Mike & Jan's Great Escape: ON THE ROAD

This blog is about our life “on the road” as it were. It is now 6 weeks since we left Ndola and we have travelled some 6500 kms so far. Lots of that has been moving between places but also quite a bit is driving around on what we call “Game Drives” in National Parks or just sightseeing while we are stopping at places. In the Masai Mara recently we clocked up some 600 kms just watching animals. When travelling between stops we tend to do between 150 and 350 kms depending on where we have to go. Most distances tend not to be in kilometres travelled but more in time taken as the roads can vary so much. Early on in Tanzania the roads were terrible so often 30 kilometres per hour is the maximum you can drive at while in Uganda and Kenya it seemed to be a maximum of possibly 100kph. Those are not your average speed though as even on the good roads all the villages you pass seem to have huge speed humps, very often unmarked and you need to slow to around 30 to ride over those. Police and road blocks are everywhere and in the main do not bother us. It is funny how you are treated for example in Uganda the police seem much more military and most of the time do not acknowledge your wave as you drive by. When they stop you to check documents they were very officious but fair. In Kenya, even with the election troubles that happened just before we got there and may now be happening again the Police wear blue uniforms and salute you as you wave good morning or signal you to stop and then salute you followed by a cheery good morning and a chat. Often they will go you have your papers and we will say yes and they then go “we trust you, have a safe journey” So far we have managed to get away with just one fine for speeding.

Some road blocks are natural such as these baboons

Other stoppages are for scenery

Then in the towns and villages we have all sorts of transport

Lunch, when on the road is a case of finding a place away from too many people and pulling off to one side. We tend to eat a main meal in the evening so lunch would be bread if we have fresh bread or savoury biscuits if not with cheese, hardboiled eggs and peanut butter. Evening meals would be cooked on an open fire and may be BBQ (Braai in Africa) so meat form our freezer for me and vegetable kebabs or stuffed peppers or butternut squash for Jan with salad and baked potatoes or if we have run down on fresh food then it may be pasta or rice and curry. We also eat out when we have suitable restaurants available.

Breakfast on the road under a tree

Dinner being cooked in camp, this one is in the Mara

Sometimes you have to share lunch with the wildlife

But I do not share my wine

Having now managed to negotiate 5 of the 17 border crossing we have to make we still hate them. In the main the border officials are friendly and helpful enough but the signage of where you go and what you need is rarely there. You find a car park only to be told you are in the wrong one, the one you need is over there. You often have to push past many of the touts (They call themselves “Agents”) who want your money and claim you need them to get through the borders. They say you have to have them do the photocopying of documents etc but many borders do not need that and anyway we carry several photocopies of each of our car documents plus personal ones. Then you try for things such as a double entry visa for Tanzania when we first crossed into the country. No you cannot get them here but when we cross into the country for the 2^nd time we find it is a double entry. We entered Kenya and were given 2 weeks entry with the car. (Normally Kenya requires a “Carnet de Passage” for the car. This is a document obtained in the registered country to state that the car will be returned back there and not left in another country. Zambia do not issue these so we cannot get one. 2 weeks was just enough but when we exit the country the border official states we were only allowed one for 1 week so we should not have had one for 2 weeks. We now get threats that we may be kept there to sort it out. We were not and we did not pay a bribe which is often what is needed..

Local Drumming

Happy kids

Love the sign, Chapatis and Rolex

Tourists in Uganda

Once a canoeist always a canoeist

Dancing for us in a school in Uganda

Miles from London and onwards to Cape Town

At a lake

Jan getting steamed up in Hells Gate Canyon

Stormy skies over the Mara

Lake Naivasha at sunset

We are now at a stop in Tanzania where we can get the car sorted. Unfortunately in Masai Mara on the rough roads we managed to break a front stabiliser bar (Part of the suspension) and this damaged a drive shaft. We managed to get the car out but could not get the parts we needed until here in Arusha. Those will also be fixed. We also decided we needed to get some new tyres and have gone for the expensive chunky “off road” tyres and the weather did get a little wet at times and we were sliding a little too often. Hopefully these will help.

Where we are in Tanzania they do not seem to accept payment by debit or credit cards so cash it must be. The parts for the car came to 1.2 million shillings plus the tyres were 1.3 million so going to an ATM machine and getting out 3 million sounds good. The largest note is 10,000 so it is not so good walking with a large sum of money on you.

Many of the places including the cities seem to be in 2 places at once. You often see nice modern buildings, often several stories high, glass fronts, nice cars and vehicles on good modern roads etc alongside cattle and sheep walking down the middle of the roads and donkey or cattle carts holding up the traffic at the junction of negotiating a roundabout.