Previous Diary Entries:
Start as you mean to go on………… eerrrm, well during the 4 hours it took to clear customs in Tunis, it soon became apparent that RW wasn’t the only one to have had a ‘little accident’ on the 24 hour ferry from Italy. Barry (our trusty Toyota Landcruiser) had sprung a leak! After an inspection from RK ‘chief mechanic’ and a quick consultation of ‘Auto Mechanics for Dummies’ it was clear there was a leak somewhere in the cooling system. Unperturbed, we decided to crack on and head for the bright lights of Tunis to find somewhere to camp for the night - we hadn’t got more than half a mile from the ferry port when, RW decided to try and out manoeuvre the first set of traffic lights by backing up and going round them. Nice idea…….had it not been for the poor little Tunisan car behind, which felt the full hit of the fruit from Barry’s rear bumper as we crunched into their front grill….. ooops!
Humble apologies accepted, we were on our way again, headed for the beach where we stumbled across a perfect spot to pitch camp which, as luck would have it, was next to the poshest restaurant in town – fillet steak washed down with a few beers and the mishaps of earlier that evening were soon forgotten. Due to the two day bank holiday, the next few days were spent bumbling round the charming Mediterranean
Before setting forth into the wilds of Africa we took Barry for a check up at the Toyota dealership in Tunis who fixed him up a treat and got us on our way again. Next stop, the Sahara desert with a quick pit stop en-route to go check out the incredible Roman Amphitheatre at El Jem, where back in the day, the likes of Maximus Peridious Decimus would have strutted his stuff and they used to publicly hang Christian believers on a regular basis….. nice! On arrival in the
Having pitched camp on the beach for our first evening we upped sticks next morning to sniff out a hotel for a decent meal and a bit of luxury on our final night before heading to
Knowing we were going into a “dry” country we decided it would be foolish not to get tucked in whilst we could. Having achieved this nicely, we set off at the crack of dawn the next day with thumping heads to go the Libyan border.
If at first you don’t succeed….. slip the dodgy Libyan geesa some cash and have another crack!!
To get into
Expecting that the
The first night in
Up early next morning and ready to hit the road first thing, but whilst checking our oil levels we noticed that Barry had shed a drive belt. No problem, time to call up ‘chief mechanic’ RK, again,…………three hours later the garage just up the road opened and we managed to get it fixed and back on the road! Not the start to the day we were hoping for with an eight hour drive ahead of us!
Having been told in no uncertain terms by the very friendly (naat) chap at the embassy that our visa’s wouldn’t be ready till the next day, we decided to head out and tick the pyramids off the list. They really are truly amazing and they do leave you scratching your head in wonder, although you get a lot of crap from the locals trying to flog you camel rides on ‘Charlie Brown’ and ‘Harry Potter’!
With our Sudanese visas in our back pocket we legged it from
Stunning drive from the Red Sea up through the mountains and back down into the desert before hitting the
Sudan
It is currently not possible to drive from Egypt to Sudan and the only option open is to take the ferry from Aswan to Wadi Halfa down Lake Nasser - this is hardly a smoothly run P&O like service!
We were instructed to be at the port at 9.30am on the day of sailing with an EDT of 1pm. Having completed the laborious Egyptian paper trial that is emigration and customs we sat around and watched endless cargo from Onions to fertilizer loaded onto the ferry. It was then time for Barry and the four motorbikes that we had joined up with to be loaded onto the barge that would follow the ferry. I think its fair to say it was very African the way they were loaded and precariously position on this clapped out barge and it was with a little apprehension as it chugged off ahead of us. Having found our ‘first class’ cabins (they obviously have a very different classification of first class!) we finally pushed out of port at 7pm – only 6 hours late then! The ferry journey took about 18 hours and was little insight to the friendliness of the Sudanese people. They really couldn’t make you more welcome (in fact it was almost getting annoying by the time the 100th person had welcomed us to
Having docked in the little town on Wadi Halfa and got through immigration we headed into town to find somewhere to bed down for the night, as the barge with Barry on wasn’t due for another 24 hours! We found a great little flea pit of a hotel – well what do you expect for $3? Back to the port first thing in the morning to sort out the paperwork for the car, as we had been instructed to the previous day, to find it deserted. After a few hours a few officials finally rocked up so we could get the ball rolling (slowly all the same!). Finally the barge rocked up with Barry still perched on top and after greasing a couple of palms they allowed us to unload the car and motorbikes first (we had been warned that it could be up to a days wait if we didn’t get them off before they started unloading the rest of the cargo!). Not fancying the flea pit again we legged it out of Wadi Halfa and started on the 400km drive to Dongala. It was a stunning drive that followed the
Well the Toyota service centre in Khartoum kicks the crap out of any garage we have used in the UK before. Having thought we could be holed up in Khartoum for some time while Barry got patched up, in fact we were out and back on the road the next day. Not only did they do a good and quick job fixing him they then reduced the price after we pleaded poverty (not that easy when you are in Sudan standing next to a pimped up Landcruiser with all the gizmos and gadgets!). We weren’t telling too many porky pies as we did have a bit of a shortage of cash on us and none of the ATM’s in Sudan take foreign cards and the banks wont advance cash of your credit card. So if they had charged the full price we would have struggled to get through to Ethiopia to find an ATM (which isn’t that easy either!).
Being mid afternoon by the time we had finished up at the garage we didn’t have much time to get many miles under our belts, but we didn’t fancy staying another night in an overpriced hotel in Khartoum, so we navigated our way out of the city with a view to finding some remote spot to bush camp on the road east to Ethiopia. Well this proved a little difficult as the road followed the Nile for a few hundred km’s and hence was all inhabited by villages. In the end we pulled off the main road and drove up a little farm track just before sunset. We found four or five young guys grinding up some sort of produce (we couldn’t work out what the hell it was and they obviously spoke no English) in a big crusher which were seriously noisy and dusty. Having supplied them with a pack of biscuits and a few fags we then set about trying to ask if it was possible to camp on the farm. Our little ‘point it’ book (little book which has pictures of most things you can think of, so you can communicate with someone who doesn’t speak a word of your language) came in very handy as they were a little bit confused about these weird white guys rocking up on their farm. They were even more bemused and they watched us set up camp – they found the roof tent very amusing.
The following morning, having been woken at sunrise by the crusher sparking into action, we were back on the road with a view to getting nice and close to the Ethiopian border so we could get across the following morning. As we left the Nile and headed east the landscape gradually changed from the desert that is Egypt and Sudan (away from the Nile anyway) to proper ‘African’ bush, with rolling hills and Acacia trees. That evening we pulled off the road and headed a couple of Km’s into the bush for our final night of bush camping in Sudan. As we were pitching our camp a couple of old honey collectors appeared out of the bush on their way home. They sat down in the shade and we gave them a drink and they in return gave us some honey. As they pottered off, we were thinking what great guys they were until we realised that they had left a large swarm of rather pissed off bees with us!
Ethiopia
Next stop Ethiopia (or tchopia as the Sudanese call it) and a record breaking border crossing for us as we were through the Ethiopian border the following morning in miraculous time (we had heard of other people having to camp at the border whilst they messed around with various bits of paper work) heading for the historical City of Gonder. Having been led to believe the road was good we thought we would be in Gonder by lunchtime. After a very slow and bumpy drive we eventually got into town just in time to have a beer and watch the sun set.
We have been lucky to celebrate two Christmas’s inside a couple of weeks as it was the Ethiopian Christmas on our first day here (they have a different calendar here which has 13 months to the year and apparently it’s we’re now in 2001!). This meant it was party time for the whole town, so with one Christmas already under the belt we decided to go for round 2 and get involved. With suitably pounding heads we headed off to the Simien Mountains the following morning. Having worked off our hangover on a very bumpy drive we picked up our ‘Gun for Hire’ (you have to take an armed scout) and headed into the National Park. As you drive into the Park it doesn’t appear to be a particularly mountainous or beautiful place until we came over a little hill and were all of a sudden presented with some breathtaking views. The Simien Mountains are made up of several plateaus, separated by various river valleys, that rise above 4000m high with dramatic cliffs dropping down to the countryside below. We found a pretty amazing spot to watch the sunset with a beer from our well stocked fridge. With the only options being a rather overpriced expensive lodge or camping, we didn’t have much choice but to brave the cold and camp – and boy oh boy does it get brass monkeys up there at night.
The following day we went for a morning stroll before packing up camp and driving a further 25km into the park. The scenery was incredible, although it wasn’t that easy to appreciate it as we bumped along some interesting roads with sheer cliffs to one side! Having set up camp and had a spot of lunch (we tried our ‘cheese burgers’ in a tin – yeah, we didn’t know they existed either and no, they are not worth trying!) we tried to explain to our scout we wanted for go for a small walk. Something was obviously lost in translation as he had us slogging up the side of a mountain for a couple of hours. The views made up for our burning lungs when we reached the top, until we spotted that we could have driven Barry to within about 400 yards! In our new camp we managed to find a couple of young local kids who were keen to practice their English – although it wasn’t long before RW ‘the Colonial’ had the little fellas running to and fro, getting us fire wood, buying, killing and plucking a chicken and even washing up! For any of you people who worry about child labour and all that ghastly stuff, you don’t need to worry as we did give them a lolly each.
After a particularly chilled morning perched on a cliff top listening to music and reading our books we headed out of the park to the local town of Debark so we could be within a days drive of Aksum. The following morning we were pretty pleased that the power cut that evening had cut our beer drinking session short, as I am not sure we could have managed the drive with a hangover. The 160 mile drive involved numerous descents and climbs with butt clenching drops at the side of one of the dodgiest roads in Ethiopia. After seven hours behind the wheel we were fairly glad to reach the historical little town of Aksum.
We had a day off from the grinding roads of Ethiopia so the following morning went and checked out the sights of Aksum. It has to be said that this didn’t take too long! It is claimed that the Ark of the Covenant is held in a little Church in Aksum, but it is too religious for anyone to actually see it, so you can only walk around the little church its held in – hmmmmm!! That evening Man United v Chelsea was being shown in the hotel down the road, thinking it would be on some little TV in the corner of the bar with half a dozen people watching it, we were a little surprised to find a huge conference room with a big projector screen and about 400 hundred football crazy Ethiopian supporters watching the game. They actually managed to create a better atmosphere than you get at the game live with 80,000 people!
The following morning it was back on the dodgy roads to head to Mekele, stopping on route at Debre Damo. This area of Ethiopia has the highest concentration of monasteries in the world and Debre Damo is one of the more impressive ones. To get to the monastery you have to climb up a 15m high cliff on a brittle old rope that has been there for centuries. For a small amount extra you can pay one of the old monks to tie a leather strap around you and pull from the top – with neither of us being particularly fond of heights we both decided to take up this service. RK had the old Monk in fits of laughter as he clambered over the top shaking like a leaf!
From Mekele we headed down to Lalibela, which is the most religious destination in what is a very religious country. As we approached Lalibela up the hill we noticed what looked like a new hotel perched on the edge of the cliff with amazing views. With it being close to sunset (it had been another 8 hour haul behind the wheel) we decided to nip in and have a beer to watch the sunset and then go and find our hovel of a hotel we had identified. Well we never actually made it to our hovel as we struck a deal with the owner to stay in his brand spanking new hotel with the best views of any hotel we have been to. We had a leisurely day checking out the rock hewn churches of Lalibela before we were back on the road heading for Addis Ababa. Being only about 350 miles you would have thought this would be a comfortable half day drive....in our dreams. The first 45 miles (the so called ‘short cut’) from Lalibela took the best part of four hours! Knowing it was futile trying to get to Addis in one day we had decided to take a pit stop half way, which was a good decision as we did about 16 hours driving over those two days to cover just 350 miles!
However, all was swiftly forgotten as we arrived at the home of Denis-Charles and Anne, whom we’d met at Simien National Park and had kindly offered to have us to stay when were passing through Addis. After a month or so on the road the creature comforts and exceptionally generous hospitality of the Courdent family (Home cooked food, fine French wine and....... Scottish Whiskey!!) we’re most welcome. So after an extremely enjoyable and relaxing stay in the capital we were both fully powered up again and ready to explore the rest of Ethiopia.
Our next port of call was
Having decided to spend two nights in Arba Minch (the decision was made for us when we found a cool little lodge with amazing views over Lake Chamo), the following morning we headed off into the Nechisar National Park. Its obviously not a Park that gets many visitors as even Barry struggled to get along the boulder ridden rutted tracks. After a few hours, having only seen a couple of Dikdiks we decided that perhaps this wasn’t the most fun and headed back to the lodge for a bit of lunch. After a quick massage and a little snooze (its amazing how stressful this travelling thing can be!) we hired a boat and went to check out the numerous crocs and hippos that call
The following morning we were off in good time and heading south towards the famous
Kenya
The following morning we were off at first light for what turned out to be a ball breaking (and Barry braking for that matter) three days of driving. We first headed back to Konso to drop off our stoned guide before heading on to the Kenyan border at Moyale. Having cleared emigration, customs and immigration in record time we then got stopped at the police check point at the edge of town. The route south from Moyale has had a bad history of banditry from AK-47 wielding nutters over recent years, so we weren’t too bothered when we got asked if we could give the local chief policeman, who had his shooter with him, a lift to Marsabit which was our next port of call. He was very reassuring when he explained that the police had the banditry totally under control and they hadn’t had an attack for at least a month, when the driver got shot dead!
Well I think he picked the wrong car to get a lift with, as within about 50km of Moyale two of Barry’s shocks were busted. We limped to the next village where the policeman got his local mechanic to meet us to replace the shocks. A few hours later we were back on the road – if thats what you want to call it – to Marsabit, which was only 200kms on. The road was unbelievably brutal, with mountainous corrugations and ruts which just shock us and Barry to bits. We finally crawled into Marsabit at about
The following morning we found a local ‘mechanic’ (no NVQ’s from the Basingstoke College of Technology round here, you just have to wear a pair of overalls and you are then a fully trained mechanic!) who managed to change the broken shocks and surprisingly we were able to find a new shock in a local hardwear shop, so we were able to head off into the Samburu and Buffalo Springs National Parks that afternoon. The hard slog of the last three days was quickly forgotten as we found a cool little camping site next to the river. The following morning we were woken early by Baboons jumping around on Barry to find a herd of elephants wandering past our camp on the other side of the river.
After a bit of a drive around the parks the following morning we then headed on to spend a few days staying with Jamie Gaymer and his finance Carol, who are mates of RW’s brother Mark. Jamie and Carol work and live on an amazing private reserve about an hours drive north of Nanyuki – we were totally spoilt for four days (comfy beds, Nintendo Wii, home cooked food etc) and were made to feel completely at home. It was great to have a few home comforts and some good food after our ball breaking drip from Addis. We had a very chilled few days and also got to go and join in on a rhino capture on the neighbouring farm – just another day in the office for Jamie!
Well, we got suitably drunk in a cool little beach bar watching the rugby, but we still managed to get up and on the road by 7 am (feeling a tad worse for wear). We headed to the
National Parks in
We are getting pretty good at sniffing out the expensive lodges where we pop into to have a beer and a crap (the camp site facilities aren’t up to much!). We found a cracker not too far from our camp site where we sat around the pool sinking ice cold beers – the wireless internet was a bonus! We thought we had found a cool little camp site which we would have for ourselves, until just before dark when a truck load of Germans rocked up and with consummate efficiency pitched camp right next to us – enough said....
We were up in good time the following morning to make the most of our 24 hours in the Serengeti. Having timed it perfectly to be at the exit gate with just 10 minutes of our 24 hours wasted things were going swimmingly. That is until Barry decided he didn’t want to start after we have stopped to sign out. Having
worked out it must be a flat battery or a dodgy starter motor we got
the wardens to give us a push start so we could head into the town of
The
following morning we were at the garage first thing to be told that two
of our batteries were buggered, but they did have the same ones in
stock. Having been told they were $300 a pop we
were a little cheesed off, but having checked around elsewhere and
being quoted more than this we didn’t have much choice - unless we
wanted to push start it all the way to South Africa!. While
we were parked up outside the garage changing the batteries someone
swiped our Dutch friends bag out of the back of the car. It
has to be said this must have taken some balls, as it was done whilst
we were standing at the front of the car with the bonnet up. Unfortunately, in the bag was his passport, camera, ipod etc etc. While
Having previously planned on spreading the long drive to the capital of
The next morning was set aside for trying to arrange permits for Gorilla Trecking. With a price tag of $500 each for the privilege of spending 1 hour with the gorillas we did have to give it some thought, but with the probability of only being here once we felt it would be stupid not to. With the first possible date available for us to do it being five days away we decided we would have three nights in Kigali before having a couple of nights ‘on the beach’ at Gisenyi.
That afternoon we went to visit the Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre which was a fairly harrowing experience to learn about how over 1 million Tutsi people were beaten, clubbed and hacked to death by their Hutu neighbours. It was pretty hard to take it all in, particularly the fact that 250,000 of the murdered victims were buried in mass graves around the Centre.
In contrast to a rather sobering afternoon at the memorial centre we sniffed out a bar with Satellite TV to spend the evening watching a fight of different sorts as the English battled away, on the rugby pitch, against the Welsh – sadly, to no avail!
Next morning, with a day to kill in town, we made a bee-line to
Feeling some what sorry for our selves we headed out of
Having left Marcus to head south towards
The following day we headed off to the Parc National des Volcans in preparation for our gorilla trekking the following day. Up at the crack of dawn and at the Park Headquaters by 7 am we were soon bumping Barry along a dodgy track for an hour or so, before we headed off on foot. It was a fairly steep climb up the side of the mountain, but we only had to trek for an hour or so until we met the trackers, who go out before the tourists to establish where exactly the gorillas are. The trackers then led us on another 100 yards or so and there they were – wild mountain gorillas chilling after their morning feed. It really was pretty cool to spend an hour watching this family of gorillas, and boy oh boy was the Silverback HUGE! After being torn away from the gorillas when our hour was up we proceeded to slip and slide back down the mountain in fairly heavy rain. It was then back to the lodge for a couple of beers sitting around the fire.
The following morning we headed for the Ugandan border and onto
After a day spent checking out the sites of Kampala and sorting out a couple of admin issues, we headed off for the adrenaline capital of East Africa, Jinja, to partake in a spot of white water rafting down the Nile. Being only a short drive from Kampala we had the afternoon to kill before doing the rafting the following morning, so we headed off to check out the Bujagali Falls. Its not so much as a waterfall, more a particularly poky grade 5 rapid which we would be taking on the following day. Hanging around this set of rapids are a collection of young local guys who offer to throw themselves into the rapids, in exchange for a small payment, with only the aid of an empty jerry can to keep them alive! Our guide book suggested it was very irresponsible for any tourists to pay these guys to risk their life for a couple of dollars. We totally agreed with this until after some excellent bartering we were offered far too a good price to refuse. Lets just say they deserved a lot more than they got, as you would never catch either of us doing it! Total nutters.
We were up early doors the following morning in preparation for our day of rafting. After the obligatory briefing we were on our way down the river towards the first set of rapids. It all seemed very easy as we sailed into the mouth of the first rapid, until RK got flicked out the side of the raft like a rag doll. Our early memories of the Nile, from Egypt and Sudan, of a gently meandering river ferrying Felucas up and down stream were swiftly shattered as two rapids later our boat flipped, spewing us all overboard and into the drink. By the close of play we’d flipped three times and consumed copious amounts of lovely Nile water, so it was time for a hasty retreated back to the camp site for a particularly well deserved beer or two.
Feeling a little stiff and hungover we were off at first light for a full days drive to Nairobi. The map suggested it was tarmac the whole way, but no such luck. When we finally pulled into town after 12 hours of driving we were really feeling all the paddling we had done the previous day. Things did get better though as we treated our selves to a bloody good steak at one of the best restaurants in town. The following morning we went back to see our German Peter Stringfellow lookalike who had sorted Barry out when we had passed through Nairobi a month previous. Having managed to get Barry ship shape again we were back on the road by lunch time with a view to getting as close to Mombassa as we could that evening.
Having spent the night in a delightful hotel in the lovely little town of Voi (no sarcasm at all) we headed off the next morning to Watamu where we were meeting with RW’s brother Mark, his wife Katie and their mates Wainers, Randy, Livie, Louise and Laura. They had rented an awesome cottage right on the beach with a cool little pool and thatched chill out area. Being poor travellers we were slightly free loading of these guys, so couldn’t claim stake to any of the five bedrooms, so had to make our nests on a couple of sofas. We started our week on the beach as we would continue, by getting totally shit faced in front of the rugby that evening, followed by stupid drinking games and then a game of water polo in the swimming pool. I say water polo, but in fact it was just one big groping session as the girls just couldn’t keep their hands to themselves! After three days of similar nightly activities and days spent attempting to recover, we had a civilised night without getting too drunk – however the girls did seem a little aggrieved to miss their groping session.
The following day it was a 5.30 am start for the boys to test their skills against some Marlin. Due to the size of the boat not all of us could go, so after a coin toss, RW was left to look after the ladies and apply the sun cream. From all accounts it had been a really hot fishing season – and I say had because it appears we missed it by a day! Having said that, Wainers did manage catch a small stripped Marlin, while the others managed to haul in a couple of Dorado. To make sure everyone got their chance we had hired the boat for two days so the following morning RW, RK and Wainers set off to try their luck. Jamie Gaymer, who was down staying with Carol at his family house just along the beach, had organised the boat for us and was captaining it so we got an even better rate. Jamie is actually a world famous fisherman (or so he likes to think), who holds the record for the largest Black Marlin caught in Kenyan waters. Despite Jamie’s experience from three seasons captaining a boat in Watamu, we didn’t get any luck on the Marlin front, but RW did manage to reel in a nice Sail Fish.
That evening we headed off to the bright lights of Malindi, 25 km’s up the coast, to a very nice restaurant, were we got suitably pickled before heading off to the casino and then back to the house for more frolicking in the pool. This quickly came to an end when the girls were sent running by Randy getting a lazy lob on in a rather skimpy pair of pants!! The following morning Mark and Katie flew up to Nairobi for little Alistair’s christening, leaving the rest of us to mess around in the pool and on the beach for the day. Jamie and Carol very kindly had us round for dinner at their place that evening, and after a rather heavy week it was a slightly more gentle night. On the Saturday morning the rest of the team flew up to Nairobi for the Ball - the actual reason why they had all come out to Kenya. After much dithering we decided to head south towards the Tanzanian border, rather than head north and check out Lamu. We headed back to the very nice beach of Diani where we frequented the cool little Forty Thieves beach bar as we recovered from a very heavy, but amusing and fun week.
Feeling a little more refreshed after three days at Diani we headed south into Tanzania and found a nice little spot on the beach just south of Tanga. We had only planned on spending the night here before heading down to Dar, but with time on our side and being such a cool place we decided to hold tight for another day which was spent out on a Dhow, stopping for the odd spot of snorkelling and chilling on an awesome little island which was surrounded by the clearest azure waters you could imagine.
After dragging ourselves away, we hit the road the following morning and headed for Dar. We had set aside the following day for sorting out a couple of admin issues, mainly our visas for Mozambique, before heading over to Zanzibar. We arrived at the very organised and quiet looking Mozambique Embassy. Well there was a good reason why it was quiet – it had run out of visa stickers and as such wouldn’t be in a position to issue any visas for up to two weeks! But the helpful chap did try to make us feel better by pointing out that we wouldn’t be able to get into Mozambique from Tanzania as the car ferry had recently sunk and the new bridge was still not finished. You can only laugh. We went off and consoled ourselves with a large rare steak and a few beers.
The rare steak was a bit of a mistake as it gave us a bit of a dicky tummy which isn’t the best recipe for taking a boat for three hours across to Zanzibar. Our day was made worse as we docked in the historic Stone Town to find out we shouldn’t have left our passports safely locked in the safe of the car. Still being Tanzania, and having checked with the hotel, we thought we wouldn’t need out passports. Having initially being told we would have to get straight back on the boat, we finally convinced the immigration officials to let us in.
After a stroll around town the following morning checking out the local sights and a couple of museums, it was onto the main task for the day – finding somewhere to watch England v France rugby. This turned out to be a little more tricky than we thought and turned into a reasonable excuse for a pub crawl round Stonetown. We finally got lucky on our sixth attempt and feeling suitably squiffy we settled down to watch England hammer the Frogs.
The following day we busted out of Stonetown and made our way north to the coastal village of Nungwi, a popular backpackers haunt famous for its’ picture postcard beaches and party vibe. After a hard afternoon wallowing in the warm turquoise waters we sniffed out a particularly chilled bar on the beach where we bumped into a handful of travellers we’d met in Uganda. A quick coca cola to quench our thirst soon descended into one or two beers and it was only in the wee hours that we made it back to the hostel. Our intention had been to stay for only two days but having found a little slice of paradise we thought it rude not to indulge a wee while longer and so the following few days were well spent kicking back on the beach and frequenting Cholo’s beach bar. Unfortunately though, all good things come to an end and it was with much reluctance that four days later we packed up and headed back to Dar where we picked up Barry and the following morning said our goodbyes to the east coast. Due to our problems with getting visas and access to Mozambique we decided to head inland towards the Southern Tanzanian highlands, so we could then drop into northern Malawi.
Our first port of call was a campsite just outside the Mikumi National Park which was about a four hour drive out from Dar. We were up at the crack of dawn to make the most of our time in the National Park. After a leisurely drive around during the early morning, we then did our good deed for the day by pulling out a group of Germans who had got stuck in the mud. As the day got really hot and the animals scarpered for the shade, we did similar and found a nice little spot for a full English Breakfast! Having consumed our bacon and eggs we decided it was still far too hot to get back in the car, so settled in to watch a DVD under the shade of a huge Boabab tree. After a good drive around and a quick pit stop in a luxury lodge for a cold beer, we headed back to our campsite. We had done our research the previous afternoon and found a local hotel with satellite TV so we could watch the finale of the six nations. I think we made a couple of locals who had come to watch the footie less than amused as we hogged the remote!
We had heard about a cool little campsite on the river near the town of Iringa, so the following morning we trundled off to check it out. Being suitably up to our standards, and best of all, due to its altitude nice and cool we pitch camp and chilled out for the afternoon. We were back on the road the following morning with a view to getting nice and close to the Malawian border. Despite getting done for speeding by some sneaky copper, we made good time so decided to get through the border that evening. Being rather late, we stopped and camped in the border town of Karunga, which has to be said doesn’t have much going for it. As a result we were up good and early and headed south for 100 km’s or so, to a very agreeable spot on the beach of Lake Malawi.
