Heading South

Friday 15^th February, Zambia

We arrived at the home of Charlie & Margaret Whipp who live on the outskirts of Lusaka last night. Our 800 km trip from the southern edge of Lake Tanganyika was relatively easy; reasonable tarred road, very little traffic, just a little lonely. All day we kept looking in the back mirror half expecting to see Ian and Heather’s land cruiser. During the day we exchanged messages with them and they were missing us too.

We had stayed with Charlie & Margaret and their family on our way up, so it was nice to catch up again on our way down. Margaret was away in Cape Town so Charlie and his two sons, Charles & Bradley, spoiled us to a delicious pork roast and a proper ‘cowboy’ breakfast the next morning. They had been following our blog so it made chatting about our trip so much easier. We took up the offer of a bed and found once again that sleeping indoors was something we are going to have to get used to. Thank you Charlie for the hospitality second time round!

Saturday  16^th February, Zimbabwe

After another full day’s drive we arrived at Al and Joy’s in Zimbabwe last night. Shortly after leaving Charlie’s in the morning, as we reached the south of Lusaka, we were stopped by the same traffic cop who had fined us the day before as we entered Lusaka from the north! At that time we didn’t have enough money to pay the fine, so after much discussion (and an offer from her to pay a bribe at a lesser fee) we agreed that we would go into town to draw money and then come back (as if!) to pay the fine. Actually it was more about the logistics of returning back (a forty kilometre round trip) than about the money, Lusaka is the worst city out of all the capitals when it comes to finding your way around.

So we were totally flabbergasted when the same cop stopped us as we left Lusaka the following day (being yesterday). We weren’t speeding this time so she had clearly been on the lookout for us. As we wound the window down she declared with a big grin: Todaayy I am going to fine you DOUBBLE! We had just spent all our cash which we drew yesterday on petrol and again didn’t have enough money to pay the fine. So off we went back into town to the nearest ATM machine. This time she made sure that Don left his driver’s licence behind. The charge of ‘double’ was reduced promptly when Don, whilst another officer was in earshot, brought up the bribe that she had offered us the day before. I guess it was a classic case of rough justice.

We are now back with Al and Joy in Zimbabwe and have finally met their baby girls, Bella and Catlyn who were born last August, whilst we were in Zambia. They are totally delightful and full of smiles and because there are two of them you find your face aching after a while from all the smiling back at them.

Al and Joy had to leave Makore (the game ranch where Al was working when we stayed with them on our journey north) shortly after the girls were born since the farm was under threat of being taken over and the situation reached a point where their safety became an issue; a difficult time for them so close to the birth of their twins. So it was nice to see them settled and happy in their new home, a school in Katungu where Al now works as the school’s maintenance manager.

It was lovely to find Gary and Sheila (Joy’s parents) as well as Ruth and her little boy Joshua had come down from Chinhoyi to also visit for the weekend. It was Gary and Sheila who had treated us to our unforgettable holiday at Lake Kariba and Mana Pools in Zimbabwe a couple of years ago.

As our trip is now seriously approaching its end there are a few milestones here and there. Tonight we will spend our last night in our rooftop tent, pitched under a big tree in Al & Joy’s garden. For the first time on this trip I feel slightly unnerved about sleeping under a tree since we found a vine snake in the garden today.

This is a small but very poisonous snake living mostly in trees and looking for nice cosy places to lay her eggs. This particular female had made her nest in an electrical distribution panel cabinet situated by the garden fence and the electrician who had come to do some wiring got the fright of his life when he found her curled up in the corner of the cabinet. Gary and Al tried to catch her, but she managed to get away and is now on the loose in Al’s garden looking for a new home.

Tuesday 19^th February, South Africa

After bidding farewell to our extended family  we embarked on a 10 hour journey travelling through beautiful Zimbabwean countryside before crossing into South Africa and heading for Karen’s home in Polokwane . Once again, very little traffic and good roads along the way, now finally getting used to being on our own.

We crossed from Zimbabwe into SA at around 2pm and couldn’t believe it when it took us a mere 10 minutes to clear the Zim side; the last time we were at this border crossing in 2010 it took us about three hours to complete formalities. We had been very diligent with our speed all day, but about 100 km north of the border we were stopped by a traffic cop and fined $20 for being 10 km over the speed limit. As I handed over our last $20 bill I told the woman that these were out last dollars. She thought about it for a moment, then handed me $10 back saying: ‘I can’t leave you without any cash’. No receipt given of course but a “kind” corrupt cop.

That evening Karen treated us to a lamb roast and roast potatoes, what a treat! Karen had also been following our blog and it was nice to ‘fill in the gaps’ rather than wondering where to start telling her about our trip. Thank you Karen for spoiling us!

We left Polokwane Monday morning, heading for Johannesburg where we knew we would have to spend a couple of days having things fixed which need fixing (faulty gas bottle holders, locks for our canopy etc). Driving into Jo’bourg with all the traffic was overwhelming after having been ‘in the sticks’ for so long. Anyway, we managed and we are now working our way through a list of things which need doing here but hoping to get them done as quickly as we can so that we continue heading south.

Thursday 21^th February

A couple of busy but very successful days in Jo’burg having items replaced or repaired. Our next stop was going to be Durban but whilst we were wrapping things up here we had a call from Duncan (Heather’s brother) inviting us for a visit to their home in Virginia. We needed an excuse for a little detour, so off we headed west towards the Free State.

We had a lovely evening sitting in the garden which overlooks the Sand River. Duncan and Marion treated us to a delicious curry and yet another cowboy breakfast the next morning. The weight we have lost during our trip (about 15 kg between us) is now coming back fast; the trouble is it is coming back in different places to where it was before!

Thank you Duncan and Marion, we very much look forward to your visit to the UK in September.

Friday 22^nd Feb, Drakensberg

After leaving Duncan and Marion, we had two really great days driving through the Maluti Mountains of the Free State and on to Lesotho which is a tiny (30,000 square km) independent kingdom completely surrounded by South Africa, located between the provinces of Free State and Kwazulu Natal.

The entire ‘country’ lies above 1000 meters with mountains ranges up to 3400 meters. As you cross into Lesotho from the north west (the Free State) and head south east (towards Durban) the countryside becomes increasingly more dramatic culminating in the totally breath taking Sani Pass, a roughly nine kilometre long mountain pass in the Drakensberg mountains. The pass is incredibly steep and narrow, its dirt road twisting its way through rocky cliffs and is not for the faint hearted.

I had never been to Lesotho before and was totally taken by its rugged beauty. Right here in the middle of South Africa you step back in time, not unlike in parts of Ethiopia. It prides itself in being fiercely independent and totally untouched by colonisation. People here live in traditional round huts and the mode of transport is by pony or donkey. Traditional clothing is mostly a locally produced ‘Basotho’ blanket.

 However, the country is incredibly poor and has one of the highest rates of HIV/Aids in Africa. It is reported that in some urban areas about 50% of woman under 40 are HIV positive. Bill Gates visited Lesotho in 2006 and has been a major sponsor in campaigns aimed at reducing HIV/Aids in the country.

This is also where Don’s father was born. Don’s grandfather was a carpenter from Rothesay who sailed to South Africa from Scotland as part of the British Army Support Unit during the Boer War. At the end of the war he decided to stay on and took up a position as Principal of a trade school in Lesotho (known as Basutoland at that time). He stayed here until his retirement then relocated back to South Africa where he lived for the rest of his life.

As we reached the bottom of the Sani Pass we took a left turn (northwest) and meandered through the foothills of the Drakensberg until we found a nice lodge where we are now staying for the night. We have been allocated a ‘luxury’ room since there was a cancellation and for the first time in ages Don is watching TV. He started watching the rugby, then a black and white silent movie (!), now (at quarter to midnight) cricket…………….

Tomorrow we aim to reach Graham & Kirsty’s home just outside Durban.  

Tanzania - Parting Ways

Saturday 9th February

We arrived back from our ‘cruise’ slightly jaded but having had a good time. Don and Ian were particularly enthralled by all the goings on, especially since this ship has a relevance going back to their childhood readings. The more I learned about its history the more I also became intrigued by it. Imagine this: the ship was built in Germany in 1913, then totally dismantled to enable it to be shipped to Dar es Salam (to support Germany’s World War I effort) and from there put on a train heading towards Lake Tankanyika, some 800 km away.  The railway line ended about 100 km short of the Lake so from there on it was transported via ox wagons to be finally reassembled on the Lake. Amazing!

It now serves as the main transport system for the entire population on the Tanzanian side of the Lake from Zambia to Kigoma  (the very north of Tanzania) and for most people living along its shore, it is the only way to access the outside world. The ship leaves the northern part of the Lake on a Wednesday and arrives back on a Sunday, so a four day round trip to cover approximately 1,000 km. As mentioned already it is too large to dock along most of the settlements along the way, so as it approaches a village it blows its fog horn to let people know that it is around the corner.

Local villagers will then approach it in their fishing boats, loaded with passengers, livestock and goods as it stops about 200 m out on the lake.

The loading onto the boat happens over a period lasting anything from ten minutes to several hours. Cargo is loaded onto the deck via a crane but passengers have to make their way up from the fishing boat towards ‘the hole on the boat’  and are helped on board by being pulled up by other passengers or sometimes ropes.  Children, babies, chickens and other small animals are passed from person to person until safely inside the ship.

Because everybody relies on the Liemba’s fog horn to be alerted to it approaching (rather than a timetable) the four of us went to sleep on the evening but were woken up close to midnight and were then taken out to the ship on a small motorboat. To see this nearly 100 year old ship all lit up in the distance, mostly with oil lanterns, was simply beautiful.

I was slightly concerned how I was going to reach the “hole” to get on board but as soon as I lifted my arms up I was grabbed by several people and pulled up without any problems.

Once inside there is total chaos, or organised chaos would be a better description. Traders start selling their wares almost immediately (bananas, pineapples, cigarettes etc), families below deck spread themselves out on the floor and start cooking on little portable stoves. Chickens are on the loose and everybody is shouting on top of each other but there is a great buzz about the place and a real party-like atmosphere.

When you finally reach your cabin (yes, we really did book one VIP cabin and one first class cabin so we could have at least one private bathroom between us) it is halfway through the night and within what feels like a few minutes of sleeping you are woken by the ship’s horn, approaching another ‘stop’ along the way. Then the whole spectacle starts again.

Don and Ian were so captured by it all that they spent most of the night on the bridge of the ship watching on.  

Here is a picture of us having breakfast the next morning at the ‘Captain’s Table’:

Tuesday, 12^th February Zambia

We left Lakeside Lodge yesterday morning and are now on our way back to SA in earnest.

Sunday was spent tightening all the nuts and bolts on the two vehicles, cleaning, exchanging our photos, dividing up our cutlery and generally getting ready for the long journey ahead, all the while acutely aware that  this was our last day together, having spent nine months non-stop in each other’s company. Don and Ian did what boys do when they are a bit’ heart sore’: checking the nuts and bolts yet again.

Unfortunately, swimming in the lake was out of bounds due to a fatal crocodile attack on a teenager in the nearby village, a stark reminder that we are in Africa. The boy had made the  mistake of going swimming at dusk when the crocodile struck. When this happens (the last attack was seven years ago) the hunt is on to find the crocodile but so far it has proved to be elusive so everyone is cautious.

We celebrated Don’s birthday Sunday night (one day early) and were given a lovely surprise by Louise and Chris (the lodge owners) who had made a chocolate birthday cake.

This is Heather waiting for her piece of chocolate cake, first chocolate in many months!

'Happy Birthday Brother'

Chris and Louise had a further surprise installed for us when we came back from the cruise and that was to upgrade us to one of their luxury cottages for two nights, at no extra cost.

Sorry but this will make you sick!

This is the view of Lake Tankanyika from our bed. Tony and Mel, we have finally found a place that would be up to your standard if you ever joined us on another Africa trip!

Thank you Chris and Louise!

So the four of set off  yesterday morning for our last joined stretch of about 150 km before Don and I headed south and Ian and Heather east, towards the Tanzanian coast. We were naturally sad to say ‘good bye’ but also happy to have spent such a great time together. For the rest of the day we couldn’t bring ourselves to switch off the car radio phone (our way of communicating with each other whilst on the road) in case Ian and Heather had changed their minds and were coming south with us.

We had an uneventful crossing into Zambia (always a good thing in Africa!) although when we got to the Tanzanian border post, the border guard had gone home for a sleep and took us about half an hour to locate him.

We found a deserted camp in Zambia on the most southern point of Lake Tankanyika where we celebrated Don’s birthday  with a T-bone steak that the woman in charge managed to rustle up and it was totally delicious. Tomorrow we are hoping to make Lusaka, some 800 km south. But tonight we are missing Ian and Heather...

Tanzania via Burundi

Wednesday 30^th January

We spent our last night in Rwanda camping in yet another hotel car park near the Burundi border. Like Uganda and Ethiopia, Rwanda has no campsites as such and the best you get is being allowed to stay in the car park of a lodge or hotel but have the use of the bathroom and other facilities.

Burundi was always intended to be a waypoint for us simply to get from Rwanda back into Tanzania so we never intended to spend much time there. Like Rwanda, the country is very small (28,000 sq km) and can at a push be crossed in a day. On top of this, we were only granted a three day transit visa at the border, so we literally only had sufficient time to pass through the country.

The landscape is very similar to Rwanda, hilly, green, yet slightly more disorganised. Its major landmark is Lake Tanganyika, which runs along its entire eastern border (and continues along neighbouring Tanzania in the south forming it’s entire eastern border as well).

We spent Saturday night camped in the grounds of a very nice lodge (Pinacle 11) which is located just beyond the outskirts of Bujumbura (the capital city) on the most northern shore of the lake. Although the view was not that spectacular in itself, the setting certainly was, ‘sitting’ in the middle of the Great African Rift Valley with mountains on both sides of us (DRC to the right) and the entire length of the lake stretched out before us (all 680 km of it!).

We then travelled most of Sunday, heading south along the Lake shore towards the Tanzanian border. We were tempted to visit the southernmost source of the Nile in the south of Burundi (where it is nothing more than a trickle) but were deterred by stories that the rangers there may take your money but may not actually take you to the real source (but to a more accessible ‘alternative’). So we decided to give it a miss.

Sunday night was spent at yet another car park of a lakeside lodge; a lovely lodge with a spectacular view, but hopefully the last car park for a while since all the countries south of us cater for campers.

We crossed into Tanzania on Monday and headed straight for a camp just south of Kigoma (Jacobson’s camp) and what bliss to be able to make a fire and cook our own food again.  The camp is situated right on the water edge of Lake Tanganyika and we had our own little beach to ourselves where we spent our first night braaing a local fish (a Kahue) bought from a passing fisherman. Absolutely delicious! From here we also had our first glimpse of the MV Liemba, a ship I will tell you more about later on.

Sunday 3^rd February

We ended up staying at Jacobsen’s camp far longer than originally intended and only left on Thursday, continuing along the road heading south along the lake. During our stay at Jacobsen’s we visited one of the main tourist attractions in the area in a town called Ujiji, where the historic meeting between Livingstone and Stanley took place in 1972 (Stanley supposedly having greeted Livingstone after a two year search for his whereabouts ‘Mr. Livingstone, I presume’).

From Kigoma, the road continues south but heads inland so we didn’t see the lake again for several days. We rattled along on tracks which were mostly dirt road and in some places would have been impassable had it been raining. There are very few settlements along the way and the countryside is mostly indigenous bush.

We reached ‘Riverside camp’ after an eight hour trip covering no more than 150 km (!). This camp is on the edge of a national park called Katavi. The campsite itself is located on the park’s boundry, separated from it by a river which at this point forms a large pool and as we drove in we were greeted by the sight of about 10 hippos lazing in the pool. We could walk right up to about 20m from where they were and watch them which was a real treat (and were watched in return as in the picture above).

We spent the next day in Katavi game park which is mostly inaccessible in the rainy season but because the tracks were reasonably dry we decided to risk it and ended up having a great day with many sightings of yet more hippo, an enormous herd of approximately 600 buffalo, six females lions resting under a tree by the side of the track and many others. This could be our last game park for Don and myself on this trip so it made it extra special for us.

We left yesterday to continue our journey south. Our next destination was a Lodge we had heard about from other travellers, located on the lake, called Lakeside Lodge. It is an absolute jewel in every possible way. As you drive in you are greeted by a sign saying: ‘Come as a guest, leave as a friend’, and that pretty much sums it up.

The whole place is designed with an African Zen touch and after having been ‘roughing it’ (and loving it!) for the last eight months, it feels like total luxury. This is probably the first time on this trip where I haven’t had to keep my flip-flops on to shower. We are camped right on the Lake under a huge Mango tree and out of one ‘bedroom window’ we can see the lake and the other three are surrounded by the tree.

I think I have posted enough sunsets in previous blogs, so I have decided to show you some pictures of our beautiful Zen bathroom:

fresh flowers in the toilets!

 Thursday, 7^th February

Well, we are still here at Lakeside Lodge!

The moment was always going to come where we (Ian & Heather, Don & I) would go our separate ways and gradually our conversations around the fire have changed from ‘Where shall we go tomorrow?’ to ‘What was your best/worst moment, experience’ etc.  So we decided that this is the place where we will part company and head in different directions, Ian and Heather (who still have four months of their travel time left to burn) towards Malawi, Don and myself starting our long trip (3,000 km) back to South Africa before flying back to the UK. We have decided to travel via Zambia (which should be quicker than travelling through Malawi), then stop at Al and Joy’s in Zimbabwe for a couple of days before driving on to Johannesburg and finally Durban.

But there is one more adventure we are going to embark on together and that is to take a cruise on Lake Tanganyika on the MV Liemba starting at midnight tonight. With there being no roads or tracks to speak of along the entire lake, the Liemba is the only lifeline many villages have with the outside world. It runs the entire length of the Lake (starting in Zambia and ending in Burundi) once a week, stopping at several small ports along the way. The ship is too large to dock so everything is ferried  to it by small boats and passed up into the ship, apparently quite a spectacle.

We don’t know what to expect since this steamer not only carries people but also livestock and just about anything that needs to be transported up and down the lake. It is also nearly 100 years old and has already spent 10 years at the bottom of the lake after it was deliberately sunk by the Germans (who owned it) rather than let if fall into enemy hands. In 1927 it was brought up from the bottom of the Lake and has been doing it’s weekly journey ever since.

We have booked a the VIP suite (just in case!) and I have packed my tiara and evening gown and Don his tuxedo, so Ben and Lyn, this could either be the beginning or the end of our cruising experiences.

We will keep you posted when we get back on Sunday!

Rwanda - Part 2

Thursday, 24^th January

After my amazing experience with the Gorillas we left our camp in the foothills of Park the Volcanoes and headed south along Lake Kivu. Like all the lakes and just about everything in the Great Rift Valley, Lake Kivu is no ordinary lake. It is known as the ‘exploding lake’ which has in the past experienced violent eruptions. This rare event occurs when volcanic gases, which are trapped deep in the lake, suddenly erupt, suffocating all life in the vicinity. The last recorded eruption occurred in Lake Nyos (Cameroon) releasing over 80 million cubic meters of CO2 and killing 1700 people. Lake Kivu is constantly monitored and currently the water pressure exceeds the gas pressure so all is well.

We camped at a nice lodge (Paradise Lodge) right on the edge of the lake with amazing views of the mountains in the DRC in the distance (too dark to see them in the picture below).

From here we headed inland towards Kigali, the capital. The main purpose was to see the Kigali Memorial Centre which we visited yesterday.

It is a deeply moving experience and despite having read a fair bit about the 1994 genocide beforehand, some of the facts are simply incomprehensible:

• 1,000,000 people were murdered in 100 days, that is 7 people per minute

• Ordinary people turned on each other, neighbour on neighbour, friends on friends and even family members on their own

• 30,000 children were orphaned.

• In some areas only 1 in 10 Tutsies survived.

• As the genocide neared its end, it is estimated that over two thirds of the population of Rwanda was displaced. 

• The number of refugees was over 2 million (about 10% of the total population at the time). One of the difficulties facing humanitarian personnel in the refugee camps was the fact that many ‘refugees’ were in fact perpetrators fleeing from what they feared would be reprisals.

There are many more gruesome facts and images but the exhibition also pays tribute to some acts of heroism.  Many survivors offered to take orphans into their homes and it is not uncommon to find homes with large numbers of young people living with what were then complete strangers.

And then there is the story of Paul Rusesabagina, which is told in the film ‘Hotel Rwanda’. As the situation in Kigali reached its boiling point, and the streets were littered with bodies, Paul risked his own life and that of his family by allowing fleeing Tutsies and moderate Hutu to take refuge in the ‘Hotel des Mille Collines’, which is right in the heart of the city and where he was left in charge after the hotel’s European managers were evacuated.

The final message is that ‘Rwanda is determined to work towards Reconciliation’ but as an outsider, one is left wondering how that can be achieved given that many families alive today have someone who was either a victim, a perpetrator or a collaborator.

Sunday, 27^th January

We left Kigali and continued south along Lake Kivu.

Rwanda is beautiful, a country of hills, mountains, forests and lakes.  It is also tiny, some 26,000 square km of land and one of the most densely populated places on earth. It is frequently referred to as ‘The Land of a Thousand Hills’ and driving through the country side it is obvious why. You very rarely find yourself on a horizontal road, you are either on the way up or down a hill. There are even hills sticking out of the lakes like in this picture:

The soil is very rich and like Ethiopia, every bit of land is cultivated (except for the National Parks). The whole country looks to some degree like a gigantic garden and everyone is busy attending to their crops. The main things growing here are tea and coffee and you will see very neat, almost manicured, tea plantations stretching over several hills and valleys.

We headed east towards the Burundi border and passed through the Nyungwe National Park but decided not to stop due to the large fees. The park is an ancient rain forest, is famous for it’s biodiversity (it claims to have survived the last ice age!) and is home to around 500 chimpanzees.

The 100 km road passing right through the park was nevertheless a pleasure to be on, surrounded by these ancient tall trees.

Our next planned stop was the Gikongoro Genocide Memorial, which is a former technical college where 50,000 Tutsies fled but were brutally murdered within a few days. Due to the sheer numbers, hand grenades were thrown through the windows in order to flush the people out who were then killed, mostly with machetes. The bodies were then dumped in the college ground in mass graves.

Many of the bodies have been exhumed, preserved with lime and are displayed on the floors of the classrooms and appear exactly as they did when they died with the marks of machetes still visible on many bodies.

Needless to say it is a totally overwhelming sight, especially with so many children and babies amongst the bodies.

I will remember Rwanda for the best and worst moments of this trip.