http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/j-s-r-j/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from j s r j en-us Tue, 22 Dec 2009 20:37:48 +0000 Tue, 22 Dec 2009 20:37:48 +0000 1 Where we spent our nightsTANZANIA1. Bimrsquos house Arusha2. Holy Trinity Guesthouse Dodoma3. Fishing Campsite Bunduki4. Malela Nzuri Campsite Mikumi5. Riverside Campsite Irringa6. Riverside Campsite Irringa7. Rough on the outskirts of Ruaha National Park8. FM Guesthouse MbeyaZAMBIA9. Safari Restaurant Bar and Guesthouse Mpika10. Eureka Lusaka11. Eureka Lusaka12. Cobra http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Kenya/Nairobi-Province/Nairobi/blog-363311.html Day 64Ate breakfast in the hotel Kenyeje and Chapatis and then set off on the road towards Arusha. It wasnrsquot a long drive only 380km so we reached Arusha at about 2 and booked ourselves in the lsquoMasai Camprsquo and rather large establishment with a very cool barrestaurant area that must get very busy during ChristmasNew Year but today we seemed to be the only people filling it http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Kenya/Nairobi-Province/Nairobi/blog-363310.html It was lovely not having to pack up the tent this morning only having to pack up clothes boxes and food instead Left Nkhata Bay at the usual 6 orsquoclock sharp as we were hoping to get well into Tanzania by early evening. The road took us through more similar landscapes full with cultivated plots of land and little thatched huts and people everywhere walking about bicycling hanging on the http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Tanzania/East/blog-363306.html Day 60We left at 6 as usual driving up the lake road with an aim of reaching Nkhata Bay another popular tourist hot spot that apparently vies with Cape Maclear at Christmas and New Year. To begin with we were just driving through more of the same cultivated areas which at times was quite shocking as it was the first time on this trip that wersquod seen children with swollen bellies from hunger http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Malawi/blog-361469.html Day 58We attempted a game drive in the morning at 6 but saw little once again although we did see some Sable which was one of the two antelopes that James has never seen and was determined to find. Sadly we have yet to find a Roan for himhellipSo it wasnrsquot a complete waste of time but it certainly wasnrsquot hugely successful although the boys did see a Brown Hooded Kingfisher too http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Malawi/Southern/Monkey-Bay/blog-361466.html Day 57Managed to leave Deans at about 7 and reached the border post of Mchinjii at about 8. As it was early we were the only people trying to cross over so we got through very fast and with no hassle but I could see that the whole place was incredibly disorganised and had there been even just 10 more people there would have been complete chaos. So we were in Malawi and amazingly the sun was shin http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Malawi/Southern/Liwonde-NP/blog-361465.html Day 54On waking we all decided to buy a portion each of Faulty Towers full English Breakfast which certainly sorted us all out. After that it was back onto the road again in the direction of Lusaka one of our favourite cities. We were all quite looking forward to going back to Eureka and when we finally reached the lovely little campsite after a drive of about 5 hours it really did feel like c http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Zambia/Chipata/blog-361462.html Day 53Frightening thing happened last night after wersquod had our supper in town not the greatest meal we thought wersquod found another joint similar to our good find in Maun but it turned out to be rather less good quality than expected we got back to our campsite to discover our neighbouring campers a group of 12 South Africans with three cars between them in a state of consternatio http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Zambia/Livingstone/blog-361461.html Day 52It was a 5 orsquoclock wake up again as we were keen to get on the road as early as possible to make good progress into Botswana. After filling up with petrol we all tried to use up as many South African coins as possible as you canrsquot change them and we found some seriously yummy cinnamon Chelsea buns which did the job perfectly and served as a very good and for us unusual breakfast http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/blog-358502.html Day 51We woke up as damp as wersquod gone to bed my feet particularly seemed undryable. It made me think of the 1st world war and trench foot and made us all even keener to get well out of Mozambique We didnrsquot leave our campsite until 8 because we wanted to get into Maputo in time for the opening of the banks so we could all change the Mozambique Metical wersquod withdrawn back into R http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/South-Africa/Limpopo/Pietersburg/blog-358500.html Day 50Another disaster dayhellipour second proper one of this trip. We left Swaziland at 10 and drove to the border crossing with Mozambique it was our first bad border crossing since the one into Zambia no proper queuing so everyone was pushing and shoving inept officials who took ages over everything and a visa we had to buy which meant that after giving our passports in we had to wait ano http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Mozambique/Southern/Maputo/blog-358497.html Day 49It was at last farewell to South Africa on day 49 as after driving out of Durban and inland for about 500 km we reached the frontier with Swaziland and crossed over. It had been a very early start we left our campsite at 6 so we reached Swaziland at about 12 stopping once to buy some bread and jam for brunch. The border crossing was easy enough no visa just a 50 rand road tax and we we http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Swaziland/blog-358496.html Day 48We left Coffee Bay at about 9 after buying a really yummy breakfast of Alpen Yoghurt and Fruit followed by a full English fry up. We drove through more of the boring scenery which seems to epitomize the Transkei getting lost once in a town called Port Shepstone. Finally at about 5 we reached Durban fining to our horror that the two places recommended to us in the guidebook were already http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/South-Africa/KwaZulu-Natal/blog-358495.html Day 45It was a shame to leave the cosy and hospitable hostel but leave we had to so after a good breakfast of free toast during our stay we must have got through at least four loaves of breadhellip we set off in the direction of a hippy retreat called Coffee Bay which is well celebrated in our guidebook Coast to Coast. It was quite a long and dull drive through Zululand an endless sequenc http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/South-Africa/Eastern-Cape/Coffee-Bay/blog-358493.html Day 44We left our hill campsite rather later than wersquod intended as the boys Seren and Robert were gripped with excitement at the imminent and humiliating defeat of the Australian cricket team by the South Africans. I have been told to mention this otherwise I would have passed over it. James says the Australians will get revenge in the next testhellipAnyway we left Wilderness at about 9 http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/South-Africa/Eastern-Cape/Port-Elizabeth/blog-358492.html Day 42We had more pancakes before setting off on the road once more. The first part of the drive before the Garden Route officially starts was very dull and unattractive a seemingly endless succession of murky industrial areas and slums interspersed by a few farms. We stopped briefly in a town called Mossel Bay which is on the border of the garden route and according to the guidebook is a real http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/South-Africa/Western-Cape/Wilderness/blog-356382.html Day 40The boys spent the morning playing golf with Ross on the Steenberg Golf Course where the JonesDavies live whilst I sat writing postcards and reading and watching BBC World Newshellipthe first time Irsquove watched or heard news in nearly a month and a half. It was Carolinersquos Rossrsquos mum birthday so in the evening they invited us to join them in a birthday supper with some http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/South-Africa/Western-Cape/Cape-Town/blog-356380.html Day 38On Tuesday we decided to make a visit to Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope so we set off on the road south which took us past Fishhoek and our lovely beach from Saturday. After an hour in quite heavy traffic we reached a bay called lsquoBoulderrsquos Bayrsquo where there is a nature reserve which is home to a massive colony of African Penguins so we stopped and spent an hour ther http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/South-Africa/Western-Cape/Cape-Town/blog-355063.html Day 35Seren and James had got in touch with our school friend Ross JonesDavies the previous night so at about 11 we headed over to his parents house. They have a really beautiful house on the other side of Cape Town to where we are on a very attractive Golf Course and they were very kind in inviting us to spend the day there. After drinking some Champagne to celebrate our arrival in Cape Town http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/South-Africa/Western-Cape/Cape-Town/blog-355059.html Day 33Since the border lies only 15 minutes away from Noordoewer we had a lovely laidback last morning in Namibia drinking coffee and eating Pocho Porridge sadly something I donrsquot think I shall ever learn to love it just tastes too much like Ugali even when you add milk to ithellip. We got to the border at about 1130 feeling relaxed only to discover that the South African border http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/South-Africa/Western-Cape/Cape-Town/blog-355058.html