38. The land of a thousand waterfalls

From Swaziland we make our way down to the kingdom of Lesotho, another small country that is situated in the heart of South Africa. This country-hopping brings us first a couple of days back into SA and the Drakensberg range that forms the boundary between the two countries. There are beautiful hikes to do here and one of them is the hike up to see the Amphitheatre, a wall of mountains that stretches for 4 km. And so Kosta, yes Kosta not me, sets of the next day with 2 girls we just met to do this hike. Why am I not coming? Well, the hike itself is not strenuous but requires climbing up chain ladders and this people is where I draw the line. Like the book on the area says '”People with vertigo should not climb up the ladders”. What a shame, now I have to stay in the super relaxing hostel while Kosta sweats his way up a mountain…. life is so unfair LOL

The chain ladders

Under a sky full of rain we leave the next morning towards Lesotho. Along the way the weather gets better but not for long. We find ourselves driving in fog and rain like we’ve never seen before. It is raining so hard that Kosta is driving the ‘granny drive style’: his nose almost against the steering wheel : ) with me also sitting with my nose against the window, trying to see a bit of the road. And as we are in the mountains this massive amount of water turns into thousands of waterfalls everywhere! Just amazing!

Weather damage

Although we wanted to stop at the Bokong nature reserve we continue our trip to the Katse dam. No way of sleeping at 3000 metres when the weather is like that. So late afternoon we finally arrive at the campsite near the dam where we can enjoy the view of it. It is still raining but at least the fog is almost gone. And as long as we are here , we take the opportunity to go on a tour the next morning to visit the highest dam of Africa.  No picture from in the dam unfortunately as we were not allowed to take any.

After the visit we start our journey towards the Sani Pass where the road will lead us into South Africa again. It  is a long journey as there is no tarmac. The scenery is a treat to the eye and after being in SA, Lesotho makes you feel like you are ’ back in Africa again’. It is not as developed as its only neighbour and in many ways it reminds us of Ethiopia: poor, beautiful and full of children begging. There are barely any shops, there are people everywhere and as far as the eye can see, the surroundings are lush and green.

And for the second time in two days we don’t make it to our destination. Not that it is still raining, no, the sky is as blue as it gets but because of the rain the day before a bridge we have to pass is fully under water. We decide to call it a day and just camp somewhere near the bridge for one night in the hope the water will have gone down enough the next day. The only other option is to make a huge detour to the Sani Pass but as it is already 3 pm we might as well take our chances and wait.

The bridge : )

The next morning the water has gone down a metre but not enough for the whole bridge to be visible. Again we decide to sit it out, the water will go down enough to get through somewhere in the afternoon. We just wait for the first car to cross and than we will also drive to the other side. And so, 23 hours after having arrived we cross the bridge. Being the reporter of our journey it is of course my duty to take pictures so  I first cross the bridge on foot. The very muddy water is still about 80 centimetres high and therefor the small bridge is not visible yet.  Helped by two locals to make sure I don’t get washed away by the strong current I make it safe to the other side. I have never been so thankful to walk hand in hand with two men I’ve never seen before LOL. Then it is time for Kosta to drive the car over. While he warms up the engine a bit (it would really not be the moment to have the engine go off) I am ready to eternalize this moment. But Murphy is smiling down on me that day and just when the car is at the highest point in the water, the camera indicates ‘no more space on card’! Shit, shit, shit (pardon the language but shit!)! I can’t really signal to stop the car in the middle of that current, can I? And so by the time I have erased a picture and tried to take another one the car is already standing and dripping next to me. LOL

On the dry side of the bridge, ready to swim

Our fourth and last day in ‘Little Ethiopia’ brings us to the Sani Pass. The scenery is spectacular, and although the road is in bad condition we easily make it down into South Africa. People told us it was a very scary road, with parts where you drive a couple of centimetres next to the cliff but we have not found it so dramatic. We especially took this route to come here and see the pass everybody talks about but we have to conclude: or the other people are ‘sissies’ or the two of us are just as cool as a banana. ; )

37. Swaziland

It does sound a bit like an amusement park but Swaziland is actually a real country! With its 17.364 sq km it is one of the smallest countries of the continent. As it is not a detour on our route, and to be honest as we have done no preparation at all and don’t really have decided what to do next, we drive kind of automatically to this little kingdom. And what a nice drive it is! No regrets of coming here. It is not really the most exceptional country we have been to but the atmosphere is super laid-back, the people are friendly and the surroundings are beautiful. So after a lazy afternoon with some time spend at the hot springs, we set off for another hike in Ezulwini. We decide to hike up ‘Sheeba’s breast’, a double rock peak named after the Ethiopian Queen of Sheba who seduced King Solomon. It is one of the highest points in the region here and so for us a reason to go and climb it.

Nasty tree

I have to admit though, I am not in the best shape of my life. Instead of walking to everywhere and carrying a backpack from here to there like we used to do as backpackers, I enjoy the life of a true car-user at its best. So yes, I am out of shape and no, I don’t make it up a mountain without breaking a sweat. LOL But I am not a quitter and although it is very tempting to give up halfway this strenuous path, I don’t. ‘Cos when the going gets tough, the tough get going! So I tell Kosta to go ahead of me as he is quicker and I start to climb (and I mean climb) up this bloody mountain on my own, at my own pace. 20 minutes after Kosta I arrive sound and safe and sweating like a (princess) pig at the top. Time for a rewarding view and the ‘snickers sandwich’ to go along with it!

Suffering on the way up

36. Blyde River Canyon

We leave Aurélie at the border to Mozambique and start backtracking a bit towards Graskop, a nice little town at the beginning of the Blyde River Canyon. We spend a couple of days there hiking a bit and seeing more of the area by car. And oh yes, doing laundry when we arrive that first afternoon. I have to say, never ever in my whole life have I done so much washing by hand! What a difference with the other trips, where having laundry done for a cheap price was the only thing I did. And doing laundry has revealed a bit of a bizarre side of me: I actually enjoy watching laundry dry. Isn’t that the weirdest personality thing you’ve ever heard?! LOL

Anyway, when we go hiking it becomes clear that we can’t do anything anymore without GPS. Yes, I don’t know how we actually managed to do that but we got lost following (well trying to) a hiking trail! After 4 hours of walking we gave up, hiked to the main road and hitchhiked back. No more walking in the woods without a little help from Armin The Garmin for us.  LOL

Just follow the white footprints. Yeah, okayyy… LOL

The following day we are back in our element: we do a daytrip with the car and with GPS. : ) We don’t get lost and after 6 hours we are sound and safe back in our hostel.  A good hostel, you know, the one I actually managed to upload the blog at! : )

First stop: The pinnacle

At God’s window

At The Three Potholes (not to be seen on this picture but we are big fans of water that falls LOL

At The Three Rondavels

And at our last stop: in the little town called Pilgrim's rest

35. The famous Kruger National Park

You are probably starting to think that we are not doing anything else than visiting parks and spotting animals these last couple of weeks, but we have arrived at the Krugers and well, we can’t pass this famous park without spending some time here. But just before going there we visit a rehab center for wild animals (I know, more beasts but we just love it!). This center takes care of wild animals that have been injured or captivated by people who of course don’t want them near their cattle. Unfortunately 90% of the animals that come here can not be released back into the wild. Lions, cheetahs and other predators that have been brought in are all territorial animals. When they for example come out of the Kruger because they were injured, another predator takes the opportunity to take the territory of the animal that is gone. If they would release the big kitty cat back into the wild, it would go straight to its home only to find it taken over by another predator. They will end up fighting for it and one of the two will die. At the center they sometimes do a kind of brainwash by putting the animals between four walls for weeks, with only the sky above visible. Treated like this, the animal will forget where it comes from and later on be released somewhere with enough space for another predator.

Cheetah in the rehabilitation centre

Feeding the vultures

Behind me the original road or what is left of it on the right, washed away during the cyclone a week before we arrived. I am standing on a new one made by the farmers.

But then it is time to try and spot a leopard in the Kruger, the last of the ‘big five’ we haven’t seen yet. The phrase ‘big five’ game was created by hunters (people who kill animals for sport) and refers to the five most difficult animals in Africa to hunt on foot. According to a guide we met it refers to the 5 most popular animals to be hunted (and well, that is kind of the same, as I am sure the challenge makes the hunter’s day). Some of the animals are unfortunately still high on the list of poachers. We were told that in January alone 140 rhinos were killed in the Kruger. The only good news regarding poachers is that two of them were shut. Rangers in the park will always shoot to kill as the poachers will do the same. I can only hope more poachers will be caught and end up like the other two. No, I don't feel any pity for those men (although I am aware that poachers are probably doing this more out of despair for money and that the real disgusting people are the men and women who want to have the horn). But the fact that they cut of the horn of a rhino while it is often still alive makes me not only sad but also angry.

And so, along with Aurélie we enter the park at the Orpen gate. The park has been damaged severely by a cyclone and it shows. Incredible to see what damage the water has done to the area. And although a couple of roads are closed in the park, most of the areas are still accessible. The Kruger has only been closed for one day despite of the extreme weather the last weeks. But we are lucky, no rain (or wind for that matter) in sight. And the Kruger is the first park where we see other cars than 4x4. There is tarmac almost everywhere so no need for a car with some power, no nature challenges to overcome while driving.

One of our favourite pictures: the super cute and curious giraffes

At first we don’t spot a lot of wildlife, other than the ‘thousand times seen before’ impalas. LOL But the two days in the park have been worth it. All big fives have appeared in sight! More so, we saw 6 wild dogs. And I hear you say ‘Yeah, we have a dog at home, exiting….’ but no people, the wild dog is a super endangered species and seeing them is even more difficult than spotting a leopard! Yes, we have been privileged when entering the park while being greeted by six wild dogs in the middle of the street! What an incredible way to start our day. Of course we only realized it afterwards how lucky we were when a guide told us. So just like you we thought ‘oh doggy’. LOL

Wild dogs

The hardest one to spot of the big five, Mister Leopard

Look how strange he looks, albino giraffe?

34. A couple of days in Botswana

A ferry of 5 minutes and 30 dollars brings us to Botswana’s territory. The head of the bull is off the car as we can’t enter with any animal products. Hidden in our roof box we cross the border with it. The car needs to drive through a little pool of whatever product that is to ensure you are not bringing I don’t know what kind of bacteria in the country. Than we need to walk on a disinfectant as well, and off we go. As we knew you can’t take food into the country we ate it all and stop at the first supermarket to get us some fresh Botswana approved veggies. And so our journey to the South African border starts. We are not just going to cross quickly in a day, we have a couple of plans. First we will drive to the salt pans, than we do a day of driving in the salt pans and towards the rhino sanctuary and then it it will be border crossing  time again.

Loads of elephants along the road, not interested in us. And yes, Kosta is actually out of the car to take a picture. Tourists… LOL

But first things first, driving towards Nata. As we are enjoying the good tarmac (and the elephants) we arrive at a veterinary check point. They want to inspect the car for food. Tomatoes and cucumber have to be thrown away or eaten before we pass. And although we try to tell them we just bought that at a local supermarket, we still have to eat it as ‘we come from the infected area’. So this is how we find ourselves enjoying a fresh made tomato with cucumber and onion salad at 4 in the afternoon at a veterinary stop.  Nicely seasoned and with fresh bread eaten in the shade behind the inspectors, what else do you want more to enjoy a nice break. LOL

Next day we have a superb drive in the salt pans.  And for the first time in our lives we see a cobra in the wild (which we almost ran over with the car)! We of course stay at a safe distance, thank goodness for the zoom.

And then we arrive at the Khama Rhino Sanctuary, a private park where about 30 rhinos, the last ones of Botswana life in peace. We are super enthusiastic as we haven’t seen these endangered animals so far. The rhino is an endangered species as it is unfortunately still very popular for its horn. The park also has a super nice campground. Yes people, we camp in the park where the campground is not behind a fence. But no predators have approached the car (and we are guessing there are none), only the birds are big fans of the mirrors. : )

Squirrel, one of what we call a MAG - Minor Attention Game - aka underappreciated wildlife LOL

In total we have seen about 15 rhinos. We each take our turn sitting on top of the car. It is such a great way to enjoy the park! Probably not possible in wildlife reserves with predators but here in this private sanctuary for rhinos we have not been told to get off the roof.  : )

33. Victoria Falls

We don’t do that many stopovers in Zambia but the Victoria Falls in Livingstone are off course a must do on our transafrican. Kosta has been here 12 years ago, obviously not much has changed at the falls but I have not seen them so we decide to stay a couple of days in Livingstone to have a nice day trip and to relax a couple of days. You need those days where the engine stays cold. A day of not driving is just what we need once in a while. So not much to tell about the 5 days spend in Livingstone, but for us a nice break.

At the falls you can do, or I should say, you could do a bunjee jump until a couple of weeks ago. One female dare devil will never forget her jump of the bridge that links Zambia to Zimbabwe. Just as she reached the water the rope snapped. She had to swim to the shore in croc invested water. That is a story to tell! For those interested to see it on the little screen, you can find it on Youtube.

The bridge

32. Fantastic!!!

Entering Zambia is a slow process. Surely the people working at the border are not in a hurry to get you in. One guy kind of lies on his desk, suffering from malaria. The other ones just take their time to get everything sorted out. Yes, this is administration done at its most efficient.

Before heading out to the Victoria Falls, we make a stop at the Luangwa South National Park. From Chipata it is barely a hundred kilometres but it takes us three hours to get up there. The road starts off fine with nice tarmac but then – off course – gravel with lots of wholes takes over again. The road is under construction though, so we can imagine the pleasure people in the future will have driving up the new tarmac. ;)

We first try and find a place to bush camp but with the national park just 5 minutes away wildlife is very much present. So we decide to go and camp at a lodge. As we arrive we are welcomed by an amazing view of the river with hippos just passing their time. When I sign us in the guy at the counter says “If you have any food in the car make sure to get it out. Elephants (!!!) smell it and it has happened that they break into the vehicle to get it. And be aware of the fact that the hippos come out to eat the grass. And obviously there are loads of the monkeys here.”. OK, welcome to the wildlife zoo without fences! LOL When the manager comes to welcome us fifteen minutes later he tells us the monkeys steel food. By then we can acknowledge that as they have already snatched bread away. And as he presses again on the ‘elephant fact and hippos wondering around as if they own the place’ all I can think of is ‘I hope I don’t have to pee at night’ LOL.

View from our camp spot

At three o’clock it starts poring down rain. And when we say poring down we mean like the heaven showers are all open! And that goes on for hours on end, incredible! When at 6 am it is still raining heavily we decide to have an easy day and to postpone our daytrip to the next day. And so what does one do on a day like that in a superb place like we are at? We enjoy watching the hippos and we try to keep the monkeys from steeling our food! The monkeys are not scared at all. And they are super quick, the little bastards stole our coconut cookies! So we try to pay attention at keeping all the doors closed and especially the back door. We don’t want them steeling anymore and more so we don’t want their nasty nails on our air mattress. And imagine this scene: we left the drivers’ door open and the both of us are standing at the back of the car but on the other side. All of a sudden I hear a noise so I move to the front of the car, on the passenger 's side. I stand eye to eye with an adult baboon sitting in the drivers’ seat! All I can say is “ Babe, baboon in the car, IN the car!”. LOL I tell ya’, this is such a laugh!

The cookie snatcher

With the first rays of sun the next morning we get up and get prepared to go and see some wildlife. At 6 sharp we are at the entrance gate. We heard off a group of lions and the morning is the best time for game viewing. Barely half an hour in the park we are rewarded for our long drive two days ago and for getting up this early: a group of 18 (yes, 18!!!) lions is sitting next to the road. One Simba (lion king) with 8 females (de snoeper, as we would say in Dutch LOL) and 9 cubs. Because it is rainy season the lions stay near the roads where they can keep there claws dry. And best thing of all, we can approach without them moving. As they are not interested in us at all, we can drive the car up to 3 metres. This my friends is just the most amazing experience! We can also see the vultures not far who eat the remains of the lion ‘s pray (the pray that we can clearly smell btw… don’t know if you ever smelled a dead animal but trust us, that is disgusting).

Playtime

The ‘cleaning up the corpse crew’ has arrived

We have spend many hours in this incredibly beautiful park. For me personally the most amazing national park so far. Not only for the ‘up close and personal moment’ with the lions but for its diversity in animals and vegetation. Also, the lack of other tourists which gave us the feeling to have the place to ourselves. We definitely were the only ones driving our own 4x4. A highlight of our fantastic trip, a fantastic day we’ll never forget.

Isn’t he tiny?!!! (well, for an elephant that is LOL)

Flower power buffalo

31. Mzungus in the mist

We leave the beach of Tanzania to make our way down to Malawi, one of the poorest countries in the world. And as I am writing this, I’m sitting in between 4 people that do voluntary work. I almost, almost, feel guilty that I am only travelling but oh well, we are contributing to the world economy, aren’t we? LOL

Livingstonia is a nice little place on earth and our first stop in Malawi. To get to the hostel were we want to camp, we drive up a crazy road. Just to give you an idea: if you want the hostel to pick you up at the bottom of the hill  they will charge you $50. That is also because fuel is hard to come by but once you have done this road up (the barely 10 km you do in an hour) you understand! Not only is it steep but the condition of the road itself is, well lets say, a bit poor. ; )

Room with a view

Same room, 5 minutes later

But it is such a great place, really worth going to. One moment you see clear, next minute you are literally in the clouds. And the walk up to Livingstonia itself (and the waterfalls) is a nice day out.  More so, for African standards this is actually a quite nice town. I mean really, Africa is a beautiful continent nature wise but if you are looking for a nice town or city (so far) I would say you came to the wrong place. Yes, Africa is all about its magnificent nature!

Mzungu (Kosta in this case) in the mist

Take a look at the highest waterfall of Malawi LOL

Anyway, after a great day of hiking we leave Livingstonia again to go and enjoy a bit of Lake Malawi. On our way we drop of Maartje, a backpacker we gave a lift at the border with Tanzania and who was also on her way to Livingstonia before heading toward her cousin (and luckily for her that was also on our way : ) ). Lake Malawi is the third largest lake in Africa where apparently there are loads of fishes. Nice for diving but for two reasons we’re not going: first of all it is rain season and the visibility is not all that great, and second of all this lake is full of bilharzia. This disease is spread by worms that are carried by freshwater snails. The parasite penetrates the human skin and then migrates to the bladder or bowel. A little pill after having been in the water would prevent this all but no thanks. Just the thought of it makes me glad its rain season!LOL

And while we leave the lake behind us after five days we are already making our way to the border with Zambia. We want to see the Victoria falls, so that means halfway Malawi turning to the West. And it is the best solution anyway, as Malawi does not have enough fuel. More so, diesel is only delivered every two weeks and we are here in the petrol week. LOL

But it has to be said, Malawi might be known for its HIV/AIDS rate and poverty statistics but this country is more than that. It’s a place where locals are still friendly and don’t immediately want your dollars, a place where green is all around you (well, at least in rain season), and a place where there are so many bicycles you would think you’re in Holland LOL. And oh yes, we appreciate the fact we don’t have to pay for a visa to enter. ; )