We really wanted to see this bird; it looks so ancient – right out of Jurassic Park. It lives in the swamps of Eastern Africa and is classified as vulnerable due to habitat destruction. We had met a couple of guys who recounted how they had spent 13 hours in a dugout canoe in Zambia’s Bangwuelu swamp in search of […]
Leaving the gorillas in Mgahinga National Park behind, we headed north through the Biwindi Impenetrable Forest and then the endless tea plantations in the hills of southwest Uganda, before entering Queen Elizabeth National Park. Here we camped for three days on the bank of a river full of hippos, eying cautiously the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which lay just […]
Sorry, you have to be British and of a certain age to understand the title of this post. Although not a lifetime’s dream, we both wanted to go gorilla trekking while in Africa. Our original plan was to visit them in Rwanda, but after being denied entry (Covid) we chose Uganda instead. Luckily, the eye watering cost has been reduced […]
After a very nice stay in Kigoma, we negotiated some pretty terrible Tanzanian roads, infested with trucks, to get to the Rwandan border, only to be denied entry. Rwanda is closed to tourists except through its international airport (Covid). Undeterred, (plans are supposed to be changed) we reversed course and side-stepped Rwanda, heading directly to Uganda. Some people asked ‘Are […]
On reflection, the Western route from Zambia in the rainy season, might not have been the best choice, but once in Katavi National Park, we were committed to the plan! The road through the Park was easy enough and the tarmac around Mpanda as good as any in Europe. It’s after Mpanda that things start to go downhill! We met […]
Because we were heading up the west side of Tanzania towards Rwanda, we decided to cross the border at Kasesya, just north of Mbala in Zambia. We knew it was a small post, but we were the only ones there. Nonetheless, all went to plan and we crossed in about two hours. On the way to the border we visited […]
What can we say? After 359 days in Zambia, it was a very emotional bittersweet goodbye. Bitter in that we are leaving behind our good friends in Lusaka. Sweet in that we are at last continuing our circumnavigation of South and East Africa. We will miss the friends we have made and the farm pets.
Between October and December each year, about 12 million straw coloured fruit bats descend into a tiny patch of evergreen swamp forest inside Kasanka National Park, Northern Zambia. It’s the largest mammal migration in the world. We decided that this was not to be missed, despite Big Bertha being temporarily immobile, and so we hired a car and drove the 1,040km round […]
Zambia gained independence from the United Kingdom 56 years ago yesterday (24 October) and to celebrate, our good friends, Tahira and Marco, invited us to their home for a traditional and ubiquitous Zambian meal – Nshima accompanied by a meat stew and vegetables. How to describe Nshima? It is made from mielie meal, a relatively coarse flour made from maize […]
270 days have now passed since our arrival in Zambia and we are considering citizenship! COVID 19 has placed a giant sized spanner in our overlanding works, but as recently reminded to us by a German gentleman, “If you go on an adventure, then you had better expect an adventure!” Very true. We continue to reside at Dylan’s farm, with […]