Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia and into Botswana

Camping on the Island in the salt pans

Apart from parting with $50 each and $25 for the car entering Tanzania went smoothly as all the borders seem to now. There’s not a whole lot of anything as you cross into Tanzania from Rwanda other than a few small villages, so we headed for the only place we knew we would definitely be able to stop safely or the night. A old German Boma that let us camp inside for next to nothing.

We didn’t fancy chancing any bush camping as we had heard a few stories of the police rounding you up for your own safety from bandits on the road. Someone on an overland truck we met had also said friends of theirs we robbed on the road to Rwanda.

From here we headed south to Ruaha national park. We hadn’t done any proper parks yet due to the cost and having seen a lot of wildlife in other parts we had travelled through for free. But we wanted to check at least one out and this one looked like a good one.

That and we still hadn’t seen any cats yet.

Check out the Blue privates

Big Fella

 You get 24 hours for your entry fee although you can only drive around from 6 am to 7 pm after that you have either to have left or camped up in the park in a designated spot.  We opted to camp outside and save the $60 on top of the $100 to get in for 2 plus car.

It was a magnificent park and the wild life was positively teeming. We saw elephants in hundreds at one point being in amongst a group of 100+ elephants was amazing and a bit scary as a few of them got a bit agitated and started giving us trumpets.

There were lots of everything and you ended up very close to a lot of it as nearly every bush or tree you rounded had something behind it.

Many Elephants

Sunrise in the park

Lazing Lions

That afternoon we saw a lone lioness which fixed our need to see some sort of lion. However the following day we saw 2 different prides up close one with cubs.

From Ruhaha we took a track south to cut the corner of the main road route which was partly unsealed anyway.  Down through a bush track south to Mafinga where we stopped up in a old German farmhouse

The next few days were spent working south towards Malawi stopping off to climb up to the crater lake at Ngosi, which was tiring but rewarding. Some local kids made it look annoyingly easy as they literally ran up past us!

Entering Malawi we picked up a local phone sim and made contact with Tadgh and Bob the Irish lads again and agreed to meet up with them in a couple of days further south. We stopped at some lovely spots on the lake shore and climbed up the near vertical track to the plateau to check out Livingstonia the old mission.

Lake Malawi camp view  Nkhata Bay

Catching up with the Irish we chilled out for a few days in Nkhata Bay swimming and snorkelling in the lake, which is filled with hundreds of beautiful coloured fishes. And Bilharzias a nasty parasite that enters through your skin and then resides in your liver in 4-6 weeks. Must remember to buy the treatment pills!

Although one day was slightly less relaxing as I helped them change the clutch on their defender. The release fork had broken so they couldn’t really drive anywhere without some serious gear crunching. Luckily I had release for and a clutch in my spares. Hopefully this will be the only clutch I have to change this trip!

 

From here we skirted the lake a bit more then struck west for Zambia and Victoria falls in Livingstone. Getting into Zambia was getting back to towns as we know them with proper supermarkets and we spent the next few days indulging in some of the nicer foods as we covered the 1000 miles to Vic Falls.

Sunset on the Zambezi

Vic Falls was, well not as spectacular as I was hoping, being the nearer the end of the dry season water levels were at their lowest. However some bits were still good and you can only imagine them in full flow. They are supposed to better viewed from the Zimbabwe side, but as they wanted $55 each plus $20 entry to falls and it would have cost us $50 each to get back into Zambia on our single entry visas we decided for $250 we would just imagine.

Tadgh and Bod did pay for me to bungee jump of the bridge though in exchange for the clutch and parts I had given them. Nice views on the way down if you can take them in! Mildly concerned by the life jacket they gave you after one girl had apparently dropped in.

Still fairly impressive

Bungy

The ferry to Botswana

From here we headed into Botswana and spent a day in Chobe park seeing many more elephants, Giraffes, buffalo, antelope and finally a Leopard lazing in a tree.

You have to watch out a lot in Botswana as the many long roads through unfenced wild bush means Elephants, Giraffee, Ostrich and many others on the roads

Camping with Elephants

The road to the Makgadikgadi salt pans is mostly hundred of Kms of unfenced bush with lots of wildlife including elephants roaming across the road. We stopped in at Elephant Sands campsite. Here you get to camp next to a watering hole and get very close to the elephants! Within arms reach. It was magical to sit and watch them this close for hours as the sun went down. They would wander through the campsite and right past our camp. 

 

We spent 2 nights here waiting for the the Irish to turn up as they had stayed on in Livingstone. We wanted to go on to the Salt pans and certainly 2 vehicles are safe than one as we would later find out.

We skirted round along the animal fences along the eastern side of the pans and then cut in and headed west across them. First stop was a uninhabited island in the salt pan about 6 Kms in. The top offered unspoilt views across the pans and down on the “beach” a large Baobab tree provided a perfect campsite. 

The Island Well

Some test runs further into the pan ended in us getting properly stuck! My one tip is don’t slow down and keep the diff lockers in. Slowing down we ground to a halt before I could shift down, then pulling away I broke through the few centimetres of crust that keep you out of the sticky clay mud that seems to have no bottom.

 

Hot work

 

After much digging we got back to the camp and settled down by the fire to enjoy the wilderness.

 

 

The following day we made our way west heading towards Gabatsky’s Island a large sand dune that supposedly gives spectacular views and price Charles had painted there. Mid afternoon we decided to cut 40 Kms across a salt pan. Only 5 kms short of where we would hopefully pic up another track the Irish had there turn and broke through into the mud. A much deeper tract this time there was no reversing out. A few forward attempts ended in them getting bogged in again each time. So eventually the winch was broken out and we dragged them through to firmer ground.

 

Pushing, digging and winching out Tadhg & Bob

 

Darkness was falling quickly so we made camp there and then in the expanse of nothingness. Us “men” opting to sleep out under the stars deciding we were fairly safe form any predators this far out.

An assumption that was probably wrong as lena discovered a big cat print the following morning, admittedly not fresh but still.

 

After 3 days in the hot and dusty days of the pan the swimming pool and cold beer in one of Mauns campsites on the edge of the Okavango delta were a welcome sight.

Camping out under the stars

 There are more photos to this post but the internet is so slow and we cant spend any more time in the heat in the spar car park so ill add another post or edit this one later. - Done