After a leisurely 6 weeks in Dar es Salaam enjoying the tropical surrounds and the company of new and old friends, it was time go back to South Africa to sort out Bruce’s future and fly to Australia for the wedding of close friends. We spent two weeks hightailing it to Cape Town via Zambia and Nambia and the 14 days spent on this leg were more eventful roadtrip wise than the previous two months…
Zambia
Day 1: Longest border crossing of the journey. A tourist visa requires queuing 3 times, customs officials don’t believe we are tourists and want us to put down a transit bond on our car until we mention Victoria Falls 3 times. On the plus side the Zambian roads have excellent drainage and we make good time despite 7 hours of relentless rain. We spend the night in a charming guesthouse called the Village Inn in Serenje which is cheaper than camping. They also have the cheapest beer in Africa at ZMW14 a bottle.
Day 2: Police stop us at a roadblock asking to check our third party insurance. They then pocket the insurance certificate until a fine of ZMW200 (USD20) is paid for ‘failing to obtain a police report for a cracked side mirror’ while other drivers pay bribes. We all agree to settle this at the police station however one the of the officers refuses to provide a name or badge number so Andrew takes a photo of him and the phone is promptly confiscated. An intervening policewoman at a checkpoint further down the road gets our phone and insurance certificate back in exchange for giving up the car registration and police badge number we took down earlier. We fail to mention we took down two copies. We stay at the Pioneers Camp in Lusaka which is the nicest city campsite I’ve been to.
For anyone interested, this is only one of three cases of corrupt police we had to deal with, the first time was in Kenya when the officer wanted USD$100 for driving with a rooftop tent but at least he didn’t try to coerce us and we didn’t pay. The other time was for a genuine speeding ticket in Tanzania where the officer tried to ‘refund’ 2/3 of the ticket. We just paid for the ticket.
Day 3: Uneventful apart from preceding the President’s motorcade the entire day and seeing a lot of ladies in wraps with the President’s face on it dance for us by the side of the road.
Day 4: We reach Livingstone and Bruce gets engine oil diarrhoea. There is oil bloody everywhere and we find out too late our oil warning light doesn’t work… with a sinking feeling I wonder if a rat-sized stowaway had something to do with the sensor. Two mechanics later we learn with relief it’s just a loose filter cap that needs new threaded holes. We celebrate with delicious cocktails at the Royal Livingstone and call it a day.
Day 5: Visit Victoria Falls from the Zambian side and it’s decidedly underwhelming. People tell us the Zambezi is at a very low level and a lot of Southern Africa is having a remarkably dry wet season which is rather worrying. It is nice to stretch our legs and after completing all the walks possible we make tracks it to Namibia. The relief is instant as soon as we cross the border.
Namibia
Day 6: Drive through Caprivi Strip, spot a herd of elephants! Camp at the delightful Ngepi Camp that teems with birdlife. Namibia is beautiful.
Day 7: Windhoek on a Sunday. Is deserted.
Day 8: Discover best ribeye steak I’ve ever eaten at the Trans-Kalahari butcher in Windhoek. Meanwhile Bruce starts throwing tantrums a third of the time we start the car and our second battery comes in handy for jumpstarting in the desert. We reach the Namib desert at Sesriem to find a) beautiful sunset vistas from Elim Dune b) scrawny white jackals that look like half starved cat-foxes and c) a dangling water tube from our car that has indeed been rat chewed.
Day 9: 5am wake up to catch dawn over the Namib, the mist shrouded dunes changing colour as the sun slowly burns its way through the cloud blanket. Stunning. After tramping our way up and down Sossusvlei and strolling to Deadvlei it becomes too hot to stay out so we depart still feeling we are among the clouds. 30km down the road Bruce has a hissy fit and overheats. In the time it takes for him to cool off three motorbikes, one SUV and a horse-and-cart pass us by. Only the horse-and-cart is driven by a Namibian and he is the only one who cheerfully waves at us as he ambles past. No more hissy fits from Bruce for the rest of the day.
Day 10: Fish River Canyon and Ais-Ais National Park. The former looks just like the pictures and from the viewpoint it really looks like a giant picture, somehow the third dimension is absent. After making a mental note to do the Fish River hike one day in the cool season we camp at Ais-Ais hot springs resort. In the starkly beautiful desert there’s a thermal spring fed swimming pool by Fish River. We float in the pool to watch the sun set over the canyon and at night we float again to look at the stars. To the sound of Namibian house music. There’s a braai on by the pool and someone’s popped up the boot of the car to play some tunes his friends tuck into some sausages. I love Namibia.
Day 11: As soon as we cross the border we hear that taxi drivers are striking somewhere in South Africa. It’s good to be back. With a car.
Day 12: Bruce is not happy. He does his ‘I’m not starting just because you want me to’ trick a couple of times so we take him to the mechanic. It’s a Friday and the staff are very annoyed about working a full day so they tell us the engine needs a pressure test, to come back later and charge us a lot of money. They don’t bother looking into the engine not starting.
Day 13 – 23: We have an amazing time in Cape Town catching up with old friends and on the kilos we lost travelling for 10 months without a fridge. Bruce is still at the workshop, waiting for his pressure test while we fly to Australia to attend our friends’ wedding.
