wildlife Camp on the side of the Luangwa river and our home for two nights. The road from Chipata to the camp is not particularly long but it is rough, most of the entire length is being reconstructed and we spent three hours on a very rough temporary dirt road. We passed through many villages but there is less waving and far more begging from the children – and some of the adults. Apparently in the past overlanders have given sweets to the children and they have started to develop a begging culture here, a real shame. One offended lad threw a stone at the truck as we did not hand anything out.

The campsite is right on the side of the Luangwa river and is unfenced all around. In the dry season – like now, elephants and other wildlife have been known to stroll through the camp to get to the river for water. There is a ton of elephant damage outside the camp so they have been through recently. When we got off the truck we were given a safety briefing by the camp manager and told what to do if animals do come through – stay in the tent and don’t shine your torch in their eyes!

Sunset over the Luangwa River.

An ex-buffalo

A number of the group have elected to do an optional extra night drive, we have an included one tomorrow night so I stayed behind and helped pitch all the tents and do a massive load of dishes as it was my turn and I wanted to break its back before dinner. After that it was a dip in the green pool and a couple of beers before dinner and a couple more and time getting to know some of the newbies after.

Bridge Camp

Day 294, Wednesday 24 October 2012 – Bridge camp, Zambia

Trip two officially started two days ago, the new people had the booze cruise and the Victoria Falls visit to do while we mooched around the campsite. For us oldies today was the day the trip kicked off as we down tents, jump in the truck and head off. I loved having a couple of days off, but for me it was one day too many in Livingstone.

The second leg of the trip has a lot more long driving days than the first half, which means a lot of very early starts and this morning was the first one. We were up at 5:30, dropping tents – and helping the new guys, before piling into the truck and leaving Livingstone at 6:00 am. Leonie and I took the opportunity to swap seats before the newbies arrived. We have moved further back in the truck where there is a lot more leg room and have also swapped sides to avoid late afternoon sun. Though experience says when I do the third and final leg – the gorillas trip, I will move back to the front as I will be on my own then and can spread over two seats. It is very windy in the back.

The road we are travelling is the main East Africa north/south highway so there are a lot of trucks on the road. There are also far more bicycles than I have seen elsewhere on the trip and a lot less donkeys – one less road hazard I guess. There is also a lot more small towns and villages close to the highway, which probably explains the proliferation of bicycles here.

It is Independence Day in Zambia so it is a public holiday and there are a lot of people on the road which made the drive slow and an already long drive longer. We stopped at a road side shop and I bought a very nice scone, again I was surprised at how well the local people speak English, it does make travelling and communicating so much easier. I many parts of Africa English is either the only or one of two official languages that are taught at school. Of course everyone also learns to speak at least their tribal language or dialect as well.

We passed through Lusaka around lunch time and stopped at the mall for a lunch and shopping stop. Downtown Lusaka looked quite nice, reasonably modern, tidy and spacious – a city I could live in I think – if I had to live in an African city of course.

Due to the public holiday, downtown Lusaka was a breeze to get through and the mall was just like any NZ mall, full of teenagers and children hanging about. It was kinda cool.

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As we got further north the countryside started getting a little bit more lush, with a few more trees and some colour in the hills. I took a few photos out of the window of the truck – hard to do when moving, and of course steering clear of overtly photographing the local people.

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We arrived at Bridge Camp just before 6:00pm, a twelve hour day on the road, they are tough days for driver Will, needing constant vigilance for all the animals and people that mill about. Bridge Camp is in the middle of nowhere and just a rest stop on the way to South Luangwa national park, our destination tomorrow. We have another pre-dawn start so I took a couple of photos of the Luangwa river and Mozambique on the other side. I loved the sign on the gate.

After pitching tents a few of us went and jumped into the swimming pool for a refreshing dip and after a dusty day in the back of the truck. After dinner Brett gave his first photography lesson to the new group, there was only the young couple in attendance, none of the others are particularly interested in photography per se. I think it was the only lesson given on the whole second leg and we had fewer photography adventures. At least with this group I wasn’t constantly wandering into other peoples shots as I looked for a different angle on the shots.

Like the Livingstone posts I am writing this on the second to last day of the trip, sitting alone in the Snake Park campsite in northern Tanzania. The second leg has not been such a photographic leg for me and I have far less photos than the first, we just had less opportunity and there were less things to see.

I am lucky I wrote things in my notebook as we went. fortunately a lot of the following days were blogged as we went, or I would never finish!

When in the village…

Day 293, Tuesday 23 October 2012 – Livingstone, Zambia

I was glad I was in the room last night as it hammered down in the early hours, but having said that the tent is pretty waterproof. I had left the tent all zipped up over the past couple of days but someone must have unzipped the rain flap a bit yesterday as I discovered it slightly open and a large puddle had accumulated inside the door. Unfortunately this morning we had to check out of the room and the truck had gone off for a service so we had to stick the bags in the tent, a bit annoying when you have a few thousand dollars worth of camera gear! I had also planned on spending a couple of hours or so in the truck working on photos and blogs as I am still way behind and didn’t get anywhere near as much done yesterday as I wanted – but I did enjoy the long lunch, the swim and the lie downs!

The weirdest thing happened last night, I woke about midnight or so and it felt like I had swallowed a bug that had stung me on the back of the throat, i felt a sharp sting and then there was a small amount of swelling that restricted swallowing a bit this freaked me a bit, but it was not enough to block airwaves or anything and it went down after a few minutes. I was sleeping under a mozzie net so not sure what happened, this morning I was wondering I dreamt the sting and the reaction was psychosomatic – the swelling definitely happened. Weird…

After making final use of the hot ho water in the chalet by having the first shave in two weeks I checked out and went and sat by the campsite and typed this under a tree. The rain stopped earlier this morning and it is coolish when the breeze is blowing, but there is a lot of cloud cover still and it could get grotesquely humid later on – my freshly shaved face hates the humidity.

In the early afternoon Leonie and I got a lift into Livingstone on the camp shuttle, we wandered up through the town to the local museum. Town is Ok, a typical large African town, a bit dusty and dirty and the colonial era buildings in a mild state of disrepair. A lot of the state and local government buildings have these mission statements on walls or boards outside, I think they are sweet.

I humped my great big camera around all day but didn’t really take any photos, a bit dumb of me I guess.

The museum was interesting, it wasn’t worth the $5USD entry fee, it did remind me of the museums in New Zealand – about thirty years ago – lots of moulding stuffed animals etc. There was a village scene which was good and a highlight for Leonie (I missed it) was hearing the sound of water and turning around to see one of the local boys peeing on the sand floor of the mock village. Hilarious!

I was not feeling 100% today so after the museum we went back to the shopping area, changed some money and bought some snacks and things for the next few days.

I spent a bit more time blogging at the neighbours place before heading back to the camp site for a night back in the tent and the first dinner with the new tour buddies. It was a bit of a weird meal, all us old hands knew how the system worked and the seven newbies obviously didn’t. We had also gelled as a group and with the crew and the others were still meeting each other as well as us.
As soon as dinner had finished there was a massive frenzy of cleaning up by the new folk as they were keen t get involved, they even cleaned up all the chairs – it was only 7:30 and people drifted off to bed. Weird. I went to the bar and had one drink by myself – I was hoping to find Bill there but he had already left.

It is tomorrow morning in New Zealand, and my son Aiden’s birthday. I tried to call him from my cellphone but didn’t have any joy so sent him a text. With nothing else to do I went to bed.

A wee bit of luxury

Day 292, Monday 22 October 2012 – Livingstone, Zambia

Even though I slept under a mozzie net I had a few bites on me this morning, not sure if it was from the shower or not, I couldn’t see them under the net when I was in bed. The campsite here is the worst place for mosquitoes that I have seen in Africa so far, the showers are really bad. I have been using repellent on my ankles but had bites on my back – unusual.

It was good to sleep in a room, but due to the mosquitoes we had all the windows closed so it was quite stuffy, even with the fan on. The room came with a cooked breakfast, which was average at best, but at least I could get a plunger coffee which was not too bad. Though we did get to watch some elephants swimming across the Zambesi in the distance which was pretty, make that very, cool.

The plan for the day was to do very little and I am glad to say I exceeded myself and did even less than that. I had hoped to crack a few blog posts out and get a long way into photo reviewing, I achieved a bit but not as much as I would have liked.

I did have a very nice lunch at the neighbouring hotel, made use of their internet to check some bank balances and upload a couple of blog posts and have a couple of quick dips in their pool. I am surprised I have enjoyed the relaxing so much, it is not normally my thing at all.

At 4:00 Bill (from first leg), Leonie and I caught a cab to the Zambesi Sun hotel where we met up Dave and Nancy (also from the last leg) for a G and T on the river bank deck of the neighbouring Royal Livingstone hotel. The cab driver who dropped us off, asked us if we wanted him to collect us later, gave us his number and drove off without us paying him. Obviously they really trust westerners !

On the walk between hotels we saw a giraffe just off the path as well as three elephants grazing on the river bank, plus vervet monkeys galore – I love Africa !

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We sat and watched the sun disappear into the cloud over a hippo infested section of the Zambesi River just before it hit Victoria Falls. We could see the clouds of spray billowing up and out of the gorge, a stunning back drop for a convivial drink.

We went back to the Zambesi Sun and had pizza for dinner, I love pizza and this was good!

The end of trip one.

Day 291, Sunday 21 October 2012 – Livingstone, Zambia

Not a bad sleep at all last night, I woke a couple of times but was reasonably refreshed when I was woken at 5:30 by the sounds of other overlanders packing up for an early departure. The camp here is very crowded, at least six trucks around us and there is always one group leaving early in the morning and packing up a site is never a quiet process. Swings and roundabouts of course, we do exactly the same to everyone else.

Official breakfast time was 8:00 but we are all so used to getting up early that most of us were up with the coffee on well before then, for half the people it is their final meal with Africa in Focus and for some of those it is their last on African soil, for this time anyway.

The first tour – “desert and water wanderer”, has been fantastic, I cannot believe twenty one days have passed so quickly, I guess I was lucky in that I was with a pretty good bunch of people and personality conflicts were minor and had no impact on the trip itself. I have been really surprised at how much I enjoyed the trip, but not surprised that I have loved what I have seen of Africa so far. Roll on leg two – Livingstone – Nairobi.

At 10:00 we farewelled five of the group when they took a taxi to the airport, those of us that stayed behind went our separate ways, I did another load of laundry and then made use of the empty truck, plugged my laptop into the power, cranked some tunes and edited photos for a while.

After lunch Leonie and I moved into a twin room for a couple of nights away from the tent. Leonie spent the afternoon at the hotel next door and I did more photo editing, blog writing and music listening in the room in the relative cool. It was great to have a decent shower and then get out and not get covered in dust walking back to the tent, sometimes it is the small things that make a difference.

At the camp site in Chobe we ordered custom souvenir t-shirts , mine was slightly different to the others as I have Uganda and Rwanda added to mine. It was suppose to have the flags of the ten nations I am visiting on the trip and say Cape town to Kigali, but it only had the standard seven flags and said it Cape Town to Nairobi, it went back again and came back with two more flags and nothing else. I took it anyway. It is the first souvenir t-shirt I have bought on any of my travels. Most overlanders seem to have them on Livingstone.

Brett, our tour guide had told of us a gate that leads from our camp ground into the five star David Livingstone Hotel next door and the code for their free wifi, which is one hundred times better than the costly wifi in the campground. I popped over in the afternoon to upload a blog post and grab some emails down to my phone for reading and replying to offline. Some of the others were lounging round the pool and using the free towels, love it.

At 5:00 we went down to the campground bar to sit in on the pre-trip meeting for the next three weeks tour and meet the new crew mates. There is a vast age range on the next trip with some under thirties and an over eighty. For a change I will be in the much younger group. I hope I have a beer buddy like Stuart from the last leg, also that as I am fit and able I wont have to do more work than everyone else – putting up tents can be a drag!

After the meeting the last of us from the first leg went into Livingstone for a curry and a couple of beers to say farewell to Stuart and Jackie who are the last to leave. It was a good night, the food was great, hardly cheap but worth it.

Stu and I

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We topped it off with a brandy and coffee and then it was time to sleep in a real bed.