OUR TREK CONTINUES

It is now just two weeks until we leave and as you would expect we are very busy sorting out bits we need, bits we are selling and sorting the car. We have already had a metal box made and bolted to the roof rack. This will hold the vehicle spares such as oil, brake shoes, filters and various bits that we seem to go through a lot out here. We also have bolted a rack that holds jerry cans so we can take an extra 40 litres of diesel for travelling long distances in the bush.

The important job of sorting the car out for travel

Part two of Our Great Migrations sees us back in Tanzania and heading south towards CapeTown, some 8000 Kms away and a planned 5 to 6 weeks drive through parts of Africa much of which we have never been to.

First of all we pick up Sarah, the friend that Jan has done most of her travelling with over the years. Sarah will be flying out to Arusha on September 7^th and travels with us for the next two months or so. She has already6 been out to see us here in Africa twice now so knows all about travelling in the car and setting up camp each night.

The next stop after Arusha will be the world famous Ngorongoro Crater and the magnificent wildlife found on the crater floor. We have to stay on the Crater rim and drive down the escarpment to get into the crater.

After leaving the Crater area we travel south stopping many times in towns, villages and other smaller national parks before we get to Malawi. The winter should be well behind us now and the weather getting hot. We spent last Christmas in Malawi and it was really hot. Lake Malawi will bring relief from the heat as we will be camping beside the lake as we drive down. From Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi, we may have to take a quick trip back into Zambia just to get car clearance. Unfortunately it seems that you can only take a Zambian registered vehicle out of the country for a maximum of 90 days at a time so as Lilongwe is about an hours drive from Chipata in Zambia one of us may find it easier to cross back and get another 90 day clearance.

Lake Malawi

Fishing Boats on the Lake

Happy Smiling Childrren

Sunset on Christmas Day 2016

Once that is all cleared  then we will continue south crossing into Mozambique quickly on our way to Zimbabwe. We will spend a night in Mozambique though.

We were all in the north of Zimbabwe last August so this time we want to see the south with a few days in the beautiful Eastern Highlands and then onto the World Heritage sight of Great Zimbabwe. These ruins of one of Africa’s earliest civilisations and have been somewhere that Jan and Sarah have always wanted to visit but have never managed to.

After crossing out of Zimbabwe into South Africa it may well be time for another vehicle service before entering Kruger National Park and taying in various camps for the next 5 days. The Kruger is well known for its wildlife again as you would expect.

After Kruger we then cross out of South Africa into our third new country, Swaziland for a few days and then back into South Africa again and our first visit to the coast around Richard’s Bay. The next few days are following the coast to Durban before we head inland again and possibly into the cold weather as we will be high up in the Drakensberg Mountains and another new country. This time it is the tiny mountain Kingdom of Lesotho. Snow and ice could be seen high up on some of the passes we will travel through. Once back into South Africa we travel the Garden Route along the coast all the way to the southernmost point of Africa at Cape Agulhas and then onto CapeTown around mid to late October. We were last in Capetown February 2016 and really enjoyed the vibrant city.

 

Hope it is not as windy this time

A Trip to the Cape of Good Hope

Cape Town and Table Bay from the top of Table Mountain

Sitting overlooking Cape Town in 2016

The next update will continue with the final section travelling north back to Zambia. This should be the hottest part of the trip and possibly heading back into the rainy season. More to follow before we leave in just two weeks time.