Chitake Springs is within Mana Pools National Park, but it is an entirely different experience than the riverfront, where most visitors spend their time. The Chitake area is dry miombo woodland, comprised primarily of jesse bush and mopane, punctuated by fig and baobab trees. The springs themselves lie in bottom of the usually dry Nyadara riverbed are the only water source for many miles. 

Because of this, all the resident animals must come to drink from the springs, and a pride of lions and other sundry predators have set up shop, knowing that their prey must come to them.  Reportedly, there is a large pride of lions in residence who kill daily to sate the hunger of their large numbers. 

Chitake is raw African bush; hot, dry and infested with tsetse flies. There are four campsites in the area. There area has almost no roads for game driving. Instead, it is a place to go and be in the wild and see what you can see at the springs. We bumped into the guide we had met at the lions again, Stretch Ferreira, and when he heard we were headed to Chitake he advised us to find the fig tree on the embankment above the springs and to have patience and sit quietly there all day, to let the game come to us. 

The brave might muster themselves to do their own bush walk, but here the scrub is thick and visibility poor. A pride of lions might be behind any bush. In 2010 a camper was killed by lions here, memorialized by a small plaque on the fig tree by the springs. In that case, the victim went a short distance from his fellow campers to shower in privacy at dusk. Certainly, this story loomed in our minds as we camped at Chitake. We always stick close to the vehicle, particularly at dusk and darkness.

We couldn’t get this notion of seeing game on foot out of our heads, but we also weren’t confident enough to waltz up to anything, leaving us with this idea that an opportunity was passing us by. Clearly, walking with the Zimparks rangers was not going to get us there; Allan, our ranger from the morning bush walk, had studiously avoided going near any animals, and this echoed what Stretch had told us to expect as we had chatted the night before (he was one of the vehicles camped out at the lions in the grass the evening before). Allan had mentioned that some guides do close approaches, calling out Stretch by name, who we had learned was famous for getting his clients very close to elephants. Allan shook his head in disapproval, noting that Stretch’s luck would eventually run out, and either he or a client would get killed. 

I can’t comment on that, only that Stretch has been in the bush since the Bush War in the 1970s, and Allan has been a ranger for five years. I will say that upon hearing that, our first reaction was, “Well, I guess we better sign up for a Stretch safari before anything happens!” Thus, the seed took hold that perhaps we might try to join a professional safari after our time at Chitake. 

Driving out to Chitake is a routine affair, head back towards the gate and suffer through corrugations, continue inland at the Nyakasikana checkpoint and take the turnoff (perhaps even signposted!). 

About two kilometers of bush track brought us near the springs. The road was a bit rougher and went through a couple of dry dongas. As we approached the first campsites before the river, we saw a tragic sight: a single Land Rover being loaded onto a flatbed, no doubt with some terminal condition while there were two Land Cruisers parked in camp. 

We drove on, down a steep riverbank, across the dry sandy riverbed and up the other side, which seemed like it’d be rough going if you had a trailer. This brought us to the famous fig tree, and we stopped to peek at the springs and see if there was any action, scoping out our surroundings for the next few days. There was no action at the springs, so we headed up to our campsite at Chitake Baobab.

The Chitake Baobab site lies about one kilometer south of the springs themselves, on the top of a hill adorned with about a dozen mature baobab trees. There is no specific campsite per se, but plenty of logical spots to set up. The general lack of scrub and brush meant no tsetse flies, which is nice; I have heard others being terrorized for their entire stay. There are no facilities at all. 

We still had some time, so we continued to explore the area. Chitake No. 2 was reportedly booked, but nobody was there so we stopped in for a look. This camp is the closest to the springs but lacks the same atmosphere (and shade) of camp No. 1 and the baobab site. 

Given that it was pretty quiet on the game front, we found ourselves timidly cracking the door of safari on foot. From camp No. 2 we took a brief stroll along the embankment above the river. This area has a lot of scrub brush around, and we found ourselves on very high alert. Like a puppy let off the leash that won’t stray far from its owner, a magnetism drew us back to the vehicle in relatively short order.

Chitake Baobab is ideally located for sundowners, and if you camp here, you can expect to get a visit from the campers from the other sites that have no such view. The Land Cruiser guys from camp No. 1 stopped by and they were having a great time. The Land Rover casualty was the culmination of a many-year rivalry between friends, and they were triumphant that they’d finally won, with a token acknowledgment of their friend’s misfortune (and no doubt great expense) of having to get your vehicle recovered from Chitake Springs.

Camp for the evening was magical. We had Mexican mini burritos for dinner by the fire, surrounded by huge baobabs, it was wonderful. There was no sign of the famous Chitake lions yet.

The next day, we resolved to spend the day at the fig tree, watching the springs and lounging about. We made the short drive there and had a leisurely breakfast while sitting in our camp chairs at the riverbank. This spot is perfectly located, affording shade and good visibility of the springs while also being high up on the bank and set back enough to not disturb animals coming to drink. 

It was quiet for a long time. This is a different type of safari experience, and I can imagine that sitting around for hours isn’t for everyone. We did some birding and reading, took a couple of short exploratory walks nearby and drank a lot of coffee.

On the river’s opposite bank is a long ramp of sand that is well-trodden with animal tracks. This is clearly the favorite approach. It was still and hot, and by late morning, we had begun to see dust kicked up by something. Eventually, a large and extremely skittish herd of impala showed up. It took them a long time to work up the courage to come to the springs, and we imagined they had been traumatized by past encounters with lions here. They finally did drink and then were off quickly back into the bush. 

Another hour or two went by, and more dust was being kicked up. We could hear the lowing of buffalo, another famous resident of Chitake. The area supports huge herds, and it appeared they had come for a drink. This, too, took a very long time. They crept forward and peered down toward the spring. They’d stop, shuffle around, and then one or two would take a few more tentative steps down the bank and stop again. The whole process would repeat, with the rest of the herd working closer. When they were only 15 meters from the spring, the herd gave a collective, “to hell with it,” they threw caution to the wind, rushing down to the spring to drink. 

The herd was hundreds of buffalo strong, and it was exciting to watch. They hadn’t appeared to notice us, but we were in the shade with a little bit of scrub to obscure us. We watched a lot of interesting interactions as the herd slaked their thirst. Secretly we were hoping some lions would burst out of the bush to hunt, but instead after a while the buffalos had their fill and retreated back up the riverbank. 

Our last visitor for the day was a lone bull elephant. He, too, took his time making his way down to the springs, first posing for us alongside a baobab tree. 

It was another great night in camp. We returned to the springs in the morning, remembering Stretch’s advice that patience was required here and the game would come to us. We were a teeny bit disappointed; we’d heard from others who complained endlessly about how terrifying Chitake was, that they couldn’t sleep because of the lions roaring right next to their tent all night and how they felt they couldn’t step out of the car since there were lions all over the place. That wasn’t our experience thus far, but it was still a special place.

It was back to the fig tree to stake out the springs today. Not long after, we were joined by a father and son from New Zealand. The son had just completed his guiding certification and internship from the FGASA (Field Guide’s Association of Southern Africa) and was on a father-son trip to Zimbabwe. It was really interesting to talk to someone who had just gone to guide school, and Jenny and I spent the afternoon fantasizing about getting our guide certification. 

We were treated to another visit by a very large herd of buffalo. This time, I spent some time slowly working along the riverbank to get some photos from a different perspective. I was slow and stayed low, dressed in safari khakis, and even from a good distance, the buffalo had their eyes on me and were not happy. I was mindful that if they wanted to, they could easily charge. The advice from our Massai friend in Kenya returned to me, “The buffalo is not a friendly animal.” This is from a guy who would happily walk up to lions on foot. 

The father-and-son duo moved on, and we were then visited by a guide and his client, who were staying at the Chitake site reserved for tour operators.

The guide’s name was Steve, and he was extremely knowledgeable. He generously shared many interesting facts and thoughts with us, his non-clients. Though he was South African, it turned out he had his PhD from UC Davis, which is not far from where we live in California. He had guided in South Africa before but was drawn to the strict standards in Zimbabwe and had come here to test his mettle. 

He had quite a few opinions that we found fascinating. In particular, he smarted at the double standard that the rangers could act as walking guides from Nyamepi HQ, but as a certified guide, he was required to undergo years of training and rigorous tests. The ranger’s training is much briefer and has a different focus. He pointed out that the firearms they carry are not of a high enough caliber to stop a buffalo or elephant and thus serve no real purpose for a walking safari. 

We saw them again at sunset at the Baobabs. He told us that this didn’t used to be a campsite and was reserved as a sundowner spot. Then, the park started using it as an overflow campsite, and now it is a bookable site at Chitake. He shared a bunch of other interesting facts with us and was clearly excited about all aspects of nature and the environment.

After sunset, we were alone for our final night in Chitake and heard the first roar of lions. They were a long way off, but it was fantastic to hear them. 

As we sat around the fire we talked about what would happen after this. We had no more bookings but we both agreed we needed to stay longer at Mana. Guide Steve told us a couple of tales of wildlife encounters on foot and we got even more excited about the idea of being able to go with a proper guide on foot. It seems the only way to do this is by paying for a high end safari. Steve also had opinions about Stretch Ferreira, whom he knew well, and his stories got us even more excited about the idea of trying to join Stretch for a few days. 

The end of our trip was approaching; we had only three weeks before we had to be in Windhoek and catch a flight home. By now, we had confirmed that we did have jobs waiting for us upon our return (this was not 100% guaranteed when we started this venture), so we resolved to head back to Nyamepi the next day and see if we could blow the budget on a few days with Stretch Ferreira Safaris. 

It was a magical night in camp, the stars were out and we were dreaming big dreams of animals on foot in Africa, lions were roaring in the distance and all was right in the world. Jenny decided to head to bed, and I thought I’d stay up a bit longer and make some notes for the blog. 

After Jenny was in the tent, the lions started roaring more and were closer. Exciting! Another 20 minutes went by, and clear and loud, a hyena started whooping not far away. There was some action in the bush tonight. I moved my chair so its back was against the car so that nothing could sneak up on me. 

Then we heard the call of a leopard, like a rough-toothed cross-cut saw rhythmically sawing through wood. It was loud, much louder than we’d ever heard before. The roar of lions, whoop of hyena and now leopard sawing all felt like they were triangulating in on me. Jenny was making some commentary from the tent on me still being out of the car at this point, and that was it for me; time for bed!

Retreating to the tent, we could hear the leopard’s call traversing around us. It sounded like it must be walking around the baobabs. The lions, too, got closer. It was shaping up to be an exciting night.  

The lions kept getting closer, and when we shined our big flashlight around, we saw a couple of lions walking down the road only ten meters away, heading toward the springs. We counted 13 lions. Fantastic.

The next morning we hoped we’d find the lions on a kill near the springs, but no luck. We lingered a while, but then it was time to head back to Nyamepi HQ and see if we could swing the next phase of our Mana Pools visit.  

The wifi signal at HQ wouldn’t support much, but I found the phone number and we began WhatsApp’ing Stretch’s office. The rate was eye-watering, more than we had guessed. After some back and forth and a lot of agonizing on our part, we negotiated a last-minute price reduction and booked two nights with Stretch Ferreira Safaris, starting that afternoon. 

Wish us luck!

The Nitty Gritty

Bookings

Chitake Springs needs to be booked ahead of time; you’d have to be very lucky to get any walk-in availability. For bookings, you can try your luck with the Zimparks online booking system, or contact Noel Manyerere at nmanyerere@zimparks.org.zw +263 77 749 0390.

Payment will be by bank transfer or wire transfer. When we managed to get our walk-in availability for Chitake, we paid cash at Nyamepi HQ. I don’t remember if they take credit cards.

Campsites

Chitake has five campsites:

• Chitake No. 1 is adjacent to the river (normally dry) and well shaded. According to the booking page this site is $300 night (all sites are a maximum of 6 people).

• Chitake No. 2 is the closest to the springs and this proximity means it’s probably the most likely to get nighttime lion action, if there is a kill at or near the springs. This site is listed at $200/night.

• Chitake No. 3 and 3b are tour operator sites and can’t be booked by the public. These are on either side of No. 1 and are marked on T4A as “Road Closed” and “Picnic spot,” respectively. I have heard that occasionally they allow self drivers to stay at one of these if it is not booked by a tour operator, but it can’t be booked ahead.

• Chitake Baobab, which you have read about, is also listed at $200/night.

Jenny and I debated what we would do if we could come back to Chitake again and price was not a concern. How long would we stay? Which site would we choose? We’d go for No. 1 for seven nights in September or October. It’d be brutally hot, full of tsetse flies, but would maximize animal viewing potential. 

I’d be tempted to split it with No. 2, hoping for some nighttime lion mayhem, but the site has minimal shade, no view and no atmosphere. And it is surrounded by brush; if the lions come, you won’t know until they are on top of you. 

I’d take any site for any duration; it’s a really special place. If you go to book a visit to Chitake, don’t sweat too much about which site is available.

I’m told that Chitake 1 and 3b have longdrops, but we did not see them. The longdrop at No. 2 is abysmal. Be prepared for no facilities; these are bush camps. 

Game viewing

Since our visit T4A has added a “No Entry” marker to the track on the north side of the river. When we visited you could drive a couple of kilometers of this before getting to a “do not enter sign.” If this is no longer accessible, it is a bit of a shame, but really game driving here isn’t the thing to do. The thing to do is to camp by the springs and see what you can see. At camp No.1, you are on the bank of the riverbed, and I expect you’d see wildlife traversing the riverbed to get to and from the springs. 

Depending on the time of year and strength of the springs, the water may or may not make it’s way as far as campsites 1 and 3/3b. Even if it does not make it this far, the animals will no doubt traverse the riverbed to get to the nearby water.

I’m told it’s possible to organize a guide to rendezvous with you to lead on a proper safari on foot, but I don’t know how to do this. If we do make it again we’ll try this, but I would try for a fully certified guide and not a ranger from HQ.

Day Visits

You can day visit Chitake. You need a permit, obtainable at Nyamepi HQ. It’s 56 km and about an hour and a half drive from Nyamepi, so it’s quite a commitment to go out there only for a day. I’m not sure it’s worth it, but on the other hand, if you weren’t able to get a campsite at Chitake and you wanted to experience it, you’d have a good chance of buffalo herds visiting the springs midday, and you’d get to scope out the feel of things and see what all the fuss was about. 

For more reading on Chitake and Mana Pools, I strongly recommend Stan Weakley’s trip report from 2010; still salient.

Today we’d finally go to Mana Pools, one of the most famous parks in Africa. From Warthogs campsite in Kariba town, we hit the road with great anticipation. Mana Pools awaited, where you can walk without a guide, where the great albida trees provide that iconic canopy, where bull elephants stand on their hind legs to reach the tastiest morsels and home to the wildest campsite in Southern Africa, Chitake Springs.

First things first, we headed to take a peak at the Kariba Dam and then off to the grocery store in Kariba. After six nights in the bush, it was time to top up on the provisions. At this well-stocked market, as in Victoria Falls, a local swooped in to pay for our groceries with their debit card in local currency. We paid them in USD cash to take advantage of the better exchange rate*. To find this service, we just asked the cashier at the checkout, and she waved him over without a word. 

*Note that in April 2024, Zimbabwe introduced a new currency (another one!), the ZiG. Rumor has it that the gap between the official and black market rates is quite close, and thus, it is no longer worth it for locals to take advantage of the price difference and pay for groceries on a local card. 

Leaving town, we topped up on diesel and wound our way up the escarpment and through the Charara Safari area, a hunting concession. This winding and scenic road is good tar all the way to the A1 junction. 

Checking in to Mana Pools

Checking in at Mana Pools is a little convoluted, but the short version is you have to check in three times. First, at the Marongora office, alongside the A1, then at Chimutsi Gate, just after turning off the tar and lastly at Nyakasikana Gate. Here a left turn leads to Nyamepi and the main part of the park along the river, a right turn takes you to Chitake Springs. Full notes in the Nitty Gritty.

Though you’re technically inside the park boundary before Nyakansikana, the gate is where the park rules are posted, and it feels like you are entering properly. The corrugations are consequential here, but driving through the miombo woodland was wonderful. Dappled shade through tall mopane trees set the scene as we rolled to the riverfront.

The main part of the park is often referred to as ‘the floodplain.’ The mopane trees and jesse bush thin out to a grassy plain, and in the final approach, this gives way to a forest of albida trees (aka ana, apple ring acacia or winterthorn trees). The albida tree can rise 30 meters, and the canopy of each is neatly trimmed flat by elephants and giraffes.

These trees make for the classic Mana Pools setting, where you can see wildlife among trees and in the forest, but the lack of underbrush and dispersed nature of the flora mean that you can still see quite far, unlike the dense bush of, say, Botswana.

Right away we saw elephant, impala and zebra as we drove our way to Nyamepi, the public campsite and site of park HQ. After the drive here we were keen to scope out our campsite and stop for lunch before exploring the park.

Nyamepi Campsite

We only had two nights at Nyamepi camp. There are also private special campsites in Mana Pools, and initially, we were disappointed when none were available, but also a little relieved because they are very expensive. Nyamepi turned out to be a wonderful spot, right on the riverbank, with well spaced sites, water, ablutions, and a stunning sunset view. What more can you ask for? 

As we arrived to scope out our assigned site it looked like the herds of the Serengeti were descending upon us, but instead of wildebeest it was a horde of vervet monkeys galloping our direction, excited for fresh victims to plunder. This put us on high alert and I got out my catapult (aka slingshot) and fired a few warning shots into the trees. This got them to back down a bit, obviously these campers would require a bit more effort on their part! Most lost interest, heading for easier pickings, but we had to stave off the few who had stayed behind. The occasional waving of the catapult at them usually got them to hesitate.

In another happy coincidence, we rendezvoused with another 4x4commmunity.co.za forum member, “Ortelius” and his wife. They have traveled all over southern and eastern Africa, renting 4x4s in each location, and he maintains a wonderful blog, safaribug.wordpress.com. Here, he recounts their travels, showing that buying a vehicle is not required for adventure in Africa.

We had been in touch online and knew our itineraries might cross here. After a stunning Zambezi sunset, we gathered around the fire in the fading light of dusk and shared a bottle of wine, travel stories and swapped notes. What a pleasure to meet up in person, it was a real highlight. 

Originally we had planned more nights at Nyamepi, but when we first arrived we checked in at HQ and asked if there had been any cancellations for Chitake Springs. And there had! Instead of one night at Chitake we ended up with three, one on either side of our original booking. To top it off, Zimparks charges only the same prices as Nyamepi if you are a walk in* for Chitake, instead of the much more expensive rate when pre-booking. We were delighted. 

*This is no longer the policy and now walk ins are charged at the normal higher rate.

In our two days on the floodplain we packed in a good number of adventures and sightings. On our first morning game drive we managed to spot lions on three separate occasions. 

The first sighting was a mating pair not far from the main road. Eventually, they wandered off, and we lost sight of them below a rise.

Before the second lion sighting we were driving down a track and saw clear lion tracks in the sandy road. We got excited and went down the track, stopping occasionally to confirm we were still following the tracks. Partway along, we saw a guide stopped, chatting with his clients while his tracker was walking out ahead. A dedicated tracker ahead of the vehicle is not the sort of thing we see in other national parks; normally, being out of the car isn’t allowed in a National Park, and this is the sort of thing you’d only see at a very high-end private reserve.

A note about guides in Zimbabwe:

Zimbabwe has the strictest standards for Safari Guide certification in the world. In almost every country, a body tests guides to ensure they have the skills needed to take tourists safely into the bush. Often there are tiers of certification, where a guide might first attain they basic guiding license, but not be certified as, say, a hunting guide, a walking guide, or a birding guide. I suspect that, quite often, tourists end up with uncertified guides.

In Zimbabwe, they take this very seriously. Guides must undergo rigorous training, apprenticeship, and then a field test where they go out on a safari, “guiding” a panel of experienced guides who will judge their performance. Don’t forget that guiding is not just identifying animals; it includes knowing their Latin names, as well as the names of the flora and birds, how to drive a 4×4, perform vehicle maintenance and repairs, handle a firearm safely, perform first aid and numerous other bush skills. In Zimbabwe, it is said that the pass rate for first-time test takers is only 10-30%. 

We chatted with this guide for a minute, sharing our mutual excitement for the lion tracks. The tracks confirmed what we already knew: Lions are reliably lazy and as such, they had kept to the road, plodding on for quite a while leaving crisp tracks in the sand. 

After a kilometer or so the track branched off, and following the lesser track a hundred meters or so we found three male lions. Ta-da! We were feeling pretty good about ourselves and Mana Pools, now having seen lions twice in the first hour of our first game drive, and having beat the tracker/guide combo we passed earlier.

The guide/tracker we’d seen earlier pulled up and congratulated us for finding the lions. The guide grabbed his rifle and hopped out of the car, waiving his clients to join him, as casual as can be. In Mana Pools you can get out of your vehicle, but we had never seen anyone do this near lions before. The three male lions were sitting in the shade, no more than 50 meters away.

As his guests got out of the vehicle, the lions perked up, evaluating this recent change. As the guide briefed his clients, the lions got up and moved off a bit, stopping and looking uncertain. The guide was immediately disgusted, that these lions were new and “Didn’t know how it worked around here.” He took an experimental few strides toward the lions, and they headed off for the plains, uninterested in being approached. 

The approach to lions on foot thwarted, the guests took a few minutes for a break and we chatted with the guide again. He was quite a character, animated and full of eccentric charisma. To our astonishment he said that he will bring his guests on foot right up to lions, sometimes on their hands and knees so as not to spook them.

We had read of walking safaris and that Zimbabwe is the true home of proper walking safaris, but this was something else. 

After we parted ways, we remarked to each other how funny that guide was, and what a roll of the dice it is when you sign up for an expensive guided safari. You might get those two, who seemed like quite a combo, skilled and a lot of fun, or you might get the guide that is tired, not that interested and barely qualified. Certainly in Zimbabwe this seems less of a risk because of the stringent guide standards. 

Further ahead, the plains morphed into mopane forest, looking pretty dry. We were about to turn around when we stopped to watch an elephant browsing for leaves. He stopped and pondered on a good sized mopane tree, about 10 meters tall. Then we were treated to the most remarkable behavior I’ve read about in books but never seen.

He looked high up into the tree, placed his chin on the tree, trunk upwards, and started pushing the tree. At first, I thought he was trying to shake the tree to get leaves or fruits to fall. But no. He shoved, pushed, and shook the tree, and after a great effort and cracking noise, he pushed the entire tree over! 

After this, he casually strolled over to the canopy, now lying on the ground and within easy reach, and began munching on leaves. After sampling these for a few minutes, he moved on, leaving the tree behind. We felt bad for the tree, brought to its end so that an elephant could browse upon its leaves for only a few minutes.

He moved on and appeared to be searching for another tree to bring to an untimely end, and we thought we might witness this incredible sight again, but he didn’t seem satisfied with his choices and wandered off into the bush. 

One morning of game driving in Mana Pools was incredible. On our way back to camp, we stopped at the Nyamepi HQ and booked a walking safari for the next morning. Here, we bumped into a couple we had met at Matusadona, and while we were there, Colin had quite a close encounter with an elephant at the office. By the time it was clear the elephant wasn’t going to pass by, it was too late for him to move. A steady nerve got him through. Not recommended and the park staff were not pleased.

After lunch and some camp time, we headed out for the evening game drive. We took different loops and saw many wonderful grazers in the unique setting. Eland, buffalo, impala, and elephants all looked really nice in the shade of the albida trees. 

As we made our way along, we saw more lions. A few younger lions and a lioness were lying in the shade of some scrub. We watched them for a few minutes, and deciding they were done with us, they got up and walked down an embankment out of sight. We were able to circle around for another view, just in time to watch the lioness stand at the bottom the bank, with about a 50 meter patch of grass ahead, and then she walked into the grass and melted away, presumably with the rest of the lions we’d seen earlier.

It was not so big a patch of grass, and we could see the entire perimeter, so we resolved to wait to see if they would come out. There was another vehicle already here, doing the same thing. We learned from them that she was the last of eight lions that had descended into the grass. 

Eventually, no less than eight other vehicles spent two still and sweaty hours watching a 50-meter long patch of grass, knowing that eight lions had descended into this cover. For these hot and boring hours, many eyeballs watched and watched yet didn’t even catch a glance of a lion, not a twitch of an ear nor flick of tail. So little was seen that we heard murmurings of the next car that doubted that the lions were there at all, and one guide came by and asked who had actually seen this firsthand to make sure he wasn’t making his clients wait for nothing.

Several cars gave up. Instead of watching an uninteresting stand of meter tall grass, not unlike watching paint dry, they went on to watch another glorious Zambezi sunset, which we missed. 

A growing seed of doubt set in. Perhaps there were no lions and we had imagined that lioness walk down the bank, and this was a big waste of time and we could be off game driving in more serene and scenic locals. As these thoughts went through my head, the first lion materialized. Illustrating what incredible masters of camouflage lions are, a second lion took shape, then a third, and then a whole pride. The dull chatter ceased, and all of us, at this point, were surprised that the waiting had paid off.

The last whisperings died off completely when a gray sandy coated lioness started stalking the nearby impala. She stalked and froze, stalked and froze, making a bold head-on approach to a herd of grazing impala in the open. The impala sensed something was up, gazing alertly in their direction, but each time, the lioness froze until they relaxed, and then she took a few more steps. This time an undisciplined tail flick gave her away, and they bolted. She made a half-hearted rush, I suppose hoping for a lame impala to give up easily, which none did. After this excitement we headed for camp for the evening. What a day!

On Walking Safaris and being out of the car

Mana Pools National Park is famous for many things. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It is the premier wildlife destination in Zimbabwe. Here live the only elephants that have learned to stand on their hind legs to reach the seed pods of the albida tree. It is wonderfully scenic, the wildlife plentiful, the lions numerous. 

There are of course many excellent wildlife destinations elsewhere in Africa that can claim similar superlatives. Perhaps the biggest distinction Mana Pools has from other parks and wilderness areas is that individuals are allowed to conduct their own walking safaris, unguided. Yeah, that’s right, knock yourself out and feel free* to wander into the bush on foot, risking being charged by an elephant, gored by the deadly buffalo or perhaps stalked and eaten by lions. 

*permit required, $15 pppd

This flies in the face of all other advice and against the rules of all other parks, which stand with uniformity on the “do not get out of your car” party line. Granted this laissez-faire freedom, one would assume that tourists are dying like flies on a near daily basis while Zim Parks sits idly by, pondering whether this will affect revenue streams. 

In fact, this is not the case. Though there have been fatalities at Mana, there have also been at other parks. That people are let off the leash without an apparent rise in mortal danger makes me call into question all the previous advice. I’m not advocating flaunting the rules in other parks, but it does beg the question: How should one conduct oneself on foot in the African Wilderness? Where lies the dividing line between real and perceived danger? 

One assumes the real reason you shouldn’t get out of your car in parks is to err on the side of caution, for many tourists don’t know when it is appropriate to disembark and when it is unsafe. The line between those two things is decidedly murky. 

Under this context, we peered into the opaque blank space of freedom, the old rules having been cast off, wondering what to do and how to conduct ourselves. 

In our eyes already some doubt had been cast on the ironclad “don’t get out of your car” line. After all, we’ve visited many parks that allow unfenced camping by anyone savvy enough to make a booking and get themselves there in a 4×4; totaling a great number of bush novices. For example, in Botswana, there are many campsites like this; for the most part, thousands of people have spent thousands of nights in the wilderness perfectly safely.

On many nights in Africa, we have camped with dangerous animals as our neighbors, and every time, we’ve accorded them respect, and they have left us alone. Hippos have munched grass inches from our friend’s tent as we watched from ours, elephants have wandered through camp, and a leopard made a casual inspection, coming close enough to be illuminated by the light of our fire. Lions have announced their presence loudly and firmly with calls that reverberated in our chest, and buffalos have driven us to retreat to the cab while they grazed by the front bumper. 

To dip our toes in the waters of this newfound freedom, we arranged a walking safari with one of the park rangers. At 0600 we picked up Allan, a Zimbabwe Park Ranger, and we drove to the flood plain between two of Mana’s four pools. Here we disembarked the vehicle and set out on foot. Before setting out he checked his rifle, chambering a bullet and telling us, “This is to scare, not shoot, any animals that give us trouble.” 

With this, he led us out into the wide open ground between the towering winter thorn trees. He explained that one reason it’s allowed to walk alone in Mana Pools is that the visibility is much better than in the other parks, allowing you to spot danger early. The ground is nearly barren of grass, and we can see more than 100 meters in most directions, save what is obscured by some large trees and the occasional shrub. 

This all sounds great, except that much of the park is dense bush, thickets of thorny shrubs and mopane forest that has poor visibility, where you are also welcome to walk unguided, though a sense of self-preservation prevents most from doing it.

For the next two hours we walked with Allan and he pointed out facts about various trees and animals. At one point, we saw an elephant quite a distance away, and he said that we would stay well clear and that, in any case, if you were to approach an elephant, you should do so from downwind so that they don’t detect you. This seemed odd to me. I’m no ranger, but sneaking up on an elephant seems like a good way to startle it, and then perhaps this might lead to an undesirable conclusion. Later Allan told us that he sometimes is assigned as a ranger with hunting groups in hunting concessions, and then this made more sense as advice to approach an elephant undetected. 

Allan was mediocre as a safari guide*, but he was fascinating to talk to and learn about how the park works and life as a ranger. As we walked, we noted that the impala were giving us a wide berth, and he casually remarked that was because until fairly recently, the park service didn’t provide meat for the staff, and instead, they were encouraged to hunt their own. 

*Note that rangers are not guides. They work for the park and do not undergo the same rigorous training that a certified guide has.

This practice is now banned and Zim Parks brings in meat from outside. I took this opportunity to ask what we have been told many times: Do waterbucks actually taste bad? Guides and guidebooks tell us that the meat of the waterbuck is not particularly tasty, and thus, lions only feed on them as a last resort. On top of this, while you sometimes see game meat for sale like kudu, zebra and springbok, you never see waterbuck. He disagreed, saying that waterbuck tasted just fine. 

Our walk concluded. Similar to our walking safari in South Luangwa months before, we did not see much in the way of animals, or not up close anyway. It seems walking safaris are more like nature walks, in an area where animals might be present. It’s not quite the experience I had in mind, silently watching a lion hunt on foot or that sort of thing. Later, we would learn that this is possible, perhaps more so in Zimbabwe than anywhere else, but not when guided by the park rangers. Instead, you need to be with specialty walking guides who train for and seek this sort of thing out. 

After our walk we did get an elephant encounter on foot. In camp! We gather there are a few elephants who frequent Nyamepi. He was very relaxed. With this very modest introduction to safari on foot, we were off to Chitake Springs for three nights. 

The Nitty Gritty

Bookings

We organized our bookings through the very efficient Christine Mhuriro, but she has moved on to another assignment and been replaced by Noel Manyerere, who I hear is also very good. Contact info is: nmanyerere@zimparks.org.zw +263 77 749 0390. We were able to do some back and forth on WhatsApp which made things much faster. We paid by wire transfer, which is inexpensive through our US Bank (Chase) and can be done on our mobile phone.

Checking into the Park

The check-in process for Mana is confusing, and though I’m tolerant of this sort of thing, it feels overly complex.

First, you must stop at the Marongora National Park office, just off the road on the A1, 8 km south of the turn-off to the park. If you’re coming from the south, this is easy, but if you’re coming from the north, you do need to bypass the turn-off to the park, drive to Marongora, then double back. 

There is a sign at Marongora, but unless you’re expecting it, it’d be easy to miss it and think to yourself, “Was that it? Whatever, I’ll just check in at the gate.” However, once you produce your booking (or explain that you don’t have one), the Marongora office provides you with a crucial slip of paper that you must produce at the Chimutsi Gate. Without this, you’ll be turned back and have to drive the eight kilometers back to Marongora.

From Marongora, descend the escarpment to the park’s turnoff, signposted, and arrive at the Chimutsi Gate. Here, produce the slip provided by Marongora. Air down your tires for dirt and head into the Hurungwe Safari Area (remember, in Zimbabwe, “safari area” = permitted hunting area). 

Partway along this next 31 km stretch, you’ll cross the boundary into the park and then arrive at the Nyakasikana Gate. Here you again check in for a third time, producing your booking, slip, etc. Enter your details in the book and head on. A right turn here takes you to Chitake Springs, left to the floodplain and Nyamepi, the main area for Mana Pools. 

Lastly you arrive at Nyamepi, park headquarters. You don’t need to stop at the park office, you can proceed directly to the Nyamepi campsite, a short distance from the park office. 

Nyamepi Public Campsite

The campsite has 36 sites scattered along the Zambezi river. The riverfront sites have a higher fee. There are four sites for people without bookings. Pretty much all the sites are good, even the non-riverfront sites are only 50 meters from the river and you can easily walk over to watch the sunset or take a look. 

There are occasional water taps scattered around the camp. We’re told the water is potable, buyer beware. There are a couple of ablution blocks with washing basins for laundry. 

The fee structure has changed since our visit. Non-river sites are $100 per night for the site, a maximum of six people. Unlike almost everywhere else in Africa, they charge per site and not per person. Riverfront is $130 pn, and exclusive campsites (BBC, Mucheni, Chitake, etc.) are $200 pn. They have a new booking system, but I have no idea if it works.

Before coming we had managed to get a one night booking at coveted Chitake Springs and we stopped at HQ to see if we could catch any last minute opportunities at Chitake. We talked to Brighton, the man in the office who organizes the bookings and we lucked out, with an open day at Chitake on either side of our original booking. 

At the office, you can also buy firewood (very generous portions for $5/bundle), get a walking permit for $15 pppd (required for any walking safari, self-guided or not) and ask for changes to your booking. There is very feeble wifi available at the office, ask nicely for the password. 

Oct 26th-Oct 29th, 2021

It was border crossing day. There is always a little bit of trepidation when crossing a border in Africa. Nothing to be scared of, but mostly a wonder; will our plans be disrupted, will we be delayed, do I have the right paperwork?

To start we needed our PCR tests. We drove to town and picked up the results from the Namibian Institute of Pathology lab at the Katima Hospital. We arrived at the same time as the five other travelers that we had tested with yesterday, and we all were given a copy of our results (negative) within a few minutes. First hurdle cleared.

One of the other couples was Swiss, traveling in their Namibian registered Land Cruiser. They asked if we had our police clearance, a document required to bring a vehicle into Zambia. We did, but it was 18 months old. They were worried for us, because apparently it must be no more than one month old. They said last time they’d been sent back into Namibia by Zambian authorities to get one, not a good sign for us. 

For South Africans (and South African vehicles) this document, the police clearance, is a notorious pain to get, as the South African police don’t issue a police clearance, meant to establish that they vehicle is verified as not having been stolen, unless the vehicle is being exported permanently. As we hadn’t been to South Africa since March 2020, there was no way to obtain a new one. Fingers crossed we wouldn’t have issues, there are many stories of travelers being held up or asked for bribes to resolve the stalemate.

After getting our test results we headed the couple short kilometers to the border. We were in and out of Namibia Customs and Immigration in record time, six minutes. Can you believe it! I couldn’t, and it turned out to be too good to be true. We wound our way around a long line of trucks to the final police boom that crosses the road before exiting Namibia, marking the no-mans land between border posts. The bom was down and after some waiting and no action Jenny investigated, finding that no one could leave until some dispute involving a lot of police further up the road was resolved.

More waiting. Remember what I said about waiting being a skill we needed to hone? Here we were again, honing. Jenny was serene and happy, I mildly agitated. Lets go, we are so close! I wandered up to the boom and was sent back. More waiting. It was hot. Bonus though, we were parked in the sun and the new solar panels were making over 10 amps. I call this “the electron update”. Jenny doesn’t always appreciate the electron update, particularly in the early morning. She says she checks the battery in the morning not to see how it’s doing, but to see what kind of mood I will be in after I see it is too low.

After an hour, watching more and more police walk back from the dispute, a police woman told us there had been an altercation with the Zambian money changers. They illegally walk across no-mans land and come over to the Namibian side to change money with travelers and truck drivers. When the Namibian police drove them back they resisted and threw rocks at the police, resulting in both Zambia and Namibia authorities closing the border until they could get it all settled down.

Another little while passed and we were let through, after the police woman asked us if we were ready, even if we got rocks thrown at us. We were not the target of the money changers frustrations, but to show respect we treated the threat seriously.

No rocks were thrown, and a few minutes later we were on the Zambian side. The Zambia side has all but one stop in a single building, much more streamlined than the Kazungula border we took in 2018. 

Details of the border crossing in the Nitty Gritty Section. No mention of police clearance was made, I think because we were traveling with a carnet. Due to a computer being down it took an extra hour. Four hours total and we were across. Not fast, but plenty of time.

The M10 Sesheke – Livingstone road

We still had to drive the feared Sesheke road. A couple we met who’d just spent six months traveling to Uganda and back and they said it’s the worst road they traveled the whole trip. To avoid this road the alternative is to drive all the way up to Mongu in, adding a day to the trip, or transiting through Botswana, adding another border crossing. 

We decided to bite the bullet and just get on with the Sesheke/Livingstone road. The first 30km is fine, where we began to think that maybe it was all hype. But it went to pieces fast, and then complete shit until a couple kilometers outside Kazungula. 

In the beginning the road is so bad it’s funny. After some of that, annoying. Then grim. Then just stoic silence. Thankfully there was hardly any other traffic, I assume because everyone else knows to avoid this road, and we could wind our way to whichever side of the road seemed least bad. More pothole than road, mostly you drive on a dirt road adjacent to the “road”. These dirt roads are so bad that there is another dirt road adjacent to them, and the whole time you are weaving back and forth looking for the least awful way to proceed.

It was so hot that the heat shimmer causes a mirage, making the “paved” portion look like smooth tarmac in the distance. Like a shipwrecked sailor running to the mirage of an oasis in the distance, many times we thought we’d passed to worst of it, optimistically popping back onto the “tarmac”, only to see the illusion broken, that we’d been duped. 

Four hours later the suffering was over, we passed the last hour between Kazungula and Livingstone in the relative peace of uneventful road, arriving at the Victoria Falls Waterfront Hotel and Campsite.

Livingstone

Last time we were in Livingstone we stayed at the Maramba River Lodge, but this time around we thought we’d mix it up and this place looked like it might be a modest upgrade to the already very pleasant Maramba. Though not terrible, it wasn’t really an upgrade. 

It does have a lovely bar deck over the Zambezi river, a bit up from the falls, and we arrived just in time to have a beer and watch the sun set over Zimbabwe’s Zambezi National Park on the opposite bank.

With excellent timing our friends Pete and Melissa walked up and we enjoyed a rendezvous over food from the restaurant, discussing our upcoming plans together for a Zambia tour, two weeks and a bit of seeing some highlights of Zambia. After which they would fly home and we will continue north. 

They spent the next day seeing the falls, and us taking care of a few odds and ends. Part of our day was spent reorganizing the vehicle to figure out how to shoe horn us all in.

Though Victoria Falls is amazing and well worth the visit, we have been there three times and would no doubt return again, so no great loss to give it a pass this time. 

The plan for the first leg was to try to make it all the way to Mvuu Camp on the banks of the Zambezi, outside Lower Zambezi National Park. It is a long drive and I wasn’t sure we’d pull it off, so we had a plan to stop early if we got behind or were tired of driving. Last time we did this the road from Mazabuka to the T2 junction was terrible and slow going, which wouldn’t help our time. 

To the Lower Zambezi

With the upcoming bad road in mind we made an 0600 departure. The T1 had light traffic, light enough that we didn’t get stuck behind any slow trucks for much time. There are two road toll booths now along the way, 20 kw each time. You show your road tax and they staple a new receipt to it to show along the way if you need to. I am happy to pay this surcharge, the road was in excellent shape. 

We passed the Moorings Campsite, more or less a half way point to either Lusaka or Lower Zambezi, but too early to stop for us. In Mazabuka we fueled and took a detour out of town, because they are working on the main road! The gas station attendants informed us that the road has been repaired, and they smiled when we told them we remembered it from before. Sure enough, back on the T1, the formerly disastrously rough stretch was now new tarmac, what a relief. We sailed along swiftly. 

Turning onto the T2 ahead of schedule Mvuu was easily in our sights. The T2 drops south and is the main route for trucking to Zimbabwe, and along the way we saw terrible accidents that had happened, the burned out shell of turned over tanker trucks, smashed 40’ containers along the side of the road, reminding us to drive with vigilance. Chirundu is the border town, if we continued on the road brings one to Zimbabwe. Also it is our last fuel stop, with jerry cans and tank topped up we turned left onto dirt road that parallels the mighty Zambezi river. We arrived at the very pleasant Mvuu Camp 10 hrs from leaving Livingstone. 

I felt pretty good about this. 10 hours is a long day in the car, but Zambia is a big country and it’s sort of unavoidable, or if you break up all the long stretches it adds quite a few days to the trip. I was feeling a bit anxious, having been in charge more or less of the itinerary, and thus committing all of us to a number of long days in the car between attractions. But watching Zambia pass by is so much more interesting than what we see on a long day on the road at home, it is much more bearable. Also it always gives rise to more questions about how it all works. What are those storage bins for, where is all the charcoal going, why are some roads so good and others so bad? Always more questions, it’s part of what is interesting about being here.

Mvuu is on the banks of the Zambezi, a large camp in mostly shaded campsites, as well as bungalows on the opposite side of the bar, restaurant and pool area. We were the only campers that day, but we had pre-booked as we wanted to get one of the two riverfront sites. Each site is named, and the riverfront sites are Elly and Mvuu, both equally good, though Mvuu is adjacent to one of the bungalows.

Each site has private outdoor ablutions (Only one small scorpion, 5/5!), hot water, baboon resistant trash receptacle, fire ring, and a camp attendant to helps you and other campers out to keep you safe(er) from wildlife, builds you a fire in the evening and does dishes in the morning. Fancy camping, but also not cheap. In our case this was Stanley, and he pointed out the absolutely monstrous crocodile about 20 meters from our campsite down on the grassy bank. This croc sat sedately, but it certainly prevented our interest in a closer view of the river.

Stanley, wanting to ensure our respect for the wildlife risks that exists here I suppose, pointed out that we must be careful, a guest was killed here a few years ago by and elephant, and his own wife was killed by a crocodile while doing the dishes at the river bank last year. That cool water tempered the mood somewhat, and not long after Stanley ordered us down from our camp to a sitting area near the bank, high enough to be safe from crocodiles, but low enough to be safe from the heard of elephants that came through camp. It was quite a welcome to Zambia for Pete and Melissa. 

After a long day in the car getting here we set aside the next day for a short exploratory drive in the Game Management Area (GMA) adjacent to the park, and then an evening boat trip organized by Mvuu.

Driving around the GMA we saw elephant, warthog, impala, all very skittish compared to the animals that we’re used to. My goal today was to take a look at Chongwe Falls, on the Chongwe river that makes the border between the GMA and the Lower Zambezi National Park.

We wound our way through the tracks up to the falls, to find a dry river bed and empty falls. Not surprising since it is the end of a long dry season. The falls are also accessible from the park side, and we decided to drive a rough track up onto the park side and to the park gate to chat with the rangers at the gate. 

At the gate we met a guide told us about a huge pack of wild dogs in the park, and where to find them. We’d already booked the boat trip for that afternoon, and going into the park was going to cost us. On the other hand, wild dogs are a fairly rare sighting, particularly a large pack, and after agonizing for a bit we pulled the trigger and went for it. 

Not having been into this park before we weren’t confident we’d be able to follow the guide’s directions. Crossing the wide open plain we found the conspicuous termite mound he mentioned and noted his tire tracks. Sure enough, a little off the road was a very large pack of wild dogs. Thirty-three by our count, a huge pack. There were pups that were beginning to mature, all in one pile, getting up and reorganizing themselves frequently. A heap of less active adults about 20 meters away. We were able to spend quite a while with them, and even though it was their rest time in the heat of the day they did move about a bit to give us some interactions to watch.

We were pretty pumped up by our wild dog sighting, but it was time to head back for the boat trip. We departed the park by the main road, which requires a river crossing that was about the height of our tires, but along a rocky riverbed with good traction, so little chance of getting stuck. 

Only a few hundred meters from the river crossing, into the GMA we sighted a leopard. Incredible luck. the leopard watched for a few seconds and took off parallel to the road. We moved up and were able to spend a few minutes with it (not sure if it was male or female) before it took off. The Lower Zambezi was certainly starting off well, it was turning into quite a day.

Getting on the water for the boat trip was a nice break from the heat, the Zambezi Valley being one of hottest places in Zambia, only rivaled by our next planned stop, the Luangwa Valley. We zoomed along glassy water as our guide and boat driver pointed out birds, hippos and crocs in extremely pleasant riverine scenes. 

He brought us to a carmine bee eater colony nesting in little holes in the riverbank, and we turned the engine off and drifted along the bank, watching them swarm the bank and the trees, many with beaks holding moths or bees and other insects. They fly into their nests and feed their young, or perch on the crest of the river bank, posed in near perfect afternoon light for us next to their comrades. Beautiful. This nesting is exclusive to this time of year, one benefit of tolerating the heat of October or November.

Further along we watched a herd of elephants organize themselves on the Zambia riverbank and plunge into the river, crossing to the Zimbabwe side. At the deepest part it is just their trunks above water, and the littlest elephant is in the middle of the group, being held up, squeezed in between larger adults to stay afloat. 

After watching the sunset on the boat we disembarked back at camp after and absolutely incredible day of watching wildlife. We sort of messed up, setting such a high bar on our first day in the bush for our friends.

The park is about 45 minutes from Mvuu, so it doesn’t make much sense to do a traditional morning and evening game drive, too much time is taken by going back and forth. This inaccessibility is part what makes this park less visited. Determined to try to get to know the Lower Zambezi better the following day we headed in early for an all day game drive. 

We explored countless tracks through wide open plains, through forests along the river bank and in denser woodlands. Many of the river bank areas having channels that hold water inland from the river with wetlands that have abundant birdlife and wildlife. We saw an endless amount of impala, many warthogs, lots of jumpy elephant, waterbuck, great big herds of buffalo, some bushbuck, but no predators. One of the few other vehicles we ran into had just seen a leopard, but we couldn’t find it. 

Overall we had a really nice day in a park that felt very wild. Some of the tracks were rough and dense, Pete thoroughly enjoyed the 4×4 driving as we ranged around the bush tracks in the wilderness. T4A did not have many of the park tracks that I imagine are seasonal, as much of the area we explored must flood or become a morass of black cotton mud in the rainy season. 

The wildlife seemed skittish, usually bounding away from us as we came into view, whereas our experience is other parks is that wildlife is quite tolerate of vehicles. We wonder if this is due to poaching pressure, or perhaps during covid the lack of tourists has made them lose their previous comfort with vehicles?

That night in camp an elephant came through while we cooked on the fire. Stanley was off by then, not there to supervise us, but we retreated on our own to the cooking area. After spending a little time eating leaves from the tree right over Pete and Melissa’s tent the elephant moved on in not too long a time.

Knowing our plans for the next stretch would be busy we took a rest day in camp. Fixed a couple odds and ends, Pete and Melissa honing their setup in the ground tent, we decanted jerry cans, the camp staff did our laundry, and we jumped in the pool several times to cool off. We’re really roughing it here in Africa.

The plan coming up is to cross Lower Zambezi National Park, exiting to the east. This road did not used to be passable, more used by poachers on foot we are told. But now it has reportedly opened up, if not always passable. We had asked at the gate and they said it was open. This would allow us to not have to backtrack through Lusaka. Also it appeals to me to explore deeper into the park and make a crossing of the park that I have not read much about. On the other hand, since I am the planner on this portion of the trip, I do have some trepidation, having signed the rest of our party up for this more “interesting” route, whether they want to or not. After the crossing we intend to wild camp east of the park, or perhaps make it all the way to Bridge Camp, a normal halfway point between Lusaka and South Luangwa National Park.

After that I am also keen on trying the Petauke Road. This is the back road to Mfuwe and the Luangwa valley. The normal route to South Luangwa is along the Great East Road, the T4, turning Northwest at Chipata. I was hoping to avoid this long and relatively boring drive, taking the Petauke road, only accessible during the dry season. 

Now I sort of feel like the trip is really starting. It is funny, there are a lot of big milestones to kicking off a big trip like this. The last time we walked out of our house. Getting on the plane. Arriving in Windhoek. But meeting up with our friends on this long delayed trip together, and now diving deeper into the bush it feels like we are really starting.

Next time: 

-We Learn the hard way about black cotton soil, getting very stuck deep in the park.

-Crossing the Lower Zambezi National Park

-The Petauke Road and bush camping in the Luangwa Valley

The Nitty Gritty

Katima/Sesheke Border

We were the only one wearing masks, and we went through the paces. Because of covid, first stop is health. The heath officer inspected our PCR tests and filled out our covid medical questionnaire for us, without asking about symptoms, just checking “no” for everything. You take this slip to immigration. 

We had a 3 year multiple entry visa issued in the USA. The price is $100 USD, and as we knew we’d use it at least twice (north bound and south bound) it is at minimum the same cost of the normal $50/ea. Also it saved us some time. The immigration officer was surprised, but after inspecting the visa and the receipt she stamped us in, though only for 30 days instead of 90. She said they are under orders to not offer more than 30 days, even on 90 day visas, and that if we needed longer we could get an extension before our 30 days runs out. We’ll see if that works.

After this you take your health slip, stamped by immigration back to health and they take it. After that, customs. At this point, wanting to speed things along, Jenny and I divided. I took customs, she road tax. This is our first time traveling on a carnet, so I handed it over and the customs officer filled it out, thankfully knowing the drill. It’s incumbent on the carnet owner (us) that it’s filled out correctly, but everything was in order the first time around. 

Jenny had less luck at the road tax desk. The system was down and he had called his supervisor. After some waiting around I went outside and managed to change some money and buy SIM cards from the money changers. 50 kw/ea SIM and air time, 20 kw for 2gigs for a week. Exchange rate is ~ 17kw:1USD. We’ve found the weekly data bundles to be the most economical, though without too much calculating. Cheap enough for us. If you have data left over after you get this first week at 2G you can get the next week at the minimum data amount and the remainder will rollover.

Still waiting for road tax I chatted with the money changers for a while. They were very laid back, not pushy like at lots of places. With no other customers they were happy to chat. Eventually they pointed out that the road tax guy can fill out the paper by hand, he is just too lazy. They told me to go insist that he do it by hand and not wait for the computer. It worked! 20 dollars and a few minutes later we were done. I believe there is also supposed to be carbon tax, which we asked about more than once, but I think in the confusion of the system being down they forgot. 

Last stop is council tax. Drive 100m or so around the corner to the right and they flag you down. Council tax was cheap, I think 50 kw. 

The actual last stop was booth by the gate where they glanced at our paperwork and were waved on. We were through! And no mention of the infamous police clearance. I suspect this is because we were traveling on a carnet, though I didn’t want to ask lest it become an issue. A shame to not get to the bottom of this.

I would say the Katima/Sesheke border post is good and I wouldn’t hesitate to use it again, even though there were a few hiccups this time around.

Livingstone

Insurance

We purchased our required 3rd party insurance online from Phoenix Insurance. This meant at the border we already had the insurance in hand and didn’t have to fuss with the local insurance sales people. Phoenix Insurance has an office in the Falls Park Mall in central Livingstone to allow us to purchase COMESA from them. 

COMESA is 3rd party insurance that is valid through many African countries, including most of East Africa. Having it ahead of time would simplify our logistics for the many border crossings ahead. You could also buy insurance at each border, but it is not always available and you might have to proceed to the next town, turning it into an extended chore. COMESA works as a rider of sorts on top of existing insurance. We decided to buy a year’s worth of insurance for Zambia, price roughly 400 kw (sorry, I forgot to get the precise amount before we threw away the receipt) and then a year’s worth of COMESA for all valid countries. The price for validity over 200 days is the same, so no loss to go all in if you are past that number. You might save some money if you are going to less countries or for less time, the insurance person will have a chart showing the price for whatever combination you require. The year’s worth of COMESA was ~1,300 kw. They were cash only, but in not too long we were sorted, very hassle free. I’d definitely recommend dealing with Phoenix for ease, I believe the prices are fixed between companies, so I don’t think there is any advantage to shopping around. 

Victoria Falls Waterfront Camp

There are about a dozen campsites set fairly close together amongst the trees. The property is within the Mosi-Oa-Tunya National Park, though fenced to discourage visits from elephants. Each site has water, a washing up sink, and theoretically power, though we found many didn’t work. The day we arrived camp had one large group in ground tents and two other vehicles. To my surprise on the second night they were full of private vehicles. Some South African, some europeans with vehicles they owned. 

Ablutions – two blocks that are shared amongst the campers. Cleanliness, lighting and functionality was mediocre. They certainly did the job, but I wasn’t impressed. I wonder if they cut staff during covid and perhaps the facilities suffered a bit? 2.5/5.  There is a large wonderful pool in the shade, very clean.

Food was decent at the restaurant and the view of the river is really nice. A big place and clearly locals come for food and drinks, not just overnight guests. In the future we’ll probably go back to Maramba River Lodge.

Logistics

We shopped at the well stocked Shopright in central Livingstone. Nearby, Heartland’s Best Farm Shop, on iOverlander, also had a good selection of specialty stuff, including a hard to find item in Africa we always keep an eye out for, limes.  

We refilled our water tank from the Nyanjawisi Aqua Mineral Water bottling place west of town on the M10, about $5 to fill our 60 liter tank with very good water. We’re experimenting if we might try this more often.

Mvuu

Excellent Camp in the lower Zambezi area. I believe the closest camping you can get to the park gate, though in the past there used to be a community campsite that was closer, however that is closed. There is a sign at the entrance to the GMA that [undesignated] camping is not allowed in the GMA, unlike some other GMAs. 

Price varies by site, the waterfront sites of Mvuu and Elly being more expensive. All the sites are good really and I would take the inland sites happily, you can walk just 50m to the river whenever you want. Mvuu and Elly sites are relatively expensive, ~$38.50 pppn

We asked at the gate about camping in the park. They said a campsite had been started but is on hold due to lack of funding, same as we were told in 2018. When pressed the gate rangers said you could camp at the gate and enter as soon as they open at 0600. 

Mvuu Boat trip is $44/pp USD

Details on the park and park fees in the next post.

*the internet here is not good and I’m sadly unable to upload photos. I’ll update when I get a chance, but for now, this is what we’re up to.

October 18th – 22nd, 2021

Here we are, back in Namibia again. Last time we were in Namibia it was March 2020 and as you recall, not a good month for international travel. Then we left under the hurried threat of covid-19 closures, catching the last commercial flight back to the states. This time we hope to do better.

Ngepi

I write you from the very spectacular Ngepi Camp on the banks of the Kavango River in far northern Namibia. Even though Windhoek is a fine enough city, by the time we were done with all our chores we were really itching to get on the road and to some wilderness. We made a big push and drove the ~935km to Ngepi from Urbancamp in about 10.5 hrs. This may seem sort of ridiculous but was totally worth it. We arrived at campsite No. 6 on the banks of the river to comfortable temperature, antelope grazing on the opposite bank and birds everywhere, it was magic and totally worth making the long drive. 

Just that evening from our camp chairs we saw waterbuck, bushbuck, wart hogs, river otter, hippo, crocodile, a host of birds, impala, and a very active bushbaby. We heard it had rained heavily the night before, and all the animals and birds were active, the temperature exceedingly pleasant, and a nearly full moon rose from across the river from camp. We grilled chicken and portobellos over the fire, had ice cold beers from our fridge and were elated, feeling that we had really started our journey. 

*birds may or may not be limited to: crested barbet, cape turtle dove, African skimmer, Egyptian goose/duck (depending on who you ask), African Jacana, blacksmith lapwing, black winged stilt, some sort of heron very far away, red billed spur fowl, starling (meeves?), meyer’s parrot, paradise fly catcher, a yellow bird that might be a weaver, or something else, grey lourie, arrow marked babbler (?) and a bunch I couldn’t identify. It is birding mayhem here, like being in an aviary. They were coming very fast this morning, so much that I couldn’t keep up. Still though, not too shabby for a very amateur pair of birders.

To get here we had to make a series of sprints, a sprint to leave home and a push through the logistics of Windhoek. Let me catch you up… 

The day before we flew from the states was a big day. Getting ready for leave for almost a year turned out, to the surprise of no one but us, to be more work and more complex than we initially thought. We blithely forged ahead, but it has been stressful getting our stuff packed and getting out of the house between many heartfelt good byes.

Windhoek and Urban Camp

Seeing the wide expanse of acacia plains from the air was wonderful, we were back in Africa. After so much anticipation and planning it hardly seemed real. 

When you land in Windhoek there is no jetway, stairs are wheeled up to the aircraft. I like disembarking this way, as you instantly feel the weather, the temperature and smell the smells. It was a bright sunny morning and we kept grinning. 

The grinning didn’t last long, as it was cold enough that my teeth almost started chattering. Cold? Even though October is normally the hottest month of the year, it was less than 50° F. I had been wearing just a t-shirt on the plane, and walking across the tarmac I was freezing. Later the taxi driver confirmed it was very unusual for this time of year.

We had a good chat with the Taxi driver on the way to the vehicle storage place. He said tourism is picking up in the last month, but is still much less than before covid. He also volunteered that he was vaccinated, and that anyone can get vaccinated that wants to in Namibia. There are a lot of vaccine conspiracy theories circulating, leading to hesitancy for some. He also said some employers are mandating it, but also organizing vaccinating for their employees. 

The cruiser was ready and waiting for us, keys in the ignition. Manfred was off with other customers somewhere and this displayed a curiosity we have experienced frequently in Africa. Reputedly Africa is full of scams and corruption, but we have found many times that we are simply trusted to pay our bill. In this case we had a significant repair bill from Manfred’s shop, and we could have easily have just driven away without paying. 

After about 30 minutes or so we had loaded our luggage and were standing around wondering how to pay Manfred when he finally rolled up. We paid him for the storage, 400 NAD/month, and then asked if it would be alright if we did an electronic transfer later for the mechanic fee. He said no problem, and off we went. Another example of the trust we have been extended many times.

Being back in the land cruiser was great, the rumble of the 4.2 straight six diesel, shifting through the gears with the low down torque and just being on the road again, even if just the road from the airport, was great. 

We had a list of things to do in Windhoek, so right out the gate we started with a few stops. First we went to the Offroad Centre 4×4 shop to pick up a new auxiliary battery, as we knew that ours was shot last time we were here in 2020, and no doubt almost 18 months in storage was the nail in the coffin. They were able to quickly install the battery and kindly took the old one off our hands for disposal. 

After that we made a quick stop by Bushlore to pick our Carnet de Passages en Douane, aka carnet, or CPD.It had been couriered to their office from Johannesburg. The CPD is required to take the vehicle into Kenya. More on this in the section at the end.

Urban Camp, chores & the solar saga

After the flying and all the running around we were getting tired and we made our way to Urban Camp, where we have stayed several times before. Urban Camp is a little oasis in the Eros neighborhood of Windhoek, with campsites and nicely furnished safari tents if you don’t have your own camping gear. It also serves as a convenient logistics stop for many a long haul overlander, as well as the numerous self drive rental vehicles that are ubiquitous in Namibia. 

They have a restaurant, bar with very cold draft beer and a small pool. Wifi available for guests in the pool/restaurant zone. In the evenings the bar is a popular place for Windhoek locals. 

Around the compound are thoughtfully designed bathrooms (no trip report is complete without the ablution report!), with great outdoor hot showers. Nicely tiled indoor showers are also on offer for those that prefer to shower inside.  I give the ablutions a 5/5, but mind you I am not that picky. You are forewarned.

We are comfortable at Urban Camp, and it was great to settle in to familiar surrounds so we could get organized to head off to the Zambezi region (aka the Caprivi, though the reasons for the name change remain unclear to me) as soon as we can. 

After a very frosty victory beer the days started to melt together, unpacking and repacking the cruiser, trying to figure where all the stuff we brought would get packed away, provisioning, and getting organized. 

I was starting to think we had brought too much stuff. When we were packing we were a little frazzled, and when presented with a decision we erred on the, ‘bring it, we’ll figure it out when we get there’ side of things. Now that we are here, it seems like a lot of stuff. After a lot of cleaning and organizing things started to get tucked away into their spots and it seems like maybe this might actually work

We also noticed that our solar panel didn’t appear to be charging the auxiliary battery. After some poking around with the multimeter I was worried it was dead, but by the time I reached this conclusion I couldn’t repeat my test as the sun was too low. I wanted to measure the DC voltage out of the panel while disconnected one more time before making the call that we’d have to sort out a replacement panel. Some internet research indicated that fried diodes in the panel are common, but on this panel that is a sealed unit, so no cheap fix this time around.

Though we were really excited to be on the outset of our trip, all the packing and organizing and dealing with solar panels was starting to feel like we were doing more of the same logistics and planning we had been doing from home. That combined with jet lag and we were getting a little worn out, and ready to leave the city as soon as possible.

We did enjoy a nice breakfast at the restaurant, though due to covid Urbancamp isn’t offering their really great breakfast buffet they used to have, and instead you order at the bar and they bring it to your table. We accomplished a few digital chores and I already got back an email from National Luna (makers of our MPPT solar charge controller, packaged into the DCDC charger) on some solar troubleshooting tips. 

Sure enough, I confirmed the panel was dead. To Jenny’s chagrin this meant we got to spend a lot of time talking electrons and whatnot, which is not a favorite hobby of hers. After calling around a bit Offroad Centre, said they no longer deal with flex panels since they had so many issues with them, but that they could replace it with a glass panel. 

They only had 90w panels in stock, and since I’d already been mulling upping our solar capacity we went for two 90s, giving us a total of 180watts. That should be plenty for our relatively modest needs. We run two fridges that each draw 2.4A when the compressor is running. The small 15 liter fridge is in-between the seats for drinks and we can turn off anytime we’re worried about not having enough charging capacity. 

Offroad Centre was able to squeeze us in for the installation the next day, adding an extra day in Windhoek. Though we wanted to be on the road already, it did take the pressure off a bit. 

We provisioned at the Super Spar in the Grove Mall. Pro tip: we know from before that if you use the outside parking area has parking that is high enough for our vehicle. A surprising amount of parking areas in Windhoek are limited to 2.4 meters, and the cruiser is 2.5 meters or so, making finding parking stressful. We still have PTSD after our incident in Botswana. 

We stocked up on things harder to find further north. Black beans, coconut milk and some gluten free goods for our gluten challenged (can I say glutard?) friend we’re meeting in Zambia. Also the staples, eggs, peanut butter, cheese, beer, biltong, chicken and some veggies. There is a fruit and vegetable stand near Urban Camp, so we went light on the freshies to go there later.

After all this we treated ourselves to a dinner at the famous Joe’s Beerhouse, where I had the Namib Trio of Kudu, Springbok and Zebra, where Jenny went all in on an enormous Zebra steak. Feeling very satisfied we collapsed, with a plan to bring the vehicle in for the solar panel install first thing the next morning.

Which we did, dropping of the cruiser and taking a taxi back to Urban Camp, we find ourselves with a forced day of leisure, giving me time to bang out this not too exciting blog post.

In closing

All this seems very mundane when compared to our lofty aspirations of exploring backwater dirt tracks and wildlife viewing. But when we’ve told a lot of people about our trips we frequently get asked, “How do you even do that?”, Well, here it is folks. If you find this interesting let me know, and if not I promise I won’t be offended if you don’t need to hear about the intricacies of finding ≥2.5m parking spots in Windhoek and other similar fascinations.

I’m also going to be adding a section to each post that I used to call “Logistical Notes”, but that is too boring, so I’ve retitled it, “The Nitty Gritty”. This will have technical notes for those that care, but stuff that might be boring to most. It is hard to know where to draw the line, for example, I couldn’t bring myself to move the solar stuff down there. 

The Nitty Gritty

The Flight

Namibia currently only requires PCR tests within 7 days, but they update their covid protocols on the 15th of each month. As we were flying on the 16th I felt there was a chance they would switch to 72 hrs, as most other countries are. We scheduled quick result PCR tests the day before the flight and had our results the same day, for an extra fee of course. We saved digital copies on our phones, along with photos of our vaccination cards, as well as physical copies of everything.

Our route was San Francisco – London – Frankfurt – Windhoek. The San Francisco airport was fairly empty. Mind you SFO’s international terminal is rarely overcrowded, but it felt sleepy this time around. 

Before arriving at the airport we started checking in online from home, and it felt like I was filling out a job application. Upload copies of our passports, our covid tests, our vaccination cards. The route is checked by the airline, and it automatically prompts you with additional forms to fill out based on your layovers (London, Frankfurt) and destination. All pretty remarkable actually, and it seems to actually work. 

A huge shout out to the person who checked us in at United, he was the most helpful airline person I have had the pleasure to interact with, ever. He made sure our travel documents were in order.

This is the longest I’ve not been on a plane since I was a kid and it was novel to be in the airport again. SFO now has a nice outdoor patio where we sat and ate, enjoying a bit of last minute not masking before 30 hours of mask wearing.

We lucked out and the United flight was pretty empty. The other two flights were fairly full and uneventful.

Windhoek immigration and customs had a long queue, with covid test results checked thoroughly. Only one of the two “required” covid screening forms (the one with the blue outline) was taken at the Health Inspection station before immigration. Our travel health insurance and itinerary were not checked, even though officially I believe this is a requirement for entry.

In the airport while we waited for our taxi we managed to get some Namibian dollars at the ATM. Note, the FNB ATM max withdrawal is 2000 NAD, the other one, Standard Bank, allows 5000 per withdrawal. 

Sim Cards

We also both got SIM cards for our cell phones. Contrary to what I had read before, you do not need a passport to register a phone number and new SIM. Using a package recommended by the MTN staff we each got 3 gigs of data + 700 MB for WhatsApp, valid for 7 days, total a 65 Namibian dollars each, or $4.50 USD. Getting the package that expires after a week is more cost efficient than the one that last a month, and you can just re-up if you need after the 7th day. 

The Carnet de Passages en Douane

The existence of carnets in general is of diminishing importance in international travel, as less and less countries require them and will issue instead a temporary import permit (TIP) at the border. However Kenya does require them. Until recently Kenya would allow visits for up to 14 days without one, renewable, however reportedly this is no longer possible. 

To obtain a carnet you have to provide a cash deposit based on the value of your vehicle to the issuing authority. The issuing authority is located in the country the vehicle is registered in, in our case the Automobile Associate of South Africa. After paying a fee of 6000 ZAR and the deposit AA South Africa issues the carnet to use, valid for one year. Each page of the booklet is for one country. Each page has three coupons. One for customs upon entry, one for customs upon exit, and the third one we keep. Customs in turn match up the two coupons and then they have a record that the vehicle came and went and no import duty is required. If you illegally sell the vehicle and they only have the single entry, then they submit it to AA South Africa who pays the duty, and you lose your deposit. The third coupon is to resolve disputes, as you have evidence you came and went. 

After the booklet is full or your year is up you return the book with all entries made to AA South Africa and get your deposit back, less the 6000 ZAR fee (about $413.80 USD at current rates). If this seems a bit convoluted, it is compared to the TIP alternative. However it does provide recourse for countries that have high rates of vehicles, often stolen, being brought into the country and sold illegally, and as long as it gets us to Kenya then it is alright with me. 

We’ve also been told that it smooths border crossings and makes them much faster, though in our experience getting a TIP is no great hardship and is also not expensive. In many countries they are free, and mostly they seem to cost between $15 and $50 USD per country. No doubt the CDP allows for greater freedom, but it certainly comes at a steep cost. 

How did I learn about such things? A lot of time on the internet. And it’s not quite as esoteric as it sounds, for example, my employer needs carnets for some of our specialized high value assets that are occasionally shipped around the world.

Water

I filled our water tank from the camp water and found that the charcoal filter I’d brought for drinking water has the wrong threads, and none of the handful of adapters I have will work. This was disappointing, I had been trying to up my water game a bit. 

Typically we only treat the water if it’s suspect. I wanted to start out right after everything had been sitting for so long, so I dosed the tank with Katadyne Micro-Pur Forte treatment powder. I had to order this from Europe as in the states it’s only sold in tablets for treating 1 liter at a time. We have tried Aqua-Selvo in the past, which works but we didn’t like the taste, though we still have some if the mirco-pur stuff doesn’t work out. 

First pass and we are happy with the Katadyne Micro-Pur, which comes with a little dosing spoon to scoop out the powder in 1g increments, which will treat 100 liters of water. Our tank is 60 liters (or 67?) so I used ⅔ of a scoop. We also have some Katadyne Anti-Chlor, which you can put in a water bottle to neutralize any chlorine taste. So far the taste is palatable, though not undetectable, and the anti-chlor does help a bit. 

Next time around I’ll give the full low down on the solar setup and Ngepi Camp.

My alarm sounded off at the appointed time, 0530, to wake me for our day in the Crater.  The gate opens at 0600 and we have to check out of the Conservation area by roughly 1400, so to maximize our time we were trying to be there bright and early.

It was wet, cold and dark.  The campsite is at 2400m, on the rim of the crater (actually caldera, but that isn’t what everyone calls it) and is notorious for inclement conditions.  This was certainly true this morning.

Only 3° south of the equator, I donned my long underwear, wool hat, and down jacket to get up to break camp in the mist.  It was that sort of mist is wet enough to be rain, but floats in the air and permeates everything without the decency to just fall to the ground like actual rain.

Jenny and I had tried the night before to make preparations for a quick getaway.  Normally it’s just coffee, tea and go, but since a herd of buffalo chased us into the tent early last night we had a few more things to sort out.  During that time the first safari car coming to pick up some other campers blew by us on the dirt road, throwing a bunch of dust and exhaust our way, or so I thought.  It smelled awful, and I cursed him for driving too fast.  The smell didn’t clear though.  In fact it got worse, and I started to think that someone was trying to start a fire in the wet conditions and the breeze was blowing their smoke to us.  The smoke was getting trapped in an eddy of air behind the car and we were coughing and cursing and wondering what was going on.

After just a minute it dawned on me that, against all odds, that the smell could be coming from us.  It was early and I suppose I should have come to this conclusion a minute or two sooner, but I didn’t.  Not being able to think of any other source other than us we scanned the car for the source of that acrid electrical fire smell.  Fridge – okay.  Lights in the canopy – not working.  Uh oh.  I popped the hood and sure enough, flames.

Fuck.

Fortunately exposing the fire to the inclement elements extinguished it for us.  We secured everything that draws power and took stock.  It was a shorted wire against the second battery bracket.  No doubt this was a gift from the cursed Serengeti to Ngorongoro road, the gift that keeps on giving.  The plastic chafe guard and insulation were no match for those corrugations and the terrific vibrations had chaffed them through.  It appeared to have burnt and melted the wires for the lighting circuit and second battery charging circuit.

Now what to do?  It’s dark, wet, and the clock is ticking on the most expensive day of the entire trip.  Uncertain of the full extent of the damage we considered if we’d have to bag it, go to the gate and asking for a refund on our $250 crater decent fee and leaving for Arusha.  It was clear from the night before that there was a chink in our armor and we were indeed travel weary.  Though we like to think we are hearty travelers there seemed to be a limit.  It snuck up on us, the only occasional showering out of a plastic water bottle, the dirty clothes, the bush camping and wildlife encounters, the dust and the dirt and the grit and early mornings were finally catching up to us.

Tired and frustrated, we were thinking last nights hostage by buffalo situation was the last of our surprises and we were in the clear.  And now this.  Afterwards we see that it was not as bad as it seemed, but in that moment, before coffee, it was a lot to take in, all the while the clock ticking on our expensive crater visit.

Really though there wasn’t much we could do now about the wiring anyway, so we decided to make the effort for damage control and to get to the crater and enjoy it.  It took us about an hour to unhook the charging system for the spare battery, taking our time to make sure all the wires were secure and we weren’t going to drain the starting battery but accidentally leaving something hooked up.  By this time we had begun to appreciate a little bit of the humor of all our twists and turns these last few days, with our fingers crossed that there were no more surprises in store for us, we pronounced ourselves ready and got underway for the Crater.

During all this a guy came by and asked if we were the ones who had arranged to meet a guide at 0600 at the gate.  Yes, we were, but we explained that obviously we were having some car trouble, but we would be there.  He understood, no problem, and gave us instructions on where the guide would be on the side of the road.  Sure enough, our guide popped out of the mist half way along the road to the gate, ready to go.

Our guide, Bahati (luck in Swahili), was great.  A degree in tourism with numerous guide certifications for walking safaris, Ngorongoro specifically and other impressive qualifications.  Technically a guide is “free”, but you’re expected to tip him at the end of the day what you think his services are worth.  An arrangement I dislike, but Bahati turned out be great and it was good we had him with us.

We made it to the gate a bit after 7 o’clock, not bad considering the rough start.  There was a host of vehicles at the gate and we thought we were in for a wait, but they checked our paperwork right away and we were off, no problems.

The Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) lies adjacent to the Serengeti National Park, but is administered by the Masai community based organization, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA).  The conservation area is huge, 8,292 square kilometers, but the star attraction, the Crater, is a small fraction of that.  Park entry fees are steep, detailed in the logistics section at the bottom.  It is an incredible place, and one of the few areas where traditional communities, the Masai, coexist with such dense amounts of wildlife.  Masai are caring for their livestock in proximity to predators as well as huge amounts of wild grazers, such as wildebeest and zebra, that also compete for grass and water resources.

The Crater is the world’s largest inactive, intact and unfilled volcanic caldera (technically a crater is formed by a meteor impact, a caldera from a volcano, but regardless the NCAA and all literature refers to this as the Ngorongoro Crater).  The crater floor is something like 260 square kilometers.  Inside the crater is an incredibly dense population of wildlife which is non migratory and supported by the crater ecosystem year round.  These animals are not trapped, there is no fence, but the surrounding landscape is not as hospitable as the crater floor, and that combined with the steep ascent required to leave the crater encourages the majority of animals to never leave, generation after generation.

There are only three roads into or out of the crater, and interestingly Bahati told us that these are in fact old elephant paths that have been turned into roads.  Elephants are not particularly good climbers, so they are deft at finding an easy grade for such ascents or descents, and thus it also makes a good route for vehicles.  We have also read that many roads in Africa are in fact old elephant “highways”, or routes favored by them that have since been turned into roads.

The Serengeti and the NCA are awash not only in animals, but also politics.  To give you just a small taste, many Masai communities were forcibly relocated from the Serengeti to the Ngorongoro area in 1959 for the formation of the Serengeti National Park.  Now again in 2009 there are new restrictions on the Masai settlement and use of the crater, to make way for greater conservation and, of course, more luxury tourism.

Bahati’s father, who was born in the crater, had an interesting observation.  Before all of the conservationists arrived there were hundreds of black rhino living on the crater floor.  After the Masai were relocated from the crater floor and the conservationists have a greater presence and authority there are now less rhino than ever before.  Of course correlation is not causation, but given that this is the perspective of some of the community you can easily see that the land use and conservation issues are complex.

If case you’re feeling bad that the Masai were displaced so that rich white people can look at lions, don’t forget that the Masai are not from the region, depending on how you look at it.  They migrated from the north in the 17th and 18th century and in the process forcibly displaced the previous residents.  If you are interested complex politics and moral conundrums you need look no further than Africa.  No doubt my very brief summary has left out a host of important nuances and details, but I hope it serves to illustrate some of the complexities.

The decent road into the crater is steep and unpaved.  There was a parade of safari vehicles slowly creeping down the road.  I put the cruiser in low range and let the engine do the work and tried to settle down from our exciting morning.  The crater was shrouded in mist and clouds, so the view was not nearly as good as the day before, but it seemed likely that it would burn off later in the morning.  Even part way down the crater decent road were were treated to wonderful views of herds of buffalo and wildebeest, with gazelle and zebra mixed in.  Further down and you can pick out jackals and a few of the 600 or so spotted hyena that live in the crater.

Once we got to the bottom the safari vehicles start to disperse on the various tracks.  The crater floor is primarily short grass plains, in contrast to the long grasses of most of the Serengeti.  This means that spotting wildlife is easy, as most of the grass is no more than 12 inches high.  Apparently the short grass plains are volcanic in nature and the soil is either too dense or too shallow for the roots of the longer grasses to take hold.

The crater floor is almost flat, but also has a salt lake, a smaller fresh water lake, springs, swamps, and forest lands.  The forest lands are primarily fever trees, also known as the yellow barked acacia, but also numerous kinds of fig and other smaller trees.

We made our way around the crater stopping for various sightings.  Of course seeing something really special is possible, predators hunting and with so many animals in close proximity interesting interactions between groups.  However really what is unique about the crater is the setting itself, a sort of wildlife Shangri-La of Africa.  Coming from the volcanic plains and the crater rim descending down to the crater floor has an almost magical feeling.  The wind eases, it gets warmer and wildlife abounds in every direction you see.

As the weather started to burn off we were treated to sun dappled views of the plains, alternate highlights and shadows of the sun and clouds picking out elephant and buffalo and others in the bright spotlight of the sun and it’s all sort of surreal.  We saw numerous lions, some with cubs.  Big tusker elephants, large herds of buffalo, wildebeest, a smattering of impala and grant’s and thompson’s gazelle, black backed jackals, but sadly no rhino sightings.

Our time nearly up we drove our way to the ascent road.  Of the three roads into the crater one is dirt, descent only, one is paved, ascent only and the last is two way, but seasonal and at your own risk.  We gather it’s a bit rough and elected for the paved ascent.  We dropped Bahati off at the ranger post and headed to the gate, hoping we’d be able to make it before 1357, when we would incur a second day of park fees.

I drove a bit quicker than I’d prefer, but no doubt slower than the professional safari guides drive, and we made it to the gate with only five minutes to spare.  The woman who checked us out didn’t seem to care at all that we’d used our one hour grace period, so we were actually in the park for almost 25 hrs, instead of 24.  Relieved and really starting to relax a bit we had a quick lunch in the parking lot at the gate.

Then it was back onto tarmac for the first time in a while.  The road is excellent quality all the way to Arusha and we savored the magic carpet feeling of sailing along smooth pavement.  We had been told it’s a 3 hr drive to Arusha, so we assumed it’d be 4 hrs for us, but for once we kept up and made it to town in 3 hrs easily without pushing at all.

After all my whining I will confirm what you have already suspected, that we are not in fact Africa Bad Asses, but in fact Africa Wimps.  A couple weeks of camping in the bush, some corrugated roads and a bit of car trouble and we’re ready to tap out (not really).  I suppose maybe we’re not quite as robust as we thought, but we’re okay with wimp status, and feel great to be making the trip and to have seen all the amazing things that Africa has offered up to us so far.  With that in mind, even though there are a few places to camp near town, this time we pulled the ripcord and made our way to a hotel.  The cruiser was due for it’s 10,000km service and we were exhausted.  It was time for a hot shower, not cooking and sleeping in.

Now allow me to introduce you to Jane and Henry.  It’s us, Jenny and Andrew.  We have found a peculiarity of native Swahili language speakers is that unless we make a specific effort to annunciate our names very clearly often they hear Jenny and Andrew as Jane and Henry.

“What is your name?”

“Hello, my name is Andrew”

“Pleased to meet you Henry!”

I’ve had this interaction many times now, and Jenny and I find it funny every time.  A similar thing happens when Jenny introduces herself, and really we must get better at making an effort at annunciating clearly.  Regardless, it’s puts a smile on our faces when it happens, so make sure if you are imagining our interactions across Tanzania and Kenya to keep in mind that often we are Henry and Jane.

This was the same when I worked in Kenya years ago, and one of our driver’s explained it to me like this:

“Yes, to us it sounds the same, Andrew and Henry, just like to you Muhammad and Mohammad sound similar but are actually quite different.”

Well, he had me there, I did struggle with all the variations of Mohammad, but fortunately they were tolerant of me blundering through Mohammad, Muhammad, Mahmoud, Mohammed, Muhammed, and so on.  You should have seen the org chart for our Somali project, a staff of 200 and half of them named some variant of Mohammed, the head of HR in Nairobi worked miracles to keep them all straight.

In Arusha we settled on the Karama Lodge just out of town, right near one of the camping options, Masai Camp.  Karama is perched on a hillside with views of Mount Meru and in the distance on a clear day the snow capped peak of Kilimanjaro.  We could just make out some snowy slopes in the clouds when we arrived.

Even then our frustrations of travel were not done, for there was a mix up with the bill and the supposed hot shower failed to materialize.  These are regular trivial trials when traveling, but we were trying to check out of the routine small challenges of African travel by getting a decent hotel, that night we went to bed tired and weary and hoping to start the next day on a new note.

And so we did.  First stop was Toyota.  I’m normally not a big fan of dealers, often overpriced, but in an unfamiliar city with no local knowledge of the good mechanic and not wanting to be delayed we figured it was best.  We asked for a 10,000km service and gave them a laundry list of questions, a rattle here, a problem there, and of course the cooked wiring.  They spent the morning inspecting the Cruiser and came up with an estimate.

I had to sit down, it was a lot.  We knew that it was going to be a lot, but wow Tanzania was turning out to be expensive country on our tour.  Of course it’s a Land Cruiser, it’s not a vehicle you just drive to church on Sundays, it’s been used and abused, and let’s face it, as a former rental it probably wasn’t babied.

The butcher’s bill is as follows:

-10,000km service, essentially oil change, fuel filter, oil filter, inspection.

-Front brake pads, resurface front brake rotors.

-New front wheel bearings.  One was going but we had them do both.

-New rear shocks.  We had suspected the left rear shock for some time, and the right one was leaking after the Serengeti-Ngorongoro road.

-Radius/stabilizer arm bushes.  Totally gone.  Another casualty of the road?  I’m sure they were finished after our recent torture, but I’m not sure they’ve ever been replaced, so this is not shocking.  Toyota says to expect approximately 80,000km out of a set.

-New steering tie rod ends and bushes.

-New bushes means alignment needed to be done.

-New air con evaporator and refrigerant gas charge – Aaaahhh!…so expensive.  I wonder if a smaller shop would have tried to repair instead of replaces this?  It was cracked where the piping comes out of the housing.  No air con in Africa has it’s limits.  It actually hasn’t been too hot, but keeping the windows down has exposed us to the ravages of tsetse flies and everything is covered in a fine dust that gets in your hair, on your clothes, and you can feel in your teeth.  I’d say yuck, but I think this is a standard day for Land Rover owners?  Ha!

-Second battery electrical repair.

-Exhaust mounting brackets were cracked and needed replacing.

The total bill came to almost $2500 USD.  Gulp.  I suppose if we were on an extended trip we might have approached it differently, maybe dong the wiring ourselves and try to look for a cheaper shop, but we didn’t have the luxury of time on this trip.  There is also of course the worry of counterfeit Toyota parts, common around here, though I’m not sure how much, if you go to another shop.  I think some of this, particularly the bushes, was probably already due and we should have done before the trip, but still it was sickening to do all at once.

Just as finally going to the doctor about a nagging issue brings a certain psychological relief, it felt good to get the Cruiser looked at by professionals and have a real once over.  We will be confident that she will continue to serve us well for some time to come.

Jenny worries about me because I constantly worry about the cruiser.  My regular job is working on a ship and I spend a lot of my time worrying about the weather, the condition of the vessel and so on, and now here we are on vacation and I have traded my ship worries for Cruiser worries.

Karama Lodge ended up not being so bad, but not exactly being the break we hoped so we traded into a hotel in town.  The cruiser took a couple days, so for the first time in a long time we find ourselves with a bit of time to catch up on emails, to read properly, to be bored.  It was magnificent.

One develops a close relationship with your vehicle when traveling overland.  It is our home in camp, our refuge at times, our transport across part of a continent.  We put all our faith in this vehicle to carry us half way across a continent and back, and each tiny detail about the car becomes familiar.  The sticky door handle, the rattling latch on the canopy, the streaks the wiper blades leave on the windscreen.  Did it take an extra second to start this morning?  Did the clutch slip a bit in first gear?  Was that rattle there before?  Every small noise and change of tone becomes significant.  Partially because we have found ourselves with a great fondness for this capable machine that carries anywhere we want to go, but also because the next new noise could be the foreshadowing of what strands us in the bush or by the side of the road.  With that in mind we are fine with spending some time to make sure all is right.  We put our faith and trust in her so she will take care of us, a bit of time and money to ensure this is not unexpected.

Oh yeah, and Toyota only accepts cash, so there’s that.  ATMs in Tanzania, if you’re lucky, will disperse 400,000 shillings, $180 USD.  Sometimes only half that.  This is in 10,000 shilling notes, the equivalent of about $4 US dollars.  So what ensued is a ridiculous parade of us going all over town pulling out huge stacks of shillings to pay our huge Toyota bill it what is essentially $4 dollar bills. I can’t believe they don’t take a credit card, but that is the way it is, and I suppose at least there were ATMs, I’m sure in some places or not so long ago that would not be possible.  This also meant that we were wandering around Arusha with quite a lot of cash in our pockets, even though we did do this is stages, it was a little uncomfortable to be carrying that much cash around.

Eventually we stockpiled the cash and Toyota finished with the Cruiser.  After the bill was totaled you take the final invoice to a cashier cage and an old lady meticulously hand counted our big stack of bills, as tall as a pint glass.  With her approval of our payment they gave us the keys and we were off.

Driving away from the workshop the Honey Badger felt great.  The alignment was done and the wheel was straight for the first time (I know, we should have done it before), the steering felt sharp, or sharp for a land cruiser anyway, and the brakes snappy.  We took her off road a few days later and the suspension was also improved with the new shocks, so we were feeling new confidence in the already capable car.

Setting forth from Arusha we will be starting on a new portion of the trip.  Headed south, most, but not all, of the bush time is behind us.  We’ll be focusing on getting back to where Jenny and I are most comfortable, the water.  Lake Malawi, the coast of Mozambique, and still a few visits to some parks along the way.

Our original plan had been to head to the coast of Tanzania and work south, to the little visited parts of south east Tanzania.  I was keen on seeing Kilwa, an out of the way UNESCO site and old trading port.  The traditional fishing and trading vessels are also interesting to me and we like being on the coast.  From there we planned to take the Ruvuma ferry across into Northern Mozambique, to go to Quirimbas National Park, to Pemba and Ille de Mozambique.

Mozambique had different plans for us.  The Sate department has issued a no go warning for US citizens in the northern province due to security issues.  Some group attacking local citizens, beheadings and burning some villages, displaced people.  We had the luck of running into the British Vice Counsel for Tanzania in the Serengeti and we briefly discussed our plans with her.  She reasonably advised not going, pointing out that even though it’s unlikely that tourists would be targeted, the inevitable police and military road blocks this sort of situation creates and the potential for curfews and other restrictions on movement could be a pain, at the very least.  Good point.

It is off to Malawi instead.  We have spent more time up here in the northern part of our trip than originally planned, and in order to avoid a constant brisk pace for the whole return trip we decided to make some big jumps south so we could relax a bit when we were closer to South Africa.  With that in mind the plan is to spend a couple days in Tarangire National Park and then beeline it for Malawi.

After our four night stay we had our fill of hot showers and lounging in Arusha, we were feeling refreshed and ready to get back on the road.  The Land Cruiser is it’s own kind of refuge for us, the hum of the tires on the road and the grumble of the diesel engine have become comforting.  It reminds me of being on watch at sea, where even at sedate speeds the hours and days add up, and in time one can cross an ocean.  It’s time to point the Cruiser south, watch Africa pass by and make our way across countries.

Logistical Notes:

NCAA fees – Entry is for a 24 hour period from whenever you sign in.  In USD we paid just under 600 dollars including taxes and an extra 1.5% for using a Visa card.  I think the breakdown for this was 50/pp park entry, 40 vehicle entry fee, 30/pp camping (public campsite), 250 crater decent fee, 18% VAT + 1.5% credit card surcharge.  As stated above, that gets you 24 hours, if you over stay or want to stay longer you’d have to pay everything, except the crater decent fee, again.  Also the 40 dollars for vehicle entry was again for under 2000kgs, he just didn’t ask when I said we were self driving.  You get one hour grace period on your 24 hrs.  We paid by Visa at the Naabi Hill Gate, very easy.

NCAA Guide Requirement – Per NCAA rules a guide is required to enter the crater.  However it did seem there was some wiggle room on this and it’s not clear if they would refuse you at the gate.  One exception to this is if you don’t have seating, they said they wouldn’t turn someone away for that.  The ranger we talked to said they’d had problems with self drivers breaking the rules and thus the requirement for a guide, but who knows if this is the whole story.  That said, I would hope that any self drivers that do make it to the crater without a guide be on their best behavior, to reflect positively on future self drivers.

Drive time from Lodware gate to Arusha is just a bit under 3 hrs, depending on traffic.

Toyota Arusha did very generously accommodate our schedule with no appointment and we felt gave us great service.  The branch manager also gave us a discount on most of the parts and labor, except of course the most expensive part.  I suspect this is because he didn’t have it in stock and had to buy it from someone else in town.  He also asked if we had fueled in Seronera, as he said the fuel quality there is poor.  We did, and he said it’s a good thing we have a 4.2 and not a 200 Land Cruiser or a Pajero, as then “you would have trouble.”  Whatever that means.  Anyway, perhaps if you do plan of fueling in Seronera make sure you have a spare fuel filter handy, just in case.

We managed to get our CADAC gas bottles filled at Manji’s gas, right on the Main Street near the clock tower, adjacent to the Puma station.  You have to pay full price for whatever size bottle it is, regardless of whether it’s partially full or not, and wait till the following morning.   According to a comment on iOverlander you can get it the same day if you first go to the retail location that I mention and then drive the bottles yourself to the depot out of town.  Cost for two 3kg bottles was 35,000 shillings.  Not cheap, but cheaper than buying new bottles.

The 4.2 liter diesel engine remains largely unchanged since it was brought into service in 1990.  The inline 6 generates an underwhelming 129 hp, it has no computers under the hood, it’s under powered, slow, and it’s been said that it’s shudder on shutdown will register on the Richter scale.  But it is also dirt simple, faithfully reliable, parts are widely available and mechanics the across the continent are familiar with it.

It’s unimpressive speed is hardly an issue when on dirt roads, as one can’t drive that fast anyway, and even on tarmac many of the roads in Africa don’t allow for much speed either due to poor road condition, steep inclines and or optimistically sharp corners.  Particularly when loaded one must plan overtaking far ahead of time, and you can forget about passing someone while going uphill, it’s just not going to happen.

To illustrate, on a particularly empty stretch of pretty flat road in South Africa we thought we’d test our 0-60mph time.  So Jenny stopped in the middle of the road, I got the stop watch ready and on the “3, 2, 1, Mark!” she was off…slowly.  The manual says 0-60mph in 30 seconds.  Not much to write home about to begin with, and that is unloaded.  We were in full overland configuration and at 30 seconds I was starting to laugh as the Cruiser gently trundled faster every so slowly gaining speed.  Jenny wound up the revs, mashed through the gears and at 60 seconds I was starting to lose it, marveling at our spectacular slowness.  We made it up to the big 60mph in….90 seconds.  I was laughing so hard I couldn’t tell Jenny how bad it was.  But to the Cruiser’s credit I think there might have been a slight incline, and it’s also possible that Jenny could’ve been more aggressive on the revs and the gear changes, but it’s hard to thrash your new to you engine.  Or maybe it was the altitude?  Yeah…that’s it.  The altitude.

The 70 series is made in many configurations.  We have the 79 double cab pickup.  4 wheel drive, low range gear box, front and rear diff locks, long range (130 liter) fuel tank.  It’s also fitted with a snorkel, not just for those more-daring-than-we-should-be water crossings but also to move the air intake higher off the road, which reduces the amount of dust being sucked into the air filter.  An awning to provide shade in the sun and keep us a bit dryer in rain.  2 full size spare wheels, high lift jack, spade, air compressor, tool kit, first aid kit, 12v fridge, recovery kit, gas cooker and many more accouterments.

The goal of all these numerous extras is to turn the vehicle from a capable 4×4 into something that we will also want to live out of for the duration of our trip.  More details about the vehicle setup in future posts.

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