I even got to do what I had been longing to do the entire southern part of the trip – go on a horseback safari! It was at a smaller game farm outside of Durban and I did see a few animals – including nyala for the first time! – but other than that I was kept busy trying to control the horse… It was a Lesotho cross, which means it’s a smaller horse with LOTS of energy and stamina. He seemed really calm at first and I thought “cool, this will be a nice and easy ride and I will get to just chill and enjoy the scenery”. What scenery? I thought to myself as we returned to the stables, me on shaky legs from all the adrenalin after a few proper sprints where a canter quickly turned into gallop. It was lots of fun, but not quite the relaxed ride I was after. Having told them I’m an experienced rider they obviously gave me one of the horses that requires some experience. Calaco, the palomino colored Lesotho cross, also proved to be a bit of a leader figure and was the happiest to go in front. “They can be a bit competitive” said Unathi, the guide on a dark brown thoroughbred. So I was a bit surprised when he later came up right next to me and Calaco in a canter, which made Calaco switch into higher gear instantly and took off as if it was a matter of life and death. Next time I will tell them I’m an experienced rider but I want a beginner’s horse. That’s probably the only way to really get to relax and enjoy the wildlife!

 We went together with our friends up to Swaziland where they had contacts and treated us to a two day stay at a country club. Brian was keen to do some fishing and although there was clear evidence of lots of fish in the dam he only caught one small tiger fish in the hours we spent out there.

We said goodbye and the short trip north towards the Mocambican border was quite an emotional ride. We were now going for our very last border crossing on this long trip. Was this really it? Was it really almost over? It had all gone by far too quickly. The fun and adventurous – but relatively safe and smooth – trip we had had wasn’t quite in proportion to the year and a half of difficulties and hard work it took to make it happen. It felt like it had almost been too easy. Wasn’t it supposed to be more of a life altering challenge? Sure, we’ve been through several situations, but nothing we couldn’t handle. We figured it’s probably because we’ve been very well prepared. We’ve been prepared for any possible situation and we haven’t taken any unnecessary risks.

The border crossing between Swaziland and Mocambique turned out to be the longest and most difficult in a long while, ironically, not to mention the super expensive visas that must be some of the most expensive in Africa. 80 USD per person for a 30 day visit. Sure, we’ve paid around 50 USD to a lot of countries but coming from the last five countries where you don’t even need a visa… Firstly, their web camera didn’t work so having our photos and fingerprints taken for the visas turned into a lengthy process. Then they didn’t have change. It would have been one thing if it was a matter of 4 USD but it was 40, so we didn’t want to just leave without it. After waiting around for a long time without really knowing what was going on – back in a country where people don’t speak English and our level of Portuguese is quite basic – we were finally allowed to pay with a combination of USD and Rand instead. Then we had to get insurance. And all of a sudden you couldn’t pay in USD anymore, only Meticais or Rand. And we were out of any other cash and there was no exchange bureau at the border… But asking a South African family also crossing the border we were lucky, the father had a bit of cash and was willing to change some USD. Phew!

It’s weird how countries can be so different when they’re right next to each other. From a distance they might seem very similar but taking a closer look you’ll find the little things that differ in culture, language, climate, society, infrastructure and so on. As we started driving into Mocambique I just knew we were back. Everything, the people and the smells and the views, just felt so familiar. And it was good to be back. Then it kind of dawned on me that we had, in fact, driven all the way there. Having been here many times before but always arriving on an airplane reminded me of the journey we had just undertaken to get here.

We went to Maputo where we stayed in a house that belonged to friends of the family for one night, before meeting up with Petri at the airport the next day. He seemed excited to be in southern Africa for the first time. He travelled with a small backpack only so it wasn’t much work to prepare space in the car. We headed out of Maputo and set direction for Chokwe, about 200 km northwest of the capital. We were gonna meet up with some people working together with Swedish Cooperative Centre (Kooperation Utan Gränser), the charity we are supporting. Chokwe was badly affected by the floods in the end of January this year. Still to this day, people haven’t been able to rebuild their houses and can’t grow crops so the needs are great in the area still. It was quite overwhelming to see the miserable conditions under which people were forced to live. You can read all about our visit to Chokwe in another blog post coming up.

Setting off from Chokwe it really felt like we were now on the very last leg of the trip. The sadness that had been the theme for the past few weeks was now quickly replaced with excitement over getting to see the family and everyone in Vilanculos again. We were both so grateful to have all these things to look forward to, which made the end of the trip much easier to handle. Imagine coming to the final destination, having nobody there to greet you, celebrating with a beer at the local pub – and that’s it? Packing up the car to ship it back or try get it sold, booking a flight ticket and just return home. That’s probably the case for most overlanders, but with our background we weren’t just driving through Africa, we had a home to get to. Leaving home, going home.

Our very last camp night was in Maxixe at a nice little campsite right by the sea where Petri kindly treated us to dinner at the restaurant. It felt quite nostalgic crawling into the tent that night, knowing it would be the last time in a very long time.

 We woke up to a hot and sunny morning and got ready for the big day. It was about a three hour drive up to Vilanculos and we stopped a few times along the way when Petri wanted to get some specific footage.

Outside Vilanculos we had made a plan with the family for Petri to be picked up so that he could also film our arrival. We met with Brian’s brother in law Kurt in Pambarra, 20 minutes inland from Vilanculos and maybe 10 minutes from where the family lives. Kurt and Petri jumped into the car and told us to wait 30 minutes before leaving. That must have been the longest half an hour of our lives. We just wanted to go! We sat there eating some sandwiches Kurt had brought and listened to some music but eventually we literally started counting the minutes… So we took off and drove the absolute last few kilometers of our long wayawaya trip to Brian’s family’s house. Going in through the gate we saw the family and a few friends waiting in the driveway. I saw Brian’s mom and sister were about to start crying and could feel the tears piling up in my eyes too. But then we got out of the car and everything was just a big blur of hugs and kisses, dogs greeting us, congratulations and champagne being poured all over us… I got this complete blackout and couldn’t for my life understand what all the fuss was about. It seriously felt like I had just pitched up at work on a regular Tuesday morning and all my colleagues were there to celebrate me for no obvious reason…

It was so good to be back, but the emotions were running high and low through us as we also had to come to terms with the fact the our trip was now over. This was it. We were here. With the family in Vilanculos, who had been eagerly (and often nervously) following every kilometer of our trip, just like my family and friends had done back in Sweden. “Congratulations to your first arrival!” my parents wrote in an sms, meaning they will probably only relax fully once we’re back in Sweden again…

We spent that afternoon in the garden with a nice braai and lots of stories from the trip. Slowly we relaxed and after all, it was quite a nice feeling knowing we didn’t have to get up and drive anywhere the next day. Or the day after that… Now we’ve spent a couple of weeks here. Petri has been with us for some time, documenting all the talking about the trip and us emptying the car. It is gonna be so much fun seeing the end result of his filming, but as he has several projects going on it probably won’t happen until much later this year. I’ll try and keep everyone posted about the documentary. Now we will have a good rest and just chill with friends and family here for a bit before it’s back to work in Sweden in a few weeks!

One night and filling up with fuel and doing some grocery shopping in Francistown, then we headed west. We wanted to visit the Makgadikgadi salt pan and drove to Gweta where we spent one night at Planet Baobab. It was a cool, slightly quirky and different place. We had some time in the late afternoon so we enjoyed a dip in the big swimming pool before starting up a fire and having a braai with steaks, boiled sweet potatoes and roasted butternut, carrots and onions.

From Gweta we headed off towards the pans but had done zero research beforehand and had no idea what to expect. All we knew is that we were in the rainy season and that the salt pans would be a little greener than usual. The gate to the Nxai pan (yes, it has a click sound in it!) came before the Makgadikgadi so we decided to turn in there and speak to the park staff to find out some more info and then maybe go to Makgadikgadi after. But it was already late morning so we got a bit stressed realizing how big these parks are and how little time we had left that day. The guy at the gate office told us Nxai is better than Makgadikgadi and we decided to take his word for it. We thought about camping inside but the camp was privately owned and they charged something ridiculous like 270 pula per person per night. To sleep in your own tent! After complaining a bit to the poor guy at the desk – who obviously didn’t have anything to do with their rates – he eventually sighed and offered us to camp in the parking lot next to the office. We thanked him and said we’d come back to the gate by the time the park closed.

Heading into the park it was just vast bush land in all direction and we quickly realized we wouldn’t get to see much wildlife as the grass was tall. It was simply the wrong season if you wanted to get the “real” experience of the park. But soon we were pleasantly surprised when we started spotting quite a few gorgeous gemsbok (also known as oryx), which neither of us has seen before. They’re truly one of the most beautiful antelopes if you ask me.

We headed towards the pan area to see a place called Baines baobabs. Not knowing much beforehand we had no idea who this Baines might be but figured it must be some special baobabs worth seeing. And sure enough, as we entered the pan we could see some major sized baobabs on a little green island in the middle of the salty gray flatland.  But how would we get there? We tried to follow the most recent tracks we could see on the ground ahead but ended up driving around in the pan quite a bit, reluctant to just cross the open areas as there was water and mud, and rather stay around the edges where we had a good grip. Eventually we had to make a run for it and go across. Was this going to be the first time we got stuck during the trip? And would there be anyone there to pull us out in that case? Most likely not. We’d have to dig ourselves out and it could get messy, with the merciless sun as well. But we made it across with just a few skids in the mud and eventually reached the Baines baobab island. Just to find another overlander vehicle parked just beneath the trees. ”Why did you come from that side?” they asked surprised and we realized we should have gone the other way around, which was much easier. We were invited to have coffee with this nice Austrian couple who had rented the car in Johannesburg and was now touring Botswana for a month. It turned out Baines was a guy called Thomas who had painted the baobabs during a long expedition on foot in 1862. The trees are believed to be around 3 000 years old.

It’s amazing how just some simple facts can make you feel quite enlightened and having learnt about Baines we took off to see some more of the park. We had told the Austrian couple that we hadn’t seen so much wildlife yet but that was about to change. As we came around a bend on the island we spotted two elephants pretty far away. Then one showed up maybe 100 metres away. Then another turned up in the bush maybe 50 metres away. After that we just saw elephants everywhere it seemed as we continued driving. A bit tired from the sun and the heat we soon set direction back towards the gate. Arriving there between 3 and 4 in the afternoon we figured we didn’t have to spend the night in a car park but could push on for Maun, our next stop about 1,5 hours away. So we said cheers to the guy at the office, pumped up the tyres again and went.

Maun is a bit of a tourist hub for people wanting to go to the Okavango delta or the Kalahari. In the Lonely planet book we found a place desribed as a bit of a party place where backpackers, bush pilots and locals mix. As it was Friday we thought it could be fun to meet some people so we headed for this place, Old bridge backpackers. And boy, was the guide book right. Surveying the crowd in the bar and chatting to some people we had soon met some travellers, some locals and a couple of pilots who had just arrived looking for a job in Maun. Oh, and they were right about the partying too. It didn’t take long before the locals had taken us under their wing and challenged us to games of pool. The place reminded us a lot of Smuggler’s, our old favourite place in Vilanculos, so we felt quite at home.

We had a nice little campsite and as always when we spend more than one night somewhere, it was so nice not having to pack up camp everyday to drive somewhere. We did the whole thing, table and chairs, the big Primus stove out and even the awning to get some shade. Unfortunately I started getting a cold so I was quite tired for the rest of the weekend. We had been thinking about going on a mokoro trip in the delta (dugout canoe) but hesitated when we saw the prices (sorry I keep mentioning about prices and money all the time, but that’s a big part of a trip like this, especially towards the end of it). We figured we might be able to do it cheaper somewhere less touristy. So we just chilled over the weekend as I tried curing my cold. There was wifi but only by buying vouchers and trying some just to do some necessary emails I realized it was quite expensive, so no blogging at that stage – plus my head was heavy and groggy and pretty worthless at the time.

We then drove around the Okavango delta and up to western side of it. Again, we had done very little research and made the mistake of heading for a campsite without checking our options. As we turned off the main road it was another 20 km through the bush, crossing rivers and everything. As we finally got there it turned out to be a fairly posh bush camp with safari tents on stilts in the delta. The campsite wasn’t anything special though, on the contrary, so we regretted not having looked at some options as the managing lady charged us the highest prices so far in Botswana. Having come all the way out there we didn’t quite feel like working our way back through the bush that evening.

The following morning we went out on a mokoro trip but decided to only do a half day. I had a terrible runny nose and wasn’t looking forward to sitting in the sun but at the same time I was really excited to do something completely different to everything else on the trip so far. Petzi, our guide, started by pointing out that a mokoro capsizes easily. Ok cool, thanks for letting us know, considering the amounts of hippos and crocs in the water. I made sure to sit dead still as he pushed us out and we were gliding through the water. It sure was quite wobbly but I soon got used to it and relaxed. And that’s when I realized how nice it was. Gliding silently past water lilies and reeds, listening to fish eagles crying around us.

And I realized it wasn’t so different from the gondola trip we had done in Venice! Except a bit different after all. No crocodiles in Italy as far as I know. And the surroundings a bit different too, of course. And the boat, from the massive gondola with painted ornaments and velvet seats to a narrow carbon fibre canoe with plastic chairs. But still! For once I was very relieved we didn’t see any bigger wildlife. The idea of pushing the mokoro over to keep it between us and an agitated hippo, treading water with crocs lurking around, didn’t appeal to me. Petzi did a great job guiding, clearly knowing everything worth knowing about every bird species in the area and most plants too, characteristic to the delta. All in all it was a very cool experience.

The border, Chirundu, took quite a while since we unfortunately arrived just after a couple of bus loads of people. As we stepped out of the car we were straight away surrounded by some men, looking all official with id cards and what not, wanting to ”help us” make the process quicker. It was all a way of making money and we told them we didn’t want to pay any bribes. We managed to shake them off after a while, I went inside and went around doing the customs processes for the car, while Brian waited in line with our passports for immigration. Almost sleeping with boredom and frustration we eventually got our visas and stamps from a really funny guy behind the counter so we left with a smile on our faces after all. I wish all border officials were like him!

We were now well in time to meet up with the family for Christmas – we even had a few days to spend before they would get to the northern part of the country so we decided to go to Mana pools national park. After neglecting the safaris through eastern Africa we were now all stoked up, planning on spending several days in the park and just enjoy it. It would be the first time in Mana for both of us and all we knew about it was that it’s a fully open park where the animals sometimes roam through the campsite and where you can go fishing in the Zambezi. I was so excited, imagine getting to spend several days in there! But sadly the excitement was crushed quickly when we arrived and were informed of the prices. We managed to get them down quite a bit by Brian claiming to be Zimbabwean, but it still landed on 70 USD for entry, car fee and camping and would have been another 10 USD per person per day if we wanted to go fishing. Nothing hair-raising compared to east Africa but we realized it would add up to quite a lot if we were gonna stay there for almost a week. So once again we weighed our options and decided to go for the cheapest, easiest one. Quite disappointed we decided to only spend one night in Mana and then head straight for to Doma (where the family was gathering for Christmas) a few days early – where we would after all be able to relax, go fishing and possibly spot some wildlife – for free.

It still turned out to be a very eventful and fun almost 24 hours in Mana, although the famous Mana elephants were ever absent (only saw one in the bush as we left the park). We set up camp maybe 100 meters from the river and were the only ones there except for a a South African family with kids a bit further away. We cooked a coconut chicken stew for dinner and shared a bottle of wine. I had been jumping around screaming as I was stirring the pot on the tailgate since there was a rain spider (also known as Kalahari Ferrari because they move so fast – not actually a spider but a sort of a cricket that seems to want to attack you but all it’s doing is running for your shade to get out of the light of your head torch – do I need to tell you I don’t like them much?) that was running around my feet (once I freaked out and jumped and accidentally kicked my shoe off and it landed in Brian’s face – oops – but he’s so nice and considerate helping me treat this phobia by just sitting there watching me, hey?!) and I very much appreciated getting to finally sit down by the table, eat and relax. We had some lights on the back of the car but otherwise it was dark, except for the South African family’s fire burning. We stayed there for a long time, just sitting talking and enjoying the evening. And just as my pulse had reached its normal beat after the Kalahari Ferrari dance I saw something at the corner of my eye, just coming into the light. I looked over my shoulder to the left and there was a big hyena slowly walking past us, looking at us. Less than 10 metres away. I have heard about people who, when they get a fright, turn into jelly and can’t do anything, but I’ve never had that reaction myself – until now. I turned to Brian and said in a sleepy voice ”Brian… There is a really big hyena right there…” The lack of urgency in my voice meant it took a second before he realized what I had just said, but then he turned around, clapped his hands and shouted and scared the hyena away. It took off and ran into the dark. Watching it moving away, my state of shock released and I burst into tears at the same time as I was laughing.

I know it would have been way worse with an agitated elephant or a lion but a hyena looks much bigger less than 10 metres away than they do from a car at a distance, let me tell you!! The hyena lingered around our camp, its eyes shining in the dark, waiting for us all to go to bed so it could come out and search for leftovers. It had obviously smelled our cooking and was looking for some treats.

In the morning we would have some hours to drive around in the park before heading  for Doma and we both woke up, excited, before 06. A group of vervet monkeys were busy going through the South African family’s campsite as they were still asleep. A group of buffalos had spent the night about 50 meters away and now started getting back up on their feet and move away. We had breakfast and packed up camp and leaving the campsite area we met a staff vehicle and a guy told us there was a lioness with cubs about 3 km away. We followed his directions but didn’t find them, despite driving back and forth through the area a couple of times. As we later saw the vultures scoff on a small kill, we figured the lioness might have taken her kids for a hunting lesson, taking down one of the many baby impalas.

As we were heading onto a smaller slightly muddy road to go and see the Mana river mouth we slowed down as there was a tree growing across the road and we weren’t sure we could get under it with the roof tent. It was all thick bush on both sides, with a big puddle of water as well, so we had no choice but to slowly go under the tree. As we’re about to start Brian suddenly slams on the breaks. There’s a big hippo just left of us in the bush. We’re in between the hippo and the water, which is always a very bad idea. Hippos are very territorial and the worst reaction is usually caused by cutting off their path between their swimming pool and their grocery store. It’s unusual to see Brian as tense as he was now. He told me a friend of his had once had a hippo charging his car. Its sharp teeth had gone straight through the door, lifting the entire door off the car. We now had to either try the crawling in the mud under the low tree or try reverse out of there. The hippo was suddenly gone (how can such a massive animal hide behind some leaves?!) and we decided to try move forward. Problem was that if the hippo would then reappear, looking less happy, we would have to quickly maneuver our way back, reversing under the low tree. We just made it under the tree and the hippo had moved a bit further into the bush so we quickly drove away from there, wiping the sweat off our foreheads.

A bit later we stopped by a small tree just by the road where some beautiful stark looking birds were making an awful lot of noise – which usually means there is a snake around. Brian soon spotted it where it was lying underneath the tree. I saw a part of the body, then another part of the body, then the head a bit further away. How long was this snake?! It was dark grey and easily more than 2 metres long. Most likely a black mamba, the most poisonous snake in Africa. Brian tensed up again, and told me that I must just notify him if the snake would start moving towards the car. Some snakes are known for going up into the engine bay, who knows why – maybe the heat of the engine attracts them, or it’s just a good hideout. It’s really hard to find them in there and they can sometimes come into the car from there, and you don’t wanna have a black mamba looking at you as you step into your car! I stared at the snake, trying to figure it out as it started moving around. It would be on its way up the tree one second and on its way back down the next – it was so fast! Suddenly it went out onto the road and was coming straight for the car at a speed I’ve never seen a snake move before so I screamed and Brian reversed a few metres in the blink of an eye. The snake got spooked and turned around back into the grass and we quickly drove away from yet another pulse raising situation in Mana pools.

As we got to Doma, a safari lodge run by Brian’s second cousin Gordon, we were the only ones there and the family would only turn up a few days later so we spent some time fishing on the lake and going to town for some errands with Ephert, the manager. His name could just as well had been Effort because he is such a nice, devoted and hard working guy.

It was sooo nice to enjoy the comforts of the lodge after four months on the road. Having our laundry washed, food cooked and a room to ourselves. And I think what I appreciated the most was having constant access to a toilet and shower. Being able to use it whenever I liked, not having to keep a lookout for somewhere to stop for a wee or arriving at a campsite after a long and sweaty day just to find out there is only ice cold water – or the showers don’t work at all…

Soon the day came when it was time for the family to arrive and we were so excited. We hadn’t seen Brian’s folks and sister and her husband and their little daughter for just over a year and we hadn’t seen the rest of the family for over two years. It was so awesome to see them all again. Brian’s niece was only three weeks old when we last saw her and had now turned into the cutest little toddler. The youngest member of the family, Teign, was now three months old and the oldest member present was auntie Sheila, who’s around 80. Imagine what she has experienced and lived through in this country. And we’ll just have to wait and see what country Teign gets to grow up in.

So we spent a good two weeks together, celebrating Christmas, eating good food, playing games, fishing and relaxing (see photos in the last blog post). It was quite sad having to leave Doma again but at least we were gonna get to spend a little more time with Brian’s family. We all drove down in convoy to the southeastern part of the country, the lowveld, where the family used to live back in the day, to visit some other relatives who are still there.

We spent New Year’s at a lodge called Chilo. We were all staying at the self catering side of it and now we really got to show off our well eqipped cruiser. It turned out the self catering kitchen was lacking a lot of things, or it was things we had forgotten to bring. ”There are no chopping knives here” was the first one. ”But we have that” I said and went and got our knives from the car. ”We forgot to bring curry for the potjie!” ”Don’t worry, we have curry.” And then there was potatoe peeler, cutting board, chutney… I probably went to car ten times to get things we needed and everyone was laughing, joking about how we seemed to have everything you could possibly need,  but at least we didn’t have a microwave in there. The last day I suggested we’d make smoothies of all the leftover fruit. ”Well, don’t tell me you guys have a blender?!” someone said. ”Uhm, yeah… We do” I said and so we had smoothies.

We spent New Year’s Eve together with the guests, the managers and the staff of the lodge. Just as we had all sat down to enjoy dinner at this beautifully set table, the power went out. How typical. But nothing to get upset about in Zim, as it happens several times a day usually. Someone got the generator running and we could soon dig into the delicious food. After dinner we all drove down to the Save river bed, which was almost completely dry. A big bonfire kept any potential visitors, elephants, hippos and crocs, at bay and we had a very good time, sitting in the sand listening to music from our car radio.

There had been quite a drought in Zim lately but the new year started off in the best possible way. On New Year’s day’s evening a thunder storm rolled in and it started pouring down heavily. Luckily, the impala potjies that Brian’s great uncle Clive had been prepping for dinner had already been simmering on the fire for several hours and apart from some added rain water we could enjoy yet another nice dinner.

After New Year’s we had to say goodbye to Brian’s family, who was now heading back to Mocambique. It was a great feeling though, being able to say ”See you in Vilanculos soon!” rather than knowing we wouldn’t see them in another year or longer, as before.

Brian and I stayed with his second cousin Glen, his wife Judy and their two little gorgeous girls Jade and Rayne, who all live in the house where Brian and his family used to live, for a while longer. One evening we made a visit to beautiful Sunset rock. You drive up onto a rocky hill in the middle of the bush, make a fire and enjoy the sun setting over the vast landscape. I think everyone that goes that gets a little enchanted by that place.

We also went into Gonarezhou national park for a couple of days. It is one of Brian’s favourite places on earth and not too far from the Save valley conservancy where we were staying. Gonarezhou means Home of the elephant, and we did see quite a few, including having our first mock charge from a bull who thought we were a little too close to him – or maybe just wanted to play a prank on those stupid humans in their cars… We saw it coming but going move – we were just behind another car (a safari vehicle from Chilo lodge.) I watched the elephant as it turned and started spreading its ears and I went “Brian?” to have him confirm he was seeing the same thing. But he was just quiet so I went “Brian?! BRIAN??!!” and it was pretty much at the same time as the clients in the safari vehicle started squeeling and Thomas, the guide, drove off and we followed. Quickly I realized, crap – photos! Completely mesmerized by the performance of this massive bull elephant I had totally forgotten about that but managed to raise my camera and snap a few shots as he just decided to turn off to the side, after running straight towards us.

As we drove out of the park after two nights spent in ”Gonas” I disappointingly said to Brian ”Keep a lookout for animals still, because it might be a while before we get to see wildlife again!” Brian just looked at me with a smile and then I remembered. We were going back to Glen’s house, in the conservancy, two hours drive and we’d be back in wildlife territory. And then I was immediately in a better mood. As I’m sure I’ve mentioned before I’m a proper nature and wildlife geek and I really enjoy asking Glen, who’s a professional hunter, all sorts of questions. Nobody knows the bush and its animals like a professional hunter. During our stay in the conservancy this year I was lucky enough to see giraffes, zebras and lots more – but I missed out on a pack of wild dogs drinking out of the water hole just outside the room early one morning… After that I made sure I was gonna be notified if anyone saw the dogs again, but with the rain coming in they moved further into the bush and were nowhere to be seen.

We now realized we had plenty more things we wanted to see and do in Zim but only 5-6 days left before our visas expired! Luckily we were able to have our visas extended, free of charge, for another month at the immigration office. Phew! So we then went on to visit old friends of Brian’s, Justin and Adiel. We chilled at their house and went into town and saw their families. It kept raining and the days passed and before we knew it we had been there for a week.

There wasn’t so much to do in the rainy weather but there was one thing we could do. During that week me and Adiel became somewhat regulars at the neighbour Theresa’s house. Theresa takes care of abandoned baby elephants. She’s been doing it for 20 years and has had many elephants during the years, most of them moving on to work for tourism companies and such. But these days she has four elephants and they aren’t going anywhere. It was a tremendous experience getting to meet these four girls, Chetora, Mungwiza, Kimba and Jinja. A little scary at first, due to their size and not really knowing what they’re going to do since I can’t read them like I’d read a dog or a cat… But Theresa spends a lot of time with them, getting them used to being around people and learning how to behave nicely. ”The more you train them, the more freedom you can give them” she said. ”The young are very much like kids, once they’ve started learning they’re eager to learn more. You can break them the way you’d break in a horse for example, but I prefer to teach them.”

It was inspiring and heart-warming to see Theresa’s obvious love and respect for these animals. “You have to know their next move” she said. “You have to read them. They read our minds, so we need to read theirs.” With Mungwiza’s trunk gently feeling my body there was no doubt in my mind they can read us in a second, sense our energies and what mood we’re in – and almost know what we’re thinking even. Suddenly she stopped and lifted her foot. She had a big thorn in her foot! I bent down to help her pull it out. “Don’t worry, she can do it herself” Theresa said. And Mungwiza slowly put her trunk to her foot and pulled the thorn out and then raised her trunk towards me to give me the thorn – as if to say “Look! I had a thorn in my foot but I pulled it out all by myself!”

And they were in fact very much like people with their very own individual character. The two younger ones were playful and sometimes needed to be told not to get pushy or too close. And there was talkative Mungwiza, who now and then would let out this monster rumble noise that you could almost feel more through your feet than actually hear it – elephants way of chatting to one another.

I got a little stressed by the fact that we were just lingering and not really doing much at all. Shouldn’t we be moving on? But as I started thinking about it, I realized it’s not often that you can go and stay with friends like this. Usually you have to make a plan long in advance and then you only have the weekend or so to hang out, before it’s back to work for everyone. But now we could come visit and stay as long as we were welcome to and just take every day as it came. I realized it was quite a privilege that I should rather just appreciate and enjoy.

From the lowveld we eventually packed up and started heading west, stopping at the Great Zimbabwe ruins in Masvingo. It was interesting seeing the ruins but not as cool as I had been hoping it would be. Since these ruins gave name to the independent country in 1980 it also felt like a lot of the information and the little nearby museum was quite political.

From there on we headed onto Bulawayo where we, once again, ended up staying much longer than we had first planned to. During just over a week we visited both family and friends, got to see some of the life of people in town and were very well taken care of.

We also visited the National Museum. A friend of the family we were staying with, who used to work at the museum, volunteered as our guide. But we had only been in there for maybe 10 minutes when the power went out! We kept walking through the massive building, trying to look at a few more exhibitions where there was enough daylight coming in through the windows but eventually we gave up. Brian and I made another visit a few days later though as there were quite a few interesting things to see there, the second largest mounted elephant in the world for example, reaching 3,5 m!

We obviously also made a visit to beautiful national park Matopas/Matobo hills, where you find extraordinary boulders piled on top of each other all over the place. Being a bit of a history geek I have always been very fascinated by rock paintings and there were some fantastic ones in the caves there. We also went up to look at the grave of Cecil J. Rhodes, from where we had a remarkable view of the landscape just before sunset. And in the game park we saw rhinos!

As we packed up our things in Bulawayo we knew this was the end of a luxurious break and we were now heading back out on the road. After being spoiled  for so long, it took us a few days just to get back into travelling mode. But as the day came we were quite excited to keep going and looking forward to moving onto Botswana, starting the second and last leg of our wayawaya trip!

But there was one thing still to do before leaving Zim. On the way between Bulawayo and the Botswana border is Plumtree, the boarding school where Brian spent five years of his life. He had not been there for 10 years and wanted to go and see it. I also wanted to see it, after hearing so many stories from that place. “Don’t go”, some people said, “it has deteriorated badly and it won’t be fun to see”. Brian knew this, but still wanted to have a look. “Back to school”, he said and we drove through the gate, both of us with some butterflies in our tummies I think. For me it was interesting to see the school but as I’ve never been there before, it wasn’t easy for me to see how much it has changed. For Brian it was a bit of a shock. We drove from area to area (the school premises is a massive area with classrooms, dorms, dining halls, workshops, sports areas etc) and he told me what it used to look like. He described it as well kept buildings and immaculate lawns but all we saw was broken glass in almost every window, overgrown lawns and sports fields, swimming pools covered in water lilies… It was very sad to see and Brian was clearly disturbed. I think he knew pretty much what it would look like but it’s always hard seeing it for real.

Still happy he went though, we both took a deep breath and headed for the Botswana border.

Here’s a bunch of my Instagram photos from our chilled days with the family at Doma Safari Lodge in northern Zimbabwe over Christmas.

We made the decision earlier on the trip not to go to Uganda and Rwanda, as was planned originally, and it was a very hard decision to make. I spent quite some time thinking about it afterwards, wondering if we would regret it, wondering if we will ever get to see those countries now or if we blew our chance. But as we got to northern Zimbabwe and were waiting excitedly for the rest of the family to arrive, I got a message from overlander friends we had met earlier, saying “We wish we were with our families now.” And then I just knew we had made the right decision, to push on and get to Zim for Christmas.

We have now said goodbye (and “See you in Mocambique in a few months!”) to the family and are visiting friends, still in southeastern Zimbabwe. Here’s our update from Malawi and Zambia.

How nice it is down here, going from one country to the other – nobody even comes out to look at the car at the border, just papers on the desk, stamps, done.

Our first night in Malawi we wanted to get all the way up on the Livingstonia mountain range and despite the road being a crazy zick zack rough gravel road winding up the mountain side, we made it just before dark. We had heard about both camps up on the mountain, Lukwe and Mushroom farm, and as we couldn’t choose we decided to do one night at each. We started off by going to Lukwe and were blown away by the awesome views. Feeling a bit lazy we decided to spoil ourselves with a chalet that night and we had a good dinner with delicious fresh veggies from the garden, sitting overlooking the valley and lake Malawi far below. We were accompanied by two German backpackers, a French guy visiting his brother in Malawi and Hauk, the owner, and we had a good chat with them long after the sun had set.

We really did spoil ourselves and slept in properly the next morning, only stepping out on our little verandah to admire the view around 10 o’clock. We got ready and went for a walk, wanting to check out the nearby waterfalls. Hauk’s two dogs came with us and clearly knew the way (one of the dogs apparently used to take tourists to the waterfalls, until the locals complained it was doing their job). Arriving at the entry gate to the falls we paid the 300 kwacha per person to go in and three young boys volunteered as our guides. That was lucky because there is no way we would have been able to find our way through the bush to the different sites where you can see the falls and a big cave behind one of them. We did some serious hiking through the thick bush with steep climbs, knee bending passages and non existent paths to get there. I was just waiting for the moment when I grabbed a vine for support and it would turn out to be a snake… But luckily that never happened and we made it to all the sites and back, with a refreshing splash bath in the fresh water pool on the mountain side in the end.

The drive to Mushroom farm was long and hard. About a kilometer or so. It felt like a good day’s drive that day as we were already spoiling ourselves. Parking at our spot at the Mushroom farm’s campsite required a bit of planning – the road down was steep and the spot was right on the edge with a marvellous view that I just didn’t seem to get enough of. If it wasn’t for the patience testing road to get there, I could have seen myself spending quite a bit of time on that mountain.

Mushroom farm was run by Dutch couple Hannes and Claudia and the place was quite similiar to Lukwe. Here we met three British girls working at a hospital in Blantyre and a British couple working with conservation in east Africa.

It was time to leave the mountain and go and explore the lake. We had been recommended a place called Makuzi so we decided to go there, although there’s an abundance of lodges and camps along the shore. We were happy we did because Makuzi turned out to be really nice and had apparently been rated one of the top 5 places to stay in Malawi. That might sound like it is a posh, pricy place and sure, you have to pay a bit to stay in the sweet little chalets with ensuite bathrooms, but camping wasn’t more expensive than anywhere else and we had a good spot on the lawn with a nice view of the lake. We got there in the late afternoon and I just couldn’t wait to get into the lake for a swim. We set up camp, I jumped into my bikini and tried to convince Brian to come with me and eventually I managed to get him into the water just as it was getting dark. (I don’t know when the diver turned into such a landcrab?! He never wants to swim!) I was just in awe with this lake – I haven’t experienced anything like it before. It looks like the sea with its size and waves (except you see Tanzania or Mocambique at a far distance), it’s got the white sand beach like the sea – but it’s fresh water. Clear, warm fresh water! Nothing like the cold, dark, murky lakes back home. It was SO nice.

Sadly it was now Brian’s turn to get sick from something he had eaten, but opposite to me he got really sick really quickly and then it was over. He was just feeling quite weak the next day. I desperately wanted to enjoy the beach for a while that day and Brian sat sleeping in a chair in the shade while I went for a swim, read my book, went for a swim, read my book, went for a swim again. I really liked lake Malawi and especially what I saw of it from Makuzi. I think it had something special to it for me, having grown up with the dark, murky, cold lakes in Sweden. It was like a paradise version of the lakes I would go swimming in every summer as a child. It would have been really nice doing some acitivites by the lake, going fishing and going horseback riding, but since Brian got sick we never got around to doing anything.

Splitting up the stretch down to Lilongwe into two days we found a place called Sani on the gps and decided to camp there. Sani couldn’t have been more of a contrast to Makuzi. It was an abandoned lodge that looked like it hadn’t had seen any guests in many years and the main building had burnt down. The beach was far from the calm, child friendly bay at Makuzi, here it was a steep drop off right into the water with fierce waves splashing ashore, seeming even more dramatic with the heavy winds that day. We were showed to the beach by a woman who hardly spoke English and was busy chasing away a dozen kids that were of course very curious of us. As the weather was really bad, Brian was still feeling a bit rough and there wasn’t much else to do we went for a walk having a look around, I practiced a bit with the sling shot Brian had made (for monkeys at campsites) and then we climbed up into the tent and spent the rest of the day there watching series on the computer. To our surprise a man turned up in the evening, introduced himself as Samuel and explained that he had been in town when we arrived and was now wondering whether we wanted to have dinner at the restaurant. “Restaurant?!” we thought, not having seen anything that seemed to be up and running at the abandoned and deserted looking lodge. We declined his offer with pictures flashing by our eyes of a shabby little place that would just make us sick again. But who knows, maybe there was a proper restaurant with really good food! We just didn’t want to risk it. In the morning Samuel came back and said they had now prepared hot showers for us. We walked over to the bathroom where the showers didn’t work and found two big buckets full of water, one with cold and one with steaming hot water, for us both. We then really felt that these guys were trying their best with what they had to keep the place running and we really appreciated it.

In Lilongwe by lunch time we stopped to do some grocery shopping and coming into the shop it was clear we were now close to Brian’s home – he just walked up and down the aisles smiling as he found products he always used to eat or drink but haven’t been able to find in Sweden. The shopping took two hours but not because of the time we spent in the shop. The card payment network was down so Brian walked to the nearest ATM, which didn’t work, so he walked to the next one which turned out to be like 2 kilometers away, while I waited by the shop.

The whole money thing is always a bit confusing and comical – just as we have gotten used to the currency in one country, how much it is compared to USD, SEK etc, how much things usually cost, what the bank notes look like and what not – we leave and have completely new money to get used to all over again. It’s always very confusing the first couple of days, then we start getting the hang of it and then we leave… And in these countries you’re talking in numbers that would give you completely different stuff back home. The groceries that day cost about 40 000… Malawi kwacha that is!

A bit delayed we decided not only to push on to the border but see if we could even make it into Zambia before the end of the day. The drive there was pretty quick and the border crossing was smooth. We now had the option of camping somewhere around Chipata, the first town on the other side of the border, or push on towards South Luangwa national park where we wanted to go. We decided to push on and thought we might arrive there around 7 pm. But we didn’t know the road there was under construction and we had to go on a winding diversion road at low speed through thick bush most of the way. Along the way we stopped and pulled a big truck out of the ditch and finally arrived at Croc Valley camp just before 10 pm… The guards came walking through the camp and we were shown to a place where we could put up camp, just by the river. (The river bed was almost dry due to the lack of rains so far.) The three men were really sweet nodding their heads and each one repeating every thing we said. ”We sleep on top of the car” we said. ”On top! On top! On top! No problem. No problem. No problem” the three men replied. And they said that the elephants had been in the camp the previous night so we must make sure to lock up all fruits and fresh food well, but not to worry. ”The elephants come here sometimes, but that’s why we’re here” they said with a big smile, sling shots dangling around one wrist and a torch around the other. In the dark we could just see that we were close to the river bed, but not what was in it. As we went to bed we heard the hippos grunt nearby and some hyenas call at a distance, but the elephants didn’t come to visit that night.

Brian spent pretty much a full day doing some maintenance on the cruiser together with the lodge’s mechanics while I did computer work. Looking out over the river bed we kept an eye on hippos and crocs. Suddenly there was some noises and rumbles in the bush on the other side. The elephants were here! Amazing how such huge animals can hide in the bush. We watched them, a big group, walking along the river and eventually a few of them ventured down the banks and spent hours in the riverbed feeding and having mud baths. As we were once again a bit stunned by the prices to enter the national park (South Luangwa, which we were right on the border to) we decided to be happy with the encounters we got at camp and decided to leave the next day.

There was apparently a road, called ”the detour”, from the Croc valley area down to Lusaka but it was known to take much longer than it normally should and by now we also heard it was a big mud puddle so we had no choice but to go the same way back, to Chipata. But there we found a nice place, Dean’s Hills View just outside of town where we camped one night. On tv, there was a relief concert for Sandy in New York and Brian and I sat glued to our chairs enjoying it. I couldn’t remember when we last watched tv.

There was still some work to be done on the cruiser so we planned to go to the mechanic in Chipata first thing in the morning. The plan was to spend maybe an hour or two there, go do some grocery shopping and then start heading south. But the hours passed and the mechanics had to go get the spares needed. When I got hungry I cooked us some lunch at the back of the car – over the grease pit. We ended up spending the entire day, from 8.30 to 17.30, at the mechanics before the cruiser was finally ready to go… I was sooo bored by then but it was good, we got new bushes for the rear shocks and the tension bar bushes replaced.

So, it was 18.00 and we drove around in Chipata, discussing our options. We really didn’t feel like staying another night in the town, but it would be stupid to drive south that late in the evening, having to drive in the dark and all. We still went for the stupid option. It was only about two hours to the place where we were planning on camping that night. It was a really weird feeling leaving Chipata – the routine of waking up early in the morning, packing up camp and head out on the roads for a days drive had obviously set in by now and leaving in the evening felt really strange. But the drive went very well and we got to the next campsite without any hassles.

That night was one of the less exciting campsites. We found a place on the gps that was called Zulu Kraal Camp – but it wasn’t a campsite anymore, if it had ever been. We camped in a garden with toilets where the water didn’t work and looked like they hadn’t been used for 10 years. As we we woke up in the morning a donkey was acting guard, standing two metres away from the car watching us.

From there on we reached Lusaka and found a much nicer campsite; Eureka Camping Park, with some zebras casually strolling aroun. As we went for a walk around the place we also found some horses in stables – and some more zebras. They went in and out of the pastures as they were small enough to walk under the wooden fence and had come to scoff on some of the horses mealie stalks. It was weird seeing a wild animal in a pasture, next to a horse… We met a guy there and started talking and it turned out he was Swedish, working in Zambia. He told us a group of overlanders with The Pink Caravan (Rosa Bussarna) was arriving that evening and he was there to say hi since he used to work for them and knew some of the people. It was quite fun and interesting to see these two giant pink buses pitch up and park in the middle of the campsite and out came loads of people – speaking Swedish! – starting to set up camp and cook dinner in a very organized way. We just stared at them, a bit amazed by the whole thing, but still so happy to just be the two of us and the way we can just do whatever we feel like everyday without a whole bunch of people to adjust to. We went over to chat to them and had some beers before heading for an early night in our own little tent.

Doing so we came into Tanzania on the eastern side of Kilimanjaro and we had some spectacular scenery as we drove in, since Kilimanjaro isn’t the only mountain in the area. We did a quick stop at the waterfall in Marango – nothing too impressive but a sweet little well run park around it and oh, how nice just to stand in the fresh, cold water from the mountains after a few hot hours in the car!

We found a few different campsites on the gps and could just pick and choose, not knowing much about them. We went for Elephant motel in Same and just as we came into the little town we saw a wedding convoy. Great, we thought, we won’t get there today… We had seen the exact same ceremony before and knew it can cause great delays. It’s basically a long convoy of cars (with one extra decorated for the bridal couple) and they all drive at slow speed zickzacking across the road so nobody can go past… We spotted the turn off to the motel – and the first car of the convoy turned in there! So we just sighed and laughed, joined the wedding convoy as the last vehicle and drove in zickzacks across the road. We waited as all those cars parked and all the people – dressed up so nice for the big event – had come out, live band and all. We had a look around and wondered if there was even gonna be space for us to camp or eat, but we were told the wedding party was only there to take photos in the park by the motel and have some drinks and were gonna leave in half an hour or so. A few hours later most of them, including the bridal couple and their super sweet little kids, were still there so I don’t know how well it went gathering all their guests in one place. Brian and I enjoyed a tasty dinner in the motel’s very colonial style restaurant, having a few different mount antelopes looking down at us from the walls as we ate, before going to sleep parked in the pathway to the toilets (there was only campgrounds for ground tents, we couldn’t drive in there). A camping experience with some slightly odd details but still quite alright.

We had been recommended a place called Peponi (above) from the German couple we met in Nairobi. They told us they had been able to leave their car there while going to Zanzibar so we thought it was a good plan for us as well. Peponi turned out to be one of the best places we’ve stayed at so far during the trip – beautiful surroundings right by the beach, well built facilites with a nice finish, super friendly staff and good food. And not very expensive at all, so great value for money. There we met the South African couple Allison and Richard, who were travelling from South Africa to England. We spent a couple of days together, including a great Dutch oven dinner, and exchanged some good-to-knows about north and south.

It was a dhow that was going to take us to Zanzibar and we now had to try and find somebody else that might wanna share it with us, to split the costs. We got help making some phone calls to nearby lodges and we waited a couple of extra days to see if anyone else would show up, but it was very quiet all around so we ended up having to pay the entire fuel bill ourselves. 130 USD but with a discount 110. Ouch!

We headed down to Pangani far earlier in the morning than what can possibly be good for you to catch the dhow, which took between 3 and 4 hours across so naturally we slept most of the way there. Somewhere around about the middle of the sea, no land in sight, it hit me that we were now on a little wooden boat way further out than we usually go when we go on dhow trips in Mocambique. We were now at open seas. No security equipment as far as I could see, probably no cell phone signal. The guys driving the boat weren’t exactly wearing captain’s hats and radios if you know what I mean. I quickly pushed away all sorts of those thoughts to the back of my head and luckily the sea stayed calm and the trip went without any mishaps.

We were dropped off in Nungwe on the northern tip of the island. We decided to head straight down to Stone town to be back in the north for the weekend. Upon arrival with a taxi we picked one of the places mentioned in the guide book, Flamingo Guest house, and were showed to a tiny room with a mosquito net covered double bed so tall we could dangle our feet sitting on the edge and a tiny ensuite bathroom, all of it set on the roof of the building with a nice view of the neighbourhood. Quite nice!

We headed out exploring Stone town and me coming back after a brief visit 8 years ago, I didn’t remember how small it was. We looked at the map and wondered if we would make it to a certain place on foot that afternoon and found that we had walked past it within the next half hour! So we easily walked around getting to know most of Stone town, me obviously totally in love with this super photogenic place. I wanted to take Brian to Monsoon, probably one of the most known restaurants and where I had been with my friends before, but despite being low season it was packed and had no space for us so we had to settle for the not as charming Archipelago next door.

The following morning we went on a guided city tour. Nothing makes you feel more like a tourist, hey, but we had been recommended this by Allison and Richard at Peponi, who said it was quite nice and interesting. We met with the guide Abdullah (who turned out to be the same guy who had guided Allison and Richard!) and it was for sure interesting, from finding out the early history of the town to discussing the situation there today. Unevitably we dove into the dark past of eastern Africa with the slave trade and colonization eras. Sitting in a small cellar, with chains still attached to the floor, that had kept thousands of men and women waiting to be sold on the slave market (after being beaten to test their strength) was quite emotional and a stark contrast to the paradise like views and problem free relaxation the island otherwise offers.

That afternoon we headed back up to Nungwe and its beautiful white beaches, big resorts packed with Italians (very much like the Russian invasion we saw in Nuweiba, Egypt), small backpacker inns and beach front restaurants. We were a bit surprised when we saw masais everywhere. Weren’t masai a people of the inland savannahs, originally nomadic but thesedays villagers and cattle herders? What were they doing on Zanzibar? All these guys walking up and down the beach, trying to get tourists into the resorts and restaurants or selling masai art. Ah, tourism. Of course. Many tourists don’t worry about where those men are from, they’re just part of their exotic African experience. And a masai, all dressed up in his warrior gear and accessories, is obiovusly more exotic than a Zanzibari in jeans and t-shirt.

As we were sitting having a beer at Wave restaurant we got a phone call. It was Rob Roy, who we had spent two weeks together with in Egypt waiting for the ferry and then travelled to Ethiopia with – he had caught up with us! We thought he was only in Kenya but had mentioned in a message that we would be going to Zanzibar. And it turned out he was on his way through northern Tanzania and saw the sign for Peponi. He was on his way somewhere else but decided to turn in there as he had heard about that place and was quite surprised when the first thing he saw in the car park was our car! But he came in the same day that we had left in the morning, so we weren’t there… But now he called and said he was gonna come out to the island and we were looking forward to seeing him again and catching up on everything that happened since we split up in Ethiopia.

Brian and I hung out with a group of American/Canadian volunteers working in Arusha and managed to get completely sun burnt  which is quite ironic since we’re always so careful in Mocambique and shake our heads at the stupid tourists that lay out in the sun on the beach there – it’s like we totally forgot we were now even closer to the equator! Who’s stupid now… We spent the day walking along the beach, going for a swim, laying in the sun, sitting in the shade. By the afternoon we were so restless we didn’t know what to do. There was no car to work on, I didn’t bring the computer or any books or anything. We just looked at each other and laughed as we ended up at Wave restaurant having another beer because we didn’t know what else to do. We had been talking about going snorkelling with dolphins but were told it’s a much greater chance of seeing them from the south of the island (which I did during my previous visit) and then we just couldn’t be bothered spending more money. It was weird, we kind of wanted to just relax at the same time as it made us totally restless. Rob Roy eventually turned up in the evening and it was great seeing him again. We took turns going through what had happened lately while having dinner at a place a bit further down along the beach and then the volunteers turned up and we had a good evening.

The next day was our last day on the island and we went snorkelling just from the beach for a while. I found a little shop that had a book shelf with second hand books that tourists had left behind and there were lots of books in Swedish so I bought two. Reading Brunstkalendern by Emma Hamberg was a good dose of easily digested Swedish lives and dramas that I really enjoyed so thank you, whoever you who are who left that book on Zanzibar!

It was hard saying goodbye to Rob Roy – again – as we left him on the island and went back on the dhow, again having to pay the full amount for the dhow since there was nobody to share with (Rob Roy had to go back to his motorbike in Dar es Salam). It was nice being reunited with the cruiser at Peponi and Brian dove straight into the owner mr Dennis’s, grease pit to do a bit of maintenance work. Being spoilt the last few nights not having to fold up and pack away the tent, we decided to leave it closed one more night and try sleeping in our hammocks for the first time. They’re really cool, quite comfortable and covered with mosquito nets on top. I just forgot one detail. The fabric is so thin you kind of need to lay on something for the mozzies not to get through to you. So I woke up in the morning with not five or ten mosquito bites but literally like 50 on my shoulder blades, that had been tucked against the hammock. Brian helped me put some hydrocortison on, shaking his head saying ”You think you’re bullet proof until you get malaria”. He has had it so many times and he stills talks about it like one of the absolute worst things, and when he does that, I know it’s for real. Let’s see if Malarone can handle this attack! Malaria has an incubation time of 1-2 weeks I think, so we will just have to wait and see…

We had been planning on visiting Lake Tanganyika after being at the coast but since Zanzibar had made a big dent in both the budget and the time plan (still aiming to be with the family in Zimbabwe for Christmas) it felt like quite a stretch to make it all the way across to the lake. To make it worth it, going fishing or doing something there, you also need more than one day, so we decided to skip it and compensate with more fishing in Zimbabwe when we get there.

Heading for Mbeya down by the border to Malawi we made our first stop outside Morogoro. Although we were welcomed by a very professional and nice man it turned out the campsite was just a forest and we paid to wild camp pretty much. But it was nice, setting up camp just underneath a big baobab tree and having the place to ourselves. However, this was my first (and hopefully only!) you-have-eaten-something-bad-and-gonna-feel-like-crap day. It started with nausea in the evening and I knew straight away it wasn’t just gonna go away, I was gonna get sick. The problem was it was like my body couldn’t decide whether to get rid of the bug upwards or downwards so it got stuck in the middle with the most awful, painful stomach cramps that I’ve never experienced before. They lasted from the early morning to the following afternoon and I honestly would have rather just gotten really sick straight away and had it done and over with! But we moved on and Brian drove as slow as he possibly could over every speed bump, holding my hand as I cramped and cried and he quietly pointed out some wildlife as we drove through Mikumi national park (the highway runs through the park) that I could just lift my head long enough to see before I fell back asleep.

We came to Iringa and I sent an sms to my friend David back home in Sweden since there is where he spent his fist 7 years of his life and he was happy to hear from us. We spent a night at the Kisolanza Farm house, a nice campsite and a cool restaurant (and old mud house that they built a roof above) where I had to really restrain myself from diving into the spicy meatballs, pasta with basil and fresh home grown vegetables after not having eaten anything for more than 24 hours.

In Mbeya we camped in the parking lot of a Christan center, a pretty uneventful place except for the fact that the watchman came past and showed us a note with a picture of a dog where it said he would let it out at night and we must not move around in there without him. We wondered what kind of beast this was, but I later walked past the dog pin where a sweet looking dog was lying sleeping. We made sure to be in the tent by the time it was let out though,taking the watchman’s advice seriously. As I fell asleep I started dreaming some weird stuff where I was screaming – but in real life it apparently sounded more like a horrific howling – and the dog came running to the car barking like crazy… So Brian was busy trying to shut us both up before we woke up the entire neighborhood.

It was a bit strange coming into Tanzania, knowing how close we now were to Mocambique, to home. We could literally be there in a few days if we wanted to. Instead we would move on, driving through another six countries before getting there.

Here you can read Hannah and Diarmaid’s excellent blog post of their experiences in Aswan. It’s true, hilarious, sad, upsetting and honest all in one.

Rick had a good daily blog going on – he has actually just recently made it to South Africa and is near the end of his trip – and he mentioned us here and there in text and photos as we travelled together through Ethiopia and Kenya if you wanna have a look!

Ray and Avril also took daily notes and went into detail about the circus going on as we were all trying to leave Egypt for Sudan…

We had more or less decided not to visit any national parks or do any game drives in eastern Africa, mainly because it’s way more expensive than down in the south. We were too late for the wildebeest migration and we couldn’t afford a hot air balloon ride – which we would have loved to do – and I have been to the Ngorongoro before so we said we will give the NP’s a miss up here and go game viewing more towards the end of the trip. But then we were recommended Amboseli national park, known for all its elephants with Mt Kilimanjaro as a pretty impressive backdrop. As it was on the way down to the border to Tanzania, we decided to go and check it out.

Money is always a big thing when you’re travelling like this, you’ve been working hard to scramble up the budget and don’t want the money to run out before you hit your final destination. We constantly have to think about our expenses. So we were a bit frustrated when it turned out that the prices at Amboseli had gone up just since our guide book was printed a couple of years ago. The entrance fee had gone from 50 USD to 80 and the camping used to be 10 USD and was now 25! Bringing your own car in was cheap, however, so we have to give them that. And sure, getting to see loads of elephants costs money. But the campsite? There was not a single staff there to greet us, no information about anything, just a tiny little shared kitchen and decent toilets that we managed to find after walking around. In total, we paid 210 USD for 24 hours in the park, not including any food. (To be compared with, for example, the Wild card in South Africa, roughly 200 USD for the two of us, that allows us to visit almost all parks and reserves in the country as much as we want for a year!)

Amboseli was nice and small enough for us to drive around there and feel pretty satisfied with a 24 hour stay. Oh well, I don’t think I would ever get satisfied, I would always want to wait for something extraordinary to happen (grazing plains game isn’t that extraordinary when you’ve been watching them graze for hours) or try and get a better photo opportunity of something. But with Brian around, who grew up with these animals in his backyard, I get pulled down back to earth.

We saw a herd of something at a distance and tried to figure out what they were. I said to Brian ”It’s not wildebeest… Not buffaloes… They’ve got too many different colours… ARE THOSE COWS??” Yup. Two big herds of cattle. And at the end, of course, a little boy herding them. So a bit disappointed we concluded that there can’t be any predators in here then, with little boys walking around like that. But a member of staff told us ”Sure, there are lions and cheetah here. Those boys may look like little boys but they are warriors! This big” he measured with his hand by his waist ”but already warriors with spears to kill lions with.”

Of course, the masai. We soon found out that there was several masai villages around the national park and the park isn’t fenced. And we got to meet the masai too, however, not in the way we would have liked. A few guys came up to the car at different times and wanted us to come and visit their village. All of them were either the son of the chief or the chief of his village. There was a wedding today and we must come and watch! We started wondering what was going on when two men from the same village had approached us, and the man who said he was the son of the chief looked the same age as the man who introduced himself as the chief. And when we said we wouldn’t come today but maybe tomorrow there was a wedding tomorrow as well! We just felt so sad – we could have gone there for an hour but with so little time we chose to spend it in the park instead. We could have supported them financially, but what are we supporting, the conservation of their cultural heritage or a tourist attraction? I really wish it would have been possible to visit the masai in a less arranged, more genuine way than this. Then I would have definitely gone to visit their village.

That afternoon we did see lions, but only at a distance. Three females lurking in the grass, watching some gazelles. In the middle of the herd there was a lone wildebeest who wouldn’t take its eyes off the lions. But when nothing happened and we couldn’t see the lions anymore we decided to move on. We thought we would be able to spot them again, they wouldn’t go into the swamp and the other way had only short grass. But they had disappeared in the way only wild animals can.

One of my best moments from the park was when we opened up the roof rack hatch and I climbed up via the center console from inside the car (an invention of ours especially for this purpose). Brian kept driving and I was keeping an eye out for anything interesting.  I had the evening breeze in my face and the camera ready in my hand. We stopped and watched some late swimmers, elephants still splashing away in the swamps before returning to their night hideouts and Kilimanjaro was quickly turning purple in the background.

As we reached the equator there was one thing we had to do. The water demonstration. Everyone does it and we felt like such tourists but we just had to do it! A guy called Nick came out and demonstrated to us how the water runs in different directions north and south of the equator – and on the very line the water doesn’t spin at all, it just empties straight out of the funnel. Basic science that someone one day was clever enough to start demonstrating to tourists and make some money from it!

Then we headed off to the next campsite, which also wasn’t too far away and we got there in the late afternoon. This was also just a gamble, having found it on the gps but knowing nothing about it. Mountain Rock Lodge turned out to be a good base for people who want to hike or climb Mt Kenya. We chilled in the afternoon and finished the evening off with a nice dinner, celebrating the lack of mosquitos thanks to the high altitude. The rump steaks on a braai, boiled sweet potatoes with butter, tomatoes, sweet peas and grilled onion. Yum!

The day before we had met Isac, a mountain guide working at the lodge. He has been a guide for 7 years and has lost count on how many times he has gone to Point Lenana, the third highest peak on Mt Kenya and the highest one you can reach by hiking (Nelion and Batian require actual mountain climbing to the top). Isac said we could walk to a view point where you usually have a good view of Mt Kenya and we thought that was better than nothing. Isac came to pick us up at 8 the next morning but we were a bit late – we had been chasing away baboons all morning… A small group of them now and then wander into the campsite searching for a snack – and they found the garbage back I had just put down behind the car, about to go and throw it away. I was just on the other side of the car when one of them quickly snitched it. Then the rest of the troop moved in and advanced bit byt bit until they could get to the campsite’s main garbage bin. We did our best to chase them away but didn’t want to risk getting attacked and bitten – the biggest one would have been my size standing up and they’re quite intimidating! Eventually we could pack up our camp and made sure nothing could get stolen by baboons while we were away. I have a feeling this will not be the last campsite baboon encounter during this trip…

Unfortunately there were massive clouds covering the entire mountain so we never actually got to see more than the base of it, but it was still nice just getting out on a miniature hike after spending so many days in the car. We then continued down to Nairobi and had two options, Jungle Junction in town where we knew most overlanders go, or a campsite out in the suburb of Karen. We ended up going to the latter and were quite happy with our choice since some overlanders do find that one too and it wasn’t as hectic as we heard it is in town. The first evening we met a nice German couple who have been out on the roads for three years! As we came from the north and they came from the south we chatted and exchanged experiences and info the entire evening.

At first we had planned to only spend one night in the city and swiftly move on but our plans soon changed a bit. We found out about some practical things going on back home in Sweden that we had to deal with, doing a bit of work online, and we added one day to the stay. So the next day we went and had lunch with Kajuju, who we met in Sweden a few years ago when she was studying there. She is a pilot and has moved back to Kenya and has also founded an organisation for Women Aviators in Africa – but now she’s busy being a mom to one month old gorgeous boy Hotani.

Planning to leave the next day we now had some big decisions to make. The original plan was to go west to Uganda, on to Rwanda and then to Tanzania. But now we had heard about the latest ebola outbreak in Uganda. The German couple said they had felt a bit weary about it, being there, but they only heard about this new outbreak as they were leaving the country. So they warned us and said we must be careful. Our families also started commenting on this, telling us that the virus can even be airborn and it’s no joke – if you get it you’re quite likely to die. There were also reports on some problems increasing in DR Congo, spilling into Rwanda.

At first we kind of shrugged and thought hey, of course nothing will go wrong. We’ll continue according to plan. But then we started discussing it further. What if… And we have the deadline of wanting to be in Zimbabwe to celebrate Christmas with Brian’s family.  One of the main things we wanted to do in Uganda was to go and see the mountain gorillas. It’s something I’ve wanted to do since I was a little girl, being very inspired by Dian Fossey, Jane Goodall and Birute Galdikas and their work for the primates. The German couple said it’s also cheaper during November (350 USD) and the prices will go up again in December (500 USD!). But we wouldn’t just be able to bypass Kampala, where the new ebola outbreak is, and go straight to the national park – we would have to go into Kampala to get the gorilla trekking permits…

So we now had to decide – were we going to risk getting a deadly virus in Uganda and ending up in potentially violent affairs in Rwanda, or were we going to skip these two countries for now? I just didn’t want to let go of my gorilla trekking dream and I said to Brian it was a very difficult decision to make. ”Is it, really?” he said. ”Ebola or Zanzibar?” And there it was, decision made. It was truly a hard one to make but when he put it that way..! No, but it was a tricky one for him as well. I still somewhat doubt we made the right decision. But my gut feeling was telling me we have already been going against recommendations a few times on this trip, crossing the red-zoned Sinai and so on, how many times could we push our luck? So, after days of constant pondering of our options we finally decided it’s time for our first big change of route – we will have to come back and visit Uganda and Rwanda when we get a chance in the future and we would now head south towards Tanzania.

We came into Ethiopia with mixed feelings. We were all excited to be moving on, coming into a new country, but we had heard a lot about how the kids throw rocks at you and that Ethiopia can be a bit tough to like. With this in mind we were relieved and happy when all the kids in every village we passed through were waving frantically, smiling at us. This wasn’t so bad at all! Our hands soon started cramping from all the waving. We felt like celebrities. As soon as a kid had spotted us they started calling out ”You! You! You!” with a loud shrieking and soon had all the other kids joining in to get our attention. This started getting to us, this constant yelling as soon as we passed. And then the rocks started flying through the air and the begging started. As soon as we did look at the screaming kids they would go from waving at us to gesticulating that they wanted something to eat or a gift. This just made me so sad. Because it wasn’t just a kid here and there. It was every kid. It was the way they have learnt to behave when they see a big 4×4 car with white people drive through their village. I don’t know why this is, if all the aid organisation and NGO workers throw lollipops around them when they travel through the country but it was pretty clear the kids knew that a big car means a chance of gifts. The guide book even mentioned this problem with a short paragraph, advising tourists from giving anything to the kids, whether it be money, food or empty water bottles. Normally I find it extremely hard to refrain from giving something to a beggar, especially a child. But here it was different. It was systemized, it was a product of years of aid, it was everyone whether they seemingly had needed aid or not. Sure, this can be debated. Maybe there is no harm in giving children some sweets or a pen when you pass through their home town. But if all of us do it? What does it teach these kids? What does it tell them about white people, about themselves, about the world? I felt that what we were experiencing along the roads of northern Ethiopia was a pretty clear example that humanitarian aid is obviously neccessary when there is a great need, but that a constant giving isn’t only good.

We moved on but realised we wouldn’t make it to our planned first stop but had to look for another campsite along the way. Studying the area around northern Lake Tana we found Tim and Kim’s village, another place known to overlanders, and decided to go there. It was already late afternoon and we wanted to get there before dark. But Rob’s Harley was struggling with the gravel road with lots of corrugation and bumps. At one stage we had to stop on the side of the dirt road for him to do some maintenance. Within a minute, the four people on the road had turned into about 50, most of them kids. Where they all came from we had no idea, there was only a few houses nearby. Most of them flocked curiously around Rob and his bike and the guys helping him, some of them came to check out the cruiser where I was sitting. A bunch of kids were standing outside my window, climbing up on the rock sliders, banging on the door and the window, shouting for my attention. Another group was climbing up on the driver’s side where the window was down. I quickly removed anything that would have been easy to grab and did my best to try and keep them off the car without being too harsh on them, but it soon became too overwhelming having all of them shouting and begging around me so I stepped out, locked the car up and went over to the guys and the bikes.

We could soon move on and by now it started getting dark. The gravel road leading to Tim and Kim’s was absolutely horrible. Full of pot holes and rocks that made it a challenge even for the cruiser, not to mention for Rob’s Harley. When we were finally almost there he fell and needed help getting his bike back up. That’s when he realised the people standing around his bike watching him doing maintenance on it had stolen not only the set of screw drivers he had been using but some stuff out of his zipped up side pouches as well. We were all really sad and angry to hear this, but there was nothing we could do about it then. We were surprised and offended by it and reminded that we need to keep a close eye on our belongings.

After a long, hard day on the road with a very frustrating end to it, we finally arrived at Tim and Kim’s, where the nice Dutch couple Tim and Kim greeted us and made us feel welcome. We had local beer and homemade curry and a few good laughs over the day’s events (it started off with Rob hitting a donkey in the morning!) and soon felt much better. Plus, there were six adorable puppies. Who can be angry with puppies around!

Tim and Kim’s village may be a bit rough to get to, but definitely worth it when you do. We enjoyed camping there and it would have been nice getting to spend more time – it’s a perfect place to just relax – but we wanted to push on towards Addis.

The next stop was in Bahir dar – this time our convoy decreasing even further as Rob and Rob decided to head north into the Simien mountains. So now it was just Brian and me and Rich on his motorbike heading south. In Bahir dar we camped in the backyard of Ghion hotel, a lush rainforest like garden with rooms to rent. Ironically, with Ethiopia seemingly having something against us I also seemed to have something against Ethiopia as my body went into an allergic reaction and there was no telling what the reason might be. I spent a few days with a horrible rash over most of my body, from a sleepless night to not being able to stay awake during the days in the car when on antihistamin medication, and it wasn’t fun.

Going to Addis we had a pretty long drive but figured we should make it in one day. Starting off in the morning all was well and having gone halfways we stopped for a snack and were very optimistic about reaching Addis in the early afternoon. But we didn’t know the road was going to get much worse from then on… And the roads in Ethiopia are just the transport stretches they are supposed to be - only problem is they’re not just used by trucks, cars and motorbikes but also by tuk-tuks, people, cows, donkeys, sheep, goats, donkey carts, horses and carriages and dogs. Driving on a country road at about 80-100 km per hour requires the same attention level as on a busy city street pretty much and the truth is you hardly ever average more than 50 km per hour because you constantly have to slow down, overtake something and swerve to avoid hitting a dog or a donkey.

So getting to Addis before dark was soon out of the option and we just pushed on as fast as we dared to get there. Finding Wim’s Holland House wasn’t easy but with some directions from locals we got there and were reunited with Rich, who got there earlier the same day, and Ray and Avril, who were in Addis waiting for their flight back to Australia. Wim was a great guy with lots of years in Ethiopia and there didn’t seem to be a question he couldn’t answer about where to find things in Addis. So the following morning, after Brian changing some bushes on the springs of the cruiser, we walked off to the nearest insurance company and got COMESA, a yellow card.

With those two things out of the way we could now head on but only left Addis early afternoon. We knew there weren’t too many options of accommodation on the way south and we really didn’t want to camp wild since people along the road had been a bit too intrusive whenever we stopped. But we found what seemed to be a hotel with camping possibilites further south and set direction there. Again, because we left Addis a bit late, it got dark before we arrived and finally seeing the place showing up on the gps we turned off the main road onto a gravel road. Having learnt not to expect too much at any time we knew this place could be anything from a proper hotel to… non existent.

But as we turned up at the gate the non English speaking men there did nod when we said the name of the hotel. It was all dark and we couldn’t see any buildings so we had no idea. And then the men started asking a lot of questions and asked Brian to step out of the car while they would call the chairman. We all thought it was a little weird that we couldn’t just go to the reception, wherever it might be, if this was a hotel. It seemed more like some sort of interrogation situation. After some time we were directed to go and see the chairman. We parked in the back of what looked like a privately owned house and down the stairs came this man. Slightly surprised at us turning up at his doorstep in the middle of the evening he asked, with an American accent, how he could help us. The three of us couldn’t help but wonder where we had ended up, why and how – and what was going to happen next. So Brian simply explained that we’re looking for a place to stay and that the gps had directed us there. And with no hesitation the man pointed to his garden and said ”Would it be alright if you camp down there? And come in for a beer later and tell us about what you’re doing!” A bit confused with the situation we asked how much he’d charge to have us camping there but he said no, no charge. So we happily put up camp in the backyard, cooked some noodles for dinner and then went back to the house.

And it turned out that this Ethiopian man, Elias, had lived for over 20 years in the US, working in the hotel business. And we were now on the premises of what used to be a big resort. The owner had died and his family lost the property to the bank. Elias, who had moved back to Ethiopia, heard about this and bought it and is now restoring all of it and it’s going to open in a few months. So we had actually been going to a hotel, not finding one but then finding one in the end after all! Elias and his friend Samy, who used to live in Germany, were great guys and we sat on the porch drinking a couple of beers.  It turned out that they had been talking about driving from Ethiopia to South Africa and they were very inspired by us so that was really cool.

After admiring the sunrise over Lake Langano we packed up camp and continued south. It was another long day’s driving and we only reached the border town Moyale just before dark. We quickly looked at the options of accommodation and after turning down a couple of ”hotels” that were a bit too shabby even for us, Rich luckily spotted one that seemed good. I guess you can say they decorated the place with anything that tickled their fancy, from golden lion statues at the gate to a fountain with disco lights. But hey, we had a good dinner with meat served in clay pots being held hot by burning coals underneath. And by sharing a room the three of us, it wasn’t too expensive. Well, hot water could have been included in the price, we all tought, but you can’t get both golden lions and hot water, hey!

After a rooster woke us up just before 07 and Rich had yelled at it through the window for a while, we headed for the border. Everything went alright and we were soon in Kenya, where we were only let in thanks to Rich lending us some cash since we were a bit unorganized in that aspect and couldn’t afford paying for our visas. (We had read that you can’t change your birr at the exit border and have to budget accordingly so as we ran out of cash we didn’t want to withdraw more.)

So, Ethiopia was tough love. We were blown away by the astonishingly beautiful landscape and scenery as we drove through the country, but sadly interacting with locals was never high on our list due to all the begging. As we are swiftly moving on, planning on maybe making it to Zimbabwe for Christmas, Ethiopia ended up being a country we just rushed through. I’m sure, or at least I hope, we would have felt differently about the country if we had given it more time.