Day 30 We made another visit on day 30, this time down south to Walvis Bay, a more industrialize version of Swakopmund, which when Namibia was under South African control, was the only bay that was allowed to develop into a trading post; it seems the South African government was hoping to hold on to it even after Namibian independence. We were saddened by the drive in as the signs of segregation were very much apparent - roughly 1km out from the main town there was a very obviously poorer area, separated from the town by a stretch of sand. When [View Full Entry]

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Day 26 We took our time over departure from Windhoek that day as the drive west to the Skeleton Coast and Swakopmund is a short one. I was sorry to leave Windhoek as it really is an amazing place and certainly somewhere I would like to explore with more depth another time but all thoughts of where we had just been passed out of mind and memory during the drive to the coast. The road takes you straight through the Namib Desert and since I’ve never visited a desert before the scenery was breathtaking; miles and miles of empty sand filled [View Full Entry]

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Day 24 We reached Windhoek at about 6 and were immediately impressed by the orderly layout of its roads - it reminded me strongly of a European city; proper traffic lights, filter systems, lots of signs and clearly marked roads. It wasn’t hard for us to find our campsite, a place called ‘Backpackers Unite’, situated a 2 minute drive from the main centre and Independence Avenue. The guidebook had gjven the establishment a rather good write up but when we arrived we were greeted by a exceptionally unfriendly receptionist who told us we could camp for 40 ZAR but were not [View Full Entry]

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Day 21 We woke up rather later than usual the morning after the party, still revelling in the memory of the excellent food and drink. We headed into Maun to look for a garage where we could get our car serviced, as on top of our fan belt trouble we also have holes in our radiator and problems with our four-wheel drive. Maun is a very agreeable place - it is known as the safari capital of Botswana because roughly 90% of its income comes from tourists who flock there to visit the Okavango Delta. I really liked it because unlike [View Full Entry]

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Day 20 We left our makeshift camp at about 8 and headed towards Moremi Gate, after thanking the gate warden for his kindness. The drive was stunning, as the area around Moremi and the park itself is really part of the Okavango Delta. Great swathes of grassland, marsh, woodland and lakes and hundreds of birds. The boys were excited to spot a Crimson Breasted Bush Shrike, Migrating Steppe Eagles and a Black Heron…Rob said he could have happily spent several days camping in that bordering area to the northern gate of Moremi because it was one of the best birding areas [View Full Entry]

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Day 19 (Disaster Day) Day 19 started so well, only to develop into a nightmare of huge proportions. We left our campsite at about 5:30 and drove to the Mababe Park Gate that leads onto the outskirts of the Okavango Delta and supposedly to a road that takes you through to Maun. On our way we saw a pack of 8 wild dogs, an incredible sighting. They appeared out of nowhere onto to the road, and one came a metre away from the driver’s side of the car to drink from a puddle the car was sitting in, then after allowing [View Full Entry]

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Day 18 We left Livingstone quite late in the morning, spending our last hours there desperately trying to find a bank that would take our cards so that we could get out some money to buy some Botswana Pula…we didn’t find one so in the end we had to change some of our precious dollars. After you cross into Botswana there are few places you can exchange money or get money out until Maun and we didn’t want to get stuck with no currency. The drive the border town of Kazungula took roughly an hour…we stopped on the side of the [View Full Entry]

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We spent today looking round Victoria Falls. It was really lovely to walk around the area above the falls and on the ground beside the Zambezi river. Sadly the high point is May so the falls weren't as spectacular as they can be but it was still a really great sight to see. We arrived in Livingstone yesterday, having driven down from Lusaka on the Great North Road. It wasn't such a great road surface as before with lots of pot holes and diversions through red muddy tracks, past the occaisonal lorry that had gone too fast and got stuck in [View Full Entry]

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Day 14 We managed to get through almost half our supplies of weetabix for breakfast on Saturday morning, the drive back to Lusaka giving us all an appetite. We got back onto the Great East Road and headed back, stopping once to eat the last of our amazing bread on the side of the road. We got back into Lusaka at about 4 and stopped to buy some more Boerwurs and potatoes. James and Robert were mortified that Zambeef was closed (we were 8 minutes too late) so we had to buy them from a Halaal Butcher, but James cheered up [View Full Entry]

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Day 12 This was a big driving day - we wanted to go and see South Luangwa park so we drove up to Chipata on the Great East Road, a really attractive road which was almost as good as the Great North Road, that at points followed the course of the Luangwa river. We got stopped a couple of times by policeman apparently just for a chat - both times after pulling us over, asking how we were, where we were going, whether we were enjoying ourselves and making a few comments about the weather they let us go…it seems that [View Full Entry]

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