Across the Kenyan border we stopped once again at Eldoret and had a fantastic Indian meal. It tasted all the better for being the first proper Indian meal we’d had in months. Next up was Naivasha which is next to Hell’s Gate National Park. The area around Naivasha is famous for its flower growing. It has the perfect conditions, with volcanic soil, high altitude (around 2,300m) and an abundance of fresh water from Lake Naivasha. 75% of all flowers sold in Europe come from this area and it’s one of Kenya’s biggest exports. Also, bizarrely, Lake Naivasha was a stop f [View Full Entry]

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We crossed into Rwanda from the border town of Kabale (where I had my hair butchered by a barber who had never cut a white man’s hair before). The border here was a little more tense than most of the others. People were literally being thrown out of immigration for pushing in the queue. Rwanda had a similar sort of scenery to Uganda, but more impressive. We stopped in Kigale on the way to Musanze. Kigali is a beautiful city that clings to the side of the hills. It’s main streets have manicured gardens and there’s hardly any rubbish - a [View Full Entry]

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We crossed into Rwanda from the border town of Kabale (where I had my hair butchered by a barber who had never cut a white man’s hair before). The border here was a little more tense than most of the others. People were literally being thrown out of immigration for pushing in the queue. Rwanda had a similar sort of scenery to Uganda, but more impressive. We stopped in Kigale on the way to Musanze. Kigali is a beautiful city that clings to the side of the hills. It’s main streets have manicured gardens and there’s hardly any rubbish - a [View Full Entry]

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From Eldoret we crossed the border to Uganda. The terrain here is steep but lush mountains. On our way to Kampala we passed an oil tanker upside down at the side of the road and on fire. Our dirver has seen quite a few of these before. We’ve seen some spectacular crashes in Africa, but this one has to top the list. We didn’t really see much of Kampala except a shopping centre and our campsite. We did notice the traffic, though. This place rivals Dar es Salam for the title of Africa’s largest car park. From Kampala we headed towards [View Full Entry]

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Nairobi was our first stop in Kenya, or rather the wealthy suburb of Karen. We've seen a lot of Barak Obama signs generally through Africa, but Kenya, the birthplace of Obama's father, is in a class of its own. There are Obama pubs, Obama cake, Obama t-shirts. "Senator" beer has recently changed its name to "President". The expectations of Africans in general is way too high given that his job is to run the USA. I think it's a sign of the lack of faith in their own leaders as much as it is an appreciation of Obama. From Nairobi we [View Full Entry]

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Iringa was our first stop in Tanzania. It's up in the mountains so it was a welcome relief from the heat. Here we had a meal prepared for us with Ugali, the local staple food. Most people here eat just one large meal a day. Ugali is very very filling. We stayed in a converted stable which was all the better for being our first bed for a month! I think Tanzania has more speed bumps than the rest of the world put together. There is no apparent reason for most of them, especially when all the potholes mean it's impossible [View Full Entry]

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Lilongwe, Malawi's capital was our first destination. Malawi is probably the poorest country we've been to so far. The capital has one or two restaurants and a supermarket, but that's about it. Heading North from Lilongwe we hit Lake Malawi which is over 500km from north to south. The lake is so big that it has proper sand beaches and looks like the coast. Kande Beach was our first stop on the lake. It's really relaxed and has a bar right on the beach. Just outside the campsite is a local village and we went on a guided walk with "Mel [View Full Entry]

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Chobe was our last stop in Botswana before crossing into Zambia. The border here is actually the intersection of four countries - Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Namibia. The ferry that took us across the Chobe River looked like it might sink at any time. This was the first proper chaotic border crossing we'd been to in Africa. Zambia hasn't been quite as fortunate as Botswana and suffers from widespread corruption. Our first stop in Zambia was Livingstone - gateway to the Victoria Falls. Our campsite here was upstream of the falls on the Zambezi River with Zimbabwe on the opposite bank. [View Full Entry]

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Our first stop in Botswana was the (kind of) city of Maun, gateway to the Okavango Delta. The delta is quite unique in that the Okavango River, rather than flowing into the sea, spreads out and evaporates across the Kalahari Desert. Our first excursion here was two nights bush camping on an island in the delta. We were accompanied by a group of locals who took us to the island in dugout canoes called mokoros. The scenery was amazing, but after doing 8 hours of bush walking all we saw was a pack of zebras. It turned out to be more [View Full Entry]

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The South Africa/Namibia border is formed by the Orange River (named after the Dutch House of Orange). We stopped at the "Felix Unite" campsite on the Namibian side of the river and our group managed to sink two "unsinkable" canoes. Namibia is the second least populated country on the planet (Mongolia is the only country with less people per sq .km). A lot of the country is desert - either the Kalahari or the Namib. Fish River Canyon sits in a typically barren Namibian landscape. By quite a few different measurements it's the second largest canyon in the world after the [View Full Entry]

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