A year in numbers

It would seem appropriate that after a trip lasting nearly a year I should probably write some sort of review ; it should probably be deep and meaningful and use the words ‘magnificent’, ‘discovery’, ‘development’, ‘introspection’, ‘experience’, ‘growth’ and such.

But lets leave all that nonsense to one side for now, and start off with a few basic statistics, for those who are excited by such things… (and its easier to write!)

30,000

Approximately how much the trip cost me, in UK pounds.  This excludes the cost of the van itself  (about £3k), the conversion and fitting out etc which I haven’t worked out yet.

• £2,136 of this covers the initial flights to SA, to Canada, and back to the UK
• £3,670 of this was spent on shipping the van to and from Africa
• £1,140 or thereabouts was the cost of the carnet de passage for the vehicle
• £23,000 was everything else – accommodation, food, diesel, tours, park fees, etc etc.

Its hard to give an accurate estimate of a ‘per person, per day’ cost at the moment as for the first 3 months there were 2 of us on this trip and these figures include Africa and North America (quite different costs of living), but a quick calculation based on the £23k figure above comes to about £70 per day (about US$108).

If I were to remove the costs associated with the big safari trips and the diving excursions and so on, then split the spending up by region/country, this figure would come down quite a bit – but I haven’t got the patience for doing that just now.

16,222

How many miles I drove, or at least, logged – I know I forgot to log a few days here and there.

• 12,502 miles of driving in Africa – there were more, I just forgot to log them.
• 4,120 miles in the United States.

Now given that the ‘average’ mileage that people apparently cite when applying for motor insurance in the UK is somewhere around 12-15k per year, I would say that I was pretty much on par.  I think I prefer the idea of driving around Africa over sitting in queues on the M25.

326

How many days I was away for (10 months and 22 days).

292

The number of days I spent in Africa, making up approximately 90% of the trip.  The original plan was for a maximum of 6 months.

237

The number of nights I slept in the van – just over 80% of the time I was in Africa with it.

The first 3 weeks we were in a guesthouse, waiting for the van to arrive and clear customs (it was mistakingly offloaded in Namibia so we had to wait longer than planned), and I spent a couple of weeks in tents on organised safari trips etc.  Sleeping in the vehicle (or at least, camping) definitely helped to keep the costs down (or at least, freed up money to do other things).

117

Approximately how many different campsites I stayed at in the van during my time in Africa, which means I was staying a fraction over 2 nights at each place (on average).

My longest stays (either in one go or over multiple visits to the same campsite) were:

• Oppi Koppi (Kamanjab, Namibia) – 23 nights in total from 3 separate stays
• Jungle Junction (Nairobi, Kenya) – 15 nights
• Riverlodge Backpackers / Camping (Cape Town, South Africa) – 13 nights

45

The magic number in Tanzania.  This is the absolute maximum speed, in kilometres per hour, at which you should drive if is a building in sight (which seems to constitute a “built up area” in the eyes of the police).

The official speed limit in built up areas is actually 50kph or even 60kph, but even if you stay at 45kph, the police will probably still pull you over for speeding (showing you the reading on their speed gun that they took from someone an hour or so ago who actually was speeding) or make up some other non-offence and try to extort money out of you.

F*ckers.

23

The number of ‘game reserves’ I visited (rather than just passed through or alongside and barely noticed).

In the list below, [SD] means ‘self drive’ – all others were on 4×4 vehicles run by safari operators or the game parks themselves.

South Africa

• Hluhluwe-Imfolozi [SD]
• Tembe Elephant Park
• Kruger National Park [SD]

Swaziland

• Mlilwani Wildlife Sanctuary [SD + mountain bike]

Namibia

• Etosha National Park [SD]
• Erindi Private Game Reserve

Botswana

• Moremi Game Reserve and Okavango Delta
• Chobe National Park

Zambia

• Kasanka National Park [SD]
• South Luangwa National Park

Malawi

• Majete Wildlife Reserve [SD]
• Nyika National Park [SD + mountain bike]

Tanzania

• Mikumi National Park [SD]
• Ruaha National Park [SD ish – Fari took me there in his 4×4]
• Serengeti National Park
• Ngorongoro Crater and Convservation Area
• Lake Manyara
• Tarangire National Park

Kenya

• Lake Nakuru National Park
• Lake Naivasha National Park
• Masai Mara National Reserve
• Ambsoseli National Park

Rwanda

• Volcanoes National Park (walking – mountain gorillas)

12

The number of flights I took:

1. Heathrow (UK) > Cape Town
2. Cape Town > Durban
3. Okavango Delta scenic flight
4. Zanzibar > Dar es Salaam
5. Dar es Salaam > Mafia Island
6. Mafia Island > Dar es Salaam
7. Nairobi > Kigali (Rwanda)
8. Kigali > Nairobi
9. Nairobi > Amsterdam
10. Amsterdam > Vancouver
11. Seattle > Amsterdam
12. Amsterdam > Birmingham UK

Alas no, I don’t know what that equates to in terms of mileage, nor can I be bothered to try and find out.

11

How many countries I visited (excludes Holland as I was only there on a flight stopover):

1. South Africa (97 days on a 90 day visa – got banned for a year for overstaying)
2. Swaziland (5 days)
3. Namibia (62 days)
4. Botswana (8 days)
5. Zambia (21 days)
6. Malawi (30 days)
7. Tanzania (38 days)
8. Kenya (28 days)
9. Rwanda (3 days)
10. Canada (8 days)
11. United States (21 days)

6

Shock absorbers.  I replaced all 4 before leaving South Africa for Namibia, and the front 2 had to be replaced in Dar es Salaam, having wallowed my way all the way through Tanzania from Malawi over the course of a month.

4

How many times I got pulled over by roadside rozzers in Tanzania.  On 3 of those occasions, they claimed I was speeding.  I talked my way out of 2 of these.  One one occasion the police just asked for money, plain and simple, without bothering to make up an excuse.  I suspect he was the most honest of the bunch, frankly.

Also the number of punctures I picked up.  2 of those were fixable, 2 required new tyres.  Which leads me on to the number of tyres I replaced in total (4), replacing 2 of my existing UK tyres before entering Namibia as I knew the roads would be more dubious.

2

The number of times the van got stuck – both times in sand.  One took a few minutes to dig out, the other time took several hours.

Also the number of traffic fines I paid – one for speeding ($20 in Tanzania) and the other when  spot checks by the roadside rozzers revealed that my not-quite-self-adhesive-enough white reflective tape had come off my front bumpers in Zambia (another $20).

0

The number of times I wished I was back home and at work, even when I was running low on funds towards the end of the trip.

Bulembu and back into South Africa

Todays’ objective was to reach Piggs Peak, or thereabouts, in preparation for crossing the border back into South Africa tomorrow and from there, on to Kruger NP.

Swaziland scenery

Getting to Piggs Peak from Malolotja was simple enough – straight along the MR3. No major potholes or damage to the road and plain sailing, so to speak. We decided, on the back of a report in the Lonely Planet guide, to investigate the old (asbestos) mining town of Bulembu, to the west of Piggs Peak and on the border with SA. However, it turns out that the road from Piggs Peak to Bulembu is sh*t. Utterly sh*t. Its a dirt road, which is fine, we expect that, and would be surprised and probably bored if every road on our travels is nice tarmac, but those 10 miles or so up a steep, corrugated mountain road in 1^st or 2^nd gear, dodging large sharp stones turned out to be quite the opposite of our idea of fun… We have to take a moment to feel sorry for our van at this point – poor thing must wonder whats hit it!

Bulembu itself – nice enough, walked around the mining museum and, as an aside, learnt about Swaziland independence (the information posters on the wall weren’t too generous towards the British, probably justifiably).  We didn’t walk around the village itself as it was (a) up a big hill and (b) getting a bit late.

Carriers for extracted ore etc which went by cableway over mountains to Barberton, SA

Old miners cottages, Bulembu

Faced with the prospect of a return along the bone jarring road to Piggs Peak we wussed out and took the potholed, but tarred, road to the South African border, just a mile or so from Bulembu.

Crossing back into SA was easier than coming into Swaziland, no customs checks, no mention of laptops etc, but we couldn’t find anyone on the SA side who knew anything about buying road tax or a temporary licence disc. We’ll continue to plead ignorance if stopped by the police again (we were a week or so ago and they told us we needed something, but weren’t sure what or how to get it, so we tried investigating it on the phone, but the government office we spoke to was about as helpful as a chocolate teapot). How hard can it be?! We just paid R50 on arrival in Swaziland and got a little receipt, can’t they do the same in SA? {sigh}.

Anyhow, immediately after the border we were in the middle of some beautiful scenery on the road to Barberton. Apparently its some of the oldest geology in the world and rocks here have been found to have traces of the oldest life forms known to mankind. Lots of great viewpoints along the road – not just because of the views, but one in particular had lots of information about the geology and examples of the various rock types we’d passed on the way.

Mountains near Swazi/South African border

We stayed the night at Barberton Camping/Caravan site – sadly with no braai facilities and perhaps more importantly, the first campsite we’ve used that appears not to supply toilet paper. Useless bit of information for you there 🙂

Mlilwane to Malolotja

We were up at the crack of dawn today (ugh!) to hire a couple of mountain bikes and cycle around the wildlife reserve to try and see some of its inhabitants before it got too hot. We were lucky enough to see zebra, wildebeest, loads of antelopes and kudu before reaching a lake and catching sight of a family of hippos, out for their morning dip 🙂 Our first hippos – very cool!

VW campervan on shores of lake at Mlilwane – not ours!

Same VW camper – same lake

Zebra, Mlilwane

Warthog, Mlilwane

Hippos!

Same hippos 🙂

The trail map listed one route as the ‘hippo trail’, so we cycled down it, hoping it would bring us a bit closer to them. This turned out to be a bit of a mistake as the route was actually a walking route and definitely not intended for bikes, as evidenced by the numerous steps carved into the hillside 😦 Still, we made it through and had good fun in the process.

Cris tackling the Hippo Trail

Once we’d dropped the bikes off we packed up the van and headed back into the park for an impromptu game drive, just to see a few more animals and, as it turned out, test out the hill climbing capabilities of the van and our wood chopping skills – two trees had come down during last night’s storm, blocking our route, so out came the axe. We cleared the first one but gave up on the second one, too much hassle!

Assorted game – Mlilwane

More assorted game – Mlilwane

Wildlife isn’t always easy to spot…

.. but sometimes it is 🙂

And its not all ‘exotic’

Second fallen tree, marking the end of this road for us!

We turned around and left the park, heading to a local shopping centre to stock up and have lunch. As we pulled into the carpark we noticed the same German overlanding truck that we’d been camped near last night (before we were forced to move). The owners arrived (were shopping too) just as dinner arrived, so I walked over to say hello and ended up chatting with them (and a random group of passing Ozzies/South Africans) for ages. The German couple, Thomas and Sabine, have ben on the road on and off since 2009, I think? We shared knowledge of campsites and such and turns out we’re doing largely the same route at largely the same time so will probably bump into them from time to time.

Our van and the Germans

After lunch and shopping we cracked on to Malolotja Wildlife Reserve. We were originally intending to go further north to Piggs Peak, but we’d spent too long doing other stuff today and only made it to Malolotja just before sunset. We had the campsite all to ourselves, which struck us as a bit odd as it was in a lovely setting and had really nicely presented pitches. To celebrate having the place to ourselves we ‘built’ our first braai and rustled up sausages and steak. Lovely!

 

Keep calm and…

We decided to have another ‘rest’ day again today, largely because Cristina wasn’t feeling too well – suffering a bit from the excessive heat! It reached 32C in the van and was definitely hotter outside – the van’s insulation doing its job to some extent in keeping out the worst of the heat.

During the day we took the opportunity to do some ‘housekeeping’ (aka ‘moving stuff around in order to try and fit everything in without tripping over sh*t all the time’ – we definitely brought too much stuff with us!). We were joined at various times by a variety of local lizards (who were trying to sneak up to the small puddle formed at the base of the water tap to have a drink without being spotted) and some kudu.

Lizard – good camo 🙂

Lizard trying to pretend its not in the middle of open ground

Lizard on tree – poser!

Lizards sneaking up on ‘water hole’

Mine!

Curious kudu investigating a neighbour’s tent

Another curious kudu

Ahhh bambi (sort of)

Just before dinner a large German overlanding truck pulled into a nearby pitch, but we didn’t get the chance to go over and say hello. Job for tomorrow, methinks! (more on this in a later post).

We went to the park’s restaurant for dinner and they recommended we eat inside, rather than on the terrace, which seemed a shame given it was still quite warm outside. Apparently the strong winds, which had been increasing during the day, were throwing up quite a lot of dust and they were worried it would ruin the meal for us. Fair enough… Just after we’d finished our main course and were stood by the dessert buffet, the power went out across the entire park. But we hadn’t had our dessert yet! So we filled up with whatever it was at the buffet table (we couldn’t see very well) and went back to our table to eat it, figuring we had a torch or two with us so might as well adopt the old blitz mentality, keeping calm and carrying on (with dessert).

Nobody else seemed too phased (ha ha) by the power cut, though about 5 minutes later a member of staff came over and asked if we were parked under any trees – to which we said ‘well yes, we’re in the camping area’. She shook her head and said ‘oh no, sorry, nobody can camp tonight, branches and trees are coming down because of the wind!’. Yikes!

She offered to put us up in a hut/chalet for the evening but we figured that it was too much hassle to get our PJs out etc, so said we’d just move the van somewhere safer – we had to move it anyway as it was below a tree. She suggested an area in the middle of the camp which was home to the local impala/kudu/warthogs, but had no trees. We’re not sure how the animals felt about their temporary neighbours, but we tried not to run them over on our way in 🙂 On the way to collect our van we noticed the tents belonging to a large group of South Africans opposite our pitch had been flattened – fortunately nobody was hurt.

Mantenga and Mlilwane

Today we walked up the road from Legends to visit Mantenga Nature Reserve, which mostly revolves around a ‘cultural village’ tour and traditional Swazi dance display. The dancing was interesting to watch, especially when the kids were doing their bit – very enthusiastic!

The Swazi version of the ‘can-can’

Apparently the higher you can kick, the better…?

Kids seemed to enjoy taking part…

Lots of kicking and stomping and gurning

Witch doctor doing his thing

Witch doctor still doing his thing

All ages take part

More stomping!

From the village tour:

Traditional huts/Swazi village

Cris outside traditional hut

After the dancing and tour (and lots of video and photos, sorry!) we wandered to Mantenga Falls, within the park, avoiding contact with crocodiles… We saw one basking on the rocks though.

Yikes!

 

Mantenga Falls

Cris looking for tadpoles or crocodiles

Cow!

Cris @ Mantenga Falls

Me @ Mantenga Falls

Us @ Mantenga Falls

After returning to our van we packed up and headed to a nearby game/wildlife reserve – Mlilwane.  Within minutes of entering the park we saw wildebeest, zebra, a huge termite mound (taller than our van, which is just over 2.5m) and of course, various antelope (mostly impala, some kudu). Much easier to spot them here than in Hluhluwe 🙂  No photos I’m afraid…

We tried getting into Sondzela International Backpackers but they wouldn’t let us just park, insisting we had to pitch a tent or use a room (jobs-worths), so we gave up and booked into the much busier Main Camp.

The repair of the water system failed again, presumably because I hadn’t tightened a hose clamp enough or the rubbish roads on the way to the park had encouraged it to work loose. So once again I spent the evening mopping up and sorting out the plumbing. Joy!

Water, water, everywhere…

After a slightly restless night, caused partly by the rabid guard dogs next door kicking off at anything that moved, including us, we met up with our guides and assistants at the Swazi Trails office just across from the backpackers place (where we’re camping, rather than use their dorms, which seemed nice enough but why, when we have our own?), and were driven most of the way across Swaziland to the east to where the Great Usutu river is, to an interesting mix of dance music and Bob Marley.

Whilst the rest of the team unloaded the inflatable rafts and their kayaks/canoes (never can remember the difference), our instructor/guide gave us a prolonged safety and instructional brief, most of which went in one ear and out the other. Paddle, stay in the boat, if you fall out, let go, don’t put your feet down on the river bed (it could get caught in rocks and then you’re in the sh*t) and so on. Most worrying though, he kept stressing how important good communication between us would be.  Uh oh…!

Eventually we were allowed to drag our raft into the river, which was very shallow, not exactly fast moving, but very wide, in theory giving us time to get to grips with the basics of steering before hitting anything resembling a rapid.

How hard can this be? ‘Launching’ the raft into the Usutu river

In theory, that is…

Our first few minutes really didn’t bode too well for our prolonged survival on the river – lets be polite and call it ‘communication issues’, shall we? Our instructor suggested we swap positions, with Cris moving to the back, which seemed to work better (eventually).

After bumping into every rock in the river (and some on the shore), running aground on sand banks and submerged rocks, and steering the raft into every river bank possible (most of which were populated with trees and grass and, we were told later, pythons and other snakes – an earlier ‘heads up’ might have been an idea!) we were ‘ready’ to hit our first rapid. Or at least, we’d run out of tame river so had little choice but to tackle them!

Going well so far…

Our first rapid saw Cris on the receiving end of a dunking, after being bounced out of her seat. I honestly didn’t know she was hanging out of the raft at the time 🙂

Cris loses her grip…

And she’s gone…! Which wasn’t as bad as it could be as we went straight into the nearest rocks…

A few rapids later we hit our first significant obstacle – a weir. Apparently there was some sort of concrete slide on it, identifiable by two marker poles/blocks. The people who built the weir/dam apparently had to put this in as the river is used a lot for rafting/kayaking. The idea was simple – line up the raft in the middle of the markers, go over the edge, don’t paddle on the way down, but paddle as soon as we hit the bottom of the slide.

The slide/weir – getting better at this 🙂

Wasn’t expecting that!

What they didn’t tell us was that we’d need to steer at the bottom as well, so we ended up ploughing the nose of the raft into the nearest pile of rocks (again). Ah well, at least nobody fell in this time!

Eventually we found ourselves being pulled up ahead of the ‘crux’ of this section of the river, a series of rapids they called the Initiator – that didn’t sound promising!

So we got out, along with a couple of guides, and walked downstream to watch the other guide(s)/assistants take the rapids, to see the line we’d need to take etc. First guy got through ok, though almost lost it at one point. Next one up (mentioning no names, David) totally lost it towards the end and floated down the remainder of the rapid alongside his upside-down boat. To be fair though, it was only his 5^th time on a kayak so maybe can be forgiven, not that we let him live it down of course. Then it was our turn.

First section of the Initiator – bit nervous at this point, to be honest!

Still going well… still nervous!

Almost through 🙂

And we’re through!  Much relief all round 🙂

And we did it perfectly. We are officially cool.

After the excitement of the Initiator, it was time for lunch and we were met downstream by the support truck. After a well earned bite to eat, we were driven upstream to the weir to try our hands at tubing. This consisted of an inflatable tube with a floor, not much bigger than a tyre, which we sat in and used our hands/arms as paddles.

Tubing – not as easy as it looks!

Cris was better at this than me – I received several dunkings before we got anywhere near the rapids, which of course, she found hilarious. Getting back into the damned thing was an ordeal and invariably resulted in a subsequent soaking!

Not really getting the hang on staying in the tube…

The Initiator got the better of both of us, me sooner than Cris. I happened to end up washed up next to a guide who was in a raft so he carried me downstream. Much easier than when in the tube! All good fun though.

Instructor showing us how it should be done…

Cris deciding to take it on sideways/backwards – showing off really… Me stuck on rocks on the top left…

Me taking it on without the tube – much easier!

Cris looking smug, before she fell out on the next bit

Me waiting to be picked up by the raft

After this we had a go at abseiling off the cliffs overlooking the river, or more accurately, I had a couple of go’s and Cris decided that her life was more important. She has trust issues when it comes to relying on equipment like ropes and harnesses. To be fair, the scramble back up from the base of the abseil was quite unnerving – in one bit you had to flatten yourself against the cliff and shuffle sideways with just your toes on the ledge.

Been a while since I’ve done this but it used to be much easier without the safety rope!

Like a pro – honest 🙂

Cris getting ready to go over the edge

Cheesy pose – they made me do it!

Back to Legends Backpackers, both quite knackered. With much delight, we discovered there was a water leak somewhere (from our tanks/system, not rain) so I had to spend the evening re-sealing a few joints from the hot water tank. Bit annoying really as we wanted to spend the evening chatting with the others over a braai. The joys of campervan life, eh?

Still, great fun out on the river today, something to have a go at again, we think – maybe when we get to Victoria Falls and the Zambezi…?

Into Swaziland

From Pongola we headed west along the N2 towards Piet Retief and then north to a small border crossing with Swaziland. Once we were off the N2, the road deteriorated into a collection of potholes, some of them big enough to swallow a car… Ok, not quite, but they were a bit nasty… So much so that for several miles we were unable to brave changing up past 2^nd gear as was too bumpy, but at least it gave us (or me, at any rate, as the passenger) time to appreciate the views, which seemed to consist predominantly of tree plantations.

Farmland near Swaziland border, NW of Pongola

Farmland on fire near Swaziland border, NW of Pongola

Eventually we found ourselves at the border – our first crossing since arriving in Africa!

The process/paperwork was relatively simple, possibly because South Africa and Swaziland are part of a ‘customs union’. After getting an exit stamp from the South African side, we had to fill out a customs form (effectively asking if we had anything to declare, which of course we don’t, aside from a campervan full of spares, tools, electronics, food, drink and so on, which of course, we didn’t declare). They were particularly interested in laptops, so we ‘fessed up to 2 of them and gave them the serial numbers as requested.

Across the border and into the Swaziland offices, where we got an entry stamp on our passport and they just stamped the South Africa customs declaration. We then paid for the Swaziland road tax (R50) and we were off – simples…

The scenery as we drove to our overnight stop (Legends Backpackers in the Ezulwini Valley) was superb – rolling hills and mountains for hours on end. The only downside was the constant haziness which meant the photos just can’t do it justice 😦 As with the nearby South African landscape, tree plantations seem to be the order of the month throughout Swaziland.

Scenery in Swaziland

Tomorrow we’re going to try our hands at white water rafting on the Usutu river with Swazi Trails, an outdoorsy-adventure kind of outfit who I think are a sister company to the backpacking lodge… Could be interesting!