5+4x4: Malawi to the Cape, 29th March

Goodness time flies. Somehow before we knew it we were in South Africa and then I fell into the mindset of “trip finished” and therefore no blog updates. However there is still quite a bit to tell!

After our lovely days at Cape Maclear on the shores of Lake Malawi we hot footed it over the border and spent one night in Chipata in Zambia. We were humming and hawing about whether or not to risk driving to South Luangwa National Park as it was rainy season in Zambia too, we heard repeated reports that the roads were terrible and we were worried about our trailer. After one night camping in the drizzle and chatting to the overland trucks and asking anyone coming in the opposite direction what the roads were like we decided to risk it. On our last trip through Africa South Luangwa NP was the probably THE most spectacular in terms of wildlife.
Well, only 198kms and it took just over 4 hours to get to Mfuwe, the village on the edge of the National Park! The roads were bad.....really bad....!

We decided upon our campsite – checked out a few and the beautiful one of our trip 9 years ago is now over commercialised and rather miserable. So we went elsewhere and set up camp.
It was hot hot hot and we were sweaty and hot and bothered. We were the only campers however and had the site and the very nice shower block all to ourselves. Well, apart from our full time guards (due to elephants and thieving baboons and hippos wandering through the campsite). The campsite also had an upmarket arm – the luxury safari tents which actually sat on the banks of the river (the cheap campers don’t get a view!). We did get to use the beautiful pool however...bliss and it made the kids very happy.

During our 3 nights there we did 3 long game drives – all squeezing into our car - as you pay for your NP permit for a 24hr period. Sadly we did not see as much as we would all have liked – because it was rainy season and the grass is long, the bush very dense and there is so much water everywhere that the animals will choose to move far from the cars and people. However, we had a good time and apart from predators, saw a lot of everything else.

After relaxing at Luangwa for 3 nights Pieter and I decided we would travel on with Karen and Henry and not slow down. The kids were just loving being together and every journey would take turns in different cars.

From Luangwa we were on a mission to cover the miles and miles to get back to Johannesburg in plenty of time for Beate and Gideon to be back at school the following Monday. So lots and lots of driving every day, grabbing supplies en route, pausing to set up camp each night and up and away early the next day.

We got to Livingstone (famous for viewing Vic Falls from the Zambian side) and ended up at a nice campsite, although only for one night. The next morning we got up and drove straight to the very posh hotel right on the banks of Victoria Falls. By looking like we owned the place we managed to access the Falls from the posh hotel and bypassed the ticket booth altogether. As it was rainy season the haze and water “fog” over the falls was very dense and we all decided this was the perfect chance to make the most of it. The kids got dressed in swimmies and they all went off to view as much of the falls as they could while getting completely drenched. I remained at a safe distance and held onto all the valuables – and of course had to take a photo of the retuning tribe – especially Karen dressed like a Jedi in her rental poncho!!

That afternoon we drove on to the border in order to get on the pontoon to Botswana and get all the border formalities out of the way before nightfall. All very interesting – before getting on the pontoon we had lots of locals chatting away around the car and wanting us to trade anything in return for souvenirs. All a good vibe though – Zambians really are lovely people. Archie proved himself once again, he really has mastered the art of bargaining and came away with an ebony (or so they claimed!) rhino, two soap stone zebras and a wooden hippo in return for a 99p Chinese plastic car (broken) and an old teddy bear. Mara couldn’t bear to barter with anyone as she was plagued with the feeling that it wasn’t fair on them as “I think they might be poorer than me”. Euan traded a little bit and got a lovely wooden rhino which he accidently dropped overboard on the pontoon and sobbed for a good half hour!

(note the interesting sides to the boat in the last photo!)

On the other side Botswana officials were really efficient and it went fairly quickly and smoothly and then we headed off to find a campsite in Kasane. We got to the Chobe Safari Lodge, once again, camping round the back of the posh lodge. We had stayed here 9 years ago and it was just as good a camping spot – literally on the water’s edge with sounds of hippos, the threat of crocs, a snake slithering over Mara’s foot, lovely hot showers and boat trips available. We all decided we had done so much driving we would stay a bit longer than expected and squeeze in a boat trip on the Chobe River. A good decision and we saw lots of huge crocs, monitor lizards, birds and hippos.

Then however the real race began. We drove all the way to just outside Francistown, eastern Botswana, in a day and camped. The next morning we were up and away by 7.30am and we knew we’d be back at Karen and Henry’s house in Jo’Burg that night. Euan was not well however. We suspected malaria immediately as we had been on red alert since Malawi. Malawi has the most dangerous kind of malaria – Falciparum malaria – otherwise known as cerebral malaria. It can kill a child within 24hrs. Thankfully we were suspicious immediately and in the chaos of packing up the camp at 7 in the morning we also gave him a finger prick blood test. This tested negative however but we still didn’t trust it and started him on the malaria remedies we were carrying just in case. If he had falciparum malaria we could take no chances as he could have been in coma by Jo’Burg. By 5pm we were in Jo’Burg after an uneventful day’s driving. We took Euan straight to A&E and discovered it was indeed cerebral malaria. He was admitted and was in for 4 days.

During that 4 day period Archie had his 6th birthday. Poor Archie – his brother was in hospital so his parents were a bit stressed out PLUS his dad got a gastro bug and was in his bed and missed all birthday celebrations. Thankfully we were staying with the cousins so the rest of us went out to the Spur (family diner in SA) and Archie had a great time.

After some lovely time in JHB, enjoying hot showers and comfy beds we headed to Welkom to Pieter’s parents. The kids were thrilled to be back there and loved playing with the old “He Man” toys and Euan recovered fully. The parents enjoyed supermarkets, home cooking (Pieter especially in his element with his mum's great roasts, like Eisbein

,,,,, and putting washing into the MACHINE and not spending at least 2 hours doing everything by hand in a miniature fold up bucket. For the first time in 8 months we also had the odd hour or two without the kids – just to go to the shops, or go for a run. Amazing, how did we manage that – no time off at all in all that time?!

On leaving Welkom we drove down to Stillbaai on the garden route, where we spent a week in a cottage of a friend of Pieter’s. We chilled out, did some home schooling, some pottering in rock pools collecting star fish, some further attempts at fishing, lots of running (the kids now insist on taking turns to join in....),

We also went to feed some eels - strange thing to do, but they turn out to be very interesting!

And another great day was spent at a predator park with every kind of big cat – even white lions and white tigers. A very sympathetic, loving place.

Back in the car and then to Cape Town, for 2 nights with my Dad and Mareli and then into our own wee cottage in Hout Bay. We are still there, enjoying catching up with friends