Big Bertha is around ten years old now and, given the next leg of our journey will be in South America, where there is no MAN presence, we decided to treat BB to a top to bottom full service. Choosing the right garage that would not treat BB as just another truck was not easy. However, I asked for recommendations […]
We had great expectations of South Africa. Whenever we talked about buying bits or getting things done for Bertha (or for us!), we always said “we can do that in South Africa …”, but perhaps what we had failed to appreciate fully were the other reasons for visiting – beautiful scenery, amazing wildlife, friendly people and a rich, if turbulent, […]
Botswana hates us! – Or at least that was the only conclusion we could draw, as the rain came down once again upon our return to the country. However, fortunately, it only lasted for a day or two and by the time we reached our first stop at Kubu Island in the Makgadikgadi pans, the skies were clear of clouds. […]
Zimbabwe: a country with recent troubles; should we be here at all? After our 47 day tour of this intriguing country – I can categorically say ‘yes’. We crossed into Zim over the magnificent dam at the north eastern end of Lake Kariba. This is a very quiet border post and entry was relatively easy. After a week at a […]
Geologists have still to discover the colossal magnet which is buried deep in the ground, somewhere in the North West of Lusaka, Zambia, but WE know it exists! For every time Bertha leaves Lusaka, we’re drawn back again – to Dylan’s garden! Here, we can enjoy the garden, do some onward planning, make small repairs/improvements and just relax with friends. […]
The rainy season was late in ending this year and, unfortunately, we decided to leave Namibia prematurely to head east into Botswana before it had departed. This led to a change of plans and instead of heading onto Zimbabwe from Botswana, we returned to Zambia to stay with Dylan and wait the rains out. More on that in another blog. […]
Kaokoland has been described as one of the last true wilderness areas of Africa. It is a remote and uninhabited region, with the exception of a few Himba villages. We regretted missing this part of Namibia in 2019 and were determined to visit this time. If you plan to travel to Namibia’s “Wild West” make sure you have enough water, […]
Scattered across the remote North Western corner of Namibia lie (or stand or sit) some 37 stone men (possibly more, possibly less – no-one really knows). These half-size statues, comprising stone and steel, started appearing a few years ago amidst great secrecy. The artist prefers to remain anonymous and rumour has it that he/she works on an installation during the […]
Big Bertha, our expedition truck, has travelled a whopping 250,000km!! BB left the MAN factory in Germany on 13 February 2012 before travelling to Bocklet in Koblenz, Germany, to have the body fitted. This took around a year and BB’s first owners, The Overlanding Family, registered BB in the UK on 21 February 2013 and covered 199,608km before handing BB […]
Sorry for the delay in posting – our last post was in July 2021. At that time we had rushed back to Zambia so that we could fly home for David to say good bye to his Dad. We returned to Lusaka in late November, just as the latest mutation of Covid, Omicron, surfaced and we decided to make a […]