On arrival back in Windhoek from Swakopmund, I picked up the hatchback Kia, we were planning on taking down to Sossuvlei. That night at the hostel I was staying at, I met Kiger, the American girl I had arranged to go down with. The next morning, just before we were going to pick up Andrew, another American, we had a big problem with the car, in that wouldn't start. This was a bit of a disaster, because we only had one night down there and in order for it to be worthwhile, we needed to get going early. We walked back to the rental agency, who gave as a replacement, after we had to wait for the guy to get out of bed and come in. We did end up getting an upgrade and an automatic, ... read more

It was another full day on the road getting from Maun to Windhoek. I was up at 7 a.m. to pack my tent away, which was one of the coldest experiences I have ever had. I thought my fingers were going to fall off from frost bite. As I said in the previous post, Botswana public transport is not too plentiful, so I made sure I was on the bus to Ghanzi at 8.30 a.m., where we arrived at around 1 o'clock. To get to the Namibia border, I needed to get to a place called Charles Hill. After some confusion, as to whether the bus was actually going or not, I managed to get on a bus, which arrived in Charles Hill at around 5. Charles Hill is the very definition of a one horse ... read more

The journey from Lusaka to Livingstone took 7 and half hours. It was fairly comfortable, but quite monotonous with the scenery unchanging the whole way down. I stayed at Jollyboys Backpackers, which is the most popular one in Livingstone and is one of the busiest I had stayed at in Africa. One funny thing about my stay here was the incredible amount of Irish people staying here. I must have encountered at least ten different groups of people in the few days I was here. Livingstone is a busy enough town and is 8km away from the Victoria Falls, but it is difficult to imagine if there would be anything there if it wasn't for the constant stream of tourists that come to visit the falls. It has seen an upturn in its toursim in recent ... read more

I apologise in advance for beginning this entry with yet another moan about my trials and tribulations with public transport in Africa. However, the majority of this entry will be about 3 fantastic days I spent at the Croc Valley Camp right outside the South Luangwa National Park. In between chilling out by the pool in the perfect sunshine, I managed to get two game drives in. But first about my experience of getting up there. To get to South Luangwa NP by public transport is not easy. There is one bus a day that goes the from Chipata to Mfuwe, the nearest town to South Luangwa NP. I left Lilonwe at 7 a.m. to make sure I got this bus. I ended up getting over the Malawi - Zambia border, with very little hassle and ... read more

I got quite lucky, when I got back to Salima after leaving Senga Bay, as there was an Axa bus, which had come from Lilongwe going to Monkey Bay, at the station, waiting to pick up passengers. Even though I had to stand for the first part of the journey, this was a much better option, than the minibuses I had to take the previous day. We got to Monkey Bay just over 3 hours after leaving Salima and I was hopeful of spending the afternoon by the beach at Cape MacLear. I should know by now not to get my hopes up like this when relying on transport in Africa. Between waiting for a pick up to fill up, then go driving back and forth through the town looking for more passengers, getting all their ... read more