The trip back to the UK

On Friday 14 October we were allocated a 20 foot container for the Landrover and were told to report to the KPA container depot in Nairobi at 0930 hours on Monday 17 October.  On arrival on the Monday we learnt that the Chinese computer system used to control container movements and payments in Kenya had crashed and no loading could be done until it was repaired - a local official told us it crashed regularly every Monday morning! 

Whilst waiting, a customs official appeared and inspected the Landrover, checking the engine and chassis number against the documents I held.  Several hours then passed whilst we sat in the hot sun waiting patiently to hear the system had been repaired.  By lunchtime nothing had happened so I contacted our shipping agent for an update.  He said the system might be repaired by mid afternoon but as it was now 1pm, all staff in the container yard would go off for lunch so there was little he could do to chase things up until 2pm. 

Once the lunch break was over he appeared and said he had decided, as we could still not gain access to the container yard, to speed things up by loading the Landrover into the container using a ramp outside the container depot.  We drove off with him and after a short while ended up at a building site where he proceeded to reverse the container lorry against a mound of earth and told me to drive down this into the container. 

It was impossible!  The Landrover was only 3 inches lower than the container top and the side of the earth mound was damp from recent rain and at a very steep angle to the lorry, furthermore, there was a 2 foot gap between the lorry tailboard and the side of the mound.  He suggested he fill this with stones but I refused.  It was just too dangerous to contemplate.  Had the vehicle slipped in the mud it would have been impossible to reverse back up the rain sodden hill and, in any case, the angle of entry would probably mean the Landrover roof rack would snag on the container door top.  After all the near impossible terrain that we had encountered during the trip it would have been ‘sods law’ to have written the Landrover off while trying to get it into the container!  We therefore returned to the container depot and waited until mid afternoon when suddenly things began to happen.  The computer system burst into life and we were given a pass to enter the restricted yard where the container was then removed from the lorry and I was able to drive the Landrover into it on flat ground.  The Landrover wheels were chocked and the vehicle tied to stanchions on the inside of the container.  At last we were free to go after a nine hour wait!

When we got back to our accommodation in Nairobi there was an email from the shipping agents.  They had managed to book the container on the MV Northern Valour, leaving Mombasa in late October, but not to England……to Salalah in the Oman!  I immediately queried this and was told it was normal for a regional ship to take containers to a major port for trans-loading onto a bigger ship bound for the UK.  This was understandable but a quick look at the map showed me that the MV Northern Valour would have to sail up the Somali coast to reach the Oman and then the bigger ship would have to sail back down the same route to the UK.  These are pirate infested waters and the MV Northern Valour was attacked by pirates on this route only a year ago! 

The report of the attack on her makes interesting reading:

On 18 November 2010, in the early evening, a pirate group failed in its attempt to pirate the MV NORTHERN VALOUR in the Somali Basin.  The MV NORTHERN VALOUR reported it was under attack by pirates and had been fired upon with machine guns and an RPG, approximately 400 nautical miles (750 kilometres) South East from Mogadishu (Somalia). As the two pirate skiffs approached to within 200 metres of the ship, the vessel’s master increased speed to 21 knots, mustered all non essential personnel in a safe room and activated self-protection measures.  The skiffs, outpaced by the vessel’s speed, eventually abandoned their attack. The MV NORTHERN VALOUR later confirmed it was safe.

Oh well, fingers crossed …with luck the Landrover will arrive safely in the UK in about a month’s time – I’ll let you know!

With the Landrover safely stowed away, I booked Ian and me onto a British Airways flight leaving Nairobi a couple of days later.  We had a great journey back.  A pilot friend in England had secretly arranged for us to be upgraded to Club Class.  The British Airways Second Officer (recently RAF) was there to greet us at the aircraft door as we boarded and it transpired that he and the air hostesses had been warned to expect two bedraggled adventurers coming straight out of a Landrover onto the plane after an arduous 3 month trip through Africa.  Champagne was poured as we stepped over the threshold of the aircraft and an excellent french wine was uncorked for us to drink with our dinner.  We were treated like lost heroes and were really well looked after and, I must say, the air hostesses looked simply beautiful after 3 months in the bush. What a way to come back to England!

Ian in Club Class after a few glasses of champagne!

Well, the long, exciting and varied journey through Africa for Ian and me is now over but it will not be complete until the Landrover is safely back in England.  I will let you know when this happens, in about a month’s time, when I write my last blog entry for this wonderful expedition.

Until then……………………………….. 

Our Final Days in Africa

After over 9000 miles (15000 km) of driving up through Africa, the finale to our long trip was to cross the Equator.

The last 3 months have been a fantastic experience for both Ian and me. We have seen much and learnt a great deal about Africa and its people.  Now we must return home and over the winter I hope to be able to give a series of talks about the trip and hopefully raise some more much needed funds for the National Parks we in Conservation Zambezi have supported over the years.

So, after 3 relaxing days with Anne and Mark Simpkin near Mount Kenya we set off back to Nairobi to put Jo and Jessica on a plane back to the UK and then arrange for the Landrover to be shipped back home.  With luck, I am told, we will be allocated a container early next week.  Once in its container the Landrover will be inspected by a Kenyan Customs Official and the carnet will be signed, the doors closed and then Ian and I will be free to book a flight back to London in the following days.

We are lucky.  The trip is ending at just the right moment as the Kenyan wet season has just started (a month early) and there is mud everywhere now!

I will let you know how we get on with our shipping plans in the next blog.

Tsavo, Nairobi and Timau

This blog has been written by Jessica and Jo.  We have at last found a fast internet connection so have uploaded pictures onto our last couple of blogs, should you wish to go back and look at them.

We left our campsite on the Indian Ocean near Mombasa on Sat 8 October for the drive to Tsavo National Park which is half way to Nairobi.  There is only one two lane road from Mombassa to Nairobi and it is horrendous! The traffic is nose to tail the entire way, mainly with container lorries driving to and from Mombassa port. Most travel very slowly, frequently break down and because of the weight of traffic, are very difficult to overtake. We estimated that at any one time there were up to 40,000 container lorries travelling one way or the other on this 300 mile road.  It was a most frustrating drive and a hot one!

We finally arrived in Tsavo West National Park around lunchtime on Saturday and pitched our tents in a wild camping site allocated to us on arrival before going for an afternoon game drive to the black rhino sanctuary. Sadly the rhinos did not want to be seen and we saw nothing! We then returned to the solitude of our tents for a night of wild camping. As night descended we lit a large fire and listened to the animals around us.  Jo had to get up in the middle of the night and, as instructed, shone the torch all round the perimeter of the camp first. In the torch light she picked up six pairs of yellow eyes…Jeremy (who was with her) assured her they were only jackal, it was still the quickest pee in living memory!

The following morning we had a more successful time.  We firstly visited Mzima Springs where the lake has an under water observation tank.  We saw several hippo and crocodile who were completely un-phased by our presence. We also saw lots of giraffe, zebra, impala, bush buck, warthog and the famous Tsavo red elephant (so called because they dust themselves with red earth).

We then set off for the second half of the journey to Nairobi. On the way we stopped for a break by the side of the road and Jessica stood on a upturned rusty nail which went through her shoe and an inch into her foot. After many expletives and howls of anguish we got her back to the Landrover where we cleaned up the wound as best we could and then made many phone calls to England to try to track down anyone with medical knowledge, but being a Sunday afternoon, everyone was out!  We therefore continued on to Jungle Junction campsite in Nairobi which we reached just before dark. This campsite, situated in the middle of urban Nairobi, is a favourite with overlanders who camp there or use it to store their vehicles between trips. It was a far cry from the solitude of the game park but there were hot showers which were much needed after the red dust of the Park which got everywhere.

The next day (Monday 10 October) we set off again northwards toward Mount Kenya which is some 150 miles north of Nairobi, stopping on the way at the Aga Khan hospital to have Jessica’s wound checked for infection. Once she had been sufficiently reassured that amputation was not immediately necessary she was given antibiotics and pain killers and we set off again for Timau to stay with Anne and Mark Simpkin who own a flower farm there.  Kenya, north of Nairobi, is dramatically different – fertile valleys, productive farming and quieter roads. We climbed and climbed until we reached Timau, situated on the foot hills of Mount Kenya at an altitude of some 8500 feet.

Anne and Mark’s farm seems to be on the roof of the world with beautiful views in all directions. They had kindly set aside their guest cottage for us to stay in with comfy beds, hot water and wonderful hospitality. At last we were able to relax for a couple of days, get the cleaning done, wash out the tents and prepare the Landrover for shipping back to the UK next week. Mark and Anne gave us a tour of their flower farm and production line where 40,000 roses are picked each day and flown straight to Russia, five days a week. It is a labour intensive business which employs 100 local people as the rose bushes are planted in greenhouses stretching for hundreds of yards.  Apparently the conditions at this altitude are ideal for producing perfect roses. Certainly their colours were stunning with flowers ranging from deep velvet red to burnt sienna and ice white. 

Tomorrow we return to Nairobi where Jo and Jessica will catch an evening flight back to the UK.  Jeremy will then finalise the shipping of his Landrover back home and then he and Ian hope to catch a flight back to the UK in the next week or so, but more of that in the next blog.

The Drive from Dar es Salaam to Kenya

We left Dar es Salaam early on the morning of Tuesday 4 October for the long drive north to theAmani Nature Reserve in the Usambaras Mountains of northern Tanzania.  For much of the time we drove through a very poor part of Tanzania with endless ribbon development of square mud huts where people are eking out a living from virtually nothing.  Much of life seems to be communal with scrawny goats browsing and grazing where they can and a few chickens scratching in the red earth, polished from endless brushing.  The dirt roads were lined with immaculately dressed school children who, we assume, walk for miles to go to school in shifts.  The people are generally not very friendly and looked suspiciously at us as we drove past.  Considering what they have and what they see in us, this is hardly surprising.

There were small townships along the way where people trade in vegetables, second hand car parts and the inevitable coca cola.  As we passed through we became an immediate source of income and were surrounded by hawkers and expectant children.  We stopped to buy petrol and were charged for 80 litres.  When we got going again we noticed that the fuel gauge was not registering full, as it should have done after a fill up.  Our first thought was that we had been ripped off, but a generous second thought was that the fuel gauge was faulty.  We waited until the next fill up which showed that the gauge was not faulty and the guy in the first garage had ‘seen us coming’ and fixed the pump to deliver less than its gauge showed!  As ever, no proof!

After the heavy traffic of Dar es Salaam in the early morning we made good progress on tar roads towards the small town of Muheza where we left the tarmac and headed for the Usambaras Mountains on a rough dirt road.  We had assumed it would take us about an hour to cover the 3000 foot climb along 20 odd miles of track to Emau Hill where we planned to stay but the road conditions were atrocious and nearly two and a half hours later, as dusk was falling, we finally crawled into the campsite.

The Usambaras Mountains are unique to Tanzania in that they are clad in dense rain forest. The Germans and later the British established a research station here and grew many species of plants and trees.  Now the area is a nature reserve.  

Then, some 11 years ago, an Englishman called Stephen Valentine met the parish priest of Amani Parish and they decided to form an organisation called ‘Tukae’ (meaning ‘Let us be Together’ in the local Shambaa language) in order to help reduce poverty amongst the people of the Eastern Usambaras Mountains.  They are trying to educate the people to be self sufficient and so give them transferable skills like dress making, cooking and cleaning to a standard required in a camp that attracts tourists.  To raise money for this venture they established a remote campsite deep in the forest where people can stay. It is an ambitious project but the disadvantage of it is the camp is so remote it can only be reached in a 4 wheel drive vehicle and so cuts down the number of people who can go there.  Bird watchers use the campsite as the bird life in the mountains is superb.  For us, the area was in such contrast to the arid regions we had visited on our journey through Africa and we revelled in the cool mist and light rain as we walked along the mountain paths near the camp.  

The African Violet was first discovered here in these mountains and, although not the season for flowers, we saw the plants growing in profusion out of the rocks.
  

The same can be said for many plants which we nurture as house plants in the UK which grow here like weeds.  

It drizzled for much of our time in the mountains and we could see why the rain forest came into being with so much rainfall each year.  Despite all the rain however the collection of water for the campsite is a problem as it lies above the source of the local stream and Jeremy suggested to Stephen that he installs a solar pumping system like that used by Lynne Taylor in Zimbabwe to provide water for the camp.

Kenya

After two days in the mountains we left and embarked on our journey to the border with Kenya. Border crossings take time and endless patience while paperwork in triplicate is checked, rechecked, stamped and sent to another office for the same procedure all over again.  The staff do not always seem to recognize the documents, but have to ‘save face’ and so go through all the motions.  We have to be very careful as they also wield a lot of power and can refuse us entry into the next country.  The quickest crossing to date has taken 2 hours.  At the Kenya border the official put the wrong registration number of the vehicle on the insurance document so we had to start all over again! 

The early history of Kenya is similar to that of Tanzania in that the Arabs were the first foreigners to reach its shores.  Some settled and intermarried and they created the Swahili culture along the coast. The first Europeans to reach Kenya were the Portuguese in 1498. They dominated the coastal regions for some two centuries and introduced maize and cassava but did not penetrate inland.

Kenya came under British control in the 1880s. Subsequently white settlers flocked to Kenya taking over the best land.  Indians also arrived about the same time and formed a middle class of traders. The Kikuyu (the main local tribe) responded in 1924 by forming the Kikuyu Central Association under Jomo Kenyatta and this led later to the Mau Mau uprising from 1952 to 1956. The British responded by declaring a state of emergency and British troops were sent out to deal with the insurgency, using concentration camps to detain the Kikuyu until it ended.

In 1963 Kenya became independent and joined the Commonwealth.  It now has a population of about 40 million and has become one of the more wealthy countries in Africa. Nairobi, the capital, is the commercial hub of the region and Kenya’s main exports are flowers, coffee and tea. Tourism provides the main source of income, accounting for approximately 65% of GDP.

The frustrations of the border crossing over we set off (in the mid day sun) towards Mombasa and saw an immediate difference.  The Kenyan countryside was more fertile, better planted and tended and the whole standard of living was raised a notch.  This does not mean prosperous, but there was more feeling of well being and the people were much friendlier and keener to please.  By late afternoon we reached our camp site on the coast which was virtually empty - there was only one other tent there!  It is a beautiful spot right on the coast some 20 miles south of Mombasa.

Tourism has been badly hit by the activities of the Somalis and it would appear that all advice in the UK at the moment is telling people to avoid the Kenyan coast.  We are still south of Mombasa and so fairly far south – we will not venture any further north up the coast and tomorrow will head inland.  The locals here are hugely dependent on tourism and all the police are heavily armed so there is an element of desperation and for that reason alone we feel safe as they can not afford for somthing to happen down here.

Tomorrow we leave for Tsavo National Park and then on to see Anne and Mark Simpkin at Timau, some three hours drive north of Nairobi.

A week in Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar

The background to Tanzania is interesting.  Its known history begins with trading contacts with Arabia two thousand years ago.  In the 15th Century the Portuguese arrived and claimed control over the coastal regions of Tanganyika (now Tanzania) but never settled there. Little attempt was made to penetrate the interior until the middle of the 18th Century when Arab traders began to explore the area as part of their constant search for slaves.

European exploration began in the mid 19th Century and in 1866 David Livingstone established a mission there as a part of his crusade against the slave trade.  At the end of the 19th Century, German colonization began.  During the German occupation there was a boom period in the development of roads, railways and cash crops but in 1905 the two year Maji Maji Rebellion began against German occupation, leading to the death of some 120,000 Africans.  Brutal colonial rule provoked this rebellion and a scorched earth policy was used to crush it. Many Tanzanians regard this as the first moment of a nationalistic movement.

The Germans lost control of their territory to the British after World War I under the League of Nations agreement (the British had previously seized Zanzibar from the control of Arab traders).  In 1954 Julius Nyerere, a former schoolteacher, founded the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) and the move towards independence and self-government began. In 1961 this became a reality and Nyerere became Tanganyika’s first president. Shortly afterwards the British deferred their control of Zanzibar back to local Arab leaders but this led to a revolt and Zanzibar (and the island of Pemba) joined Tanganyika and became Tanzania.

Julius Nyerere was the key guiding figure in the history of Tanzania right up into the 1990’s and his influence is still strongly felt here today. He was much loved by the people but his socialist and self-reliance policies did not work and left the country in economic ruin, leaving Tanzania as one of the world’s poorest countries. It is now slowly emerging from this situation.

The Gumbleton girls left us on Friday 29^th and embarked a long journey home via Nairobi where they had to wait for 7 hours! Jo and Jessica arrived the same day (and are writing this blog today to give a girly input!)

We are still in the same campsite but we have just come back from Zanzibar where we spent an amazing 24 hours. It is the most beautiful island with paradise beaches; white sand and turquoise sea.

We spent the time in Stone Town which is a ‘city’ with a lot of Arab influence. Unfortunately it is falling down and badly maintained and the locals rely totally on the incoming tourists to spend their dollars, of which there are many.

The local markets are everything they are promised to be and we had great fun diving into the dingy souks, haggling and coming away with local spoils for pence – Christmas is sorted! It is a spice paradise but interestingly spices are not indigenous to Zanzibar. Saffron abounds but it is still expensive (relatively!) We found a lovely bar and restaurant called The Africa House where we had cocktails out of coconut shells whilst watching the sun set over the sea. The most beautiful image in Zanzibar is of the dhow crossing the sun rays on the sea as it sets.

We stayed in a traditional hotel with carved doors (Jo was obsessed with these doors and took MANY photos!)

We each had a four poster bed (even Jo and Jeremy in a double room had one each!)

We caught the ferry back on Sunday and Jessica was surprised by how quick it was – only 2 hours long. When she went to Zanzibar 5 years ago, on her gap year, she took a local boat which took all night and everyone slept on the floor in rows!

Back in the campsite in Tanzania, things work spasmodically….both the water and electricity are often off and the water is certainly not hot! And the staff have to be encouraged to turn it on and clean the showers. Meanwhile the gardens are immaculate and beautifully tended and one man is fully employed to sweep the sand…It is very beautiful though with our tents on the edge of the water and we are surrounded by thatched huts. It is the perfect picture postcard.

There is a good restaurant and we have been spoilt on this first phase of our trip by eating out every night! Long may it continue, but we fear it will not be long! Wild camping starts again tomorrow when we leave for Emau Hill Camp in the forests of Northern Tanzania.

20 to 27 September - The Drive North Through Malawi to Dar es Salaam

This is the first time I have been able to post a blog for nearly a week. 

We collected Sue and Emma Gumbleton from Lilongwe Airport at lunchtime on 20 September.  Both were very tired after a long flight lasting some 17 hours from the UK via Nairobi and Lusaka.  It seems there is no direct flight to Lilongwe from the UK anymore.  It was a very hot day and in addition to their luggage we had on board containers of extra diesel to see us through Malawi, making the vehicle very full and cramped.  Poor things – what a way to start a holiday in Africa!  It was a good three hour drive to Bua River Camp near the lakeshore in central Malawi and the road was narrow and winding.  In addition to this there were hundreds of people walking along the tarmac throughout the entire drive – something we had not experienced so far on this expedition. 

Finally we arrived at the Bua campsite, hidden on the edge of the remote Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve, and sank a couple of ice cold beers each to wash away the dust of the drive.  The campsite (we were the only occupants) is very basic but has recently been renovated by an Englishman called John who was there to greet us as we erected our tents in the evening sunlight.  The Bua River runs through the camp and is flanked by dense riverine vegetation, although the surrounding hills have more open woodland. 

John told us that, on the afternoon of the day we left Lilongwe, major riots had erupted in the city centre and several million pounds worth of damage was done.  Thank goodness we got out before they started as it seems some of the riots were in the street adjacent to our campsite!  John told us they were caused by dissatisfaction with the government’s record and resentment that the President is building an enormous palace for himself whilst the population starves and there is no fuel and constant electricity cuts – I think I have heard all this before somewhere else in Africa!

But back to the trip…...

The Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve where we camped is Malawi’s oldest Reserve but remains almost totally undeveloped as the rough terrain makes access very difficult.  There are still no roads through it, although we hear two lodges have recently been built on its boundaries and this may lead to more tourism.  The pristine bush inside the Reserve harbours a rich diversity of animals including elephant, buffalo, baboon and various antelope.  It also supports the country’s last viable lion population.

Malawi is a small but fascinating country.  We have been astonished however by the number of people who live here.  At independence in 1964 it had less than 4 million inhabitants but it is now estimated to have nearly 16 million, making it one of the more densely populated countries in Africa.  Until 1907 when it’s present borders were established by Britain it had been the fiefdom of three tribal chiefs and has a long and sad history of violence and poverty.  Slave trading throughout the area was rife and alliances between the Omani Arabs and local chiefs led a one stage to an almost total annihilation of the population.  Livingstone is thought to have had a great influence in bringing the slave trade in this area to an end, although it is sad to read that some of his descendants, who settled and farmed in Malawi, were killed in a series of uprisings in 1915.  Dr Hastings Banda, the first resident and once a doctor in Edinburgh and London, returned to the country in 1953 and later took the title of ‘President for Life’ until he retired aged 95 in 1993.  He left Malawi as a poor and backward country, and little seems to have changed since.

After a two day break at Bua we drove on north, stopping overnight at a small camp by the shores of Lake Malawi, on the way to the Tanzanian border.  At one stage we went over a pass and down into a valley full of the baobab trees – I have never seen so many baobabs growing so closely together before.

The baobab is a fascinating tree so let me tell you a little about it.  It can grow to a height 30 metres and have a diameter of up to 11 metres.  Radio-carbon dating has shown that some baobab trees are over 2,000 years old.  The trunk can hold up to 120,000 litres of water which can be tapped in dry periods.  It is also known as the tree of life as it is capable of providing shelter, food and water for both animal and humans. The cork-like bark is fire resistant and is used for making cloth and rope. The leaves are used for condiments and medicines. The fruit, called "monkey bread", is rich in vitamin C.  For most of the year, the tree is leafless, and looks as if it has been planted upside down.  Legend has it that the Bushmen believed the baobab so offended God that in his wrath he uprooted it and cast it back into the earth upside-down.

Back to our journey..........eventually we reached the Tanzanian border.  As with all African border posts, the bureaucracy involved in arranging to leave one country and enter another is a ponderous affair.  It took us two hours to reach the Tanzanian side after having all our travel documents photocopied and getting the vehicle carnet signed.  For some unknown reason the border officials would not accept US$1 bills but demanded a vehicle ‘road tax’ of US$25 in minimum denominations of US$5 so we had to search our purses to find sufficient notes before we were allowed to proceed.  The 3^rd party vehicle insurance office then tried to sell me a COMESA insurance document which luckily I knew would not give cover to UK registered vehicles involved in accidents, so I refused it.  Only then did they offer me the right insurance.  The reason for this ploy it transpired was to try to get me to pay a larger premium!

As we entered Tanzania the heavens opened and we experienced our first rainstorm since leaving the UK nearly three months ago.  Since then, we have had one or more showers almost every day but it has been very hot and humid in between with temperatures in the mid thirties centigrade by day and a humid and sweaty 20+ degrees by night.  Shortly after crossing into Tanzania the road began to climb steadily and by the end of the afternoon we had reached over 6000 feet.  Tea and banana plantations grew on each side of the road and the mountain tops were swathed in mist. Everything was green and moist – such a change to the dry arid landscape we had driven through to date. 

The only campsite I could find that evening was a missionary one in the small town of Mbeya.  No beer was for sale (we smuggled a few bottles in later) and we could hear hymns being sung in the distance as we removed our sweaty clothing and showered.  As with many campsites the showers had no hot water and only long drop toilets so we installed the two girls in a small room in the missionary hostel for the night and that had a warm water shower we could all use. That evening as we ate in the mission canteen I met a Frenchman who had lived in this part of Africa for over 30 years. He told us to be careful as the Tanzanian police were some of the most corrupt in Africa. To illustrate the point he told us he had driven down from Iringa that very day and had been stopped and fined for not carrying instructions in his vehicle to cover the use of the mandatory fire extinguisher! When he said this was not compulsory, the traffic police took away his drivers licence and left him stranded on the road until he agreed to pay ‘a fine’.  He also told us the judiciary were corrupt and it was not unusual to pay a bribe to get the right outcome at a trial.  He said when one of his colleagues had a fire in his house recently, the police cordoned off the area and would not allow anyone in (including the privately hired fire engine – there was no local authority one available) until they had plundered the house of its valuables, saying the owner could recover their worth through his insurance premium!

The plan for the next day was to drive for 350 miles (8 hours) from Mbeya to Mikumi National Park, so we set off at dawn.  The traffic was very heavy and we crawled for the first 10 miles, avoiding overtaking vehicles that had no regard for safety or the rules of the road.  I was driving. Within 20 minutes we were pulled over by the traffic police and I was told I had been doing 69kph in a 50kph zone.  I certainly had not as we were very careful about speed limits but I was shown the speed camera reading and told to pay a fine of 60,000 Tanzanian shillings (£30).  We protested and were led off to see the officer in charge who was resting in a Landrover under the shade of a tree by the side of the road.  After much arguing the fine was reduced to 30,000 Tanzanian shillings but I received no receipt – it went straight into his pocket!  We learnt later from two separate white people who had used the same road that they had been stopped also for allegedly doing exactly the same speed on the same road.  We all agreed that the camera appeared to be set permanently at 69kph!

One is bound to compare the merits of each country visited during a trip like this and both Ian and I feel Tanzania sits firmly at the bottom of the pile so far.  Many of the locals we have met appear to be offhand and rude, in some cases just walking off when one stops to ask the way.  Few speak English - or want to – which is unusual as Tanzania was once a British colony.  When we stopped to buy food at Iringa we were charged heavily for parking in the street.  When I asked a passing Indian if this was the norm he said the local council had decreed that all foreigners were to pay a fee to park anywhere in town.  Supermarkets are non existent and food prices in shops are not displayed so you never know if you are paying an inflated price or not at the till. 

We arrived at Mikumi National Park an hour before dusk after some 10 hours of driving.  There were four Rangers sitting at the reception desk on the entrance gate and I was ignored for several minutes whilst they continued to chat to each other.  No one else was there.  Eventually they spoke to me.  I asked if we could camp for the night and was told the entry fees and camping charges would be US$240 for 24 hours – massively higher charges than we had paid anywhere before on this trip.  We had no option so reluctantly agreed and were told to go to Campsite 2.  No map was given to me but I was told to drive eight kilometres into the park and turn left at the sixth junction.  As the light faded we found the campsite under a massive baobab tree – not a fenced one as I had imagined but a wild camp for one party in the middle of the bush.  This was no problem for Ian and me as we were now used to remote camping but I was concerned for the safety of the two girls who had never done anything like this before.  As the light faded we lit a large fire and erected the tents.

I then gave everyone a safety briefing as I was concerned about the possibility of wild animals wandering into the campsite.  I taught the girls how to use a torch to look around before venturing out from their tent at night and said one of us men would accompany them if they needed to do so.  The shower and toilets were 100 metres away in the bush – too far to walk at night - and anyway were in a dreadful condition so I suggested we did not use them.  Instead Ian and I set up a temporary toilet by the Landrover.

Within minutes of settling down to make supper Ian’s wife Sue said she could see eyes reflecting in her torchlight.  I investigated - it was only a mongoose watching us from the grass nearby.  Moments later she saw more eyes – again I looked and this time found a jackal.  This was all a good experience as it taught the girls the importance of using a torch properly at night. The next morning we realised why the jackal was so close.  There was a dump of rotting rubbish and tins in a hole about 30 metres away from us that the Parks staff had never cleared away. 

In the morning as we packed up our camp, two cow herds of elephant with calves walked by close to the camp, flaring their ears in alarm at finding it occupied. Then with some time to spare during the morning we set off for a game drive and saw a good variety of animals including some old buffalo bulls, a large herd of buffalo further on, giraffe, more elephant, warthog, wildebeest for the first time and much birdlife

At lunchtime we left the Park and drove on some 200 miles to Dar es Salaam.  The traffic was very heavy and we ended up in several traffic jams, only reaching the city in the evening.  The campsite I had chosen from the internet had to be reached by taking a ferry across a river and we saw dhows sailing past in the evening light. 

We finally reached the camp in the dark and set up our tents without having any idea of what it was like, but the next day brought a pleasant surprise

The blue swell of the Indian Ocean was only yards from our tents and the next morning the heavy humidity of a hot African beach hit us as we sorted out the camp.  Palm trees were all around, offering shade from the sun, and the sand on the beach was near white in colour.  As the morning progressed, the wind got up and white horses appeared on the waves.  This was tropical bliss!

We will stay here for a week.  Ian has taken his family to the island of Zanzibar for a break and I am looking after the camp in his absence.  In three days time the two Gumbleton girls will leave for the UK and Jo and Jessica will come out to join me for a fortnight.  We too will visit Zanzibar before heading north again for Kenya, but more of that in the next blog!

14 to 18 September – The drive through Zambia to Malawi

We set off from our Lusaka campsite after breakfast on 14 September and headed east for the 350 mile drive to Chipata near the border with Malawi.  At first the tarmac road from Lusaka was good but as we headed further east it deteriorated and once again we spent the day dodging deep potholes and ancient, overheating lorries crawling up the hills at walking pace.  The altimeter dropped slowly as we headed downwards from the high central plateau and the temperature in the vehicle cab rose to 40 degrees C.  Even the act of blinking seemed to make one sweat!  The hours passed monotonously and when Ian took his turn at driving I sat in the passenger seat and thought back over the last two months of the trip. 

It seems amazing to think that we have now covered nearly 7000 miles through 5 countries since the expedition began in Capetown 10 weeks ago and yet we have not seen a single drop of rain. Winter in southern Africa is so very dry.  I thought back over the route we had taken.  We had begun by driving up the west (Atlantic Ocean) coast of Africa but now we were heading diagonally east across the continent for 5000 miles towards the Indian Ocean coast.  The journey seemed endless - Africa is such a large place.  If, during the boring winter months ahead you find an old atlas in your bookshelf at home then cut out India and place it over Africa.  You will find that the continent of Africa is nearly five times larger than India.  This will give you an idea of its enormous size and the distances one has to cover on a trip like our one.

It is presidential election time in Zambia at present and President Banda is seeking re-election on 20 September for a second term in office.  Some say he will lose to the main opposition opponent.  Posters proclaiming Banda are everywhere.  As we pass through the many villages en route we find most people are wearing his T shirts, trucks have his banners stuck to their sides and rallies for his supporters are taking place.  I suggested to a local that with such support Mr Banda would surely win.  He smiled.  Everyone, he said, wore Banda T shirts to avoid getting beaten up but when they went to the voting booths, many would vote for the opposition.  To bear this out, at one stage I saw two frightened young teenage boys chased and grabbed by Banda supporters who roughed them up until they agreed to put on Banda T shirts.  They were then released unharmed.

During the day we had to swerve at one stage to avoid a speeding convoy of shiny 4x4 vehicles with tinted windows racing down the middle of the road, led by a police car, and we wondered if it might be Banda himself or perhaps a member of his cabinet.

Last night the drums beat until the early hours and singers extolled Banda’s virtues through loudspeakers placed along the highway near our camp in Chipata.  Many people were drunk and we decided it would not be a good time to be seen in town so we kept a low profile!  So far we hear campaigning in Zambia has been largely peaceful, unlike the elections of its neighbours.  This might be because Zambia (once Northern Rhodesia) embraced democracy some 15 years before Mugabe came to power in Zimbabwe (Southern Rhodesia) and Zambia’s first President, although fairly totalitarian in his method of rule, did not follow Mugabe’s marxist beliefs and allowed democracy to grow. 

To the north of Zambia is Zaire which we hear remains a troubled country and to the east is Malawi where we are heading.  We are told by Zambian acquaintances that the current Malawian president is becoming increasingly corrupt and autocratic and this has led to riots in recent months and the deaths of a number of protesters shot by the police.  When the British ambassador subsequently criticised the president publicly in a speech, he was immediately expelled from Malawi and the president announced he would not accept criticism from Britain and the West.  Since then we hear Britain and other European countries have reduced their aid to Malawi and there are now shortages of many imported goods.

After a night at Chipata we drove 80 miles north to South Luangwa National Park, one of the best known of the Zambian wildlife parks. We spent two pleasant nights here, setting up our tents on the banks of the Luangwa River in a remote concession area leased by the Wildlife Society of Zambia from National Parks. 

Temperatures by day rose to 40 degrees C and when I got up at 0550 hours on the first morning, after a hot night lying on my camp bed without a sleeping bag, it was still nearly 30 degrees in the early dawn light.  South Luangwa is a large and beautiful Park but much of it is unused, remote and relatively inaccessible.  Most of the tourists fly in and congregate in the luxury camps situated in a few small areas on the eastern side of the Park and do their game drives just inside the boundary.  Fees for two people to enter the Park in their own vehicle are now a hefty US$75 a day.  Compared to Mana we had only brief sitings of game, probably due to the heat and the fact that there is no need for animals to concentrate near waterholes as the river flows through the Park all the year round.  Over the two days though we saw a small herd of elephant cross the river on the second day and spotted from our campsite giraffe, kudu, bushbuck, impala, warthogs, crocodiles and hippos.  At night lions roared in the distance. 

We had planned to spend a day in the Park but a chance conversation with a South African visitor put paid to our plans.  He had just been in Malawi and left a week early as he found there was no vehicle fuel available due to a lack of foreign exchange currency (forex).  I rang the wildlife campsite we were planning to stay in near Lake Malawi and they confirmed this fact, warning us that there was no likelihood of more fuel arriving in the near future. This was a major problem as we had to pick up Ian’s wife and daughter at Lilongwe Airport on 20 September and therefore, like it or not, had to go through Malawi.  The only answer was to buy sufficient fuel in Zambia to get us all the way through the country to Tanzania.  I did the sums and found we would need to carry 180 litres of diesel with us, but our tanks when full would only hold 140 litres. 

We abandoned our plan to visit the Park and drove to a nearby village.  Here we bought two old 20 litre plastic, cooking oil containers for the princely sum of 5 US dollars, washed them out with spare fuel and drove back to Chipata.  We then went to a bank and drew out 1,200,000 kwacha (the exchange rate is 5000 kwacha to a US dollar so we temporarily became millionaires!) to spend filling up all our tanks and the extra containers with fuel.  We sealed the containers in black plastic bags to reduce the smell of diesel in the vehicle and drove to the border, hoping we would not be stopped for carrying so much fuel! No one was interested.  In fact it was the smoothest border crossing we have had on the trip and within one hour we were in Malawi.

Malawi is one of the smallest countries in the region.  One fifth of it consists of Lake Malawi which lies along the line of the Rift Valley, a natural fault running southwards from Kenya.  It is similar in size to Cuba and is less than half the size of the UK.  By comparison its neighbour Zambia is six times larger.  South Malawi is the most populated and developed part of the country and north Malawi is the least populated.  The capital Lilongwe (our destination)is in the centre of the country and sits on the central African plateau  in a cool and pleasant climate.

We reached Lilongwe an hour before sunset on 17 September.  The campsite I had chosen from the map was small, dusty and very full of young European travellers drinking beer so it was not attractive.  However we had passed the Lilongwe Golf Club on the way and had noticed it had a campsite too so we drove back there instead.  The club is sited in open woodland near the centre of town and has a wonderful bird population which takes refuge in the trees along the golf course to escape the busy streets.  We were the only campers.  As the sun set we could hear Muslim evening prayers being chanted by a cleric from the minaret of a mosque nearby.  This was repeated at dawn the next morning, raising us reluctantly from a deep sleep.  We remembered hearing Muslims being called to prayer during our stay in Lusaka too.  I do not recall this from earlier visits so perhaps the Moslem population of southern Africa is growing?

Looking ahead, we will pick up Ian’s family at Lilongwe airport on Tuesday 20 September and they will then travel with us up into Tanzania over the next 9 days.  This means we now have a couple of days in which to do much needed administration and get some rest.  Tents and clothes must be washed, the vehicle, its storage boxes, the plates, saucepans and cutlery must all be scrubbed until they shine – newcomers to the expedition are probably horrified by the dusty conditions we now happily live in so we feel we should try to improve things a little so they get a good impression on arrival! 

I am not sure where or when I shall find an internet café to send my next blog from but hope it might be somewhere in northern Malawi in the next few days.