Mike & Jan's Great Escape: The First Week

We are just over one week into our trip now and have already crossed over to our third country. We left Zambia on Monday last week and drove the 650 or so Kms to Kapishya Hot Springs, Part of the Shiwa N’Gandu Estate built by Sir Stewart Gore-Browne back in the 1920s. Kapishya is run by his Grandson, Mark Harvey and Shiwa House by his elder brother, Charles Harvey. Jan and I visited back in 2015 but had not been into Shiwa House. It is an amazing place with a wonderful history. Look it up on line or better still read the book, The Africa House”.

Selfie in Kapisha Hot Pool

Arched Entrance way to Shiwa House

Avenue of Gum trees leading to the House

The House and Gardens

Memorial to Sir Stewart in the Chapel

The Tower

Staircase

Library

Outside

A Steam engine on the farm

Estate Houses

After a couple of days there we drove onto our first border crossing between Zambia and Tanzania. The one we chose was the one in the far north of Zambia and it was not busy, We were the 2^nd vehicle through at around 2.00pm but it still took nearly 2 hours to complete all the formalities as well as let the border guard on the Zambian side finish his lunch before we could drive through. We then had a night in Shumbawanga, the first town we came to in Tanzania, in a small guest house before heading onto Katavi National Park.

This really should have been a highlight, the park was but the cost and the rigmarole to get permission was amazing. No one else was in the park, we went to 2 lodges and both were empty. We decided to stay in a public camp next to the ranger’s post with virtually no facilities. When we first looked the only person at the ranger’s post was a security guard with a gun. He told us to wait until the guy came to book us in. After a while we moved of next door and set up camp. The guard came over later and said the man who had to sign us in had no car so we had to drive to him somewhere lese in the park. We said he could come tomorrow as we were not going looking for him. After going out on a game drive and seeing many huge crocodiles, hippos, elephant and giraffe plus large herds of grazing animals on the plain we came as it got dark to cook dinner. With dinner cooking a man turns up in a car and says that one of us must go with him to pay, it has to be by card and we have to drive to a lodge to pay. About an hour later we get back to have dinner but £150 lighter for just one night. We wanted to stay two or three but the costs are silly and it is no wonder the park is empty of visitors

Next morning we nearly changed our mind as we went out early and found a pride of 12 lion including some really cute cubs. It was just Jan and I with these lions.

Cute Babies

Mum and Cubs

Older Cubs Playing

A Very large Crocodile

Loads of Muddy Hippos

Just good friends

Open Wide

After Katavi we took the “main” road, well a dirty, dusty and bumpy track over to Lake Tanganyika and Kigoma. It was a beautiful place, almost Caribbean in feel with a couple of small sand beached with palm trees. We stayed here for 3 days just laying around and chilling out. Locally we went to Ujiji, the small place made famous by Henry Morton Stanley when he uttered the immortal words “Dr Livingstone I presume” under a Mango tree in the village. It was also a place for me to get my fish fix by having fresh lake caught fish each day.

Bustling Kigoma

The beach in the town

Kigoma Rail Station

Zebra in Camp

Under an African sunset

Markets

The back of the rail station

It was here Stanley met Livingstone

Painting

Boat building on the beach

Sailing

My dinner that night

Fishing boats

Once we departed Kigoma, it was back on the dust tracks of northern Tanzania again with a one night stop at a small village called Nyakanazi before heading for the border of Rwanda and onto Kigali where we are now. Much more of this in the next update.