Our Great Migration, Pt1

We are getting there with the organisation and booking of the places that we have to book although we still need to do some more

It is time to share as few details to the first few weeks of “Our Great Migration” so those that may be interested can see what we are doing.

We leave Ndola early in the morning of Monday 24^th July for the straightforward run up the Great North Road towards Tanzania. We originally had thoughts of crossing through The Democratic Republic of Congo on what nis called the “Pedicle Road” This crosses that part of DRC that extends down into Zambia but we have decided to take the main Zambian route so we can stop for a couple of nights at Kapishya Hot Springs. Although we stopped here back in 2015 we did not get into “The Africa House” This is called Shiwa N’Gandu and is an old English Manor House built by Sir Stewart Gore Brown and has a fantastic history. Again for those interested then look it up on the internet.

The warm river at Kapishya Hot Springs on a very cold early morning in 2015

From here it is a day’s drive to the  Tanzanian border so after a night near the border we then head on to Kativa National Park for a few days before taking a rest on Lake Tanganyika at Kigoma. Here we will meet a friend from Ndola who will be moving there at the same time we get there. We are all going to try to get into and see one of the huge refugee camps from the fighting in Birundi.

It is then onwards to Rwanda where we will stop in Kigali to see the Genocide museum and the countryside of this small nation. We were hoping to  go Gorilla trekking here but the Rwandan wildlife department have just doubled the cost of the trekking permits from $750 each to $1500 so we decided against this.

After Rwanda it is across the border to Uganda and the highlight here is Gorilla Trekking in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. This we have a booking on 11^th August. We went to Bwindi back in 2006 and is one of our all time wildlife experiences.

A Silverback in Bwindi from 2006

Also in Uganda we will take in Queen Elizabeth National Park and hope to find some of the tree climbing lions this park has followed by visiting the start of the River `Nile and all the adrenaline sports at Jinja. Sometime during this part we will cross the Equator back into the Northern Hemisphere.

The Start of the mighty Nile River

One in each hemisphere back in 2006

After Uganda it will be into Kenya and a few days visiting places before heading to The Masai Mara on 25^th August for a booking beside the Mara River and hopefully watching some of the millions of Wildebeest and Zebra making the crossing of the river. This is the part of the Great Migration that is always shown in wildlife programes. The animals leap from cliffs and big sand hills into the crocodile infested river. It is one of the Natural Wildlife Wonders of the World. 

Part of The Great Migration in 2006. This year we hope to get
them crossing the Mara River

We are booked here for 5 days before we explore other parts of The Masai Mara and then cross into Tanzania to navigate a route through the Serengeti and onto the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro. Here we take a break, get the car serviced and sort out any problems as well as meet our friend Sarah, who will be flying out from the UK on 7th September to accompany us on the next of the journey.

Up to this point our route will have taken us just over 5 weeks and we will have covered some 6000 Kms. We will have already crossed 5 African borders and have spent time in a few of Africa’s iconic wildlife areas.

More to come in the next weeks before we leave