Upcoming Plans: Kruger, Mozambique and points north!

April 28, Cape Town

This is just a quick post to let you, my gentle readers, know what our plans are, and what we've been up to since leaving Livingstone 4 weeks ago.

Looking pleased and relieved to have bought Stanley

Terri and I flew down from Livingstone to Cape Town on Wednesday, March 30th, determined to buy an overlanding vehicle for our upcoming Africa adventure.  We stayed in a rather ratty little backpackers located on the loudest intersection in the city for the first 4 nights, but our search for vehicles was frustrating.  We couldn't find anyone selling a complete setup like we wanted (a pickup truck, or "bakkie" as it's called here, with a camper insert in the back).  Trying to buy the truck and the camper separately looked expensive, with Alu-Cab offering us a new, well-engineered but cramped camper (Terri called it a man-cave for its dark, low interior) for 190.000 rand (about US$ 12.500) without a vehicle underneath it.  We had a line on 2012 HiLux pickup trucks for about the same price.  Then we would need to buy lots of extra kit to make the camper liveable and fully functional.  It all seemed more expensive than we wanted, and more hassle.

We took a bit of time to look around Cape Town on a sunny Saturday afternoon, enjoying the pretty Waterfront with its markets and good food, and climbed Table Mountain on Sunday, but we mostly kept our noses to the grindstone, going to government offices futilely looking for a Traffic Registry Number (they weren't willing to give one to non-resident foreigners), visiting dozens of car dealers, spending time on the internet, and all in vain.  By the evening of Monday, April 4th, we were discouraged, and at a low ebb in our enthusiasm.  The only bright spot was that we had moved into a much nicer and cheaper place to stay, an AirBnB house in funky gentrifying Woodstock.  At that exact moment, my former colleague Charlene sent me a link to the Africa 4x4 Cafe website and on there we saw the perfect vehicle for us, a 2002 Mitsubishi Colt club cab pickup truck with a Blinkgat camper in the back, freshly returned from a big trip as far north as Tanzania under the ownership of another Canadian.  The ad dated from early February, and we were worried that the vehicle would have been sold long ago.  Without much hope, we sent off an e-mail and Terri went to bed.  Before turning in myself, I checked my e-mail one more time and found an e-mail from Etienne, the owner.  The vehicle was still for sale and he was very keen to get it off his hands, as he had had to return to Canada without having sold it.  There were a couple of people interested in it but they weren't going to look at the vehicle for another week or so.

Living out of Stanley

In the morning I told Terri that the car was available but was in Johannesburg, stored in a garage.  Within an hour, we had bought air tickets to Johannesburg for the next day, found a place to stay, rented a car and were upbeat and nervous.  On Wednesday, April 6th we were on a cheap flight to Johannesburg and, after a long delay at the car rental desk, took off in our US$20 a day rental car, listening to our GPS and getting lost.  We headed straight to the garage and looked at the vehicle.  It seemed like what we wanted, and after a day of nervous thought and trans-Atlantic WhatsApp negotiation with Etienne we settled on a price (a bit under US$10,000) and started the process of bank transfers to pay for it.  By Friday night we had paid the purchase price, started the process of getting our Traffic Registry Numbers (via an "agent" who presumably greased a few palms at the government office), gone through the huge quantity of camping, cooking, cleaning, repair and electrical equipment that came with the camper and settled on a plan.  We would borrow the car for a few days to drive it around and test out how we liked living out of the camper so that we would know what (if anything) we needed to buy.  Then we would return the vehicle to Johannesburg so that the paperwork of changing ownership, along with a few repairs (oil change, oil and air filter change and a new leaf spring for the back axle) could get done while Terri and I went to NZ and Switzerland respectively for brief business-oriented trips.  Then, when we returned, we would pick up our newly optimized vehicle and head for Kruger National Park to start exploring the continent.  Unfortunately, our tickets to NZ and Europe, already bought, were leaving from Cape Town and we were now in Johannesburg, requiring another cheap-o return air ticket to Cape Town on the delightfully named Mango Air.

Meeting Erin Conway-Smith in Johannesburg

Once we had our plan, everything happened relatively quickly.  We spent the weekend enjoying our laid-back backpacker joint (The Birches, in Linden) and visiting an old friend of mine (Angelo) from long-ago grad school days, along with a fellow Thunder Bay-ite, Erin Conway Smith, who is now a correspondent for the Economist based in Johannesburg.  We had interesting discussions about the ongoing political scandals in South Africa and some of the other countries of the continent that Erin knows.  In the afternoons we went running and cycling in the Johannesburg Botanical Gardens and shopped for groceries.

From Monday afternoon to Thursday morning of that week we took our new vehicle, freshly renamed Stanley (short for Henry Morton Stanley ; Etienne had called the vehicle Zulu) for a three-night camping trip.  We drove northwest to the Magaliesberg, to Sleepy River Caravan Park, where we spent two idyllic nights watching birds, testing out our gear, eating well and enjoying the star-spangled sky.  The only problem we found was that our gas burners weren't working well, presumably getting gunked up by dust; either we need a new stove or a pressurized air source to blow out the gas pipes.  The bed was comfortable, the working space inside the camper was ample, and the electrical system, with a fridge/freezer, storage batteries and a solar panel, worked idyllically.  The only downer was the horrible traffic we encountered in Pretoria when we went to pick up our Wild Card, the amazingly good deal on South African National Parks where for US$100 each we get unlimited access to all the parks in South Africa (although we still have to pay for accommodation).  

Stanley at Magalies Sleepy River

On Wednesday we spent a wonderful day exploring the Cradle of Humankind, a UNESCO-listed site commemorating the amazing paleontological discoveries in the caves northwest of Jo'burg.  

Robert Broom and our tour guide at Sterkfontein

Sterkfontein Cave was memorable, as much for the cave itself as for the early specimens of Australopithecus  discovered there.  That evening we camped in Krugersdorp Game Reserve and watched tons of birds and mammals, including ostriches, wildebeests, hartebeests, giraffes and bushbucks.  

Krugersdorp Game Reserve

It was again an idyllic spot to camp, and whetted our appetites for further adventures.  Thursday morning we drove back into Johannesburg, left the vehicle at the garage, got a lift to the airport and flew back to Cape Town.  Our AirBnB hosts, the irrepressible duo of Leonie and Shanaaz, surprised us by picking us up at the airport.  The next day Terri flew off to Auckland, while I stayed one more day before flying to Switzerland.

My mom, sisters and I gaping at the wonders of the universe 

Pub quiz with my friend Avery

Hugh playing quizmaster

My ten-day jaunt to my old haunts in Switzerland was fun, with lots of mountain biking, skiing, socializing, wine, abortive ski tours, indoor climbing, reunions with old friends and colleagues and even a Leysin Pub Quiz.  

My sister Audie mountain biking above Sierre

My court hearing (I'm in a dispute with my former employers) went well, but there was no immediate verdict, leaving me in suspense for a few more months.  And then, suddenly, I was back here in Cape Town, trying (so far unsuccessfully) to arrange vehicle insurance and buying a fancy GPS and map set for our journey.  Terri arrives tomorrow and we fly to Johannesburg on Saturday to pick up Stanley, buy some groceries and hit the road to Kruger National Park for a 6-day trip.

Me riding the El Dorado trail near Sierre

Saakje

Skiing terrible snow in the fog

Taking our skis for a walk

Me showing my poor climbing skills

And then?  Well, the plan until today was to drive from Kruger straight into Mozambique, drive north along the coast as far north as the Quirimbas Archipelago, then double south and west into Malawi. From Malawi we plan to do a huge sweep through the outer reaches of Zambia, down into Zimbabwe and then a big north-then-south wave through Botswana and Namibia before finally returning to South Africa by mid-October, in time for another side trip to Europe to do some tour guiding.  After returning from this in late October, we might head to Madagascar for a couple of months before picking up Stanley from a secure parking spot and heading north.  We'd like to get as far north as Sudan before cutting across Chad into West Africa; this is the toughest part of the trip, as it's mostly regarded as being impossible to cross the Sudan-Chad border given current conditions in Darfur.  However with South Sudan suddenly reverting to peace, maybe a new route possibility will open up from South Sudan into Chad.  If we get into Chad, then we can drive west through the Sahel to Mauretania and then double back east along the coast before making a run through the horrible roads, expensive countries and unpleasant border crossings from Nigeria south to Angola.  The last leg would be driving back south from Angola through Namibia back into South Africa where we would try to sell the camper again.  

On the other hand, with political and security problems suddenly boiling over in Mozambique this week, we might have to curtail or eliminate our Mozambique leg.  Who knows?  Travelling in Africa you have to do your homework, but that doesn't mean the situation won't change radically while you're on the road.

We've created Instagram, Twitter and Facebook accounts for this trip, along with a Google Map, so I hope that at least one of these channels of digital communication helps you follow our progress over the coming months.  We're pretty excited, and I hope we manage to convey that excitement to you, gentle readers.  Stay tuned!!!!

Ostrich at Krugersdorp

Africa Awaits! A Preview of Upcoming Travel Plans

Livingstone, Zambia, March 18

This will be a slightly atypical blog post from me:  much briefer than usual, and looking forward instead of backward.  I want to fill you in, gentle readers, on the upcoming travel plans.

Terri and I are in Zambia now, doing some work for a humanitarian project that Terri started almost a decade ago.  She and the Social Service Club of her former school raise money and donate it to help support a community-based pre-school and primary school in the impoverished Livingstone suburb of Ngwenya, and they have visited during their school’s March vacation almost every year since 2007.  I have heard lots of stories and seen lots of pictures and videos from previous visits, but this is my first time to see the project first-hand.  It’s been very interesting so far, seeing the pre-school and its new project:  the construction of a new classroom building, doubling the available classroom area of the school.  The students arrive from Switzerland tomorrow morning, and for the next 9 days it will be a blur of activity:  helping build the new structure, painting and repairing broken windows in the older building, teaching lessons and doing cultural exchanges with the pre-school students and with older students here at a youth training centre where we are staying.  I am looking forward to it.

However, it would be a long way to come to Africa just for a 9-day visit.  After Terri’s former students leave, we are flying south to Cape Town to start a much longer trip.  The plan is to buy a second-hand 4WD camper and use it to explore large chunks of the African continent over the coming months.  We haven’t made firm plans in terms of dates and routes, but the basic plan is threefold.  We will first pick the low-hanging fruit in terms of ease of travel by exploring the landscapes of Southern Africa (as far north as Namibia, Zambia and Mozambique), taking advantage of the lack of irritating visa rules and the network of largely decent roads.  I am particularly excited to visit Namibia, Botswana and Mozambique, but we plan to visit all of the countries in the south over the next few months.  We also want to try to dive and snorkel in the awe-inspiring Sardine Run that passes the South African coast, having seen amazing footage on BBC’s Blue Planet documentary series.  Having a vehicle should greatly simplify matters in terms of having access to the remote wild places that we most want to see, and in terms of camping rather than staying in the overpriced accommodation on offer in much of Africa, as well as being able to cook for ourselves.

Once the south has been thoroughly explored, then it will be time to head further afield into slightly more difficult territory.  East Africa is the likely next stage, with the familiar trio of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda being joined by Rwanda and Burundi (the latter depending on the current state of civil unrest).  Then it will be time to go further north:  South Sudan seems unlikely, given its current civil war (although things might change), but Ethiopia and Sudan are definites, with perhaps Djibouti and Somaliland.  Sadly Somalia itself is probably completely out of the question, as is paranoid Eritrea with its closed land borders and hard-to-get visas.

Then, having gotten as far as Sudan, it would be nice if we could turn west and drive into Chad to get into West Africa.  This seems sadly unlikely, given that the route would lead straight through troubled Darfur, which the Sudanese government would like to keep nosy foreigners out of.  If (and it’s a big if) we could get through, we could make a huge loop to get back to South Africa.  If not, we might have to backtrack south as far as Zambia to get to the next stage:  West Africa.

West and Central Africa are almost terra incognito for me.  I spent two days in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), back when it was still called Zaire, visiting mountain gorillas back in 1995.  I also spent three weeks cycling in Togo and Benin a few years ago.  For the rest, it’s all new territory for me.  I would like to visit every country possible, since once we’re there, it doesn’t cost much more to keep going to another country, while having to come back on another trip to get to a country that I missed would be much more expensive.  The countries that seem least likely to get visited are Equatorial Guinea (expensive and hard to get a visa), Central African Republic (civil war) and Nigeria (unpleasant, expensive and with serious unrest in the northeast).  Angola, DRC and Mauretania seem to have tricky visas as well, while much of Mali, Niger and Chad (the most interesting bits, up in the Sahara) seem to be no-go areas as well.  Sao Tome and Principe, along with the Cape Verde islands, both will require a flight out from the mainland, but are both said to be well worth it.  Much of West Africa has the reputation of being overpriced and underwhelming, but with our own vehicle, we should at least be able to travel in some comfort and seek out areas of greater interest.  Cameroon, Congo-Brazzaville, Guinea and Mauretania sound as though they’re more interesting than some of their neighbours, and I’m looking forward to visiting them. 

Then, if we’ve managed somehow to do a complete loop and ended up back in South Africa, we would sell the vehicle and fly off for a glorious finale in Madagascar, a country that’s high on my bucket list for its (sadly fast-vanishing) natural beauty and wildlife.  If, instead, we end up in Mauretania at the end, we might drive up through Western Sahara and Morocco into Europe and try to ship the vehicle back to South Africa to sell it. 

It’s not clear how long it will take to do all of this, or even if we will accomplish it all in one long monster trip, but it’s exciting planning a big trip, reading up on things to see and contemplating seeing a new part of the world for both of us.  Stay tuned here or on Facebook to follow our ongoing progress!