Just a quick bit of background:-
As some of you will know Florah's from Kenya and we have been planning to go to Kenya in March and April 2008 to see her family and do a bit of travelling. Then the post election violence kicked off at the beginning of January and we were left with a dilemma and not much time to alter our plans. Some research on the net found various companies offering overland trips around Africa and we managed to find one with a company called Bukima who had a trip going from Nairobi to Cape Town that fitted in with the flights we had already booked.
We'll be travelling via Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia and South Africa. It'll take 7 weeks in all and then we'll have a couple days in Cape Town before travelling by train to Johannesburg and then flying back to Nairobi where we'll have a few days with her family.
We'll be travelling in a converted truck with up to 24 others, camping en-route and generally roughing it! Below is a map of the route.
More details can be found at http://www.bukima.com/Overland/Africa%20African%20Trails/AfricaContrasts.php
Nairobi to Arusha (Tanzania)
Arrived in Nairobi (after hassles from Qatar Airways - don't fly with them!) and had 2 nights and our last hot showers before hitting the road. We managed to meet up with Florah's sister, Jane, for the afternoon. Our fellow passengers arrived in dribs and drabs, some already having been on a trip to Uganda and Rwanda, so they knew each other well already. So there will be 13 of us to start but 2 are leaving in Zanzibar and another 4 in Victoria falls where we'll pick up another 3.
Monday morning we head off to Arusha, crossing the border into Tanzania and camping at Arusha. The following day we were collected by two 4 wheel drive Toyoto's and set off for the Serengeti. The migrating wildebeests were not in that part of the Park, but never-the-less we saw most animals, but not in great abundance. Next day on the way out to Ngorongoro, we saw 3 lions close by the road and got some good photo's.
The last photo shows the reality of game driving in East Africa. All the vehicles have radios, so as soon as one driver spots something good within minutes there's large numbers of vehicles vying for the best vantage point. It's the same in most of the Kenyan parks we've been in. I won't be doing any more for a while.
After leaving the Sereneti we visited a Masai village, which was interesting, especially for us as we have previously visited one in Kenya and were able to compare the two.
Ngorongoro is visually stunning, an extinct volcanic crater about 20 km across and packed with all sorts of animals, really enjoyed it there but it was cold camping as it's 6,000 feet up and it rained. From there it was back to Arusha, where we found we had a new truck.
The Wrong Trousers
The next day we had a couple of hours shopping before heading down to the coast. The others stayed in a supermarket complex but me and Florah decided to explore a local market, Florah chatting and bargaining for some fresh produce in Swahili. Before we realise what's going on a Policeman comes over and starts questioning Florah. She's wearing green camouflage trousers and it seems it's illegal to wear army clothing here in Tanzania, because she's black they zeroed in on her and then when they found out she was originally from Kenya they dragged us off to the local Police station as it seems Tanzanian's hate Kenyans. If she'd been white they wouldn't have bothered her.
2 hours later they finally released us after we paid them a bribe of 33,000 TSh's (about £15 - all the money I had on me basically) and confiscated her trousers. Luckily, I managed to persuade them to let me out to go and buy her something to wear otherwise she'd have had to walk back in just her knickers! We have since heard all sorts of horror stories of Kenyans getting beaten up, raped, etc by the Tanzanian Police so I guess it could have been worse.
We've also lost one of our group (a Dutch guy named Joost) due to a family crisis, so after the coast there'll be just 10 of us, one other Kiwi couple, 4 other Kiwi girls, an Oz girl and a Brit girl. Our driver/leader is a Brit, Tim, raised in Africa and who has been doing this for a few years and knows Africa inside out.
Once the drama's were over we were glad to get out of Arusha and head down to the coast, passing Kilimanjaro on the way ...
...and breaking the journey on the way at a campsite near Mombo run buy a black Zimbabwayan, who sympathised when we told him our story and plied us with beer all night. We finished the journey to Dar-e-Salaam the next day with a bit of a sore head.
The Coast
The others went straight off to Zanzibar for all 4 days. We spent two days in Dar-Es-Salaam (known locally as Dar), and 2 on Zanzibar, doing not very much at all - a bit of sight seeing, shopplng, washing, etc. It's very hot day and night, but camping on the beach with a cool ocean breeze and plenty of cold beers make it tolerable. Dar is a large bustling city, and we were regularly hassled by touts. There isn't much to see or do here, we stayed out of town on a campsite on the beach to the south which was secure and pleasant, but not all that cheap so we stayed in our tent rather than upgrading to a room or beach hut.
Zanzibar is probably the main attraction here. It's an offshore island about 80 miles away by sea. We only went for 2 days/1 night and don't regret it. The ferries across are modern and fast and they stamp your passport when you reach here (a throwback to the days when it was a separate principality). Stone Town is the main town and has a very Arab feel about it, most of the buildings are 3 or 4 stories and the streets narrow, so it's easy to get lost. It's even more expensive than Dar, as being an island choice is limited and they have a monopoly. It's also even worse than Dar for touts and people hassling you which ruined the experience for us.
Apart from Stone Town the other main attractions are spice tours and beaches. The spice tours are interesting, if a little rushed, and include lunch and a couple of other attractions (old Arab bath houses and slave prisons) on route. I certainly learned a lot about spices which although commonly used at home, we don't generally know much about the plants they come from, or how they're grown. The beaches are reputedly gorgeous and the Indian Ocean very warm and there are plenty of activities on offer such as snorkelling, diving and swimming with dolphins. Fine if that's your thing, but it's not really ours so we didn't bother and saved our money for later in the trip. My opinion of Zanzibar is that it’s over-rated and over-priced, and only probably worth it if you’re into beaches and all that.
We've found out we're not going Zimbabwe now due to the elections, we'll be going via Zambia instead so will have more time in Malawi.
Southern Tanzania
After Dar we spent a couple of days in southern Tanzania, staying one night in the Baobab Valley at a near deserted campsite, and the second on a farm in the uplands, where they exported flowers to Holland and also grew tobacco. We had an excellent meal there.
We would liked to have spent longer and seen a bit more of southern Tanzania, much more relaxed and hassle free than the north or Dar/Zanzibar.
Malawi
We crossed the border into Malawi without problems and then drove down to lakeshore. Malawi is a very poor country dominated by Lake Malawi which runs nearly the whole length of the country north to south. The roads are virtually empty, as are the shops.
The first place we stayed was at Chitumba in the north on a campsite run by a very nice Dutch couple with a young daughter. There's a bar on the beach, with lots of laid back music. There was a woodcraft market by the gates which had all manner of objects for sale from jewellery and key rings to tables and chairs all beautifully carved, but unfortunately we don't have the room to transport it back to UK.
The second site was Kande (pronounced "candy") Beach, about midway down Lake Malawi. This site is slightly more developed and offers diving, sailing, other water sports and horse riding. We were there for two days and 3 nights and it rained for pretty much the whole time (well it felt like it anyway!). In fact it did stop raining in the afternoons and we were able to have a game of beach volleyball against another truck as well as some locals. We also had a Pub quiz with one of the other trucks. We met a lovely UK couple in their 60's on a truck travelling north from Cape Town, so were able to glean some useful information about the route ahead.
There are in fact a lot of companies offering these sorts of overland trips and now we're here, we are discovering the good and bad ones. Ours is actually a budget trip, ie. camping all the way and no cook. A trip with a cook would be infinitely preferable as cooking seems to be the biggest bone of contention amongst us. The truck itself is very good - well designed with lots of storage and as there's only 10 of us there's plenty of space when we're on the road.
We are currently in Lilongwe - Malawi's capital doing some shopping, etc before we head of to Zambia. It'll take us 3 days to cross Zambia pretty much driving all day long, before we reach Livingstone and the Victoria Falls (our half-way point). I've tried to upload some photo's but without success. I'll try again later, but fear I may well have to wait until we get home.
Zambia
Three hard days of driving saw us across the border into Zambia (where we were stung for $150 each for a visa) and then across to Livingstone. We stopped at Chipata and Lusaka (the capital), but did not see much on the way. Again we would have liked to learn a bit more about the country.
Mosi O Tunya
Mosi O Tunya (The Smoke that Thunders) is the local name for the Victoria Falls. Words can't describe it. Above the falls the river is wide and tranquil, yesterday we had a sunset cruise on this stretch of the river($40 with as much as you can eat and drink), during which most people got very drunk (not me of course!), the food was crap, but it was extremely beautiful.
Below the falls the river runs in a gorge which currently is a seething, boiling torrent due to the rains. Normally used for white water rafting it is too high at the moment so all activities on the river are cancelled.
The falls themselves can be seen for miles around as a plume of mist rises from it up to 500 meters high. As you near it the noise increases and you can feel the mist in the air. Today we took a helicopter ride over them and this is undoubtedly the best way to see them. We not only flew over the Falls, but also down inside the gorge as well. F***ing awesome!
Just below the falls is a bridge which straddles the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. It is from this that you do bungy jumping, etc. Tomorrow we'll go to the falls and bridge and spend the day there.
Seeing the falls on foot either from the bridge or the opposite side of the gorge is just amazing. You feel you could almost reach out and touch them. It is very wet and we were glad of our poncho's to keep us and our bags dry(ish).
Today, we have had a 15 minute microlight flight over the Falls to complete our Fall's experience. Just being on a microlight was a lot of fun and I'd love to be able to learn to fly one.
Tomorrow we leave Livingstone and head across the border to Botswana on our way to the Okovanga Delta to start the second leg of our journey. We have lost the 4 Kiwi's and one Brit, but gained another Brit and a Yank girl. There's a Swizz girl currently stuck in Zimbabwe, who will hopefully catch up with us in Botswana.
Botswana
From Livingstone we crossed the border into Botswana. The River Zambesi actually forms the border, so we had to cross the river by a ferry which had unfortunately broken down, so we had to wait while they fixed it (swopped engines over actually). Consequently, we were late arriving in the camp at Kisane, however, our final passenger was there waiting for us and the next day we had a game drive in Chobe National Park in northern Botswana, seeing yet more lions, elephants, etc (yawn, yawn!!). In the evening we had a river cruise (boozeless!) where we saw yet more hippo, elephants, etc (yawn, yawn!!).
That night we had a discussion about our itinery and decided not to go into the Okovanga Delta proper, as it is horrendously expensive, and instead go to northern Namibia where the Kovanga river enters the Okovanga Delta. So the next 2 days saw us driving along the Caprivi Strip (a narrow strip of Namibia sandwiched between Botswana and Angola - look on a map!).
Namibia
Once across the Caprivi Strip we stayed at a wonderful campsite called Ngepi on the banks of the Kovanga river for 3 days/4 nights. The campsite is owned by an environmentalist and has themed toilets, showers and baths including some overlooking the river, so you can watch the crocs and hippos whilst taking a crap or bath!
He also has quite a sense of humour and there are all sorts of humorous signs around the camp.
There's a 'swimming pool' in the river protected by a cage from the crocs and hippo's.
We had a very interesting village tour one day, a bird walk and then a trip on makoros (wooden canoes) along the river which is a great way to fully experience the wildlife. We also spent one night in a tree house overlooking the river and awoke to watch the sun rise over the river without even having to get out of bed!
From there we headed south towards Etosha National Park. On the way we stopped at the Hoba Meteor, which is the world's largest meteor. It is between 200 and 400 million years old and fell to earth about 80,000 years ago. It weighs around 60 tonnes but has lost about 40% of it's original size due to rust as it's mainly made of iron!
At the moment it is not long after the rainy season, which this year have been very heavy. Much of Etosha National Park is made up of a huge salt pan about 160km x 80km, which is an ancient dried up lake bed, however, when we were there it had filled with water there has been so much rain. We had a couple of nights there and saw lots of game including a White Rhino, Oryx, Kudu, Duiker and many other species of antelope.
We also came across a tree covered with large, colourful caterpillars; little did we know we'd be eating them later!
From Etosha we headed south-west towards the Skeleton Coast across the Namib Desert. Again, there had been so much rain that much of the desert is actually in bloom - an event that occurs about once every 10 years. Very beautiful - grass with silvery ears of seed shimmering in the breeze and once you get up close lots of wild flowers, all colours of the rainbow.
It is also very hot, probably 35 to 40 degrees C.
We camped in the desert near a lone mountain called Spitzkoppe, which was both beautiful and eerie. It also had some Stone Age rock art. This is clearly a zebra.
From there we continued toward the coast, having to dig the truck out on the way when it got stuck in sand trying to cross a dried out river bed.
We finally reached the coast at Cape Cross, to complete our east-west crossing of Africa. There's a colony of Fur Seals there which we stopped to have a look at. It's not long after the breeding season, and there must be several thousand females with their pups, the noise was bad enough but the smell was so bad that only three of us ventured off the truck for a closer look!
From there it was a short drive to Swakopmund - the 'adrenalin' capital of Namibia.
Swakupmund
Swakopmund is a well developed, western style tourist town offering all kinds of activities based not only in the sea but also in the desert, not cheap, but probably cheaper than the equivalent in Europe. There is no camping, so we are staying in a lodge with dormitories, however, we opted to 'upgrade' to a double room which we prebooked. When we got here the room turned out to be a mini apartment with kitchen area, sitting area (with satellite TV), bathroom, and double bedroom. After 5 weeks in a truck and tents it is absolute luxury and all for 10GBP a night! We're here for 4 nights/3 days so should be able to sample a few of the activities on offer.
First day we took a 'township tour'. Townships are a hangover from apartheid days when ethnic groups were forced to live in townships on the edge of town. They still have a strong cultural identity, the local people are called the Damara and speak using a click language, which is lovely to hear, but not to try and speak!
We also visited a school and sampled some of the traditional food including caterpillars like the ones we'd seen in Etosha (and no, they’re not that tasty)!
Next morning saw us up at dawn to go on a hot air balloon over the desert. A great experience which was followed by a champagne breakfast. It turned out the pilot was an expat originally born in Kenya near to where Florah was born and was actually the District Officer for the town she was born in, at the time she was born, and still knew some of the same people we do from the area. It's a small world!
That was followed in the afternoon by quad biking in the dunes. It took me a while to persuade Florah to do it, but she absolutely loved it, much to my surprise. It was certainly a nice way to see the dunes as well as a lot of fun in itself, but surprisingly, it was very cold due to the cold wind coming off the ocean.
Our final activity was on Saturday and involved taking a plane ride in a small plane up to about 10,000 feet over the desert ... and then jumping out! This was one of the scariest things I've done in a long, long while. 30 seconds of freefall then another 5+ minutes under parachute. It was actually a tandem jump, meaning you are attached to another guy who controls the parachute and everything. The views are stunning, but I was too scared to enjoy it to the full, however, at least the whole thing was filmed. Wait till you see the videos!
So tomorrow we leave Swakopmund and continue our journey south to Cape Town which we'll reach in just a week's time, I can't believe we've nearly completed our journey.
Southern Namibia
From Swakopmund we travelled through southern Namibia for the next few days, crossing the Tropic of Capricorn.
We stayed at Sossusvlei and climbed one of the most famous (and photographed) dunes, Dune 45, (named as it's the 45th dune from the coast) at dawn. Although it is only 160m high it was really hard work as the sand is very soft. I felt like I'd climbed Everest, but it was worth it for the views.
Lastly in Namibia, we visited the Fish River Canyon, similar to the Grand Canyon in USA, but not quite as deep, nonetheless still visually stunning. Then it was across the border into South Africa.
South Africa
We are now at Stellenbosch just 60 km and a couple of days from Cape Town, our journeys end (well almost). We have driven down from the border from semi-arid desert to very fertile farmland, staying one night on an orange farm.
Around Stellenbosch is vineyard country and tomorrow we are going on a wine tour. The day after we drive to Cape Town itself, and our trips end although we have a couple of nights in Cape Town before we get the train to Jonannesburg and fly back to Kenya.
The Wine Tour was actually pretty interesting and not too drunken. Best was the Fairview Estate, originally a goat farm it still produces lovely cheeses (goat's and cow's), but is now most famous as a vineyard. It produces wines such as "Goat's do Roam" and other plays on French wines (the French have unsuccesfully tried to sue them).
Cape Town
We arrived early in Cape Town (and officially the end of our trip), so with only a couple days to see the sights we immediately booked a tour to the Cape of Good Hope. Although not the most southerly point on the African continent, it is traditionally known as 'the end of Africa' and the point where the Indian and Atlantic Ocean's meet. It was a whistle stop tour and also included a visit to a Penguin Colony. The tour guide was very informative but would not shut up, insisting on pointing out every house for sale, supermarket, etc. By the end, everyone had had enough of her.
The next day we tried to cram in as much as possible starting with the cable car (luckily it was running, it's often shut due to high winds) to the top of Table Mountain in perfect sunshine and had brilliant views of Cape Town and it's surroundings.
We also managed to book our train ticket to Johannesburg, visit the District Six Museum (about Townships, Pass Laws and life under apartheid), visited the Waterfront and a Museum about Robben Island (the prison where Nelson Mandela was kept), though did not have time to go to the Island itself and bought loads of CD's of South African music at a great shop called 'The African Music Store' on Long Street.
Shosholoza Meyl
The train from Cape Town to Johannesburg is known as the Shosholoza Meyl and takes 27 hours to cover the 1600km, but cost a quarter the price of flying. Although under used and a little on the basic side compared to the luxury of the Blue Train, we thoroughly enjoyed it. We had a 2 berth compartment to ourselves and the restaurant and facilities were very good and very reasonably priced. There were even hot showers!
We didn't get to see much of Jo'burg as we pretty much went straight to the airport. However, it really did not feel at all safe compared to Cape Town and we were glad to reach the (relative) safety of the airport. We flew back to Nairobi overnight and are currently in Kakamega staying with Florah's parents. We'll be back in UK next week 
where I'll add some final thoughts.
Final Thoughts - read this if you are thinking of doing an overland trip in Africa
Well we're back in the UK now with a chance to reflect on our experiences. Would I recommend it? On the whole, definitely yes, but with reservations.
Much of what I'm going to write now will seem negative, so I'll start with some positives. It's an excellent way to see a large number of places and cover a lot of miles without too much hassle (especially if you're young and single). There's no way we could have seen as much, or done as much, if we'd been travelling independently. The truck was comfortable and well designed and equipped, the tents sturdy and didn't leak, and the route and itinery well thought out.
Although we upgraded to rooms some places, this didn't generally cost a fortune and whilst it made a welcome change, it wasn't really necessary. Virtually all the campsites we stayed at had good facilities, most had hot showers, decent toilets, electricity (for charging phones, etc.), cooking areas, bars, restaurants and were very secure. We weren't really roughing it that much and apart from Arusha, the only security issues we had were from some of our fellow travellers (who seemed to think it cool to carry their personal stash of cannabis across some of the borders).
However, in reality, these tours are little more than a white man's tour of white man's Africa, run by white men for the benefit of white men. You'll see the sights, but the opportunities to actually experience the real Africa and mix with locals are pretty limited. You have little control over the route and itinery, at times it felt like we were doing one of those European style coach tours and just watching Africa whizzing past at 80 km/hr. There were some places we would happily have spent less time at, and others we'd have liked to explore further.
If you are thinking of taking a similar trip my advice would be to choose the type of trip and company very carefully. Ours was a budget trip (no cook, just one driver/leader and camping all the way), upmarket ones stay in lodges everywhere, whilst most are in between, camping, but with a cook and often a separate driver and leader. I'd definitely recommend one with a cook.
The food was probably our biggest bone of contention. We were split into groups for cooking and took it in turns, nothing wrong with that except that many of our travelling companions were not very good cooks, or insisted on trying to cook fancy meals on just a basic 3 ringed gas stove. We were supposed to buy our own lunches, but some would deliberately cook too much for the evening meal when it was their turn, and then save it for their lunch, so that we were effectively subsidising their lunch, whilst very often we'd have to sneak off and buy a decent lunch to fill us up, as their cooking left a lot to be desired. We also had to food shop ourselves and it always seemed to be the same people who'd do it, and they'd buy the food they liked. It also eats into the very often limited time we had to look around a place and do our own things when we were in a town.
Try to find out about the composition and numbers in the group you're travelling with. Ours was a small group, which although nice in some ways as it gave us more room on the truck, meant that you were forced to interact with the same few people all the time. Most of our group were in their twenties, whilst we're approaching fifty. A bigger group with a more diverse age range would have given us a greater chance of finding people we could get on with, whilst giving us a chance to escape from some of the more 'exuberant activities' of some of the members of our group.
Above all check out the company as much as you possibly can. We had booked our tour with Bukima, a seemingly reputable company, but ended up being put on another tour run by African Trails, in fact, we never saw a Bukima truck the entire length of our trip. At least we didn't have to pay extra for the privilege, as one couple, who had originally booked with another company, did.
As I mentioned, we changed trucks in Arusha (the company's headquarters) and were told that this truck was new to the company. It is only now that I'm back in the UK that I've noticed that both trucks had exactly the same registration number. As both company and truck are UK registered I can only assume (and I maybe wrong here) that they couldn't get all the paperwork sorted in time, so they merely took the registration plates of the first truck and put them on the new truck, then used all the paperwork for the old truck. Pretty naughty really, if you think about it! Be warned!
From what we saw, companies I'd recommend (in the midrange level) are:-
African Tour Company (ATC);
Acacia;
Nomad;
Dragoman.
Finally, make sure you have enough money to fully participate in all the optional activities available. We did, and it certainly made the trip. 
