Monday, April 5, 2010

On the road, Africa, spring 2010

South Africa and Namibia Jan 2010

Arrive in Cape Town on Wednesday 13th. Tom is waiting at the airport and we spend the next week getting our act together for the big trip. By Thursday the 21st we are all in order and set off at the crack of dawn for the first days run to Namibia. We arrive at the border around lunchtime to be greeted to 45 degree temperatures and gratifyingly straight forward boarder procedures. Our first night is spent at Ai-Ais at the southern end of the Fish river canyon:-

The site is very nicely laid out with new and interesting birds flitting amongst the trees. The only down side being the swimming pool water which is the temperature of a bath and thus hardly refreshing. Next day we potter along the canyon rim and again set up camp this time at the Canon road house. This has been recently done up and is looking very good the pool was also at a more appealing temperature. Their design feature is a selection of ancient vehicles built into the garden. As we proceed to Windhoek it begins to rain. By the time we reach Windhoek's altitude of 1700 metres the vegetation was quite green compared to the desert scrub further south.
Carmine Bee-Eater

The Rivendell guest house gives us a very pleasant stay in Windhoek even though I try to blow it up by not operating the oven correctly. We then proceed north east to Botswana. And does it rain - so much for the Kalahari desert it is positively in bloom - green and lush. The border crossing again goes smoothly and we continue on to Ghanzi and the Kalahari arms hotel into whose electricity free embrace we gladly enter as camping is deemed unsuitable in such weather. Fortunately electricity resume in time for supper.

Botswana Jan 2010

It continues green all the way to Maun where we find lodgings at the Okavango river lodge. This is a rather tired establishment but cheap and cheerful enough in its way with a pleasant river aspect. The afternoon is spent booking a campsite in Moremi and paying our park fees. The day is complete with a fine steak dinner. Had a quick peak at the Maun game reserve; the birding is good but this is otherwise a very neglected place.


On Wednesday 27th we head off to Moremi game reserve and our booked accommodation at 3rd bridge campsite. The ungraded piste is a bit more tricky than we anticipate with many soft sand patches, ruts and water filled pools of indeterminate depth. After much use of 4 wheel drive and occasional low range we successfully pitch up at 3rd bridge in the early afternoon and are very nicely greeted by Rachel the camp supervisor. On the way we have fine sightings of Elephants and Hippos. Latter another Brit couple turn up, an old guy with his 22 year old daughter Laura. They are making an abbreviated circular tour via Zim. similar to ours. They are planning to continue through Chobe which we have decided against as we were told the road was in very poor condition. We have a jolly evening drinking and chatting to them by the camp fire. In the morning we spot the tracks of a leopard that has walked between our two pitches during the night.


Our first game drive to Baobab tree gives us many sightings of Impala and zebra, in the afternoon we spot Giraffe near the 2nd bridge. We are the sole occupants this evening and just after sunset a hippo calmly walks passed our camp within 10m of where we are sitting. On Friday our morning drive is less successful. Although we identify lion tracks on the dirt road we never spot the lions themselves. After driving upto Xakanaxa. we become lost on the pistes going round Maya pan. After much use of GPS we manage eventually to find the Baobab tree of yesterday's drive and work our way home to camp. The only new sightings are of Wildebeest, young impala and zebra so not much to show for our epic game drive. There is much noisy animal activity that night and in the morning Baboons make their presence felt especially as they manage to contrive a disruption to the water supply to the ablution block. We bid farewell to the ever cheerful Rachel and head back to Maun again negotiating many deep pools but not having any good game sightings until we are leaving the park, where upon we see a Giraffe sitting in the road. We think it must be injured but on our approach it lolops off without difficulty. Nata Lodge

The 300 km to Nata is uneventful and the surroundings were much greener than I remember from 30 years ago. We pitched up at Nata lodge just after lunch and were very warmly greeted. The lodge chalets are very nicely appointed with a bath in "the front room" and an alfresco shower. We tried a visit to the Nata bird reserve on the edge of the Magkladi salt pans where we were reliably informed thousands of flamingos reside. The burned out lorry and hut at the entrance was off putting enough but the route to the viewing platform was just too difficult to negotiate so this enterprise had to be knocked on the head and we retreated to the lodge pool, Man U's trouncing of Arsenal on sat TV and and jolly lamp lit supper. The silence when out on the pan was truly amazing although only a couple of kilometres from the road.


Zambia Feb 2010

The drive to Kazengula went well and the road was not in the poor condition we expected. We were able to drive straight onto the ferry. But it was there the fun and expense began. The touts were out in force to "assist" our progress through 6 offices. Immigration were very efficient but customs took an hour to produce a simple form. After about 2 hours we were done and on our way to Livingstone and a view of Victoria Falls. The 450 k trip to Lusaka next day was uneventful. Had supper at O'Hagans in the Manda hills mall. The Fairview hotel was not upto much. We spent a day dodging rain showers and pootling around Lusaka which has expanded enormously in the last 30 years. Cairo road has become a bit of a shifty area. Like LA the middle classes have moved to the suburbs were shopping malls like Manda hills and Arcades have been built. Rain, rain beautiful rain again on Thursday as we set off for Kasanka national park where we were put up in nice rondavel chalets. The deal here is to bring your own food which they cook for you and serve with great charm in the lodge's dinning room or veranda. We asked Tom the gap year volunteer to suggest a game drive; this produced sittings of: baboons, duiker, oribi, mongoose, puku and an as yet to be identified vulture which was seen from the bat hide high in the canopy of a Mahogany tree. It also produced many sitings of Tetse flies which seem very attracted to the car which did not impress the pontoon operator, whose contraption was pulled by hand across a small river by ropes. In theory it could have taken the car but we decided on a more pedestrian arrangement. Our second attempt to sit around a campfire was again thwarted by rain, it was nevertheless pleasant to chat to a group of Dutch visitors.

The trip to Mansa went very well on a smooth road across the Benguelu swamps that was built by the Chinese in the eighties. Unfortunately it became very pot holey around Samfya. It was quite strange arriving in Mansa after 28 years. The town has grown immensely. 72 eating establishments where before there were 2. Half a dozen hotels and even taxis! The Asian shops have gone to be replaced by a South African supermarket.

The road to Mbereshi and Nchelenge has now been tarred but nevertheless has potholes. The trip went ok but Tom was disappointed by Kashkiki's expansion. Although it was pleasing to see the commercial development the street and general ambience was in a deplorable state. We checked in to the Mweru Water transport guest house and had a few drinks on the veranda looking out over lake Mweru. We were joined by Fillip VanTerpe and his parents who are the Lemon sherbet kings of Belgium. His father first came to Congo in 1951 and built up a cattle ranch in the highlands of Katanga, which was wiped out in the civil war of 1998 and they lost 15000 head of cattle. A few years ago they decided to restock a have brought 400 cows from South Africa via Zim, Lusaka and the Chinese road that we have just travelled on. The farm is managed by Congolese staff and they visit twice a year flying from Brussels to Addis Ababa and Lubumbashi and then by road through Zambia to Nchelenge an on to the Congo on a road not marked on my map via Kaputa, Balanga and Mobu on the shores of lake Tanganyika from which it is just 80 km south to their ranch.

On Monday we went to visit Mabel Shaw memorial high school. The first time in 28 years. We were given a very friendly reception by the head teacher Mr Xgambo. We were shown round by the very perspicacious Mrs Chilumbwe (who looked just like the secretary in the film of "the number 1 ladies detective agency". Mabel Shaw is the school that time forgot. The English office is almost just as I left it. There were quite a lot of new books but some - RUR & the Insect play - were still there from the seventies. A remarkable testimony to the teachers who have carefully looked after their limited resources. The science department was ever sadder with no new books and the same old equipment that had seen no renewal in 30 years. The is nevertheless well maintained and my old house is there just as it ever was - it too could do with a lick of paint. Most of the teachers have satellite dishes and the school does have a room of computers though they are old a tired; no doubt the cast offs from some more favoured establishment. Mbereshi remains a quiet backwater with none of the commercial expansion of Nchelenge - may be just a couple more small shops. The back to Mansa and the Mansa hotel which turned out to have more spacious rooms at no greater price. We were told that President Banda was due the next day so there was a bit of a hubbub about the town.
My school house in 1980


And now in 2010


It was a very long drive back along the Chinese road and then up the great north road to Mpika and Shiwa Ngandu. About 600 klicks all told taking about 8 hours. We were pleased to see work being done to fill in the potholes but lamentably in some places the surface was completely destroyed. This is the main road from Dar and seemingly takes all the fuel into Zambia but these heavy trucks do chew it up.
At Kapishya hot springs lodge in the grounds of the Shiwa Ngandu estate were were warmly greeted by Mark Harvey the owner and grandson of Stuart Gore-Brown the founder and builder of the "Africa House". We were soon installed in the bar for sundowners and chatted to him well into the night. And what a place delightful chalets in beautiful grounds and a river, hot springs and excellent tucker - amazing. We visited the "House" the following day and had a walk upto the graves which give a fine view over the Shiwa Ngandu lake. The house is certainly an amazing concept and has been spectacularly restored. It is clear that there is still much to do. A short game drive only produced a few Impala. Hunting still takes place on the estate and I guess the animals are more wary. We had a dip in the hot springs before taking a drive with Mark to a nearby waterfall. We were joined by 6 Belgian young people who had driven down from Ghent via Cairo and Kenya and who were on their last lap to CT. Mark again regaled us into the night with bush stories.

Tanzania Feb 2010

On Thursday 11th of Feb we were off bright and early for Tanzania. The border crossing was again a bit of a circus. Many large trucks were blocking the way around making it difficult to negotiate the way to offices. Many "agents" were out in force making the whole process even more of a hassle. After a couple of hours of trotting between offices and the bank we were free at last to continue our journey. We pitched up at the tranquil Utengule coffee lodge which is situated on the side of a hill looking back - westwards - towards Zambia and giving a fine sunset view for our sundowners. The scenery in Tanzania is quite different to Zambia with wide open plains instead of Miombo/Mopane woodland. The thatched huts of Zambia are replaced by brick houses with tin or tiles roofs. Our first night was at a fine lodge near Mbeya called Utengule coffee lodge. We enjoyed a very pleasant sunset drink on the lawn with a very fine view followed by supper on the veranda.

we had a fairly easy drive towards Iringa to another lodge - the old farmhouse. This has a variety of thatched chalets and faux native rondavels. It main visitor attraction being to become lost walking between them. The supper was jolly pleasant. Saturday was a bit of a bad hair day for Tom. When packing up to leave he could not find his camera and while using an internet café his phone went missing. So this had to be stopped and in the meantime we were waiting for a new front number plate to be made. The dirt road from Iringa to Rhuaha turned out to be more difficult than we had been led to believe and when we arrived at The recommended hill top lodge we turned out to be the only guests in Tanzania's answer to Fawlty towers.
Lilac breasted roller


We set off early after a parsimonious breakfast for the park. Picking up a guide at park HQ we set Goodluck the task off finding us the 3 big cats. In the event we managed 2 out of 3. After much mob phone contact with colleagues we obtained a good lioness sighting and just after lunch were rewarded with a Cheetah unfortunately it remained mostly in the long grass so no good photos. Finally we saw a group of 3 young lions just after depositing the guide at HQ. Other animals seen: Jackals 2, elephants many, Eland 6, lilac breasted roller many, weaver birds, warthog 2, impala and zebra many, grants gazelle, giraffe many, ground hornbills, water buck.
Peregrine falcon

Back at hilltop we are welcomed with hot towels but no cold beer. They are apparently unwilling to start their generator before 7 and so no cold drinks are available until after dinner. This is any event has to wait until the local bus arrives with food for dinner. They do bring ice so after a wait all is well and the tucker is surprisingly good.

In the morning we negotiate a 10% reduction and move on to Mikuni and the Tan-Swiss lodge where luxury of luxuries cold beer and air-con is to be had. This is just as well since dropping in altitude from 1600m at Iringa to 600 at Mikumi has turned up the heat to 35 degrees. On Tuesday we head to Mikuni national park. Here we pay $80 entry and take on board the loquacious Kim as our guide. We ask to see lions as all tourists do to which Kim says you'll be lucky but after a bit mobile phoning amongst his friends we do indeed come across 3 lionesses trying to keep themselves cool in the shade of a bush. After a bit more driving we come across several young lions shading themselves under a Toyota. We spend the rest of the day having good sightings of: Giraffe, Elephants and babies, impala, zebra, warthog, reed buck, and Eland while we had lunch at the lodge.

On Wednesday while Tom had a quiet day at the lodge I sallied forth to Udzwanga national park about 60 km south of Mikumi half on tar and half on fairly dodgy gravel where the route was further encumbered by narrow bridges. This park has no roads so the entry fee is only $20. Today's guide, Ishmael, soon finds red colobus monkeys which are indigenous to this park together with black and white colobus which are found elsewhere. There are plenty of butterflies but the walk turns out to be very sweaty underneath the the forest canopy which is not relieved by a downpour. It is very nice to have a walk in a park instead of the usual drive.

On Thursday 18-2 we move on to Dar Es Salaam. The main road, a continuation of Zambia's great north road, passes through Mikumi NP. During the first part of the drive a car overtakes us at speed and ploughs into an Impala that springs out of the bush. The Impala is boomeranged into the park making a great mess of the car's front end. In Dar we hook up with Chris' friend David Smith, ex cameraman, and now local director of "Feed the Children" in O'Willies Irish pub which overlooks Msasani bay and is conveniently 5 minutes walk from David's house. He makes us most welcome and we chat into the night after enjoying Mama's home cooked chicken and rice.
Black kite

Dar is an unprepossessing city; many of the roads are unmade up even in the posh areas and down town is very busy with big 4*4s creating traffic jams - so I guess some people have money. David's driver does not turn up in the morning so we give him a lift to his seminar in town and then spend the day looking round and doing chores to book hotels for the next stage of the journey. David has adopted a Tanzanian family: Mama, grand children Sammy and Louise, great nephew Hanny and great grandson David. We have supper with them. Mama makes a bit of a production of grace. After booking our ferry tickets to Zanzibar we take David to lunch at the slipway - the nearby ocean front shopping mall, and buy some Tingatinga naive/ethnic paintings.
The market Stone Town Zanzibar

On Sunday we head for Stone town on Zanzibar by fast catamaran ferry. The 2 hour trip is a bit bumpy. Dar from the sea looks more attractive than our road arrival. Stone town is a maze of narrow streets. We have a delightful supper in the monsoon restaurant. All around there is bustle has a couple of landing craft acting as freighters are unloaded. The island has electricity generating issues and each hotel or restaurant has to operate its own generator whose thrums on every street corner fills the night air as we walk the darkened narrow streets. Back at the Dhow palace we enjoy the aircon. On Monday morning we explore Stone town's winding narrow streets and visit the bustling street market. In the afternoon we chill out buy the courtyard pool. The following day we try a spice tour in the hotel's taxi. This is not a real taxi but has a license for a "one day tripe". This does not stop us being flagged down by the police on several occasions. The spice tours are a bit of a con since there is no real commercial spice growing since the farms are very small scale compared to international competition. Still they put on a show and it is interesting to see the different spices growing. We have lunch on Nungwi beach at the north end of the island. This is very charming spot with a beautiful white sand beach and fringing coral reef. The village, however, is very rustic and the road through the village is in a very poor state. Back in stone town we enjoy a fine sunset from the terrace of the Africa house hotel. The trip back to Dar on the ferry goes very well despite the dodgy films and we are met by David's driver Mlekwa. We have a final enjoyable night with David and his adopted family with a sunset meal at the Irish pub overlooking Msasani bay. Again they have no bananas (only in Tanzania) so no pud - what a disappointment.

We leave promptly for the 500km trip to Moshi and the Ameg lodge where tantalisingly Kilimanjaro pops her head out of the clouds just as the light fades. A party of Kenya-Asians, now from Toronto Canada, now visiting Africa for the first time in 35 years are much impressed by our trip from Cape Town. We spend the morning looking for the perfect photographic view of Kili. It is hazy so it is difficult to decide on a near or far shot so we try both the head off to Arusha and Ngorogoro. The park office efficiently relieves us of $500 and we are installed in the Rhino lodge genially welcomed - karibued - by the Masai proprietors. Spend the afternoon bird watching from the veranda. In the evening we are joined by Americans Mary and Diane, who lives in Moshi, for a very pleasant dinner which is punctuated by Masai dancing.

We are up before dawn, just, for breakfast and then off at 7 with guide, Benedict, for the crater. It is misty with low cloud and rain. The temperature is 12c unprecedented on this trip. It clears and warms as we descend. The game viewing is excellent: Thompsons and Grants Gazelle, buffalo, Zebra and Wildebeest are the ones seen a plenty. Storks, Bustards, yellow and sparrow weavers, black kites, experienced at stealing food, greater and lesser flamingos are in the bird contingent. There are also elephants but not in Mikumi numbers, Hippo, 2 Black Rhino (mother and calf) but only in the distance. We had several Lion sightings, including 2 big males and a team of 4 Lionesses who look as though they are planning a hunt and although we wait quite a while it comes to nothing. Overall we probably see 12 Lions during the day. It is very busy in the crater, maybe 50 SUVs, at one stage there were 20 vehicles at one Lion sighting. An nice little earner at $200 per vehicle and $50 per visitor $20,000 per day just to the parks department?

Kenya Feb 2010

We leave promptly the next day and head for Kenya. The boarder crossing goes smoothly but again we are dragooned into buy 3rd party insurance. This requires changing money with dubious characters. When we carefully count the change they look aggrieved "we are Kenyans not Nigerians" they exclaim. The road between Arusha and Nairobi is in a but of a state with extensive diversions on gravel where the road is being resurfaced. There is particular mayhem just south of Nairobi where the Arusha road joins the Mombasa road at Athi river. Nairobi is busy with traffic even on a Sunday. Nevertheless we arrive in good time at the Holiday Inn. I'm up at the crack of dawn again. This time on an organised trip to the Nairobi National park. The day is overcast and drizzly not good conditions for game viewing. However the driver gives it a go. On hearing that there are lions about we go haring off at breakneck speed on some very slippery roads. We obtain good sightings of the lions and have 2 more sightings during the rest of the morning making a total of 8 - quite amazing only 5 miles from a large city. We also have good sightings of Black Rhino including mother and calf - making a total of 5. In addition we see: giraffe, baboons, impala, zebra, hartebeest, secretary bird, warthog. On the way back we become stuck when the minibus slips into a deep rut and the transmission grounds on the central hump. Attempts to jack the car are a forlorn hope since in the soft mud the jack sinks rather than the vehicle rises. In due course help arrives in the form of another minibus full of German tourists. We are eventually pulled free with jerky movements which break the towing point and the steel hawser in the process. Unfortunately having been towed out backwards we attempt a three point turn and become stuck again as our rescuers have left the driver again tries jacking and becomes covered in mud in the process. Back at the Holiday inn the commissionaire recoils in horror at the muddy apparition that returns for lunch. After a brief sorte to central Nairobi we repair to "Carnivore" for dinner. Here swords are used to bbq all manner of meat - nyama - including ostrich (tasty)and crocodile (tough fishy) which carvers serve with a flourish until you can eat no more. In the local paper which is delivered to our door we read that the Permanent secretary at the lands ministry has raided her own offices to discover why so many files are missing - a scam has been uncovered where "lost" files are strangely found for a small fee. A number of officials will shortly be appearing in front of the beak we are assured.

On Tuesday 2nd of March we make our last northward trip to the equator at Nanyuki. The sign, an ancient rusty thing, is, according to our GPS, 0.015 minutes south of the correct position. This is about 30 metres out! Any demonstration of the Coriolis effect would have to be a fraud. So we leave the hawkers and head south to the Aderdare country club. Their gravel drive leaves much to be desired. Most of the customers are here for lunch before proceeding to "the Arc" for an overnight wildlife experience. The rest are on a week long German government sponsored YNHCR jolly. Unfortunately the weather deteriorates and the night game drive is cancelled which is a bit of a disappointment. In the morning we are woken by courting Hornbills.
The next day we head back to Tanzania. Hopefully Kilimanjaro will make the appearance that Mount Kenya doesn't. We try to skirt round Nairobi instead of going through the centre. The Satnav directs us along the "outering" through the most insalubrious suburb of "Cariobanga". It is awash with mud, detritus and dodgy looking shacks. We are glad to be out of it and heading south even though we have to traverse the junction at Athi River were cement trucks have turned the road to rubble. The boarder crossing is quite straight forward for a change and the touts who recognise us steer clear. Driving, once again on the Arusha Moshi road Kili is in cloud. We head this time to The Marangu hotel, which at 2000m has an alpine feel and a beautiful garden where weaverbirds noisily construct their nests. From here we drive 650 kms back to the Tan-Swiss lodge at Mikumi were we meet up with 2 Finnish women, Pamela and Inge, on a safari to Ruaha national park.

Malawi March 2010

And again another big run to Malawi and the lakeside town of Kironga. The remainder of the Great north road is busy with trucks some of which have ended up in the ditch. Every so often the trucks have to pass a weighbridge but this seems to do nothing to deter them from being overloaded. The road to the Malawi boarder rises to 2000m and is refreshingly cool and also fertile judging buy the produce on sale by the road side. The boarder crossing is fairly easy by African standards and we are soon checking into the Beach chambers lakeside resort. This is not so special and it takes a while before they agree to a reasonable room rate. The rooms are pleasant enough and supper satisfactory. We also enjoy a cold beer sitting on the beach overlooking the lake. Malachite sunbird

We decide on the following day to go to a forest reserve in the mountains. It is interesting to see all the forestry activity. Unfortunately all the lodges are closed so we have to return to the lake at Makuzi beach lodge. On the way down to the lake we find the road is completely broken up and buses and trucks are complete stuck in the sub surface mud. The Nissan fortunately has no difficulty and we soon on our way. Interestingly in the local paper the next day we read that local people have complained to the roads department saying they should fixit it. The minister replies that this is not the procedure - an aid agency will need to be contacted to see if they will finance the deal. At Makuzi beach we find again that we are the only guests; it again takes some effort to achieve a reasonable room rate. The setting is very beautiful and dinner is excellent. The roads of Malawi are plagued by police road blocks even more than Tanzania and Zambia. We can only assume it's a job creation scheme. The police have no numbers so it's easy for them to shake travellers down. For the most part they leave us alone - simply asking where we are going to, we tell them we are on holiday. We arrive in Blantyre around 3pm in the wake of a slow wedding procession. The outskirts are a bit bleak but not as bad as Nairobi. The centre of town is more scruffy than I remember but the Mount Soche hotel is just as pleasant.
Sunbird

On Monday we visit the hill top resort of Zomba. It is much overgrown from how I remember from 30 years ago. There is a fine new hotel and a beautiful garden, which attracts sunbirds but has very few clientele. After a coffee we continue to Liwonde national park. This has few clientele too indeed like before only us. A short drive around illicits sitings of: waterbuck, impala, warthogs, baboons, a bateleur eagle and a water monitor. The roads of Malawi are full of police road blocks so Kamuzu's police state lives on under President Bingu - do these folk never learn. Some of the barriers are sponsored by sycophantic businesses.

Mozambique March 2010

When we leave the Mount Soche next morning with a bitter taste as they have tried to overcharge us. When we have sorted this out we head off to to the Mozambique border whose crossing we achieve with relatively little hassle. And then onto Chimoio. The road is in good order and we arrive quite early and have time to look round the supermarket where we find grog prices to be surprisingly agreeable. The police are much less in evidence in Moz which is also pleasing. Our only hold up is the single lane working on the Samora Machel bridge over the Zambesi at Tete. Our next hop is to Vilancoulo. This time the road conditions vary from good to potholed. It is clear that funding is provided to fix a bit and then the money runs out so the next section is poor. The roads do not seem to get much use. We book a dhow safari to some nearby islands but "Junior" blows us out so we proceed to Inhambane where we are welcomed to the Pensao Pachica by Dennis and Russell who prove to be very hospitable hosts. The town is the most pleasant we have been to in Moz with many attractive art deco buildings which are sadly deteriorating due to lack of tlc. With the curious exception of the railway station which is in very good order despite never having seen a train in 20 years. We have a very fine meal involving Mozambique's famous seafood with Dennis and Russell while watching the sunset over Africa.

In the morning we are off to Maputo, Mozambique's capital. The distance of 450 kms is half on smooth tarmac and half on very distressed road which is the process of being repaired. All goes well and we are soon installed in The Southern Sun hotel. We are welcomed by Bruce Chapman the General Manager. We are not sure if he has materialised because someone has had the temerity to ask for a discount or if he is generally out an about. Experience shows it is the latter. We take a taxi in the evening to the Costa do Sol restaurant. Specialising in seafood this is Maputo institution of 70 years. The meal is indeed magnificent and 2 prawn filled happy bunnies return to the hotel.
Masks in the Market Maputo, Mozambique

Dennis from Inhambane has given us the phone number of Susan who he has told us will be happy to show us round Maputo. We arrange to meet at 10 and she arrives at 11. In the most dilapidated taxi you can imagine cracked windshield and sans shock absorbers we "do" Maputo. The driver has taken global warming to heart and drives slowly with maximum fuel consumption in mind. The craft market is very attractive but lacks customers as is the railway station which also lacks trains. The town is attractively laid out with wide boulevards and not much traffic - but this is a Saturday. Back at the hotel I can relax by the pool with the Indian ocean in the background with small sailing dhows busily zooming up and down.

South Africa March 2010

View from the "White House" Genoubi

In the morning, as we check out, we are informed that Mo Ibrahim, Bono, and other wealthy, worthies associated with the Bill Gates foundation are in the lobby with us, along with their accompanying flunkies, about to be bussed off to an aid project. The 600km drive to Durban goes well with 2 border crossings: moz-Swaziland and Swazi-SA passing without a hitch. At the Southern Sun in Durban we find ourselves in a seaview room with waves crashing on the beach. Our next stop is Genoubie near East London another 600 klicks or so. We continue on the fine dual carriage way to Port Shepstone. Here the roads divide with the dual carriageway continuing along the coast to Ramsgate and Margate while we go on the mountain road through the Transkei and its capital Umtata, close to the birthplace of Nelson Mandela . This is a very "African" part of South Africa with many of the towns looking scruffy and neglected as you would find in Zambia or Mozambique. In places the road reaches nearly 2000m and the scenery is spectacular. At Genoubie the N2 touches the coast again and we pitch up at the White house b&b a very charming and beautiful guest house right by the sea. Here in spring you can whale watch from their lounge. We are too late in the year unfortunately but the stay is very enjoyable just the same. On the way to Plettenberg bay we pass by "storms river mouth" in Tsitsikamma national park. It is calm today but the waves break noisily it would be spectacular on a breezy day. We add Rock Dassie and Duiker to our list of animals sitings. Between here and Plett is the world's highest bungy jump. In Plett we have a very nice supper at Emily Moon's slightly out of town their veranda has very fine views over the nearby countryside. We arrive back in Cape Town on Wednesday the 17th of March exactly 8 weeks on the road. To make our journey complete we detour to Cape Agulhas Africa's southern most point. CT to equator and back 17,500 kms, 3,000 litres of petrol, 9 countries, 10 boarder crossings, 12 national parks and 37 stops in 56 days.

Lucy Moon's restaurant Plettenberg bay