South Namibia - Swakopmund to Orange River We left Swakopmund heading South along the coast, with the cold sea air blasting through the back of the truck, then turned inland heading towards Sesriem, gateway to the Sossusvlei sand dunes, amongst the largest in the world. After some hours we passed through the gateway to the Namib-Naukluft park, an alien army of folded rocks marching into the distance to besiege the mountainous citadels on the horizon (jeez, what do they put into this cheap supermarket plonk?). After passing through this band of blasted barren sentinels we emerged into the [View Full Entry]

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Northern Namibia - Caprivi to Swakopmund. Whoah dude, Utah Rocks. Moab is soooo cool. Uh oh, Reality check. We are still in Africa, although I have to keep reminding myself, because it feels more like the Southwest USA. Swakopmund is a beautiful tourist town - ok, so they don’t have the Slickrock trail and the Porcupine Rim, or any Ellesworths or Santa Cruz Blurs to rent, but they do have the ocean, the dunes of the Namib desert, sunshine, cool sea breezes, beautiful authentic German architecture, great restaurants, clean streets, cafes, bookshops and even the Brauhaus that sells Erdi [View Full Entry]

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Botswana is regarded by many as the jewel in Africa’s crown, at least in terms of game viewing. It is a flat, wild and largely barren country, of salt pans, desert and swampland. In African terms it is, apparently, viewed as something of an economic and political success story, with a stable democracy, relatively good infrastructure and a functioning (in Western terms) economy. As many will know, it is also home to a shrewd, charming and fictional female private detective The Botswana-Zambian border is a singularity: that is a single point on the Zambezi river, crossed by ferry. This [View Full Entry]

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Or at least tried to. More on that story later. Like the sun, gin sinks rapidly at these latitudes. Impersonating a hyena requires poise and concentration, often not appreciated by one's peers. No more on that story later. Many thanks to all who have sent comments, which are most appreciated. Apologies for not replying but these connections are really slow, and at times expensive. Our passage through Africa so far has continually evoked the feeling that we must somehow have obtained celebrity status within the countries in which we have travelled. What kind of celebrity is more diffic [View Full Entry]

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Ingredients for a good game walk: * A game reserve in the middle of nowhere, that no-one on the truck has visited (including both drivers) and it seems, almost no-one at all has visited recently (unmanned entry gates, overhanging branches on roads and a very overgrown campsite.) * A guide with an AK47 (or some such) and a nice green beret to offer some modicum of sartorial authority. * A gathering storm * A herd of elephants making their way along the lake-shore to the campsite, forcing us to spend the first 45 minutes walking along a dirt road * Poachers, [View Full Entry]

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I guess the problem with the phrase "game drive" is the second bit. Early in the trip we were able to walk and mountain bike amongst the game (due to the lack of Lions, Leopards etc). In the Serengeti and around this just ain't possible, as we will see. The other problem is that wild animals are anti-social beasts, a bit like schoolteachers, getting up at ungodly hours of the morning to have their breakfast, instead of a civilised eight-o-clock. I think on only one day of this section have we risen after dawn, and several days have been up at [View Full Entry]

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As with Rwanda, Uganda is a suprising country. I'm fairly sure that, ever since a young age, I have not believed greatly in democracy, preferring the idea of a benign dictator as the most preferable form of government. Clearly in the real world this is as unrealistic as socialism or communism, except perhaps in rare cases. Now I'm completely out of my depth here, having learned most of what I know of Ugandan politics from guide books and a dodgy daily rag that would make the Sunday Sport editors blush. It seems that Musaveni, the Ugandan president for the last 20 [View Full Entry]

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I don't think there was a single person on the truck that wasn't moved in some way by our visit to Rwanda. We were there to visit the mountain gorillas, but due to tensions between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda we couldn't take the direct route through Southwest Uganda, instead heading south to Kigali, and then back north to Ruhengiri. Rwanda (and SW Uganda) can surely lay claim to be one of the most beautiful places in Africa, and, as with everywhere, the people are wonderfully friendly and welcoming. One cannot avoid the huge shadow of the genocide in [View Full Entry]

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"I love the smell of Dettol in the morning." Paul the driver stares through his shades at another bunch of raw recruits, timid and trembling at their first African dawn. Ok, so it takes a few days to adjust. The first thing you have to get used to is hygiene. Lots of dettol and no tea towel, so lots of flapping to dry plates, dishes etc. Then you need to understand how the truck and the camp runs which takes a bit of getting used to. A typical day so far: Get up at 5.30am, about an hour before dawn. Check [View Full Entry]

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Six days to go and we're both feeling as nervous as virgin Big Brother contestants waiting for the fun to begin ... except there are no prizes and no chance of fame afterwards. Yes, we're off with Exodus down through Africa for 11 weeks, from Nairobi to Cape Town .. something like Kenya -> Uganda -> Kenya -> Tanzania -> Malawi -> Zambia -> Botswana -> Namibia -> South Africa. So what are we most nervous of ? Camping all those nights ? All those nasty diseases ? No telly (is this the only way to escape from the next series [View Full Entry]

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