Today we changed our course, we're not going west to Nam, not south to Jozie but east towards Zim with a stop over in Makgadigadi. Travelling this route means less time on the road and more time seeing and doing things, which is a absolute bonus at this stage of the trip. The miles have been ticking over nicely since we left the UK and unfortunately my estimation was a little on the low side. In my defence  I must say that I did not include the European leg of the trip in my estimation as this is a trip through Africa, right?  So if you take off  the England, France and Switzerland and Italy  I should be in with a good shout.  Suili wont hear of it but I'm sure you can feel a online referendum coming. Anyway back to the road, with Mabel fully stocked  with beer, wine,  gin and the precious tonic you dilute it with we head for Makgadigadi nature reserve where we will stay at the safari wilderness camp for a day before moving on further east to Njuca the second camp also in the re reserve. During the last few months  we have savvied up quite a bit since we started so we know not the trust the GPS as first glance, zoom out, check the roads ahead and cut out the loops is our favourite mileage saviour.  cutting out the first loop saves us just under 10 miles, the second one saves us almost another 10 until we reach this long wide wet thing called the river with a big fat road closed sign on it. You can see huge craters where the road was before and the signage around is a dead giveaway that this is not a new occurrence,  ok so maybe Mr. GPS was onto something this time . We travel back all the way to the beginning of the first loop which is about 20km back as the crow flies, and we can say that because the road is so straight you can see all the way to tomorrow  if you look carefully.  To add a little spice to our backtracking the mother of all thunderstorm kicks in., this is great because it cools down the earth and Mabel gets a good old wash. It is also bad because , Mabel's windscreen wipers don't work properly, leaving visibility levels at ZERO, oh and throw in a few spurts of aquaplaning  in a 3.5 ton metal beast  to lively up the afternoon will you. By the time we reached the first loop turn the storm was over and we were back on track with only 100km to go according to MR. GPS. a third of the way up the road we meet the storm we left behind on the upper road, still poring down but by now we are used to the conditions and it only slows us a little before being back on Mabel's top speed of 110 - 120kph. We finally reach the park gate again, a familiar site lay in front of us, that same river as before only wider  and deeper. We speak to the locals about crossing and they say its not possible, and we will need to go all the way around 300km back on the road we just came and then add another 50km to the gate.  With no way around we reluctantly turned back, passing the storm twice again, this time not so ferocious but still rather long and heavy rain drops.  We finally reach the gate , 30 minutes before it closes and no one is around.  Checking the log book we see that only 2 other people have entered the park in the last 4 days. Just before entering  one of the officials show up and explain to us how to get to the camp, its too late now payment will be sorted when we exit.  Another 20+km from the gate on some really nice sand we arrive at the camp. Its remote and quiet, just what the doctor ordered. Just us and the animals :)  camp for camp no borders no fences, beats Savuti hands down from our experience..... every time.

Passing through the south gate of Moremi was pretty much uneventful.  It is so hot the people working at the gate were fast asleep and  have no interest in checking our permits to travel  through the park.  We sign ourselves out of the park register  and hit the road towards the town  of Maun pronounced "Ma-hoon"  and apparently not "mound" without the "d" as most of us South Africans  call it.   We checked out a few places for camping before deciding to  settle for the Sedia hotel. The camping rates feels super cheap 30 Pula per person which comes roughly to about £3 each, throw in hot showers, electrical hook-up and all the facilities of the normal hotel rooms at 770 Pula a night and you soon feel like you've reached "Made Man " status.   After checking in we drive to the camp site and claim our pitch which is done by dropping off your tables and chairs on the piece of ground that you like. We learnt about this reservation technique in Zambia which can help secure a more strategic location which does come in handy if you find yourself  in the middle of the bush at night, especially if  their is a piece of prime Hippo grazing land between you and the ablution blocks.  

With the pitch secured we drove into Ma-hoon to find a welder to repair the gas cooker coming of the rear door.  After stringent testing we can confirm that the Camping Gas Chef II does not meet all  the Africa Overland bureau of Standards  (AOBS) criteria. That said with a few minor modifications and 40 or so  pula later, our friendly roadside Botswana welder managed to restore  the kitchen back to its former operational status. Well operational status will need to wait until tomorrow as we decided to eat in the hotel restaurant. 

At the hotel we met an Austrian couple who  Julia and  Dieter who just came through from Namibia, and the their story was very similar to other folks that travelled through Namibia. To do it properly we would need much more time, and the 8 days that we have left will just mean driving non stop if we wanted to get Nam under the belt.  After extensive consideration we decided that Botswana has a lot to offer and that Namibia will have to wait until the next time.  Time permitting we will go to Hwange game reserve in Zim to relax for our last few days before blitzing the last leg to Jozie

We entered Moremi national park at 7am with the hope we would be able to stay at 3^rd Bridge for the night. The “bridges” 1 -5, I think as they are called are key land marks for the route the through Moremi and as the name would suggest they are bridges. These won’t pass the average building inspection standards of the UK but they are fit for purpose if you don’t mind the wooden beams creaking heavily under the shear pressure that Mr. Gravity applies as he tries to drag Mabel’s 3.5 ton body, Suili’s clothes and unparalleled tinned food collection into the delta swamp below. On the topic stay away from Ethiopian hot and spicy pasta mix, you better off swallowing a litre of paraffin and chase it with a match.  Anyhow, the track along the river is what Luke from the old house in Kasane recommended. Stay a 3^rd bridge and then move further south to Maun the following day.  For what Moremi and Savuti lacked in game viewing it made up for in 4x4 driving and trees trashed by elephants.  These parts are on the edge of the delta is very swamp like even if it is the dry season and we soon met some interesting challenges. The first was the water crossing about waist high, with sand that felt a little soft and sleety under foot.  We decided not to go it alone and try an alternative path but after checking out Mr. GPS properly we found 3 or 4 different ways to get to the same water crossing , what to do? We decided to head back to the hippo pools, to see if we can tap into the knowledge of the locals. Lucky for us we met Douglas and Monica 5 minutes after turning back. We were not prepared to take the crossing alone but with 2 cars we were ready to take on the world.  That said Mabel and Douglas’s car managed to get through with no hassles.  The wake in front of Mabel was pretty impressive and I’m sure if we had a few Aussie surfers peddling around in the river they would have jumped at the opportunity to ride the wave.

After a couple of more hours of driving in high temperatures with no game in sight we came across a lion with a fresh Buffalo kill. Rumour has it the lions were so tired after the kill that they did not start to tuck in and was just resting under the bushes.  We pushed on and just as we crossed the 3^rd bridge, we came across Ryan and Laura from Chicago. They are doing a trip around the world with Africa being their last leg before heading home.  Botswana had a little surprise for them as they got stuck in some deep sand and Ryan was shovelling like mad to get out.  Lucky for us Mabel was up for the job and helped pull them out, no worries. We stayed for a while chatting before parting. Later that evening we shared a camp site and entertaining each other with travel stories over dinner and a few beers.    The next morning early we met up with some Italians and shared a 2 hour boat ride on the Delta.  The waterways are surrounded by mixed vegetation in patches and Savannah stretches. I must say it’s a pretty amassing site to see and to experience it is even better. Tick that box shall we?

Stayed out in the community camp about 15 miles outside Khwai.  Again this was one of Luke suggestions which panned out to be a big winner for us. Although the camp had no facilities what so ever so, plenty work for digger if you know what I mean. Also today there would be now shower as some time back we decided to pack Mr. Uber Douche away as it was just giving us loads of wind resistaaaance as the French would call it and it was not quite as effective as a Hotpoint Ultra washing machine so it has been relegated to hose storage box and everything else we don’t want to see for the rest of the trip.  The setting though was perfect with our site covered by these super high Matopi type trees.

 As it was community camp, community service was high on the agenda.  We offered to go the the locals some water from the town which was only 10km (according to the local folk) away. They did however forget to mention that we had to cross the river twice before getting to town and it ended up being double the distance which is always a little unnerving when you don’t know the road and elephants twice the size of your car are coming at you from all directions. Once we reached the town (with the help of some locals on how to cross the river) we met with a few kids wanting to show us their homework on the side of the road.  They received rewards in the form of some quality squishy tennis balls which drove then nuts. Suili gave me a right old telling off for always handing out balls when there are loads of people around.  Not sure what the problem is I haven’t given any of our beer or wine away yetJ.     Game viewing in Khwai was great, we took the scenic route back to camp and saw loads of elephants, hippo antelope with a pretty spectacular sunset to round another perfect day off.  In the evening we setup camp and had a brief visit with Alex and his wife who we met outside Savuti. They were a little worried about the road so we offered to drive behind them and assist if they got stuck.   Camping here brought more memories of what camping should be like in the wild at night time.   The sounds of animals echoing for miles, Hyenas roaming the camp at night with slightly uneasy feel in the air.  Another perfect day in Africa

The Botswana border post in Kasane must be the coolest border post to enter in the entire Africa.  We say this for a few reasons (1) You come into the immigration and customs office with everyone looking like they are happy to be at work and (2) they actually know what they are supposed to do here, so things work well. (3)  You can tell the officials from the scammers, wait a minute ... where’s the scammers? No scammers? And the officials actually wear a uniform.  No all the other border post were fun crossing trying to figure out who’s who, what to do and so on but none of them played Bob Marley loud enough so that everyone could enjoy the tunes. Further these guys only take pula for paying road tax and stuff, which we did not have as usual so he goes I’ll make an exception $20 and we’re all square, totally official I have you know. It turns out our $ currency status is $18 or $50, they do not have change so the $50 won’t cut it and the $18 is $2 shy and there are no specials deals here.   At this point the official says we should go to the Bureau de Change about 9km up the road to change the money and come back and pay.  We head up the road and as its Sunday the place is closed so we head into Kasane, another 15km away to find an ATM which dishes out the required amount of Pula no probs.

For accommodation we checked into Toro Lodge camping grounds. The site is a little out of town but the setup is really good for camping. Each tent spot has its own washing basin, shower and toilet assigned to it with power and running water.  This is a first for us and we must say it is a pleasure waking up in the middle of the night and knowing you don’t have to risk legging it halfway across lion, tarantula and other hungry beasts country before reaching the loo. Oh and worry about the way back. The following day wanted to go fishing but Luke the guy who runs things at the old house in Kasane does not have a boat driver as the schedule is not quite what they are used to. He offers us a couple of kayaks and chucks in a few rods with a cooler  and some dude’s  to make sure we come out alive the other side, this is hippo country after all.  We spent the rest of the day rowing down the Chobe River and fishing from one of the islands on the Nam side.  One thing we can take from this trip is that angling is not in our blood, Suili lost a hand full of hooks, spinners and the whatever else goes on and my claim to fame was a 5cm bream which barely filled a pixel in the photograph.

Travelling through Chobe was pretty cool. To start with here being South African actually helps and we scored a nice discount on park fees for both of us. It’s good to know I still have the accent, I almost thought I’d lost it for goodJ. Anyway we drove all the way along the river path and saw enough animals to start a zoo. The highlight for us was two huge Kudu bulls resting under a tree. We’ve seen so many Elephant, puku, impi’s, zebra, warthogs, hippo, buffalo and even lion ....so the Kudu was a nice new introduction.

After a good few hours of driving we exited the part close to the Namibian border to take on a transit road to get to Savuti. Compared to other gravel roads we’ve been on this one was child’s play we find a sign that points us in the direction of Savuti and after about 3km you know what this place is 4x4 only.  Hello Mr. “Big time” Sand, as far as you can see.   Sand, elephant eaten trees, more sand, more elephant eaten trees and more sand, it was bare of animals.  We did however have to cross a river to get to the camp.  This was the first time in 28 year this river had had water.  We watched the water flowing wondering how deep it was and if this was actually the path we had to take.  It wouldn’t be the first time we had to go against Mr GPS.  As we pondered another couple of cars turned up and together the decision was made we would cross it but only after Steve had walked through.  A bit scary but fun, this was the first water Mabel had come across and she handled it very well – my feet didn’t even get wet!  The campsite was pretty disappointing they were in the process of building chalets so it was a little noisy and not much of a view. The Dutch gang we met at Toro were also there so it was nice to have a bit of a catch up. 

We set off not long after the Aussies, we knew it was going to be a long days drive.  We passed the Aussies not too far from Lusaka waved madly and Mabel zoomed on.  Lusaka’s not a bad city seemed to be pretty buzzing with activity.  We found a tire place but it turned out too expensive, they did say it would be cheaper to buy in Botswana.  Steve looked at Mabel’s tires again and it was decided we would carry on but taking it carefully.  Thankfully the road to Livingstone was tarred.

ETA in Livingstone when we left Lusaka was 8pm and we were on schedule.  It was getting a little darker and we couldn’t see much, it occurred to us that perhaps our lights weren’t working.  Indeed this was the case, one of the fuses had gone.  Steve promptly changed it and as quickly as he changed it, it had blown.  Head lights were working but no dim.  We soldiered on looking for a fuel station that might be able to help, 20 miles later we stopped.  They didn’t have anyone to help but at least they had light.  This didn’t look  good, we couldn’t figure out what was wrong.  Ok, first hotel/lodge we come across we must stop for the night.  The only problem, there wasn’t anything until Livingstone.  Only a few cars flashed us and any vehicle we came across we other overtook quickly or slowed down to try and not blind them.  Outskirts of town we found a motel.

In the morning we drove out of town and looked for a campsite.  We remembered John and Sally suggesting a good place to stay, Rapid 14 Campsite run by Father Phil. We found it – wow what a view from the main building overlooking obviously rapid 14 - the gorge was amazing.  Found the camp area and started to set up, it was hot, hot, and hot.  In fact too hot and there was no shade.  We decided to look for another place to stay.  Marumba Lodge it was.  Camping was a bit of side thing for them but still the toilet/shower block was good, and they also had a small pool. Not sure I would call it a pool more like a pond, non the less Steve was straight into. 

A couple of days chilling was lovely. 

I’m not sure why but we decided to charge and turn on the mobile.  There was a message from Steve’s mom.  His brother in law had organized a surprise trip to Livingstone for his sister for her birthday, were we still in Zambia.  Steve was really quite excited at the possibility of seeing them.  We haven’t seen them since their wedding 2 years ago!  With a bit of organizing we extended our stay so we could spend some time catching up, we also moved from the campsite to their hotel which was a real treat.  I had a bath and a shower with HOT water – fantastic.  The only down side was the vague tan I thought I had turned out to be dirt!  It was so nice to see people you know and catch up.

We packed in some activities. First up was a jet boat ride along the Zambezi – wow, this was great.  If you were feeling it after a 45 mins ride on corrugated road you were going to be with  30 mins of speeding up and down the river including the rapids and doing 360’s. It was so much fun.  Second, was to pack us all into Mabel and take a trip into town. This may not sound much but to squeeze 4 people into a 2 seater cab was interesting. Last but no way least was a walk to Livingstone Island.  This was a walk in the Victoria Falls, we walked into the river, wading through water until we got to the island which only appears for 4 months of the year when the river is low enough.  We swam in falls, in some places the current is quite strong and you can feel the pull.  Steve jumped into the Devils Armchair, I just lowered myself in.  This was right on the edge of the falls where the water flows over.  From here you can look over the edge and watch the water drop.  It was amazing, definitely of one the best highlights of the trip.

Getting use to the luxury, it is going to be hard to get back on the road.

On thing is for sure, Africa is loaded with Dutch, and not talking about the Afrikaans  Dutch but the Dutch Dutch folk  and in some way this works in our favour as we got some advise from Peter of Groenege and apparently South Luangwa resort in Zambia is the place to go. Considering the tight ship I run, the pre determined path and the Virgo person sitting next to me... we decided to go check it out for ourselves as the only thing this continent has loads of is time and if you don't have it you better figure out how to make some pretty quickly. Our time recipe is straight forward, 100km  on a dirt track that takes us back to the good old remote Kenya days but hey you only live once right?  The first night we said at the wild life camp, which has a great camp site  overlooking the river in the rainy season, in our case the riverbed will need to do. This is almost like an upgrade as we have become quite accustomed to camp in the riverbeds. the view is amazing and the sunset is something the gods are still working on a name for, for now it will be just WOW will have to do for now.

The next morning we enter the reserve bright and early, 6 or 6:30  and start to spot animals all over the place , disappointingly  they are mostly of animals we have seen before  ok we did see a few Puku... Zambian version of an impala and they are all over the place. f their feet were planted in the ground you would call them weed. We did see a few other antelope which was quite exciting  but nothing to flashy, or camera worthy. We pull up  next to some folk doing a game drive having some coffee next to the river and ask them if they've seen anything.  The mention that they have seen buffalo and lion and sound quite surprised that we did not see them.? "they on the main road leading here" the game ranger said. oops Suili was right,  we should obey the park rules and stay in the main tracks.. In a way we were but our tracks were not made by man or cars. Its more likely carved by elephants and buffalo. the way I see it a track is a track and in legal terms we were compliant and I'm sure Richie would be able to defend us in a court of law if the need arises. Anyway back to the business, at hand we travel further and soon come across a few lion just lazing bout which is nice as they are a little more active than the ones we saw in Tangirene. We move on further and meet up with a few buffalo ( 5 or 6) max who manage to disappear into the bush within minutes and Suili not permitting me to pursue them on the "track" We move on and meet up with German couple who flew into Namibia rented a car there and are travelling through Nam, Bots and Zam for a month. They state the northern part of the park is empty , nothing to see. Considering we've been on our self-drive game drive for the past 6 hours we take their advise and head back south which turns out to be such a bonus. Buffalo, Buffalo everywhere maybe 100 - 150 perhaps more all around us we needed to. If we has a white flag surrender would be an option , but after 2 months of travel white is no longer in our colour spectrum, offish brown we have loads of but this is not the time. we are filming frantically with Buffalo running all over the place , to the water then back into the bush, very strange but very enjoyable. just seeing the buffalo makes the diversion worth it. As we drive about 30 meters we meet up with Braam, his wife and another couple in a landy. who signal us to stop. 6 Lions in the front of Mabel with 100's of buffalo to the rear. We are the defining line and the lion seem to like as we are obscuring the buffalo's view whilst the lions are advancing much closer. the first one no further than Mabel's bumper when a dragon fly flies into the car and Suili who have not quite overcome her fear of insects whilst in Africa trying to climb out with miss lion on our doorstep. Anyway she agrees the dragonfly is better to deal with than a lioness and stays put. 

The attach eventually sets off with the one Lion going for it, the others still pulling  z's under a tree.  Unfortunately for the lion 1 against a couple 100 does not make good odds and soon the hunter becomes the hunted with buffalo charging at them from all directions. The kill wont come today but it will surely come as the lion kept following them up to a point where we could not follow.

 We moved to the camp site that afternoon only to find some elephant about 15 meters away from where we were standing and drinking a refreshing beer.  They soon moved on and we felt much more comfortable. Suili was cooking a nice Irish stew for dinner when the Elephants showed their faces right behind us. This time they wanted something, our fresh fruit to be exact. the bastards came to our table stomped on our food storage box and then proceeded to polish off everything in it including all the scrap platic bits around.   Roomer has it it happens all the time and people are warned not to keep any fresh food, strange no one told us. Anyway no harm done, Mabel is still in one piece and after a few stiff drinks the event was something of the past. Life for now goes on.

11 - 14 October 2010 - "Something fishy going on"

The Malawian driving experience is a good one, for the part we drove from the border to Mzuzu was excellent tar, it is almost unsettlingly quite in Mabel, the continual vibration generated from the Africa's finest corrugated gravel tracks has abandoned us and now we are in the company of comparatively silky smooth roads.  You sort of have to be a little careful and the peacefulness and quietness of the roads are almost massage parlour like and one can almost dose of to the sounds of battered rubber on smooth tar. In Malawi we just came for one thing and yes that one thing takes up most of the country... the lake. We camped up at the blue star camping site in Nyaka bay. The view from our roof tent was just of the blue water in front of us. We stayed here for  3 days just chilling and soaking up the ray and topping up the tan.   People here are so chilled and most people we met arrived here and got stuck here for weeks and even months longer than they planned.

We met Jack a South Korean musician who sold all he’s gear to travel the world. We invited him for dinner and he was so surprised that the invited us to the deck on the lake where he played his guitar for us deep into the night. Bring on the romance.

Malawi is fish country and as far as you can see and smell on certain stretches of road is the unmistakable smell of fish. Definitely something fishy going on here,  you get blinded by the the sun reflecting off  the fish scales. The taste of the fish was out of this world  however the constant smell of it can send you around the bend. Nevertheless we really enjoyed Malawi and can only daydream about the lovely days we had here.

09 - 10 October 2010 - "You can cut it with a butter knife"

Before we leave Tanzania we have to stop off at the old farm house, one of he original colonial farms in Tanzania. That not theonly reason we came here, roomer has it that you can get the finest fillet steak here "you can cut it with a butter knife".   Luck is not on our side and the only food on offer is a roast, for which there are only a few seats a vailable in the restaurant.  we decided to try it out and from the meat side we cant say we were disappointed, we cant say the same for the veg, but hey we did not come here for the vegetarian platter so all is good.  We also met up with Gabriel, an Italian guy who has travelled a few mils in Africa and he gives us the lowdown on on the Malawi and Zambia. Tomorrow they ill be staying at the Stockholm hotel, in Mabeya  befoe crossing over to Malawi. We have not given much thought where we will be staying as our plans lately are never really formalised more than an hour or 2 in advance, were more flexible but its  nice to know about the options before we get to a place.

The road to Mabeya was much better than we expected and after seeing a good part of Mabeya and the Stockholm hotel  we decided to move closer to the border.  To give you some perspective, the Stockholm sticks out like a bit of a sore thumb, try put the Eifel tower in Belfast or the Statue of Liberty in Southampton  and you soon get the picture. Make no mistake it looked 10 times mor comfy than anything else on offer but a town in the middle of nowhere does not need a lighthouse. The GPS filnal coughed up a place called Bongo community camping.  It was a really basic camp site and we were the only ones here which made almost gave us that exclusive club feel. Well that feeling was soon set straight with just about every local and his donkey prancing through to come watch telly. After we left we thought it was more of a town /community hall than a camp site. That said with all things related to property it is location, location, location  and this place was no more than a stone's throw from the border which means we jit lake Malawi a little bit earlier tomorrow.

lot but for the veg they can  there is that  last stop in Tanzania is any days have gone past with

08 -  October 2010 - Iringa Riverside rest camp & the Old Farm House

Many days have gone past without updating our diary, this is mainly to not having proper internet access but also the fact that we are getting a little lazy in writing. Suili does still write in her diary book often so we are keeping account of events as we go on but unfortunately it is not available to everyone else back home.   Anyway we find ourselves just outside Iringa in the southern part of Tanzania. We travelled up from Dodoma yesterday through some of the most amazing mountain passes we've seen so far. Ethiopia was very spectacular, but what makes this road special is the  lack of tar and the danger factor that comes with it.  The road was about 165 miles long which took us the best part of 8 hours to complete. The first part as with most days leaving a  big town is very smooth and promising and we are optimistic about our indef safari (Swahili for "long journey" a small lesson we got from from Jonas as we enjoyed a luke warm coke in the middle of nowhere. He never leave s the town because  it takes to long to travel to the nearest town Dodoma which is only 40 miles away and what most would call a good road. He seems to be the only one in touch with reality and chuckled when we said the road was good. After finishing our coke we travelled on for another hour or so before we stopped at the old Baobab tree, we just called it that because it was bigger than the normal ones we've seen, that and the fact that it is the only one in this area in the middle of nowhere. We've seen 100's of them so far and we are starting to think its a charcoal farm. We found shops in Tanzania pretty limited so we've been digging into our tin supply heavily over the past few days. Yesterdays lunch was great, a tin of 3 beans mixed with some good old Princess mackerel with a few slices of bread, yum. It wasn't as good as the previous day, where the beans had sweet corn, green beans and peppers.

After lunch we took on the second part of the journey, we were exactly halfway, well according to Mabel anyway (that's another story for the folks the folks bidding for the charity cash) on the way we past what we thought was a village with white painted stones all over the place, it looked real interesting as when you only see red gravel all around you it does sort of stick out like a sore thumb.  We stopped for a photo when we got approached for by a man who told us it was a school and that he was one of the teachers. We could hear the children in the classroom excited to see the visitors, we where clearly not locals. We though this to be a golden opportunity to hand out some tennis balls we brought with us. Its not the first time we've handed some balls out and its truly humbling to see the appreciation for a second hand tennis ball that someone discarded as to soft back home.  We are glad we collected these over the last couple of years.  We said our goodbyes as Seluka school and pressed on. The road became harder climbing from about 700 meters to 1400 meters along the edge of a mountain. The corrugated gravel paths made way to rocks that curled all around the mountain for the next 30 miles. On this path we found a broken down truck, looks like a few tyres went and a bus a little bit further on that looked like it overheated.  Passing them was a little challenging but in the end no to much sweat was wasted on the exercise. The hardest part is leaving the people behind, but this is their way of life and they think nothing of you just passing by (we think). Mabel so far has been great be have had our knocks but mechanically she is handling fine. The latest setbacks are as follow:

1. Rear door jams up every now and then
2. Rear-view mirror driver side not staying in place
3. CD player not recognised anymore (with Davinci code disk3 stuck in it)
4. 2nd mounting of the fridge came off
5. Lantern busted
6. Water tank tap iffy
7. Roof light switch fell off
8. The alarm stopped working(started again after 4 days)

Further Mabels tyres are now starting to look like the piranhas and pit bulls got to them. Chunks are now missing and this will be one of my key tips for other overlanders. Everyone says get yourself a new set of tyres, I'd argue you use a good second-hand set of tyres with a couple of spares. We've seen brand new tyres with bits ripped out of them almost rendering them useless. We wont feel that bad loosing a second hand one.

Its breakie time now , apparently the Riverside rest camp makes one mean full English. Sunny side up , toast and bacon and another cuppa, what more can a man ask for?

Arriving at borders and taking care of formalities are pretty much routine nowadays. Leaving Kenya was probably the easiest crossing we made and entering Tanzania is pretty straight forward to. The  only stinger is the $50 each we had to fork out for a our visas,  not even the South African "Green Mamba" passport could dodge the fare. That said  money aside we zipped into Tanzania and travelled about another 2 hours into Arusha.  Its a typical old African town slightly bigger than the normal ones and there is a buzz around the place.  We decided to go budget  and camp at the Masai camp  as we did spend too much money in our last days in Kenya. We met some overlanders who looked like they just started their trip. You can identify them easily, fresh full of enthusiasm and the clean clothes we have long forgotten about.

The next morning we packed up real early to head towards Ngoro Ngoro. The road was smooth Chinese tar , the kind of stuff you can only dream of in Africa. In Africa tar is gold to the traveller, especially after a few days of going super slow on dodgy roads arriving late at your destinations. We passed a sign for Nsya lodge and decided to do a price check as the word out there is that Ngoro Ngoro is extremely expensive.  We started chatting to Lyn and Vic, who manage the lodge and got some sounds advice  over a a cup of coffee.   Their recommendation and directions to Lake Manyana "free path" was an absolute winner. We sat beside the lake, seeing thousands of Flamingo's and what we think were stalks, with antelope running wild around us. We spent the entire day just sitting out by the lake, soaking up the atmos  (-phere). We did have the small issue of dealing with the Masai trads but lucky for us we were not hot on the entertainment front so they disappeared in drips and drabs , leaving us completely alone after 2 + hours. We had some leftover pasta from the previous night for lunch with a few ice cold tuskers to celebrate the find. ) see top tip page for details.  We also did some curio shopping, and bought a painting so big it can be used as wallpaper for the average 4 bed UK home. I feel rather bad as we forked out a handsome 45K Tanzanian shillings.  This is not so bad as we became overnight millionaires entering Tanzania ... .well that's according to the ATM receipt. What can I say we rolling in it, we rubbing shoulders with the fat cats, for at least another 5 days.  Before I get lost too far in the story LAKE Manyana is a definite for the so called birders out there. See top tips for how to get there on the cheap. The deal is if you use the tip,  you must at least go to Nsya lodge and bye Lyn and Vic a drink. and treat yourself to the Masai acrobatics show during dinner.

 The next day we headed to  Tarangire National park. You get to see the same deal as what you get at the Serengeti for a fraction of the price. We did see a lot of animals , with the exception of Lion we seen them all in other parks before but the park is really something special and full of those tourists type animals :-(  at only $40 per person and  $30 for the car it was a bargain compared to the £200 a day per person at the Serengeti. by the way that is park entrance fees not accommodation or anything like that. We spent the evening just outside or actually inside the the reserve at the Elephant camp.  I negotiated a  to rate of $5 per person for camping, for which we got the facilities of a camp tent i.e. hot showers and toilet. but we had to sleep on top of Mabel. The other travellers were paying for the same service sleeping in the camp provided tents around the $300 a night mark.  The difference of being in Africa for 2 months rather than just 2 days.

Said our goodbyes to the Tab lot and Jungle Junction.  Mabel had a bit of a service, oil change and brakes (still not right) and we were on our way to Aruba Mara campsite just outside the Masai Mara NP.  Or so we thought – 2 hours along a lovely tar road we realised we were on our way to Mombasa! Umm, ok .... Amboseli NP here we come!

Ol Tukai Lodge was the first lodge we came across in the park, we stopped just in case we could negotiate a rate and it would save us having to cross to the other side of the park to the public campsite (limited facilities).  The lodge looked great and was excited Steve sorted out an elephant view room.  I was sent ahead to look at the room whilst Steve collected our luggage from Mabel.  An hour later Steve arrives at the room empty handed.  There had been a mistake he was really sorry but the rate was per person and just too much for us.  Moses (the manager) he said had arranged for us to stay in the local village.  Obviously a little disappointed, was looking forward to my 5 course meal, my cooked breakfast in the morning, a hot shower, a clean flushing toilet with loo roll and a swimming pool, but understood we still had a long way to go and things have been getting more and more expensive.

Jumped into Mabel and we drove literally two minutes down the road, Steve drove into a drive way of a private house and I just thought we must be staying with a family.  Little did I know that Steve had arranged for us to stay in the Kibo Villa.  A luxurious fully equipped villa with garden looking directed towards Kilimanjaro.  How great was this?! Perfect, the whole place to ourselves and what an amazing view – this was the life!

Beep, beep, beep, 5:30am wakeup call straight onto our massive first floor balcony to see Kilimanjaro and the sunrise. Words can’t describe how good all this was.  Steve drove the morning game drive and I the afternoon one.  We saw elephants, giraffes, hyenas’, buffalos and hippos just to mention a few.  Back to Kibo for a Jacuzzi before dinner.

As we walked to the bar I noticed that there were some people on our front garden.  Looked like they were preparing for a small function.  There was a fire, a table with a chef and a table being prepared.  I mentioned this to reception as we ordered our lunch boxed for the next day.  They were very nice about it and said they would get back to us.  After a G&T we went back to Kibo to get jumpers just beginning to get a little nippy. As we approached, a waiter came over and said are we ready for dinner.  I immediately replied “Oh no, it’s not for us” looked at Steve who was giggling away.  It was for us – the sneaky bugger, how on earth did he managed to organised this without me knowing!  The staffs were all so convincing.

The waiter poured the Champagne and there was something floating in it.  A Masai ring, Steve looked at me a little shocked that it was floating and then proposed.  This was so romantic, our own chef, being waited on in the front garden of our villa.  If only the Tanzanians would light up Kilimanjaro!  It was just perfect.

Couldn’t possibly believe Steve could surprise me anymore, but yes, just one more surprise.  A chef and waiter were ready to service breakfast on the front garden in the morning.  Shame it was a little overcast, still a great way to end our stay. 

Goodbye to Kenya and hello Tanzania and I guess back to basics. 

Yesterday we went through Isiola and we cant really say it was without event. Some bandits shot a police person about 100km from Isiola and the locals was rebelling against the police  as there was not enough security being provided. We did not know this as we drove into town but driving through 1000's of marchers and protesters gave us an idea that something was up.  We had to stop to repair what the road breaker destroyed so, we could not escape the riots going  on around us. In a strange way with police firing teargas not more that 30 meters away from us  it still felt relatively safe. We were slightly alarmed when the the road was closed with rock being thrown on it making it impassable, lucky for us the police cleared it in under an hour and we were back on the road, wit ha short drive to Mt Kenya where we would camp for the night. Unfortunately for us it was extremely rainy and cloudy and we could not see the mountain at all, we pasted the pictures from  documentaries  into the overcast scenery to spice it up.

Today we arrived at Jungle Junction, a great stop over in Nairobi.  The crowd here are super friendly and gave us the grand tour of the facilities before we run back into the city to take care of formalities. As things currently stand Suili has been in the country for 3 or 4 days illegally. The 8km trip into town takes the best part of the 2 hours one way, that said it is part of the experience and we have all sorts of conversations as we travel along.  We have the benefit of Libya and Egypt driving so Nairobi is a doddle and people are actually scared of us for a change :) Tonight is big steak night , Suili is cooking as I type so this will be the last words for the day. Hopefully after dinner we will get around to posting some pictured.

Getting back onto the main route towards Nairobi with the intent to move on to Masai Mara  was now our mission and nothing was going to stop us. The last couple of days of driving has been hard and we where now seeking the comfort of the black stuff better known as tarmac. Words from the locals were that the road from South Horr to Nairobi via Liasom  was a good one. For most of it it was a breeze compared to what we faced  in the previous days, but by no means was it a doddle. The challenges of deep dusty red sands for long stretches at a time tested our determination at times with the only thing keeping us going forward was the fact that we did not want to do the sands again.  So we rather faced the sands ahead that the ones behind us. To cap things off the road from Moyale lived up to its name "the road breaker" The 25km we travelled on it turned out to be the worst road we've travelled on and speaking to people retrospectively, the road is like that for most of the way up to the border.

It was getting late like most days lately, the rule of stopping to travel at 4pm  was never adhered to and today was no different. We finally decided at around that we would look for a place to stay before Isiola, We found Samburu National reserve and stayed at the Elephant rooms.  The camp was completely rebuild after the floods earlier this year.  That said this reserve was a cut above anything we have experienced. Our luxury tent overlooked the river and in the evening the elephants just walking around our tents, meters away. The food and the service was  just the thing we needed to recharge the body and mind. Naturally  we were very sad to go, but one must do what one must do.

26 September 2010 - Paradise a place of relative comfort

The drive to paradise was not a long one , maybe 100 or possible 150 at most which took the best part of 12 hours to complete. We started early 7:30. the Scenery in this neck of the woods changes quite frequently, but not the same kind of changes you would find driving from Brighton to London. This part of the world is baron, the lush green of Ethiopia is long gone and now we are faced with sand, first red, white, brown black then is changes to all the shades of rock you can imagine. Its an endless cycle that does not appear to have any distinctive  making for the change, we think its nature just saying "your it" and off you go. The last 20 miles took the best part of 2 hours to complete. The only signs of the roads existence is the little purple line on the GPS that tells you it it there.  It was just rocks and for most part the best was to shift Mable into low range and just let her to the crawling. Imagine a chameleon with an epileptic fit, then you'll get a good feeling what we were experiencing in a 3.5 ton lump of metal. When we arrived at paradise, beers flowed freely whilst we waited for the food to arrive which Nick organised as he arrived a hour or two before us.

Still in Ethiopia, the track leading to Turmi was not quite Turmi in the end, and it meant that we had to stay in Ethiopia one night longer that we didn't plan for. We stayed at the Mango camping ground in the "real" Turmi. Were we met  the TAB2010 team and Nick the Italian  who were also heading in the same direction as we were. We decided to do the track together as the path southwards and we could support each other if we got stuck on in trouble. A bit of a strength in numbers  chain of through.  Any way cracking on we had to go to Omarate , the Ethiopian border town where all the official paperwork is done before backtracking 20km or so to the 2 track path that leads to the Kenya border post.  Before we crossed the imaginary border we had to meet the last Ethiopian police officer.  Some locals pointed him out in the distance, looking more like a local trad (traditional) searching for water. 

 The road , where visible is a two track path with patches where its existence has been washed away by lava rock, sand and probably time on its own. If this track saw 20 vehicles a month it would be plenty. Crossing in to Kenya was pretty easy. the formalities were, sitting at the border post chatting to about 6 officials about local beers, good places to camp and the general road conditions.  After a quick local Tusker brew, no stamps in the passport we were on our way again. We didn't have much time as it started to get dark so we decided to look up a dried up riverbed to camp for the night. The setting and scenery like most places we've been to in Africa is fantastic.  The pictures (when we get the chance to upload) will speak for itself. But for now just take our word for it. The trads didn't take long to find us and about 20 minutes from stopping a small group was hanging around our camp. For some strange reason they do not try to communicate with us, they just hang around about 5 - 10 metres off and do the old rubberneck trick.  The next morning drinking coffee, one local brought up his little wooden cup/ chair and sat right next to me. Talking only coming from me , and responses only gestured in varying bursts of spit. When he got bored he did make a funny noise, waved in a goodbye kind of way, I shook his hand and he was on his way.

After a bit of a run around yesterday in Addis we headed south to find a quieter area to stay before taking on the final leg to the Kenyan border. That said anything is possible as it feels like Ethiopia is on of those places where you get nowhere fast. So far, just the countryside on its own without the worry for checking directions brings its own challenges. The mountain passes, people, cattle, donkey's and cars off course all play their part in you not getting to your end destination during daylight.  Today is going to be different we got up super early , thinking that if we started to travel by 6:30 (still dark at this time) it will give more than enough time to cover the 780km to Turmi before nightfall. We could not have asked for a better start, open good roads and no animals or locals to dodge on the tarmac. We covered the first 260km in record breaking time, we were doing so good that we decided to stop in Shashemene to find a internet cafe to update the website and catch up on emails as we have not had the opportunity to do so since we left Egypt.  We found a great little internet shop, charging access by the second  believe it or not.  The access was super slow and we eventually aborted the efforts an hour later.  Back on the road things were going a little slower than this morning  mainly due to villages appearing alongside the road again which meant people and livestock to dodge. 

We pulled into Awasa a big town about halfway to Yavello for some lunch but could not find bread anywhere. Driving on out of town we saw a pale face that was definitely not a local, walking with what looked to be the freshest baguettes we've seen since leaving France. Driving passed I yelled where did you get that bread? , whist dropping anchor in the middle of a roundabout. A slightly confused German man walked over and said go to the post office, you find everything there.  We did and found the last 2 baguettes which we snapped up.

 From Awasa, the road deteriorated severely and it soon became evident that Turmi is all but a distant dream. Scanning the GPS we found another town about 24miles away that had a hotel only to find that it was fully booked and not rooms were available. The parking lot was filled with UN vehicles,  7 or 8 cars at least. We spoke to one of the chaps and he advised to drive on to Yavello, about a 100km away and we should make it in an hour, "the tar is good" he said. It was indeed and we found the Yavello hotel as we came into town.  This will be our resting spot and tomorrow we will enter Kenya through Moyale or the Turmi route, we will decide after the obligatory sundowners G&T.

To our surprise the road was good, the only hazard being people wondering along and Sheppard with their herds.  Donkey’s we have found are the hardest animal to pass.  You never know which way they might turn.  We were told that they are blind and deaf over 6 metres, this I can believe! Instead of going to Gonder we thought it might be nice to try and find the camp site Sally and John had told us about on Lake Tana in a village called Gogora.  Off the main nice tar road onto a good old gravel/dirt road.  Winding  up and down the hills, round people and animals, and through village upon village.  Steve in need of a cuppa we found a spot.  The quietest spot we could find but this was not for long.  Soon we had a crown of children and a few adults interested in Mabel.  A cuppa was made and a good chat with one of the children that spoke English.  On we went, eventually we hit Gogora but Tim & Kim’s was not where the GPS said it was, luck for us some children showed us they way.  A good thing too, I don’t think we would have found it otherwise.  What a great little haven.  Right beside the lake a few bungalows and a camping ground.  We were the only ones so we had the pick of the place.  We set up camp and settled right in for a couple of nights, found some Ethiopian beer, fishing and swimming.  A good rest well needed for us. The surroundings were perfect for just relaxing allowing the two of us to catch up on lost time in Egypt almost completely forgotten now. The food was freshly caught and prepared for us every day and a steady flow of St. Georges beer o help keep us cool and refreshed during the heated hours of the day.