I have combined these two days because they cover one event - the Kalahari Game Reserve. This park is quoted as being of greater land area than Denmark or Switzerland. It is vast, nobody lives in it except some bushmen in the very south, and there is no water in it to speak of. Certainly we had to be totally self sufficient on everything, and I mean literally everything! The regulations for entry encourage the minimum of a compass per car and a gps is almost an essential. Indeed the maps publish co-ordinates for all important features within this park - [View Full Entry]

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We set off from camp, drove north to the gate where we paid our dues, before setting of southwest to exit the park at the Khumaga gate. How fortunate it was that we took this route because, before long, we saw two lone bull elephants walking determinedly across the plain. The stopped about 100 yards from us and turned to look at us - what lovely beasts they are. A mile or two further on we suddenly came across a pack of about 9 wild dog. We had absolutely no idea that they lived in this park so it was a [View Full Entry]

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Guy Fawkes Day! The track back to Nata was twisty and wound through dry, dry bush scrub past one or two large pans before we arrived back at Nata to get our entry passes for the Park. A local Safari Tour operator we found told us that we had been given more duff gen and that we could in fact get our passes at the Park Gate and that they were not issued in Nata. He also told us that Obama had won the US Presidential election. (We are a bit short on World news on this trip!) Nata is a [View Full Entry]

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The road out of Francistown was excellent as we sped towards Nata - in a north westerly direction. The German couple who had camped next to us for the previous two days told us that there would be two Vetinary checks along the road. Apparently there is Foot & Mouth, or some other nasty diseases, in parts of the country so vehicle movements are restricted in that fresh meet and milk products cannot be transported about at will. Fortunately we were told, so we were prepared when the time came. They duly inspected our fridges and we had to disinfect our [View Full Entry]

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The Toyota agent opened at 7.30 am, so Ian and Chris were there promptly. The Service Manager, Johan Cloete, dropped everything and gave Ian his full attention. Ian explained that his gearbox had been growling odd noises for some time now and he desperately needed expert advice. He took Ian for a test run in the car, over quite a distance, but could not hear any strange noises whatsoever - (“Sorry Dr, it isn’t actually hurting at this moment”). The car was hoisted high and all sorts of people examined all sorts of places underneath - with the engine running, in [View Full Entry]

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What a beautiful country! We had planned to avoid Zim altogether but circumstances made us change our plans so we considered crossing Zim in one hit from the Mozambique border to Botswana - some 400 to 500 miles - carrying enough fuel to be self sufficient. In the event we found fuel readily available and the country so lovely that we spent over a week there! The two major towns we visited were Harare and Bulawayo, both of which had lovely wide streets, flowering flamboyants abounded, the people were all friendly. There were two sorts of people we met - the [View Full Entry]

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We were rather sorry to leave this lovely campsite but, as always, we were looking forward to new experiences. We were off early with the intention of getting to the border before any of the buses from Harare got there in the hopes that we would avoid the mass of humanity queuing to get their passports (or whatever) stamped. We seemed to achieve this objective and were through the border formalities with remarkable rapidity. And it was nice to get into Botswana with nothing more costly than a stamp in the passport and 20 quid’s worth of third party car insurance. [View Full Entry]

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We came to an unanimous decision that it was time we had a day of rest. So we did nothing today, other than enjoy relaxing in the attractive campsite. We were awakened by four horses around or cars, horses which we presumed were kept to provide riding safaris for punters. They roamed pretty freely around the dam and visited us at dawn. Of course those amongst us with a real love for horses were up and about like a shot and all four animals were treated to carrots for breakfast. They all four then moved into the verandah of the laundry [View Full Entry]

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Ian’s birthday - he had his last one at Dongola on the Nile in Sudan - which meant he opened several cards from his family at breakfast. We set off early for the Park, some 30 kms to the south and east of Bulawayo and paid our entrance fees at the gate. Everywhere was extremely dry and the evidence of burning was distressing. There were very few animals about but we did manage to see 5 Rowan antelope, quite a rarity in these parts, and indeed a couple of white rhino grazing by a dam. Otherwise there was little to see [View Full Entry]

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Because it gets so hot so quickly during the day we started early at the Gt Zimbabwe ruins. Both Camilla and I commented that the nearest thing we had seen to this site was Machu Pichu in Peru. Numerous stone walls built within a circular wall which, at its base’ was 6 metres thick, and 4 metres thick at the top. To me, the surprise was that there was so much left of a civilisation which went back to the 11 Century. Towering over the site was a wonderful kopje, itself covered in the remains of battlements and buildings. We climbed [View Full Entry]

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