Dedication

I want to dedicate this post to Stan Weakley, who sadly passed away recently. Stan was a fellow traveler and wrote an extensive blog, Slow Donkey, about his 2015 overland trip to East Africa with his wife Anne. He also wrote of numerous other trips and his enthusiasm for African travel was infectious. Stan and Anne’s travels inspired many to undertake trips of their own and he is greatly missed. Lala salama my friend. Stan’s reports can be found here and here.

To Maun

My last post (it was a while ago) finished in Windhoek, which lies at 1650 meters elevation and made for a chilly morning as we started our day in Urbancamp. Readying ourselves to begin the drive to Botswana we stopped at Deluxe Coffworks on the way out of town to spoil ourselves with delicious coffee and croissants. After all, we had just got the car cleaned so one must break it in by getting flakey pastry crumbs all over the place.

The road east to the border is easy going and the kilometers slipped passed our windows. The dry scrub land and rolling hills that got flatter and flatter as we headed to the border. The Buitepos border crossing is straightforward and we passed through quickly. This border isfrequently used by tourists and the authorities are unfazed by self drive foreigners like ourselves.

Just past the border into Botswana is a weigh bridge, normally used to verify the big lorries are not overladen. On a vehicle like ours overloading one’s vehicle is bad on all fronts, hard on the chassis, suspension, the canopy, fuel economy, and potentially dangerous as it affects stability and braking. Like anyone else we hesitate, cringe a bit and step on the scale once in a while and see how we’re doing. 

I received permission from a somewhat confused attendant who looked on while Jenny drove the Cruiser onto the scale. I went to the booth to check our weight. 3460 kgs. That is a heavy Cruiser and no amount of resisting dessert will solve the problem. More on vehicle weight in the Nitty Gritty.

Some sort of madness came over us on this day and instead of stopping to camp outside Ghanzi as planned we drove all the way to Maun. This gave us a couple low pressure days in Maun before our friends flew in to meet us. I made a “trailer” of our trip, to get you excited.

Maun

Gerry and Ronda are friends from California who had never been to Africa before. Against sound judgement they had entrusted us to plan the safari for them, we would be their “guides” in the loosest sense of the word. They rented a Land Cruiser Bushcamper from Bushlore and we would travel in tandem through the Moremi Game Reserve and Chobe National Park, finishing in Kasane. 

Although we’ve been to Moremi and Chobe before, the crème de la crème of Botswana’s wilderness, we had not been in the prime season. This time we’d be hitting the season just right and we were really looking forward to it.

Before Gerry and Ronda arrived we took a stab at fixing our passenger side window. For weeks (months?) this window had only responded to the command to go up under protest, and even then not consistently. Sometimes we physically push the glass around to get it unjammed. Happily we had obtained the long sought after part, the regulator mechanism, in Windhoek, from Auto Repairs Etzold. Incidentally they now source all their parts from Toyota Japan, as they were having too much trouble with parts availability from Toyota SA. 

Taking the door apart only takes a minute, and we are champs at this, having dismantled the door dozens of times before to try to fix either the window switch (on the driver side a few years ago), unjam the glass or find an unrelenting rattle a while back.

We carry a copy of the Haynes repair manual for the 70 series cruiser, which doesn’t cover our engine, but does cover every other aspect of the vehicle. This handy manual gave us easy to follow instructions on replacing the regulator, though frankly it is pretty simple and I think we could have managed it without the book. About 30 minutes later, voila! A buttery smooth fully functioning window. Luxury and a sense of accomplishment.

With our various looping around Botswana this was my fifth time in Maun since May. Though Maun has a certain dusty charm to it, I was getting a little tired of it and I was antsy to get into the bush. Town was positively bustling compared to when I drove through in May where hardly a tourist was about. Now it was peak tourist season and this being the first year of the pandemic that international travel was really practical people appeared to be making up for lost time.

We did enjoy the excellent food here, with delicious breakfast at the Duck, amazing healthy lunch bowls at the Dusty Donkey and an upmarket dinner at Marc’s. These cafes really stand out, offering a standard that is normally only found in parts of South Africa. Their fresh food and great menus would compete easily with hip cafes in California but are happily much less expensive.

Gerry and Ronda arrived as scheduled. The next day we picked up their vehicle from Bushlore, getting the full orientation on how to use the 4×4 and all the features of the camper. Including a water heater for showers! Gerry is a very experienced driver who has done a lot of amateur racing and he was excited to get off-road.

Provisioning is easy in Maun, and with two vehicles to share some of the load we went a bit crazy stocking up on all the goodies. In one episode we stopped at the butcher to get eggs, much better quality than at the supermarket. When we came out to the Cruiser our hands were full and Jenny set the carton of eggs on the spare tire to free up a hand to unlock the car. We loaded the rest of our stuff inside and just drove away. 

After pulling into traffic we shuddered over a few potholes and a look of panic flashed across Jenny’s face, followed by “Stop!” She remembered she’d left the eggs on the spare tire. To the annoyance of our the drivers behind us we halted in the busy Maun traffic and hopped out of the car to see if by some miracle the eggs had survived balancing on the spare tire. They had! When the driver behind us saw what I retrieved his face went from annoyance to astonishment and then a big smile. 

Before leaving town we took a scenic flight over the delta. I had asked the company a while back about flights and they said just call the day before we want to go. We did this, and they told us they were fully booked, leaving us with only the more expensive helicopter flight option. We discussed with the team and made the splurge.

This was fantastic. Their regular helicopters were all out in the Delta dropping off clients at exclusive lodges and this meant they took us up in the Okavango Air Rescue helicopter which has the doors taken off. Flying in a helo is a very different sensation than an airplane, a slightly wobbly floating feeling, and with the doors off we felt like a bird gazing down upon the wilderness.

From up high the delta looked wet. The pilot had been working here for several years and confirmed that this was about as wet as he’d ever seen it. Later in camp pondered this information soberly as we imagined our fate over the next days exploring the tracks in Moremi, notorious for water crossings. Every year many a vehicle is lost or damaged to a failed water crossing in Moremi.

The view from the air is stunning, it was really wonderful to see huge herds of buffalo grazing in the flood planes, and I particularly enjoyed seeing hippos congregating on shore, nestled together like a handful of grey peanuts. The Okavango is mostly inaccessible wetland and really the only way to see what makes up the majority of the delta is from the air. It really helped put the next days of safari in perspective, where really we would just be nibbling around the edges.

That night Gerry and Ronda got to try their hand at camping in the easy confines of Audi Camp, just north of Maun. Ronda confessed that they hadn’t been camping in decades and there was some trepidation about signing up for this adventure, so a ‘practice’ night before being in the bush was welcomed. 

In the morning they pronounced themselves very happy with their camping setup, it was much nicer than they had anticipated. It was time to head into the bush. 

Into Moremi

To orient the unfamiliar, the Okavango river comes into Botswana from the northwest, originating from a watershed in Angola, passing briefly through Namibia and eventually flowing into Botswana. It is the largest of the very few rivers in the world that never reaches lake nor ocean, instead spreading into the Kalahari desert to form an enormous wetland.

The Okavango Delta is unique in this sense and forms a habitat for large numbers of megafauna. A large part of the Delta is protected, called the Moremi Game Reserve, managed by the Botswana Department Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP). 

Most of the Delta is only accessible by boat or air. Deep into the wetland there are numerous luxury safari lodges where guests must fly in. At the eastern edge of this wetland is an area that is accessible by road, just, and that is were we intend to visit. North of Moremi Game Reserve is Chobe National Park, which includes the Savuti area as well as the riverfront along the Chobe river. The north shore of the Chobe river is Namibia and Zambia.

These areas represent the most trod territory for self drive safaris of anywhere we’ve been on this entire trip. It is common for South Africans to make a sojourn up for a holiday and there are also many 4×4 rental companies catering primarily to Europeans. Itineraries often include some variation of what we’re doing. 

There are only seven public camps (as in, not fancy lodges) within these parks, and each of those has about 10 sites. These are frequently booked months or even more than a year in advance. Even though people drive through here all the time it is still serious wilderness. The camps are unfenced, cars get stuck in water crossings, tires are sacrificed, baboons steal food from camp, and over the years a few unfortunate people have had dangerous or even fatal encounters with wildlife. 

As the tar ran out we stopped to air down the tires. Gerry and Ronda were feeling the anticipation. As an introduction they got their first “African massage” as we drove over the violent corrugations of the B334, huge clouds of white dust being kicked up by our tires. It is not a comfortable stretch of road.

After making the turn the road improves and we started to see some animals. It is wonderful to watch your friends get their first glimpse of wildlife, first a few impala, a lone zebra, and finally a couple elephants. Each time we stopped and our friends had huge smiles on their faces. And we hadn’t even gotten to the park yet. Bushlore had provided handheld radios so we could chat between the vehicles and point out sightings.

At the gate we checked in with ease. We had paid all our park fees at the Maun DWNP office, no messing around with payment was necessary. Our first night was booked at Xakanaxa, about as deep into Moremi as one can go by road. On the way we lucked out and saw a sable antelope with their magnificent scimitar horns, a rare sighting in Botswana. 

Moremi came into its own with wonderful scenes of zebra, impala, elephant and baboon all cavorting about. Gerry and Ronda were amazed and soaking it all in. It added a lot of fun for us that they were getting such a kick out of it. You know your safari friends are easy to please when they didn’t want to move on from the first set of baboons we saw. We are jaded, normally considering baboons as trouble, with their camp raids stealing whatever they can get their hands on and having a tendency to shit in inconvenient places (camp table top, fire pit, hood of the car).

Moremi was indeed wet, much wetter than we’d seen it on our previous visit, but that had been in November after a long dry spell. Now the water was so heigh that many game viewing tracks were inaccessible, including out to the popular dead tree island area. A guide told us “No! Don’t even think about it. We are not going out there either and you will certainly get stuck.” 

Often the advice for water crossings is, “Don’t.” Simply take another track around. But with many tracks already unnavigable our area of exploration was curtailed enough and we did allow a few water crossings that we judged safe. We evaluated them by either seeing fresh tire tracks and wet sand at either end, a sign that the crossing had just been passed by someone else, or we got out to walk the crossing. The first water crossing was a success and it put a grin on Gerry’s face that lasted at least ten minutes.

As for walking water crossings, this must be done with particular care that there are no animals about. I read a story online recently of a fellow that did this and lost a leg to a crocodile in a shallow crossing. This is probably why technically you’re not supposed to get out of your car in the reserve, except at designated spots like picnic sights, gates and campsites. In practice it seems the park staff more tolerant, when it is appropriate, than in other parks.

We checked in at Xakanaxa midday to find our spot. As is so common, there was a double booking for our spot. Both parties had legitimate bookings from Kwalate Safaris. The staff here are pros at untangling this sort of thing which happens all the time. They offered us to either camp right next to the ablutions or in an unofficial spot that is between campsite 8 and 9. We chose the latter, dubbing it Site 8 ½.

This was fairly close to site 9 and we chatted with the campers there, fearing we were intruding. On the contrary they had never camped in an unfenced campsite before and were more comfortable having neighbors close by.

After some lounge time and organizing a boat trip into the Delta for the following day we spent the rest of the afternoon on a proper game drive. It didn’t yield anything extraordinary but was still great fun. All the usual suspects were out, impala, zebra, elephant, buffalo, waterbuck, lechwe, baboons and giraffe, and we got one or two more water crossings while we wandered our way through the maze of tracks south of camp. 

Feeling generous we returned to camp early, so that our friends could settle into camp un-rushed before it got dark. We were rewarded with a spectacular sunset over the wetlands. 

In the morning we got cracking pre-dawn for a proper morning game drive. Gerry, serious about his coffee, brought a hand coffee grinder and Aeropress and was hand grinding coffee by headlamp in the pre dawn darkness. That is dedication! 

It was another fun game drive and we worked the area south of camp towards third bridge, making it as far as fourth bridge before turning around. Again a number of loops were completely swamped. What a contrast to when to our visit in November. It was really special to see the seasonal difference. A guide gave us a tip about a lion sighting, but after much driving around in mopane scrub it proved fruitless.

In the afternoon we made a long boat trip into the Delta. I had some vague recollection of someone saying that it’s not worth going for just two hours, because you just get to the interesting part when you have to turn around. Perhaps this is true, but I also think the boat operators calibrate their speed so that they don’t burn too much fuel, so the extra hours of boating may not directly translate into that much more into the delta. In our case I think we went for three hours and this was more than enough time in the boat for us.

Regardless we saw a good pod of hippos, a very fat nile crocodile and a fairly animated elephant that was not happy about our presence. Jenny and I did a boat trip from Xakanaxa in November and we both thought we saw quite a bit more on that trip, particularly bird life. It comes down to luck I suppose? 

The Xakanaxa campsite is wonderful. The sites are all stretched along the water and there is almost always good birdlife. Elephants had been wandering through camp but thankfully left us alone. The camps out towards the end are definitely far enough from the ablutions that one wonders whether walking for a shower at dusk is really that wise. For the most part we take care of that stuff during daylight. 

From Xakanaxa we were off to Khwai Magotho camp. This is 70 kilometers away, which doesn’t sound like a long drive but considering it is almost all sandy tracks in the park, barring a little bit of corrugated gravel through Khwai village. On the way towards the Khwai gate we saw a huge amount of tracks on the road, including what must have been a large pride of lions. Gerry and Ronda were starting to appreciate our excitement over tracks a bit and we doubled back a couple times looking for the pride. No luck, and I was starting to get a little stressed about delivering the big game for our friends.

Dombo HIppo Pools made for a great stop to make a second coffee and do a little bird watching and pick out a few hippos and crocs in the distance from the rickety hide. And here we heard about some wild dogs. 

Off we went, following the typical guidance of “They’re a few kilometers up where the track branches sitting by a tree…” Famous last words, for the track branches a dozen times and there are trees everywhere, but miraculously we did find them. A half dozen or so wild dogs sleeping in the shade. They perked up enough at our arrival that we could get a good look at them, but they clearly weren’t going to be up for hours, sleeping through the midday heat. It was great to be able to show our friends these endangered animals.

Onward we went to Khwai Magotho. We had never been to this particular spot before, which is a community run concession on the north bank of the Khwai river, with the national park on the south bank. We zigged and zagged our way through narrow tracks and made a couple small water crossings to drive along the riverfront to the campsite. 

The campsites are all spread out over quite a large area, none particularly close to another. It wasn’t clear to us where we were supposed to check in, but we ran into one of the camp staff making his rounds. He directed not only to our camp but also to a pair of leopards.

This was a welcome surprise and off we went in search of leopards. Reportedly they were on an impala kill, so they weren’t likely to have moved. After a bit of hunting around we found them, deep inside a thicket. We had actually already driven by this same spot on our way in, but the cats were deeply camouflaged and without the tip off we had missed them.

When we showed up there was one other car looking at them, but after we settled in quite a crowd developed and there was much jockeying for position in tight quarters. The leopards didn’t seem to take offense, but eventually we felt it too crowded and left.

Khwai Mogotho has a different feel than the national park that is just on the opposite bank of the river. The difference is mostly because on the Mogotho side the campsites are dispersed throughout the concession. This is nice in one way, in that the camps are spaced a hundred meters apart or more, but odd in the sense that when we drove around I sort of felt like we were always driving close to someone’s campsite, an unavoidable intrusion given the layout of the roads.

We were initially assigned campsite 12, quite away back from the river. This spot, like most at Mogotho, is quite far from the ablutions. We did walk during the day a few times, but it felt like a stretch and at other times we drove. During the night it was definitely unsafeto walk.

After the first night we managed to get an unoccupied space right on the river and we spent two nights there enjoying a wonderful view. Elephants grazed on the bank, waterbuck tiptoed through the shallows and life in the bush was excellent. 

One day I baked bread on the fire in the dutch oven. We don’t do this often because the timing requires the bread to proof for a few hours in the afternoon and doesn’t like to be jostled about in the vehicle. This time I left the bread proofing in the shade, in the dutch oven with a wet towel draped over it to keep it from getting too warm. To protect it from baboons or other scavengers I strapped the lid through the handles and synched it down tight so animals would, hopefully, not be able to get the pot open. Such are the struggles of the bush baker. This worked very well and we were rewarded with fresh bread with dinner.

Another interesting sighting at Khwai was a dead elephant in the river. The classic line from The Endless Summer, “You should’ve been here yesterday,” applies. Apparently a pride of 12 lions was feeding on the elephant carcass, but crocodiles from the river were also interested and a fight between crocs and lions ensued. Sadly we missed this NatGeo episode, though we did see crocodiles still grappling with the puzzle of how to get their jaws around the massive prize of an elephant carcass. 

From Mogotho we moved north to Savuti. We only managed to get a single night booking here, so it would be a stepping stone on our way north. Just past the Mababe gate, where we officially passed into Chobe National Park, we took the marsh road north and stopped at a watering hole. Just as we were about to move on we spotted a lion, perfectly camouflaged by her sandy coat. She kept looking up, out at something and lo, we spotted a large male in the distance that was guarding another elephant carcass. 

Full grown elephants are too big for lions to kill so in this case, and that of the one at the river, I feel confident that these elephants died by other means and the lions were feeding opportunistically. A few moments later a hyena came loping out of the bush and made a few furtive approaches towards the elephant, but each time the male lion ran him off. Watching different species interact, particularly predators, makes for a special sighting.

Moving north, worried about time, we joined the faster sand ridge road which was indeed very sandy. With the tires deflated we churned north well enough. Part way along we found a car with a trailer of provisions for one of the camps that was bogged in the sand. We stopped to help them out, rigging up a simple tow strap. Jerry and Ronda got the full experience of helping out a fellow traveler, as many have helped us, and we managed to pull them out without drama.

At the Savuti campsite we checked in and found our spot, settling in for an afternoon break from the long drive from Khwai. 

After so many months on the road traveling alone it was a real pleasure to travel in tandem with Gerry and Ronda. Of course we meet and talk to people all the time, but in almost all of those interactions it’s the first time we’ve met those people and will also probably be the last. Traveling with friends has a certain depth and we enjoyed our evenings around the fire that much more as we rehashed the day’s experiences. Part II of Friend safari is next. Savuti, Thobolos, Ihaha, Kasane and Victoria Falls.

The Nitty Gritty

Maun Provisioning Notes:

Even though we’ve been to Maun several times we still haven’t settled on the best spot for provisioning. There is a new mall with a shiny new Spar on the north end of town, but even though it is bigger than the old Spar in town it wasn’t as well stocked. We’ve also tried the Shopright, which we find good in other towns but the Maun edition is lackluster. Maun is oddly lacking in the fresh produce and fruit department, especially when compared to Namibia where the stock has much more variety and higher quality. If pressed I would say the old Spar is the place to go.

Also Meat Boys, by the Riley’s Garage, has meat (of course) but also higher quality eggs than the supermarket, as well as a few other hard to find odds and ends such as rice noodles, curry paste and good biltong. 

Meat Boys will also deep freeze whatever you want ahead of time if you call ahead. This is nice because you can even have it portioned per meal, so you don’t have to thaw too much of any one thing. For this trip we were traveling with one of the rarest species in Africa, vegetarians, so this particular service was not required.

A note on weight and GVM

The max GVM on our license disc is 3200 kgs, so the stop at the weigh bridge confirmed what we already knew, we were officially overloaded. On the brighter side the makers of our upgraded suspension, Old Man Emu (OME), sell a GVM upgrade for this vehicle that would put us back in the green. We don’t have the official GVM upgrade (not available on used vehicles or, as far as I know, in South Africa), but as near as I can tell our upgrade has all the same components, it just doesn’t come with the official certificate. This doesn’t mean that our weight isn’t hard on the vehicle, but it does mean that we are far safer than we would be if we were overloaded and still on the stock suspension.

Khwai Mogotho vs. Khwai Nortgate

Confusingly there are two Khwai camps. One is called “Khwai North Gate” and likes on the south bank of the Khwai river, inside the Moremi Game Reserve. The second is Khwai Mogotho” which lies on the north bank of the river and in a concession held by the community in the Khwai Development Trust. 

Camping at North Gate is more expensive, not only in price, but because you’re inside the reserve still you pay for camping as well as reserve fees. The North Gate campsite is more compact, with the reserve extending around the camp. When you leave camp here you are in the wilderness with camps and lodges few and far between, constrained to very limited areas.

At Mogotho the campsites are spread apart so far that you almost feel you’ve never left the camp site. In truth I suppose that maybe 30% of the area has campsites here and there, but this is some of the prime wildlife viewing area, meaning there are vehicles game driving back and forth most of the time, either past your camp or we felt we were intruding a bit on others by driving close to their campsite so often. It is however a congenial atmosphere and everyone seems good natured about it. 

Tour operators are allowed to set up substantially sized mobile safari camps and this too can be a little obtrusive, with supply and staff vehicles going to and fro adding to the traffic. At our originally assigned campsite the noise of staff setting up a large mobile safari camp went long after dark.

We would certainly stay at Mogotho again, particularly given the cost savings of the park fees, but I don’t think it gets a 100% unequivocal endorsement. DWNP recently changed the fee rules so that you have to pay on the day you exit a park and the day you enter. This means most are paying twice when traveling the popular route from Moremi to Savuti campsite in Chobe National Park. Breaking the trip at Mogotho for at least one night is an excellent way to avoid double payment on one day and spend an extra day in the bush.

Fess: 

Khwai North Gate: International is $50 pppn for camping + 270 Pula pppd meaning a single night at Khwai North Gate is $50 + 540P (~$45 USD depending on exchange rate) = $95 USD pppn to stay at North Gate, since you have to pay the park fee for the both dates. Rates for SADC and Botswana residents are cheaper and can be found here and official DWNP fees are here.

Khwai Mogotho on the other hand is much less expensive, at 360 pppn (350 + levy), with no other fees, working out to $27 pppn, and no other fees. Quite a savings! 

There are some good maps and info about the Khwai Development Trust here.

When we started to lose track of how many days we’d been camping at Kembu Cottages that seemed like it was a good indicator that we should get going. The next stop was the Masai Mara. In 2018 we visited the Mara and we were looking forward to returning. Andrew Nightengale, the owner of Kembu, consulted on our route and we settled on taking the C37 through Narok. 

With laundry done, the vehicle serviced and cleaned, provisions loaded and relaxing done we could think of no more reasons to delay. At the turn of the key the Cruiser’s straight six diesel rumbled to life, eager to get going.

The road was in great shape and my coffee was tasting especially delicious. As we drove towards the wilderness through the cool climes of the Mau highlands we were happy. 

The road between the towns of Mau Narok and Narok is brand new tar and was very easy going. It’s not quite finished in a few places but importantly they have not yet had time to put in all the speed bumps. What luxury. There was also no traffic and I couldn’t wrap my head around why there was this new beautiful road and nobody driving on it.

As we sailed along the crisp highlands we looked out at vistas of farms blanketing the hillsides. We also put on an appropriate podcast, Radiolab’s episode on the Mau Mau rebellion. Some archives have been recently declassified in England and lead to new information about the Mau Mau and this made for good listening as we trundled our way to the Mara.

In the busy hub of Narok we topped up on fuel, but we were otherwise ready for the bush so we kept going. The road from here isn’t quite the empty pristine tarmac we were on before, but it’s still pretty dang good and we continued our fast passage. 

This brought us to the Sekakani gate of the Maasai Mara National Reserve. Here we explained that we were staying in the Triangle and they gave us a two hour transit pass for free. We would pay our fees at the Mara Bridge, the entrance to the Conservancy side of the Masai Mara. These little details, knowing that such a pass exists (thanks Andrew Nightengale), are the tidbits that make it practical to travel here without a guide. 

The Mara greeted us warmly, zebras and impala were grazing not far into the reserve and the grass was fresh and bright. Puffy cumulous clouds were forming, that looked nice now but brought with them a concern of thundershowers. It had clearly been raining recently, the hills were a carpet of green grass.

It was about an hour and a half drive to the Triangle side of the reserve, so we did stop for a little game viewing, but there was no time to take any divergent tracks. Still we saw good birdlife, elephant and many antelope and warthogs, all looking fat, sleek and happy with the good grazing on offer.

At the Mara Bridge we crossed into the Triangle. There is a small parking area, picnic site and ablutions here. Since it was midday we saw no need to rush and we had our lunch first, to delay our ticketing time as long as possible. This would allow us extra hours on the last day we had to head out of the park, as permits here follow the common East Africa rule of permits being valid for 24hrs from the time of entry.

Often we are advised to hire a guide when entering game parks. It is easy to pickup a ranger or freelance guide for the day, for $10 or $20 dollars, and many have excellent success with this. On this day at the Mara Bridge there was a guide who couldn’t pay his client’s entry fees, because he’d only brought cash. In the Masai Mara they only accept Mpesa or credit card, and he had neither, and he and his clients were at something of an impasse. We ended up paying his fees for him on our credit card and he gave us a useful top up of USD, so all was well in the end. I share this just to say that hiring a guide does not necessarily save you from all travel snafus.

In our 2018 visit to the Maasai Mara we had stayed at the Eluai camp, more or less centered in the Triangle side of the park. At the time this was a bush camp with no facilities and it suited us just fine, so when we checked in we paid for three nights at the same campsite. 

The game sightings had been very good on our last visit and we had the general lay of the land. There is something about visiting a place when it doesn’t feel like a “once in a lifetime” chance that takes the pressure off, and less pressure makes it easier to enjoy.

The campsite was nicer than our last visit, with the grass trimmed back a bit. There also two long drop toilets and a shower enclosure (bring your own water) tucked back into the bushes behind the camp. They are very inconspicuous and the site still has a bush feel to it, it’s still unfenced wild camping and a great view of the plains below.

We spent the afternoon exploring the riverfront and we had a diversity of sightings, including two lionesses, hyena, black backed jackal, topi, warthogs, buffalo, elephant, impala, hippos and giraffe. The birds were also happy with all the rain, flitting and flying about all over the place. In particular the pin tailed wydahs were in abundance, the males hauling around their ridiculously long tail feathers. Long crested eagles also abounded.

Right at the end of the day we had the good luck to see a serval and cub in the grass, not far from camp. Rain came in the evening and we had a relatively subdued night, cooking on our stove and retiring early to prepare for an early start the next day. 

Over the next days we continued with our usual park routine, making morning and afternoon game drives with a little chill time in the midday. Rain came every day, and one day in particular it was very heavy. It was interesting to see the herds of elephants disappearing in the rain squalls.

Lions made an appearance everyday for us. Once we saw two big males on a buffalo kill, but they had long since had their fill and were sleeping off their fest. 

On another lion sighting we took advantage of the Masai Mara’s unique allowance to drive off-road for big cat sightings. Here we found four young males feeding on a buffalo calf. The dominant male munched away for 45 minutes or so while the other three lions dozed in the grass. When the dominant male finally had his fill the other three sprang with lighting speed from their formerly relaxed state to pounce on the remains, having waited for their turn to feed. One was too slow and got nothing. While all this was happening a few hyenas and black backed jackals patrolled a radius of the kill, hoping for some scraps, but this kill wasn’t big enough to leave them leftovers.

A rhino was sighted in the north of the park and we made our way to the scene. It was at the top of a rise and the track to get up there was thick deep mud. We would have never had attempted it if we didn’t see some lodge vehicles up there already. The Honey Badger acquitted itself well, bouncing and churning up the muddy track to the top of the rise, but by the time we arrived the rhino had disappeared into the bush. Unfortunately we didn’t get any more opportunities for rhino, but as a small consolation the guided lodge vehicles weren’t having any luck on that front either so at least we weren’t being left out.

One evening in camp as it was getting on towards dusk a Land Cruiser showed up and started unpacking. It looked like we’d have neighbors. After a little while the Land Cruiser drove away, leaving three young women with some lightweight mountaineering style tents and nothing else.

We invited them to share our fire and they explained their story. They work for the UN and were on a one night marathon trip to the Mara from Nairobi. It turned out that their guide hadn’t realized that they planned on camping and so he had no camping kit for himself. He dropped his guests off and went to stay at the guide quarters of a nearby lodge.

They had only a few snacks they’d bought at the supermarket, but no cooking kit, no chairs, hardly any water, and no flashlights or headlamps. They were just using their phones for light. We were incredulous, but had a great time chatting with two of them around the fire and sharing some of our dinner with them. The third was too scared to get out of her tent. 

When they finally went off to sleep Jenny noticed they accidentally left some of their food in the camp chair we loaned them, which included a pack of salami. Jenny returned it to them, but it wasn’t until the next morning that we pondered the wisdom of giving them meat to keep in their ground tent with all the wild animals about. They survived and we had a good laugh about  it. 

That night we had lots of wildlife around the camp. We could hear the grunting of buffalos, lions in the distance and the hippos were particularly vocal too. Our neighbors certainly got a good bush experience for only having a single night to spend.

All in all our Masai Mara stay was lovely, but a little damp with all the rain. Even the animals seemed a bit subdued. The scenery was glorious, it was something to see big thunderheads moving across the sky and dense squalls bring dark grey sheets of rain across the park. 

Heading north from the Masai Mara there aren’t any headliner destinations within a reasonable days drive, so at the advice of a veteran we headed to Kericho. This would make a good stop to points beyond. It’s about a five hour drive from the gate, not including the hour or so we took the wrong road and had to back track. This brought us through lush green countryside full of small villages and farms. In the small town of Kilgoris we bought a big stack of fresh chipatis, still hot. We feasted on these treats, delicious with perfect stretch and flaky layers to them.

Kericho is tea growing country and as we got closer we began driving through picture perfect hills of tea estates. The tea is grown in hedges that are packed close together, giving the appearance of huge blocks of technicolor green foliage. The thin rows between the bushes that the pickers walk are obscured by the fresh green growth. It’s very attractive country. 

Our camp for the night was at a place called “Ray’s Place,” a tea farm that has some rooms, a restaurant and a small campsite on trimmed green grass. Arriving we saw there was a ‘big rig’ camper in the campsite already, and funny enough we’d seen this one in Zambia months earlier. 

As we got settled in was clear rain was imminent, we grabbed our books and retired to a covered area that looked like it was sometimes used by the restaurant. 

The rain began and  it came down very hard. The drops slamming into the tin roof of our shelter were incredibly loud. It seemed to settle in for a while, a proper tropical downpour. It even hailed for a few minutes and little rocky ice pellets collected on the lawn.

It was impossible for us cook in these conditions so we settled on a dinner of cheese, crackers and veggies. It was raining so hard that even collecting this without getting everything soaked was going to be a challenge. We waited for a break in the weather, with the plan to eat in the tent.

The rain slacked off for a moment and we jumped into action. Jenny, the food, the boxed wine and my laptop all made it into the tent. I decided to pump my bilges before getting trapped in the tent for a while. This was a mistake, as while I was in the ablution block the rain came back with a vengeance and I got stuck there instead. The Cruiser was maybe 10 meters away and I could see it out the window, but there was no way to get into the tent without letting in gallons of rain at the same time. I will grant that this is a flaw with this type of roof top tent. Any ads for AluCab saying it’s an ‘all weather tent’ are not quite honest about the whole picture.

Lighting came too, violently. It reminded me of the big storm we’d gone through in Busanga Plains in November. The lighting was coming down fast, the thunder was tremendously loud and the rain was hammering on the tin roof of the ablution block so hard that I put my fingers in the ears, wishing for my ear plugs. 

Amusingly Jenny and I were able to WhatsApp each other, and she was holding up okay in the tent as it was buffeted about in the wind. The lighting was viciously close, and the thunder rippled and rolled loudly. Thankfully the campsite was on a slope, but even with the good drainage there was inches of water running under the cruiser. Finally there was a brief respite and I tumbled into the tent. We enjoyed an unconventional dinner, listened to the rain and watched the first movie we’d seen in months on my laptop.

The next morning we chatted with our big rig neighbors and we told them that we were envious of their spacious quarters during the rain. Interestingly they said we shouldn’t be, it leaked like a sieve last night! It turns out the vehicle wasn’t theirs, they had rented it from their neighbors in Denmark for just a few weeks and they hadn’t been in such heavy rain before. 

Unfortunately the forecast was for more of the same. Our original plan had been to drive up to Kakamega Forest, but after now four days of getting pretty wet and the thundershowers slated to continue we aborted that plan. We chatted with a guide at Ray’s and he confirmed that a scenic route to Lake Baringo was feasible in one day. That became the new plan.

The scenic route is almost twice as long as a direct drive there, but now the entire stretch is tarred and reportedly the going is easy. The route, if you want to follow on a map, was Karicho – Eldoret – Iten – Kabernet – Marigat – Baringo. 

The drive from Ray’s Place to Iten was uneventful. This was on the fringe of my old stomping grounds when I worked in Kenya back in 2009, we used to come to Eldoret on occasion. At the time the NGO I worked for also had a satellite project in Marigat. Though I had dispatched supplies, Land Cruisers and staff there I had never been myself.

Iten greeted us with a banner over the road, “The Home of Champions”. This is because Iten is the center of the Kalenjin tribe, who hold more records in running than anyone else. Ever. Anywhere. How this came to be is something of a not totally solved mystery. When we left Kericho this morning we listened to an old Radiolab podcast, Cut and Run, which details the ins and outs of the Kenyan runners excellence, it’s really worth a listen. 

It’s just nuts how good at running they are. For example, by 2013 there were 17 American men in history who have run under 2:10 in the marathon, but there were 32 Kalenjin who did it in October of 2011 alone.

From Iten we turned and stopped at the viewpoint above the Kerio valley. Here there are a few shops selling drinks and snacks and nice tables with fantastic views. Slightly disappointing was the persistent haze obscuring the view, but we could still see the outline of the opposite ridge, and looking along the escarpment the cliffs fading blue into the distance. The tidy square and rectangular outlines of shambas, small subsistence farms, painted an attractive quilt on the hillsides and ridges that dropped precipitously away from us into the valley. 

After a simple lunch at the viewpoint we hopped back on the road, which also dropped precipitouslydown the escarpment. We were in low gear, engine braking most of the way. We stopped at another viewpoint and still we could smell the brakes, having dropped almost a thousand meters of elevation in not so many kilometers. 

Here a half dozen women surrounded us, offering mangos for sale of various shapes and sizes. We were a little low on freshies and decided to buy some fruit. Herein lies a daily conundrum of traveling here. Who to buy from? How much to pay? I suspect the prices were elevated on our behalf, but not so much. A large bowl of multiple fat mangos was 200 KSH, just under $2USD. Jenny selected a bowl from a woman wearing a t-shirt saying “beast squad.” 

At another viewpoint further down I pulled over again. This one had a couple enjoying the view and a solitary old man in a suit jacket, but thankfully no vendors. We got out and I snapped a few photos of the hazy hills below. In the meantime Mr. Suit Jacket approached Jenny and began to offer some weak introductions to the viewpoint, a lead up to asking for money. While I took a few more photos he pointed out that he was suffering greatly from both elephantiasis, as evidenced by his enlarged feet, and leprosy, as evidenced by the shedding from the same disfigured feet. It wasn’t a pretty sight and both Jenny and I felt sympathy for the man. 

At the same time, we didn’t give him money and we cut short our stop at the viewpoint, getting back in the vehicle while saying apologies and getting on our way. I regretted not giving the man something, clearly the need was real, but we had defaulted to our normal practice “don’t give money to beggars.” We reflected on this for quite a while. Maybe it’s something of a cop out to say, “we donate money to various charities, therefore this relieves us of giving money directly to those in need.” I think going forward in some instances I will soften my stance in the future.

From here we continued our scenic drive, across the floor of the valley, through than many twisting turns of Kabernet and then into the village of Marigat. 

Marigat is the largest town on Lake Baringo, but the access to the lake is a bit further north. When we arrived at the lakeshore we confirmed what we had read online, that the old standby and well loved campsite of Robert’s Camp had closed. The lodge and campsite is completely flooded and derelict now.

Many East African lakes, and Kenya’s in particular, have flooded significantly in the last decade. This has been a slow motion disaster, displacing whole villages, flooding schools and farms and everything else. Lake Baringo has risen something like 15 meters, and then receded two. This has caused the lake shore to come up to three kilometers inland in some areas, and about  800m inland at Roberts Camp, thus its loss. It has been devastating for the local community. 

Explanations for this relatively rapid rise in lake level are varied. Climate change. Geologic shifting causing new underground springs to feed the lakes. And more. Here are two great articles on the topic if you are interested from the Guardian and Quartz Africa.

Across the road we found the Bush Baby campsite, run by one of Robert’s Camp former employees. Here they are recreating Roberts Camp in a way, and we were welcomed.

We settled into the Bush Baby campsite enjoyed a cold beer after our day on the road. For dinner we reheated leftover chicken Thai curry we’d made a couple days before. A couple cats came over to beg for food. I am not a fan of cats, though Jenny likes to point out my inconsistent feelings, that I like the big cats, lions and leopards, but domestic cats I distain. 

It’s hot in Baringo and we enjoyed cool showers before retiring to the tent. The next day we booked a boat trip on the lake, famous for its birding. The world record for the number of birds seen in 24 hours (three hundred something) was made here. 

We can’t claim to be quite so dedicated at birding, but I was looking forward to a morning out on the lake. Luka, the owner of Bush Baby, introduced us to our boatman and we just walked across the road to the boat launch. The remnants of Robert’s Camp is now being used as a place to store and launch a few boats, tucked between thick stands of dead flooded trees and a few dilapidated half flooded buildings.

With flat morning light and haze on the lake, combined with all the dead trees it was a bit dystopian in feel. 

It was warm and calm and the boat sliced through the water easily, it was wonderful to be on the water. Our boatman knew his birds and we ticked off many, though most species we had seen before. For whatever devastation the flooding had on the community it didn’t seem to affect the birds, if anything they were happier. Herons, egrets, weavers, kingfishers and bee eaters all abounded. 

The boatman wove us between the dead trees, indicating when we floated over the old reception office of Robert’s Camp and pointed out bird species as we went. He also took us by the enormous Soi Safari Lodge, now completely derelict due to flooding. He said he had used to work there before it was forced to close, and that unemployment in the community was much higher because of the flooding. 

He brought us out the one of the islands in the middle of the lake and we saw huge numbers of pied kingfishers. Once a dozen in one tree. Here he brought the boat close into shore to pick up some driftwood, which turned out to be the highly buoyant balsa wood. He also bought a few small fish from fisherman out on the lake.

With these ingredients he cut a small piece of balsa wood and inserted it into the belly of the fish. Then he whistled loudly several times, and a fish eagle appeared on a tree on shore. He gave another loud whistle and threw the fish out in the water. 

The balsa kept the dead fish floating, and the fish eagle swooped down impressively close so we could take pictures. This practice seems somewhat questionable, interfering with wildlife and so forth, but it is longstanding practice here and was certainly impressive. 

Crocodiles also inhabit the lake, but they are small and he said present no danger to swimmers. We were not confident enough to test this theory, and anyway, swimming among the dead snags of the lakeshore held no appeal.

After the boat trip we lazily whiled away the afternoon. Serious birders also take a walking excursion along the cliffs behind the village, to see the cliff and land dwelling species, but we were satisfied. Amazingly it rained here too. In parched Baringo this is very unusual this time of year, but it was short lived and served to cool things down a bit. 

Sadly Island Camp, the lodge out on Ol Kokwe Island, had closed during Covid and had just reopened, but not to day visitors. We had hoped to enjoy their well reviewed restaurant and pool, but not this time around. 

We enjoyed our stop at Lake Baringo, a sort of understated attraction. At the same time one can’t help but see the flooding as a massive hit to the tourism here and it made us wonder if those remaining can hold out. The dead trees and lack of lakeshore do detract from the atmosphere. 

Tomorrow we would head out on another scenic drive, over the Kito and Marich passes. I had been in contact with Richard Barnley, of Barnley’s Guesthouse, and he confirmed that the road and security conditions should be okay. I was looking forward to seeing some remote parts of the Kerio Valley and driving the scenic Marich Pass.

The Nitty Gritty

Kembu Cottages to Sekakani Gate – 195km, 3h 35m

Sekakani Gate to Mara Bridge – 41 km, 1h 22m

The Masai Mara Background

The Maasai Mara is roughly 1500 sq km in size, but is confusingly divided into to two parts, roughly 2/3rds and 1/3rd, with the dividing line being the Mara River. The Maasai Mara National Reserve is the eastern portion, the Mara Conservancy is the western portion. To confuse things further, the Conservancy side is often simply referred to as, “the Triangle” due to its triangular shape. The eastern boundary of the Triangle is formed by the Mara river, the southern boundary by the Tanzanian border, the western boundary by the Siria escarpment.

The entirety of the Maasai Mara protected areas (the Reserve, the Triangle and a number of adjacent protected areas that are the next tier lower in the level of protection provided to animals) abuts the northern boundary of Tanzania’s Serengeti, making one very large contiguous ecosystem for animals to move about freely within. In this ecosystem there are numerous geographic barriers that only motivated animals will cross, such as the Siria escarpment or the forbidding landscape of Natron, and other boundaries are formed by settlements and farms. This means that even though the area is almost entirely unfenced that the bulk of the wildlife, mostly, stays within the protected areas. 

Travel between the Serengeti and the Maasai Mara used to be allowed many years ago, via the Sand River border post, but this is long closed. Anyone wanting to travel from one park to the other must go the long way around, the least bad way is exiting the Mara at the Oloololo gate, crossing the Isibania border, and then driving to one of the western Serengeti gates, or visa versa. This is a two day drive for all but the most motivated, but it does at least give you an opportunity to provision and fuel while you are out of the park.

Back to the Mara. The Reserve and the Triangle are managed by different entities, but the park is contiguous and fees paid on one side allow you use on the other side. Entry fees are the same on both sides. We’ve been to the Maasai Mara before and visited both sides, but predominately spent our time in the Triangle. We found the Triangle to have excellent game viewing, well maintained roads, and importantly you can camp within the park. On the Reserve side the only public campsite, Sand River, was closed some five-ish years ago and now you have to camp outside the gate. Rumors of the reopening of the Sand River campsite persist, but for the time being they are just rumors. 

On top of all that we found the Reserve side to be less organized and professional, and last time we witnessed animals swarmed by vehicles at sightings. On the Triangle side they allow a maximum of five vehicles at a sighting and if there are more than five they limit sightings to 10 minutes, so everyone gets a turn. The final cherry on top in the Triangle is that they allow off road driving for cat sightings if you are not in the high use area. This well policed privilege allows really great sightings of animals that would otherwise be out of view. 

Campsites in the Triangle

There are three campsites in the Triangle, the Oloololo Campsite, near the Oloololo Gate, Eluai near the middle of the park and Iseiya, noted as Serena on T4A. 

Oloololo has the most facilities and a very nice view, but is near the gate and staff quarters, so there is more traffic. 

Eluai until recently was a special campsite with no facilities, and is still marked, incorrectly, on the Mara Triangles own map. It is now a public campsite, but until just the last couple months had no ablutions of any kind. Now it has a basic toilet and shower enclosure, you must supply the water.  Somewhat humorously, but also inconveniently, the builders of these new ablutions used the wrong kind of toilet. It’s a squat toilet, but normally when you build a latrine as a squat toilet with no water it is just a keyhole shape in the floor to the long drop hole below. In this case they used the a porcelain squat toilet that is intended to flush, but as there is no water, any thing that doesn’t manage to go down the hole just sits there. So, uh, not super practical.

Eluai is on a rise and has a good view in the distance, but there is no shade. 

Iseiya/Serena is nearby Eluai and has no view and is tucked into the forest. It has a long drop but no other facilities. It’s fairly tight in there, with not much flat spaceif you on using a roof top tent. There is no view at all, but good shade. So to each their own for campsites. They are all good in their own way, all unfenced, and all wild. 

The Mara Conservancies website is a wealth of information: https://www.maratriangle.org/home In particular their monthly reports provide detailed insight on anti poaching and other trials of conservation.

Special Campsites require a booking fee, I think of 1000 Kenyan Shillings for individuals, roughly 100 USD. This is regardless of how many in the party or how long you stay (or perhaps it’s per week?), so this amortizes well if you have more in your group or stay longer. 

Entry fees are $70 USD pppd (24 hr rule), camping is $30 pppn, vehicle fee is…400 shillings? Payment is by credit card or Mpesa only, no cash. 

Firewood can be purchased from the park staff at Oloololo gate or Mara Bridge, but they have a monopoly on the market and it’s expensive. We paid an exorbitant 1500 shillings for an admittedly huge pile of wood. So did another set of campers we met. I suspect you could bargain down to 1000, but we didn’t.

Fuel is usually available at the Serena lodge in the park. There is also fuel outside the Sekakani gate, in a modest fuel station of unknown quality, and the same for outside the Oloolo gate. So you’re unlikely to run out of fuel, but those are not large fuel stations so the quality is suspect. 

If you are headed to the Triangle from the east, as we did, ask for a transit pass at the gate. They’ll give you a free two hour pass to get to the Mara Bridge, where you can pay your entry fees by credit card. 

Andrew Nightengale strongly advised us not to use the C13 to drive to the Oloololo gate, he said it’s in terrible condition and is a miserable drive.

There is a Naivas supermarket, as well as many other shops, in Narok, if you need to provision. On the Oloololo side there isn’t much for stocking up, your best bet might be Lolgorien, but it will be more modest pickings.

When leaving from the Oloololo gate there are two roads marked C17 on T4A. The eastern one was not passable and we had to double back. The “correct” one the western one, shown in the screen shot below.

To Kericho: 175km, 5h13m including a stop for a car wash.

Lake Baringo

The drive from Ray’s to Baringo via Eldoret – Iten – Kabernet – Marigat is not the efficient way to go. It would be better to break this up, either by camping at Kakamega or maybe at the Naiberi Overland Campsite outside Eldoret (if it’s still open). The drive from Iten down the escarpment is beautiful and I think well worth the diversion. It would be double excellent if you were motorcycling, I imagine.

Bush Baby campsite was 800 KSH pppn, well worth it. The ablutions were clean and new, the shower is cold, but in the hot weather of Baringo this is no issue. The campsite has rubbish bins, a device charging station and a couple picnic tables. There is a basic restaurant and cottages under construction. Shade is pretty good, and they have planted many new trees that will add to that. There is a water tap with water from a borehole. The only negative is the campsite is fairly close to the road, so there is some road noise, though not at night. Also we had some kids staring at us from the road, but that was no great hardship, they were friendly. As the foliage grows in it will become more private. 

January 21st – 27th, 2022

A lion serenaded us most of the night at Lake Jipe Safari Lodge, which is located just outside Tsavo West Nation Park. In the morning we rose and had a slow start, making a nice breakfast and getting ready to head into the park. All the Kenyan parks also operate on the “24 hour rule”, meaning that your entry fees are good for 24 hours. We didn’t want to check in too early, and be forced to rush out of the park when we left in a couple days.

Eventually we got rolling. The skies remained overcast, and Kilimajaro remained stubbornly hidden. Though Tsavo is further away from Kili than we’ve been the last few days, we hear there are still good views of the mountain. Not so this morning. 

We checked in at the gate and were able to pay our fees by credit card, as you can at almost all Kenyan National Parks. I emailed the Kenyan Wildlife Service  (KWS) to ask where you can’t pay by credit card and received a response, “You can pay by credit card at most park gates.” Not that helpful, because any park that is not “most” will present a problem. Cash payment isn’t allowed at most parks, a policy made to curb corruption. But if credit cards aren’t accepted then this presents a problem, particularly for foreigners. Locals use Mpesa, mobile money, to send payments form their phones. Tourists have a hard time with this as the only way to load Mpesa as a tourist is with cash. When we’re talking park fees, that is quite a a bit of cash and it’s not all that practical, better to use a credit card if possible. 

After we checked in we were off, planning to make an all day game drive to the more popular and reportedly more game dense area in the north of the park. Both Tsavo West and Tsavo East are enormous parks, sharing a long boundary formed by the Mombassa Highway. At the gate the ranger suggested we drive across the southern portion of the park to the Maktau gate, checking out and then back in to head north. However there is a lesser track, thus more alluring, that leads up the spine of the park and we thought we’d try that out. 

There is a certain heightened anticipation when one heads into a new park. There are so many unknowns. Will we have good sightings, will the roads be as mapped, will the campsite be a nice place to be? This suspense is fun and we embrace the exploratory feeling, but you can’t help but hold up new parks to previous experiences. What we are finding about Kenya is so far everything is wonderfully varied. Kimana was very different than Amboseli, and Amboseli nothing like Tsavo. Reportedly Tsavo East and West are also not similar at all, despite lying adjacent to each other.

Tsavo West welcomed us with attractive red earth tracks, beautiful pallets of green and wide open vistas. There aren’t many trees in the southern part of the park, but the acacias we could see looked very healthy with dark green leaves. Then there are shrubs spotted evenly around, bright green from recent rain. The grass was a wonderful pale lime green with a bit of yellow, and together the whole ensemble contrasted against the red dirt roads was enthralling.

Even though the southern part of the park is much less visited we started seeing wildlife right away. It reminded me a bit of the Kalahari in Botswana, where game is often not dense, but persistent. Quickly we spotted our first Besia Oryx, which looks a lot like an Oryx (gemsbok) from Southern Africa, except a bit smaller and a little more tan in color with slightly smaller horns. Also, we saw our first of many European Rollers which abounded throughout both Tsavo West and East, but refused to roost where there was good lighting for a photograph.

Further along we began to see zebras, giraffes, warthogs, Coke’s hartebeest, gazelles and impalas. Perhaps wildlife wasn’t so sparse down here after all. We kept seeing groups of animals, all the different species hanging in loose groupings together, grazing and browsing amongst the greenery. 

We tried a side game viewing track, but after a while it petered out into the bush. A faint track lied ahead, perhaps, but we decided not to risk it and back tracked. This gave us some concern about our lesser track through the park plan, but we soldiered on. 

There was signs of elephant on the road but no elephants to be seen. Side note: whenever I say “signs of elephants” or “elephant spoor”, what I really mean is soccer ball sized turds. Still, there must be a good few of them as we kept seeing quite a lot of fresh and unusually green dung on the road. Our lesser track brought us up to the east/west running A23, which cuts through Tsavo West. This road is brand new and not quite mapped in the correct location on our GPS. We could see the remnants of the old road, and even drove along it for a bit as we probed for our track on the northern side of the A23. Eventually we found the continuation of our spinal track and headed further north into the park. 

The terrain changed, becoming more hilly, with dryer and thicker scrub. Incredibly, we saw a cheetah with two cubs crossing the track. They weren’t too wary of us and we had a good ten minutes or so with them as they paced parallel to our road for a bit. The cubs were a little grown up, bold enough to stare us down for a moment, and the mother looked to be very healthy.  

We arrived at the Tsavo River, which cuts west to east across the park, and the terrain changed again. The flanks of the river have thick stands of doum palms, who’s unusual branching trunks gives them a fantastical Dr. Suess feeling. Brown muddy water was running through the palm shaded river and baboons scattered in front of us as we crossed the bridge.

Now we were in the northern part of the park, with time to explore before heading to the Chyulu Public campsite. We wandered riverside tracks and up valleys, winding among terrain much steeper and more varied than the wide rolling plains in the south of the park. We saw what we think is our first lesser kudu, though it looked quite similar to the greater kudu to us so I can’t be sure.

Surprisingly, we did not see much of the “red elephants of Tsavo” that the park is famed. We did see one, a large female, who was a dark, muddy, and grumpy. A guide heading in the opposite direction waved us down and advised, “Stay clear of that one, that is not a happy elephant.”.

He was right. He drove away and she focused her attention on us. Ears wide and head held high she gave us an intent look and a brief trumpet. Jenny was driving and backed away slowly, while joking that maybe I would get that charging elephant photo I’ve always wanted. Backing up the elephant gave us a couple rushed steps in our direction and a violent head shake of annoyance, showing us who was boss of this encounter. We played our part and stood down, easing back slowly. She was moderately satisfied, walking across the road but still staring us down angrily.

As is often the case, as long as you behave as if they are in charge, which let’s be honest, they are, then you’re fine. We backed down, stopping, and finally when she’d cleared off the road and settled down a bit we edged closer and past. She remained annoyed, but also started eating slowly. An eating animal is usually a happy animal, or happy enough anyway. We had passed our test and continued on our way.

The rest of our game drive did not reveal a whole lot. We saw some new birds, including the alien like vulturine guinea fowl. A few more oryx, zebra and giraffe were around as we made our way to the campsite for the evening.

Chyulu public campsite is a large grassy area on a gentle slope, about the size of a football field. On one side is an ablution block, and around the perimeter are thatched roof shelters for protection from sun and rain, looking a little shabby. The campsite is surrounded by dense thicket and there is no view. We weren’t all that impressed, but it was a perfectly fine place to sleep for the night. Upon inspection we found the ablutions did not have any water. We could have gone to the nearby ranger station to inquire if they could sort it out, but it was getting late for that and we decided to sort it out tomorrow and use our own water in the meantime.

The next morning we headed out for some proper game driving in Tsavo West. We passed by some impressive old lava flows. The raw chunky black rocks have foliage growing out of them, but according to our guidebook are only about 200 years old. Since geology usually happens on an immense time scale it’s interesting to see something a mere 200 years old, a blink of an eye. 

Apparently the nearby Chyulu Hills are products of recent volcanic activity, only 500 years old, one of the youngest mountain ranges in the world. I find this remarkable, they are a sizable small range and for something that significant to pop up out of nowhere must have been something. Five hundred years is not so long and I wondered if there was oral record of it in Maasai history.

You are allowed to walk up the Lava Hill feature, but it seemed a bit early for that. Instead we drove, descending down a rough track into a valley. Here is where the scenery of Tsavo West really started to stand out, there was mist around the peaks to the east, backlit by the sun, and rugged red rocks with thick green foliage jutting up around us. It felt very primordial. Had a pterodactyl flown across one of the cliffs it would not have looked out of place. 

Wandering our way back down to the aesthetically pleasing and unique Tsavo river, we poked our way down a tiny riverside track. Hardly any game this morning, but the scenery was excellent. We stumbled across the Kudu Special Campsite on the south bank of the river. A few giraffe were here, but didn’t like our presence and wandered off. What a great campsite, and we wondered about upgrading ourselves to this scenic spot. Maybe we’d stop by the gate later and ask about doing so.

From here we continued on, making our way back across the river. The bridge had washed out at our selected crossing, but some workers directed us where to safely ford the river. The doum palms looming over while we splashed our way through the rocky crossing would have made for a great photo, but it wasn’t a good place to get out of the vehicle. 

From here we stopped at the Mzima Springs. An informational sign proclaimed this the finest tourist experience in Kenya, if not the whole of Africa. I think they may have overstepped, but it is worth a visit. Here there are ablutions and a couple rangers posted and you can park and walk around the pools of the springs.

Crystal clear water bubbles up out of the ground, forming two pools, still part of the Kilimanjaro subsurface runoff in some form. Apparently hundreds of thousands of liters a day springs forth, and some 10% is siphoned off as the main water source for Mombassa, delivered via a pipeline that runs through the park. We went to the underwater viewing enclosure, a circular tank with steps down below water level, with windows that you can look out into the clear water of the pools. We hoped to see a hippo swim by, but sadly they were all in the lower pool. 

After all this hard work of game driving it was getting towards lunch. Felix and Johanna had told us that Severin Camp allowed day visitors and was a nice place to stop. Arriving at 1130 or so they welcomed us, but said that lunch wasn’t served until 1300. Would we like to relax by the pool until then? Why yes we would. 

The pool area was magnificent and we started to realize this place was pretty fancy. After a cold beer and a swim in the swanky pool a tremendous rain shower came through. We watched sheets of heavy rain hammering down from the covered pool veranda. The staff remarked that this is not at all normal weather for January, and we were happy to be ensconced, if only temporarily, in the luxury of this lodge while the rain passed through. 

The showers at the pool area were each the size of a studio apartment and equipped with fresh towels, shampoo, soap and wonderful private amenities. By far and away the nicest ablutions we have seen to date! 10/5! Jenny threatened to move in permanently, but I managed to coaxed back her out.

Lunch was overpriced, but we enjoyed it a lot anyway. By the time we departed Severin’s Camp we’d been there three hours, and we felt guiltily rejuvenated by our brush with luxury. 

On top of this we’d asked the staff about whether we could call the gate, as opposed to drive there, to ask about booking the special campsite for the night. They didn’t have the gate phone, but instead a phone number for someone more senior in the office. When we called they pointed out that on top of the increase in price for a special campsite there was also a 7500 KSH booking fee (~$70 USD). This we had not realized, though on closer inspection it is posted on the KWS rate sheet. We demurred, having been willing to pay for the more expensive campsite, but that was too much more for just a single night. The higher up on the phone took pity on us and waived the booking fee, telling us to “Just go,”  instructing us to pay the difference for a special campsite at the gate on exit, being $15 USD extra pppn.

This stroke of good fortune I’m sure only happened because Jenny’s charm floated across the radio waves of the cell phone, if I had been making the request I’m sure I would have been summarily dismissed. After a stop to see the stunning view at Poacher’s Lookout we started making our way to the Kudu special campsite. 

A bit more game started to appear, including some wonderful elephants dusted in Tsavo’s red dirt, and a few antelope and giraffes. Closer to camp we came across three young black backed jackals that showed curiosity in us for a while. 

The Kudu special campsite was incorrectly marked on T4A, but is signposted. We followed the track for the specified 4km and came back to that same lovely sight by the river. It is set up high on the riverbank and adjacent is a dry riverbed that must sometimes run into the Tsavo during periods of heavy rain. This dry riverbed was covered in animal tracks, obviously where animals often come to drink. I felt a little guilty that we were so close to it, I’d hate to impede an animal coming down to the river to drink, but since the park designated this a campsite I suppose it must be okay.

Other than a few impala in the distance and the honk of hippos around the corner we did not see wildlife other than birds. With a fire going we bird watched in the last light of day before having dinner. Tonight we busted out one of our few chili seasoning packets that we brought from home to make the American classic meat and bean stew. 

After drifting off to sleep we were woken by sound of many hooves. Looking out in the moonlight we could see the dry riverbed full of buffalos who had come to drink. We marveled at the hoofbeats, the snorts of the herd and the sounds of these big animals making their way to the water. We couldn’t see that well and the sounds added a lot as we peered out into the darkness, trying to discern the movement of the herd. While we enjoyed this nighttime spectacle I remarked, “Whew, buffalos do not smell good…” The smell of the herd was strong. Jenny was silent for a moment, then fessed up, “Um..that isn’t the buffalos.” She was experiencing the effects that chili is famous for, but had passed up the chance to blame it on the buffalos and we had a good laugh about this. 

The buffalos got spooked and stampeded away and the rest of the night was quiet. The following morning was so nice that instead of jumping out on a game drive at first light we coaxed the last coals of the last nights fire back to life while enjoying some riverside birding and morning coffee and tea before heading out.

We planned to head to Tsavo East today and had to be out of the park by 1100 or so. Our morning game drive was not particularly fruitful, but the scenery continued to impress, still with that prehistoric feel. We did see a white morph paradise flycatcher, long white tail feathers floating along behind him. 

Tsavo East via Voi

After checking out at the Tsavo Gate we were deposited onto the Mombassa highway, the main road between the port on the coast and Nairobi. This is also the main artery for all cargo headed to points inland, including the land locked country of Uganda, and even some cargo heading to the eastern DRC. Though they do utilize rail cargo the capacity is not enough, which means this road is full of trucks lumbering back and forth. 

Fortunately, we didn’t have to suffer this long before we made it to the town of Voi, outside Tsavo East. We hadn’t provisioned since leaving Tanzania, so we took the opportunity to stock up here.

After the morning game drive and shopping in Voi we were actually feeling a bit pooped and decided to stay outside the park today and to head in the following day. Jenny typically reads the iOverlander reports and makes a best guess at where to go. This time we settled on the “Red Elephant Lodge” that also offers camping.

The grounds are pleasant, with camping in a sandy grassy lot adjacent to the lodge, with bougainvillea around. Shade was limited so we deployed our awning and settled in. They gave us a key to a room for a toilet and shower. The lodge was funny, it reminded me a lot of an American style motel, with exterior doors to all the rooms, only instead of knotty pine paneling, antlers and wooden bears there was a distinct elephant safari theme to all the furnishings.

The lodge shares a boundary with the park. We were invited to sit on the veranda of an empty room and watch the watering hole. No animals came, but lions roared loudly nearby. We sipped cold beers and hoped they might come. They didn’t, but hearing them so close was fun and got us excited about entering the park the next day.

In the morning the drive to the gate takes only a few minutes. The gate has a small curio shop, the first we’ve seen in any park on this trip. It included some maps of various KWS parks, t-shirts and some guidebooks to trees, birds and animals.

Here I had planned that we’d spend one night in the south of the park, and then traverse south to north, staying a second night in the north of the park, and then exiting at the north gate on the third day. One flaw in my plan, there are no public campsites in the north of the park. I had somehow convinced myself there were, but I was wrong. Two nights at Ndololo it was then. I used this as an excuse to prove to Jenny that I had not done enough research, to which I received much eye rolling. 

At the gate they also had a list of all the special campsites, and all their coordinates. Though we were tempted we passed on the special campsites due to the high booking fee. But posting the names and coordinates of the campsites at the gate?! Amazing. Maybe KWS can do some training in Tanzania.

Tsavo East proved entirely different than the west. It is much flatter. A river bisects the park into northern and southern sections, and going north of the river used to require special permission from the warden. This was were the rhinos lived, and marks the front of a long running war on poaching. I don’t have clear answer on this, but I gather that sadly all the rhinos in Tsavo East have passed, either from complications related to transport and introduction from other parks, or from poaching. 

Pretty much right off the bat we saw our first gerenuk, sometimes called the giraffe gazelle. This antelope has a neck even longer and more elegant than Natalie Portman’s. Uniquely they sometimes stand up on their hind legs to feed. They have an almost alien like appearance and this particular gerenuk, a female, let us observe her for a bit, even standing up to pick off some leaves of a nearby shrub. We didn’t know it at the time, but this also turned out to be the bravest gerenuk of Tsavo East, as all the others we subsequently saw more or less immediately ran off into the bush, and I wish I had taken more photos. 

On our game drive we were properly introduced to the red elephants of Tsavo. The dirt here is a rich orange-brick red, and the elephants dust themselves with this dirt, giving them a red appearance. Also Tsavo’s elephants just seemed bigger and to more frequently have large tusks. They are very impressive animals. Jenny thinks that perhaps we are turning into elephant connisuiers (aka snobs).

We made an ambitious game drive all the way up to the Galana River and Lugard’s Falls. The breadth of the riverbed is massive, though it was not running high today. At the falls, the river has carved incredible contours, arches and bowls in the rock. You are allowed to get out of your vehicle here and we marveled at this art of nature for a while, and also at the incredible flood the river must have been in to deposit debris far up onto the banks of the river.

On the way back to camp we saw several large breeding herds of elephants, all painted in Tsavo red and looking very good. As we wound along a small track that parallels a dry riverbed we came upon a huge flock of chestnut weaver and lesser masked weaver (?) birds. They were in a frenzy, chirping and tweeting up a storm while hundreds and hundreds of the birds frantically wove nests. The trees on either side of the track were full of noisy industrious birds. Amazingly they were not bothered by our presence and we were able to park between the trees and watch them work right next to us. 

The boughs of the trees were weighed down heavily with weaver nests. The cacophony of noise and energy was really impressive as we watched these little birds build dense housing for their mating. 

That night in camp was fairly uneventful. There was one other set of campers, who looked like they were on a proper safari. They had an old Land Rover looking very much the part, along with a beautiful cream colored pup tent and wooden folding safari chairs. They looked like they knew how to do things properly. 

The camp staff declined to sell us fire wood, but did point at a large downed tree in camp and we were allowed to harvest what we could. We have a pruning saw in our kit and this proved invaluable. After some sweat expenditure I had a respectable load of not very good fire wood for the evening.

Ablutions at this camp were passable, at least having water, though cleanliness left something to be desired. Still the shower was refreshing and very appreciated. Don’t look up, what occasional cleaning that does happen does not extend into the lofty rafters. 

The following day we got up at the crack of dawn to head out on a game drive. We had heard lions in the early morning and we thought we might track them down. Our gentlemen safari team next to us was not going to do anything so rash as leave at dawn, instead having a proper morning fire before getting underway. Sleep still tugged at us and we looked on enviously, but reluctantly stuck to our guns and kept to our full safari punishment.

After scouting around for lions we accepted defeat. They were roaring loudly and close by but we could not find them, no doubt just a bit off the road and hidden in the brush. As a consolation, we got a wonderful sighting of four large bull elephants.

The north of Tsavo East used to be off limits without warden permission, and thus this forbidden fruit was attractive to me. Jenny had encouraged, as a consolation prize to me, that at least if we weren’t going to stay up north we’d make an all day game drive in that direction to get a sense of things up there. 

This turned out to be not such a great idea. The rangers had said that the road was open, but we hadn’t thought to ask them if the game viewing was good up there or anything else. After buzzing up to the Galana River we took a turn as guided by T4A, and found ourselves at the old causeway. In the past you had to drive a causeway, that was sometimes flooded for long stretches, across the river. 

Apparently unbeknownst to T4A this causeway sustained damage, making it unusable, probably in the 2018 flooding. Since then, a long bridge has been installed a couple kilometers down the river. We rerouted to the bridge, taking a minute to observe the hippos and crocodiles below. After that it was onto a very nice gravel road and up the escarpment to Tsavo’s northern plateau.

The northern plateau we found unremarkable, with thick scrub brush making it difficult to see anything not on the road. We saw some birds, dik dik and not much else. This monotonous road should have been a clue, but we disregarded the evidence before us. Instead we decided to drive over a pass towards the Athi River, via a waypoint marked on our map as Sheldrik’s Blind.

This road was fairly overgrown, but had very fresh tracks on it, so we assumed it was passable. In retrospect I bet these were the tracks of an anti-poaching patrol or rangers’ vehicle, not a tourist’s. 

The road was long and very slow going. The spur heading to Sheldrik’s blind, no doubt a wonderful viewpoint, was completely overgrown. At the peak we drove down the airstrip, which must not have been used in a very long time. Heading down the track became very rough and we had to use low range. A couple times we got to some very rough stuff and we needed to build up the track with stones. Jenny was driving at the time so this job fell to me. It wasn’t so bad, but in the heat of the day I was glad more work didn’t need to be done. The deeper we pushed down this track the more we thought we shouldn’t have done this, but the prospect of turning back was too disheartening.

The longer we went the more worried I became that there’d be some washout and we’d have to double back the whole long monotonous way, but luckily the road did actually go through. Joining the river we made our way south and stopped to have lunch at a very scenic spot, marked Athi River Crossing on the map.

This is a crossing point where one can supposedly ford the river. The river is quite wide here, but shallow, and there are many low rocky islands scattered across it. I sort of wanted to drive the crossing just for the drama of it but better senses prevailed. 

Finally we began to see at least a little wildlife, including quite a few of those curious looking gerunuks. Still the game viewing did not at all hold up to the effort it had taken to get here. The river views were nice, with the stands of doum palms looking like huge bouquets placed along the river. One very rocky gorge was dramatic to look at, and you could see the incredible high water line from the flooding. 

Late in the day we saw a few fine tusker elephants north of the river. Perhaps not the super-tusker class, but there is no doubt that in Tsavo we have seen more large elephants with girthy tusks than anywhere else we have visited.

The bridge across the Galana was a welcome relief after this marathon of a day. We shuddered over the rocky corrugations along the river and then ducked off on our two spoor track to go check on the flock of industrious weavers we’d seen the day before. They were there, still weaving up a storm in a cacophony of sound and flight. 

Back at camp we found ourselves the only campers. Foolishly we had left our camp table, to claim our spot. The baboons had not thought very highly of this and had left it covered in dirty prints (both foot and butt), and with shit running down the side. Jenny gave it a very thorough scrub down, cognizant of D. Quammen’s recent admonishments about Simian Immunodeficiency Virus spilling over to humans.

Also, here to greet us in camp were a docile herd of impala and a few elephants browsing at the periphery of camp. This was nice, but also kept us on our toes. We didn’t want to wander off for firewood or to take a shower and bump into an elephant at night. Thus caution was the watchword for the evening, we hastily did our chores in the fading light so we could stay close to the fire after darkness fell. Not that the fire keeps animals away, but at least you hope that if an animal approaches you by the fire it’s at least aware of your presence; unlike bumping into the hindquarters of an elephant outside the ablutions, sure to provoke an unwelcome response from anyone, elephant or human alike.

We heard Tsavo’s elusive lions again that night, but we didn’t see them in the morning. The elephants and impala were still hanging about camp in the morning, with the elephants at a comfortable distance. 

It was time to make our way to Nairobi. This is something of a major milestone in our journey. Nairobi isn’t much of a destination in and of itself, but it is the Capital of Kenya, the beating heart of East African finance, industry, and politics. Its hectic streets are rife with UN vehicles, embassy vehicles with diplomatic plates and tinted windows all sprinkled on top of a thick layer of matatu mini busses providing the bulk of public transport. Any remaining holes in the traffic scheme are filled in by swarms of boda bodas flitting through the gaps. 

I had been through Nairobi a few times before for work more than ten years ago and frankly I wasn’t much looking forward to returning. Geographically however it is difficult to avoid, and I was really looking forward to staying at Jungle Junction.

Jungle Junction, or JJ’s for short, has long been the refuge and hub of the overlanders circuit in East Africa. In times before the current Ethiopian civil war, this was a critical stop for anyone on the Cairo to Cape Town route. Now owner Chris Handschuhis still the authority on all overland logistics. Need a workshop? To store your vehicle for days/months/years? Need to know the intricacies of carnet renewal, foreign vehicle permits, shipping and import and export? He’s got you covered. Need your South African gas cylinder refilled (we do)? Chris can arrange it for you.

JJ’s has been such a long standing institution that we felt by visiting we were able to become a tiny part of all the adventures that had passed through there and that Chris and his staff had deftly supported. 

First we had to get there though. In the original plan of coming out the north end of Tsavo East, we would have avoided a good chunk of the dreaded Mombassa highway that is so full of trucks and traffic to Nairobi. There wasn’t enough time to drive all the way through the park and to Nairobi in a day, nor anywhere to camp outside the park. I suspect we could have found a place, but instead we went with a frontal assault. 

Sometimes a well executed bad plan is better than a badly executed good plan. With that strategy in mind we exited Tsavo East at the Voi gate and got on the Mobassa Highway northbound to Nairobi. We slogged this out with an audiobook on and it wasn’t too bad. The key being to not be in a hurry and not be lured into dangerous overtaking maneuvers. 

Somewhere along the way I did not heed my own advice. We had spent far too long stuck behind a huge truck doing some 20 kph on a road that you can go 80 or 90 or even 100 at times. A long clear straight stretch of highway in the opposing lane offered itself and I took the bait, quickly dipping around the offending truck. I had, illegally, crossed a sold yellow line, marked for a drainage culvert that someone in the traffic department must have decided constituted a bridge. Overtaking on a bridge is illegal. As you might have guessed, there was a stand of police (what is the collective noun for police? Herd? Flock? Pod?) waiting for me.

I was waved to the verge and a smiling policeman greeted me. What followed was a long discussion with threats of sending me to court, but not for two days time in the neighboring city. They of course know that this is totally impractical, as almost nobody on this road is destined for the next town, they’re all headed to Nairobi or points beyond. But this is the official law, as I understand it. Kenyan law says that, to prevent corruption, you don’t pay the police directly, but instead go to the local court. 

The impracticality of this means that officers use the threat of this inconvenience to extort very modest bribes. After our long chat he worked his way around to asking us for some “lunch money.” I continued to decline and asked to be given the official fine, and he refused to give it to me. Eventually we reached detente, joking about our travels and him saying he’d like to have our vehicle when we’re done with it, and he waived us on. Quite the irony that even with no bribe paid the police declined to issue a fine, I suppose understanding the impracticality of paying.

I found the whole thing frustrating, as we do not want to support any form of corruption, no matter how modest. But to tell people, travelers or locals, to go to some court in a few days time seems completely ridiculous. I anticipate a certain reader may correct the record on the proper procedure here, and if so I will update the blog accordingly!

With that episode behind us we entered the outskirts of Nairobi and heavy traffic. Fortunately Jenny was driving with her nerves of steel for African city traffic. There are roadworks going on, part of building a modern highway out the southeast quadrant of the city. It was a complete mess and bumper to bumper, stop and go traffic until we reached the southern bypass. From here on it was smooth and pleasant sailing on modern roads. Quite the opposite of my experience in Nairobi over a decade ago and a very welcome surprise.

Toward the end we wound our way through the leafy quiet streets of the Langata neighborhood. This was a Nairobi unfamiliar to me, with relatively light traffic and beautiful trees, gardens and plant life all over. Still all the houses are surrounded by tall walls with steel gates, most trimmed with shards of glass or razor wire. But with all the greenery this faded into the background a bit and the overall effect is pleasant, particularly considering our initial introduction of the chaos approaching from the south east.

Jungle Junction has only a small simple sign that says “JJ’s” on the fence. It is in a mostly residential neighborhood and without the sign we would have thought we were in the wrong place. A hoot on the horn brought the security guard to the gate and we were welcomed in to our city sanctuary. 

Inside the walls is a property of maybe an acre in size of mostly green lawn and edged with nice gardens. There is a residential house that has been converted to the guesthouse, with all the things. There are rooms, a kitchen, full proper bathrooms for guests to use, a living room appointed with games and books, a TV and wireless internet. On the back patio are some tables where you can enjoy the very comfortable Nairobi climate and still get a good wifi signal. There is also a fridge stocked full with beer and sodas that is an honesty bar. Beers from an honesty bar always taste better.

The camping here is on a large grass lawn and there were two other campers. We settled in and relaxed, happy to ease off for a bit. Chris and the manageress, Chantal, are extremely welcoming, friendly and efficient.

Unlike many who stop into Jungle Junction, our list of Nairobi chores wasn’t that long, just laundry and refilling our gas bottles, so we probably wouldn’t stay too long. Nonetheless, it felt great to stay at this overlanders’ institution, and reaching Nairobi was certainly a milestone for the trip. Though we made a dash up to Kenya in 2018, now we had some time and we were in really new territory. We are looking forward to a bit of a rest and planning the next stage of adventures in Kenya and beyond.

The Nitty Gritty

Tsavo West

The Lake Jipe campsite will be moved after the new bandas are done, I’m sure it will be in a nice spot. Until that time I would camp outside the park. I think the drive through the spine of the park is a worthwhile detour, to see the various terrains of Tsavo West. We actually saw quite a bit of wildlife in the south, though this may have been an anomaly or because of the recent rain. My understanding is the wildlife is normally focused in the northern sector of the park.

If we were to go again, I would be sorely tempted to pay the 7500 KSH booking fee to stay at the Kudu Special campsite for the whole time. The Palm Shade camp across the river is almost as nice, but the booking fee is, as I understand it, paid for each campsite, so moving is not practical.

I would highly advise a stop at Severin camp for at least a beer. They seemed to welcome day visitors and we did not at all feel we were second class compared to the overnight guests who were paying what I’m sure is a very high premium. We stayed for lunch, and though overpriced, for the whole experience we felt was totally worth it. The staff were extremely professional and it was nice to chat with them.

Tsavo East

We saw more game in Tsavo East, but the terrain does not have the same primordial feel. If at all possible I suggest visiting both parks.

The public campsite at Tsavo East had a charm to it, but it has no view. It is certainly nicer than the Chyulu Public campsite in Tsavo West. I don’t know why KWS, given all the extraordinary locations available, seems to gravitate to putting the public campsites in ho-hum locations. Why not have it on the edge of the savannah, hidden in the trees with a view across the plains? 

At the gate they had all the coordinates of the special campsites posted, imagine that! We did not inspect any of these, but if you care to map them here are the numbers. Note they are in UTM coordinates, which you can convert to in Basecamp (Basecamp Menu > Preferences > Position Format [scroll to near the bottom]. Then enter all coordinates in UTM, then change your position format back to your normal preference and, voila!) Alternatively I sent these to Tracks4Africa and you can wait for their next update.

Nairobi

I think it may have been wiser to take an extra day heading to Nairobi and camp at Chyulu Hills on the way and avoiding the Mombassa highway. Instead take the back roads to Kajiado and the A104, approaching Nairobi from the southwest. 

I’ll post more on our Nairobi logistics in the next post. 

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.

Traffic is hectic.  For example, the only stoplight in town is merely a suggestion of traffic flow, but not rule, so at the stoplight it’s a miraculous mash of trucks, safari vehicles and motorcycles endlessly heading for collision, but then somehow missing each other.  Usually.

And there are just enough tourists for their to be hawkers pedaling their wares on the street.

If you’re foolish enough (us) to stray from your hotel, taxi or guide then they descend upon you with the same chorus we have encountered all across Africa.  Never deviating from the script, it goes like this,

“Hello, how are you?”

We respond, “Good, how are you?”

“Good.  Where are you from?”

“America.  California.”

“Ah, California!  Good!  My name is Joseph (or whomever).  What is your name?”

“I’m Andrew, this is Jenny”.

“Very nice to meet you.  I would like to show you my art (or t-shirts, or tour brochure, or bracelets, or hats, etc)”.

“No, thank you, we’re not buying anything.”

“That is okay.  I will just show you.”

And so on.

I must say that they are very good at getting you into a not unpleasant conversation, but unfortunately it is always the same conversation heading in the same direction, the sale, and it takes a while to get there.  Usually they’re happy to walk with you during this, so that is something.  But enough of traffic and pestering touts, it’s time to escape to the open road.

We made a stop at Shoppers, the big supermarket on the way out of town.  It’s the first supermarket we’ve seen in a while, so we went a little overboard on provisioning and left feeling well stocked but also with depleted funds.  If you can keep yourself away from the convenience of the supermarkets and stick to the open marketplaces food is quite cheap, but inside those gleaming doors the prices are similar or even higher than they are at home for anything that is imported.  Which is most of it.

Tarangire National Park, just over a 100km from Arusha, was our destination.  We made the easy drive on a great road in under two hours.  The last 7km or so off the A104 is good gravel, but with speed bumps ever couple hundred meters, so not too fast right at the end.

For Jenny this stop is something of a homecoming, her first safari destination.  She visited with her mother and sister on their first big family trip more than 15 years ago.  She was excited to see the park again, and to see after our recent explorations if it still would seem as amazing as those years ago, or if it was just because they hadn’t been on safari anywhere else before.  Tarangire didn’t disappoint and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it.

Entrance fees here are less than the Serengeti, thank goodness, but still not cheap.  Again they didn’t ask and the Cruiser was assessed at the sub 2000kg weight, whew.  Entrance fees were, I think, $60/pppd, camping $30/pppd for the public campsite No. 1 and vehicle fee was $40/pd.  We decided to keep it simple here and stick with the public campsites.

Sitting in the shadow of the giants of the Serengeti and Ngorongoro, Tarangire doesn’t get as much credit as the bigger parks, and I also hadn’t given it a whole lot of thought.  Well low expectations proved to be good and we had a great visit.  We arrived in the early afternoon and after checking in we rolled right into a game drive.

Tarangire has most of the big game (no rhinos) of the other parks, but is truly famous for it’s elephants.  Interestingly Serengeti, though massively larger, has roughly the same number of elephants as the much smaller Tarnagire.  A good portion of Tarangire’s elephant population is migratory, so not all the elephants are in the park all the time and they migrate into the surrounding game management and conservation areas during the wet season and then back into the park, with the Tarangire river as the attraction, for water in the dry season.

It’s not the dry season now, so the park wasn’t at peak elephant population, but still we started seeing elephants pretty quickly after entering the park.  And the park itself has a completely different landscape to the nearby Serengeti, so it was still attractive and fresh even after our time next door.

The entrance is at the north end of the park, and the Taragire river, some 5 or 10 kilometers into the park, creates a very scenic river valley.  The terrain, excepting the slope into and out of the river valley, is flattish and rolling hills with open woodland and a large population of very wonderful baobab trees.  Driving along the game viewing trails we managed to see a few elephants grazing amongst the baobabs, really nice.  The baobabs are everywhere here, but not as old or large as the trees we camped near in Nxai Pan.

On our two night stay here we managed to squeeze in quite a lot.  Some lion sightings and a sleeping leopard right on the first game drive.  Heaps of elephants, with some very young ones charging back and forth around their mothers.  The largest tusks on an elephant I have ever seen.

A few parts of the park had massive swarms of tsetse flies.  In their excitement at our presence they hurled themselves at us with such force that we could hear constant tapping on the windows, like heavy rain, and we congratulated ourselves on having functioning air conditioning to save us from the flies.  Of course that didn’t help me when I had to get out of the car and pee, but you can’t have it all.  Any opening of a door or window is closed as soon as possible, and then followed by five or so minutes of trying to kill or let out the flights that got in the cab, while cursing their bites.  For some reason I seem to be the more attractive target, Jenny doesn’t get bit as often, and she is a better tsetse fly killer than I, so thankfully the flurry of action doesn’t last too long.

Our public campsite was pretty decent.  At first glance it’s a little eclectic, with no designated camping spots and haphazard ablutions and camp kitchen spread around.  The ablutions were clean and pretty decent though, and there were cold water showers, so all in all pretty good.  There was an eating area, four picnic tables with an ominous steel cage around them.  Eating in a steel cage while in a park seems a little odd, like who is looking at whom here?  But it is to protect you from the troops of baboons waiting to ambush and take your food.  We were spared though, for whatever reason they left camp alone this time.

There was one other self drive car there, a couple that we had met in the Serengeti with a rental.  The other guests were part of a couple budget safari groups, where they drive from park to park in their safari viewing vehicles and each guest is given a dome ground tent to set up in the public campground, then they go for game drives in the same car they arrived at the park in.  The guide staff cook in the camp kitchen and after a day or two move to the next park and repeat.   I’ve never seen this sort of tour advertised (I’m sure they are) but it seems like it might be a great affordable and low key way to see some of these parks.  On the other hand, this didn’t include a fire in the evening and also they seemed to be starting their game drives fairly late, 7:30 or 8 o’clock in the morning, so they might have been missing out on some good game viewing.

The first night we ended up sharing our fire with some of the people in the safari group and had a nice evening swapping stories by firelight.  We met an American family from the midwest that had just summited the nearby Kilimanjaro together, and a couple of Dutch women that had organized their own tour of Tanzania to see a few things not usually on the tourist trail, like visiting a hospital and going out on a real fishing boat, taking the local public transport, that sort of thing.

South to Kisolanza

After an uneventful second night in camp No. 1, camped right at the base of two baobab trees, it was time to hit the road.  We had dallied in Tanzania long enough and we needed to make tracks south.  So with a dawn start we departed, light rain falling as we checked out of the gate.

We stuck to the main road, the A104 (aka the T5) and sped south.  As is our usual routine, I drove in the morning.  There was very little traffic on the road and we made excellent time.  This portion of the Tanzanian road system also didn’t seem to have many speed bumps, so we were given a bit of relief of the constant guard one has to be on to make sure you don’t accidentally hit a speed bump unexpectedly.  Though to be fair they are usually in villages where we aren’t driving very fast anyway, but sometimes there are a few sneaky ones out of town, unmarked.

It stayed overcast with intermittent mist and we started to climb a pass south of Babati.  I hadn’t done a whole lot of route planning for the day I admit, and I had neglected to see that we had a couple passes to go over.  The road seems to be brand new though, and there was almost no one on the road, so even in the rain we easily made our way up the switchbacks and deeper into the mist.  Higher up it was raining all the time, and foggy.  I had to drive slowly anyway for the steep switchbacks, but even so I worried about a truck popping out of the fog.  On roads this steep a lot of the trucks seem to be traveling barely faster than walking speed, and even with our modest 30 or 40 kilometers and hour I didn’t want to plow into the back of one, particularly since brake lights seem to be optional on some of the commercial vehicles.

Part way through this I got stuck behind a truck going about 10 kilometers an hour.  Rain.  Fog.  Winding roads.  Waiting.  What do you do?  This is familiar territory to any driver in Africa, stuck behind a truck for who knows how long.  I couldn’t see much ahead in the fog, but after waiting and waiting I became impatient to overtake.  I hadn’t seen a truck coming the other way for a long time.  Gripped by the fatalism of the African driver, I waited for a straightish section and with a little faith and a heavy foot I overtook him with as much haste as our 1HZ engine could muster.  Done, no problems.  This sort of risk is what we see on display from a lot of the drivers on the roads here all the time, and it had started to take hold of me as well.

Overtaking on blind turns, driving with no lights, brake lights not working, all of these are part and parcel of driving here.  The truck drivers and busses in particular are far more comfortable traveling at speed on the narrow roads than anyone else, and approaching each other it often seems like they’re so close they’ll will clip their mirrors, and yet they don’t.  We saw the burnt out carcass of an overturned bus on the shoulder once past the summit of the pass.  We see glass and a mangled guard rail and a smashed shipping container on the side of the road, evidence of some grave accident not so long ago.

Later that day we smelled the strong smell of smoking brakes overworked on one of the trucks and I wonder what that driver is thinking?  Does he not know that his brakes might be close to failing, or how to engine brake?  Or does he know perfectly well, but this is the truck they’ve given him, and in spite of it’s mechanical deficiencies he knows he must drive it or risk loosing his job?   We see the overturned cab of one of the big rig trucks, smashed and caved in and know that no one could have possibly survived.  This is a continual reminder to us that the most dangerous part of this trip is not malaria or lions, or banditry or violence, but simply the daily danger of driving.  We remain vigilant and continue along.

South of Kolo Pass we drop out of the hills, the terrain flattens and the clouds and rain ease off.  This land is also covered in baobabs.  We’ve never seen so many.  They’re much less common in southern Africa and we had believed them to be sort of rare, special.  Here though they are everywhere, mostly not too big, but looking good, really nice terrain.

Continuing on we pass through the city of Dodoma.  This is a common stop for overlanders, not because there is a great place to stay but more that is a convenient distance to cover in a day.  Our early start and little traffic had delivered good progress, so we decided to push on to Iringa, the next significant city south.  I had assumed that south of Dodoma traffic would pick up, but it doesn’t much and we continue along.  There are frequent police checkpoints along the road, but mostly we are waived through, or stopped for a simple “Where did you come from, where are you going?”, then sent on our way.

In Iringa we need fuel, but we also need an ATM because none of the fuel stations take a credit card.  We see a shabby looking fuel station a block from a bank and we stop and fill up.  Fortunately the ATM is working and we’re on our way.  On the way out of town (our campsite is a bit south) we drive past numerous gleaming pristine fuel stations with ATMS in them.  This seems to be our habit, to always stop just before the really convenient place, of course.

South of Iringa the road turns to the T1, and the road fills with the traffic of heavy trucks, mostly hauling fuel from Dar Es Salaam.  The T1 is the main road from Dar and is the conduit to carry fuel, all by truck, to Southern Tanzania and Malawi.  Traffic notwithstanding, in not too long after Iringa we arrived at the Old Kisolanza Farmhouse campsite at about 4 in the afternoon.

It’s set up really nicely, with campsites in the trees, fire rings and picnic tables for most sites.  There are a few other campers there, so for once we’re not camping alone like many of the campsites we’ve visited outside the parks.

There is a restaurant here and the food is reportedly amazing so we skipped cooking tonight to try it out.  It was pretty remarkable, a 3 course meal by candlelight, delicious sautéed veggies from their own garden, an amazing but simple crushed tomato and garlic sauce for pasta and a chicken main course.  Such a contrast to camping, and it still surprises us that here in Africa this combination of bar, restaurant and campsite exists where in the states it’s unheard of.  Maybe a future business idea for home?

The next day we spent a pleasant morning swapping route notes and road conditions with a South African couple that was heading to the Serengeti, and they gave us some tips on Malawi.  It’s nice to feel we’re back on the route where there are a few others of “us” on the road, and also good to have a slow morning.

Before getting on the road for our next jump south we ask about filling our water tank.  Water is always something we have in the back of our mind, how much do we have, where will we get it next, and what kind will it be?  We have an almost 60 liter tank in the back of the cruiser, with a little spigot on a hose back by the kitchen.  A lot of people have a similar setup, with the spigot mounted under the fender or rear bumper so the spigot is always dirty, so the water is just used for cleaning and they buy bottled water for drinking.  We mounted our spigot on a strong magnet, at the end of the hose, and when we arrive at camp and open up the “kitchen” side of the canopy click the spigot on the side of the cruiser, ready for use and clean.

This of course doesn’t address if the water is potable.  We prefer to have potable water in the tank and avoid the waste and inconvenience of bottled water if we can.  We have some treatment drops to treat our water if need be, but amazingly so far we haven’t used them, wisely or not.  We have used a combination of sources.  We filled with the city water in Livingstone, which is treated but still is a bit risky for someone who isn’t local.  It was fine, but didn’t taste great.

Borehole water, which is usually regarded as safe to drink, depending on how deep and where the borehole is located, is our preference.  At times we’ve not been able to get borehole water so we’ve also put non potable water from various camp spigots in the tank, boiling it if cooking or making coffee or tea, and supplemented with big 10 liter jugs of bottled water for drinking.  This isn’t particularly efficient and we end up having to decant the big jugs into smaller bottles, and also end up just carrying too much weight.  We also always carry one or two 5 liter bottles of “emergency water” that we hide in the back and forget about, just in case we get a leak and lose our water, or it’s contaminated.  So far we haven’t needed those.

At Kisolanza the owner said that their water wasn’t potable, but that just a couple hundred meters up the dirt road there is a borehole with excellent water we can fill our tank.  We find the manual borehole pump that is ubiquitous throughout Africa, in almost every village.  Surprisingly we haven’t used one yet on the trip, the couple times we’ve managed to get borehole water before it had already been pumped to a reservoir tank with an electric pump and was just gravity fed.

We got one of our empty 10 liter jugs and start pumping.  It only takes a couple minutes of easy pumping to fill our 10 liters, and I decanted into the tank from our jug.  We left the tap open on the tank to flush out our old water, and in about 20 minutes we’ve flushed and filled our tank with water that tastes like pristine bottled water.

Delicious water loaded, we were on our way again.  Originally our destination was the Utengule Coffee Lodge, west of Mbeya.  This is a little out of our way, as our plan was to turn south onto the T10 to Malawi a bit east of Mbeya.  The Utengule Coffee Loge is on the opposite site of Mbeya, and would require braving Mbeya traffic, twice, to get to and away from there.  The South Africans we had met at Kisolanza told us about a hotel in Tukuyu, along our route on the T10, that would let you camp in their grassy courtyard for $10 dollars a night and would give you a key to a room to use the bathroom.  Good enough for us, so we made our way to the Landmark Hotel in Tukuyu.

This camping method is one of the options available to those traveling overland when there are no campsites.  Other options are to find a place to wild camp, ask a mission to camp, or to ask for a village elder’s approval to camp in or near a village.  We were trying to keep it simple, so hotel courtyard camping it was.

On our way there we encountered what seemed like endless kilometers of construction and the slow traffic that comes with this.  Some of the road was done and was impressively wide, really beautiful tarmac, but frustratingly the speed limits were still 30 or 50 kph even when there was no road crews and no villages.  We got stopped for speeding, but they generously let us off, so we kept to the slow speeds and resisted the urge to step on it and power along the beautiful roads.

By the end of this my normal patience with slow driving had eroded and I was pretty frustrated at the slow going and Jenny took over.  She had other challenges.  On the older parts of the road the road was narrower, and decent tarmac with not many potholes, but amazingly parts of the road were actually rutted.  How this happens on a paved road I don’t know, but it looks like they maybe let heavy trucks drive on it before it had completely cured, or that the road bedding underneath had settled, but instead of the pavement cracking it just flexed into the ruts.  This was a problem because the truck wheel track width is wider than the cruiser’s.  A couple times the ruts were so deep that we actually started to fishtail a bit on the road, the rear wheels sliding in and out of the paved ruts.  It was scary with all the truck traffic around and we slowed down and made it through without any further excitement. 

Turning south towards Tukuyu we started going up again, over 2000 meters elevation into beautiful green hills, farmland full of tea and banana plantations.  We arrived in Tukuyu before sunset and discovered that though one could camp in the courtyard, we couldn’t because the entrance is too small to drive a vehicle onto the grass.  I hadn’t thought of this when we heard about it from our new South African friends, who were in a ground tent.  So we tucked into the corner of the parking lot, a little odd, but no one bothered us.  That night we went to bed and it began to rain heavily, but we stayed snug and warm in the tent.  Tomorrow we’d enter Malawi, dropping from these higher elevations to the Lake Malawi level of 500 meters.  We crossed our fingers for better weather tomorrow and listened to the rain.

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.

Western Corridor Serengeti

The Terrible Road

Fortunately now all park fees for both parks are payable by credit card at the gates.  No more convoluted bank deposit slips brought back to the park offices, or smart cards charged up for hopefully the right amount or whatever.  Those are still options, but payment at the gate was much easier for us.

We wanted to stay in the so called “special camp sites” so we could camp in the complete wild, alone, as opposed to the public campsites.  For this the charge goes up to $50 pppn, in stead of $30.  We arrived at the gate around noon and began the lengthy check in process.  We gave them our preferred areas we’d like to visit and they called the Arusha main office to see what camp sites were available in those areas.  

They assigned us to Sero 4 and Grumeti camp sites.  We planned to stay two nights at Sero 4 in the central Seronera region of the park, then two nights in the Western corridor, then a last night back in Sero 4 and then we would depart through the Naabi Hill Gate to the southeast.  This is a little illogical, since we had to drive past Grumeti through the Western corridor to get to Sero 4, but we wanted to see the wildebeest migration in the Western corridor.  The wildebeest are in no hurry this year (don’t they know we’re on a schedule?), late due to a big rainy season, so we figured even giving them a few extra days to make it to the Grumeti river would be good.  

The park officials printed out our park permits with the wrong campsites and no dates on them, and just told us to not worry about it, go to Sero 4 and Grumeti.  This seemed curious to us, in case anyone checked our permit.  They assured us it wasn’t a problem, but we at least got them to hand correct the permit in case they were checked.  

After this we also had to haggle about the car fee.  The Serengeti is notorious for having high fees, particularly for foreign vehicle entry fees.  This is allegedly to keep Kenyan tour operators from coming in to the Serengeti and undercutting local tour operators, but has the side effect of stinging fees for self drivers like us, who are not particularly common in the park.  Technically the fee for any vehicle over 2000 kgs tare weight is $177 USD per day!  Under 2000 kgs is $47 per day, so obviously we would prefer that.  Several Tanzanians had assured us that even though we were over they only charged the higher rate to commercial operators.  However this isn’t what happened to us, the park officials threatened to charge us for the higher weight and asked to look at our vehicle paperwork to verify the tare weight.  

We were horrified, it’s already a pretty huge expense to come here, and it would push the daily cost to almost $450 USD a day to be in the park if they charged us the higher rate.  This is partially because everything in Tanzania has a whopping 18% VAT.  We handed them as much paperwork as we had on the vehicle hoping they would find a number that made them happy.  Sifting through it all somehow they missed the tare weight on the registration and we kept our mouths shut, and after a while they gave and charged us the lower rate.  

I don’t generally approve of dodging park fees, it is after all important to preserve these lands, and it is an enormous swath of land that Tanzania has set aside for conservation.  But there have been a lot of recent price hikes in the park fees and we simply couldn’t stomach any more, so in this case if they missed that it’s on them.

After all that it was around 1pm we made our way into the park, with something like 100 kilometers to go to our campsite.  As we went along the main road we saw a few large herds of wildebeest, it was impressive, but nothing like we would see in a few days time.  Since we didn’t get into the park till 1pm we didn’t have a huge amount of time to wander, so we continued on our way towards the central Seronera region of the park.  Once we got closer to our campsite we realized once again that we hadn’t asked specifically for directions to our camp.  Time was running out, and I was concerned that we would waste a lot of daylight just trying to find the park office, but we didn’t have much choice.  

In Seronera there is a small loose community that supports the park.  A fuel station, a small garage, a staff village where some of the park support staff live, an airstrip, and for us the park headquarters, visitor center and tourist information office.  We tried to find the park headquarters and couldn’t, or if we did it was a closed off compound not for the public, then made our way to the tourist information office.  

We explained we didn’t know exactly where Sero 4 special campsite was, could they please direct us.  It turned out that neither did they and I knew we were in trouble when he pulled out the same map we already had.  After about 20 minutes of hazy directions and “It should be somewhere over here,” we decided to just take our chances and hope we saw a sign.  

Casting around east of central Seronera we found a few signs pointing us east, but the track split and split again and we didn’t find it.  We asked guides, a few people at a camp and each gave it some thought and said “Maybe over this way,” with some vague gesturing.  To add to our concerns the sky was darkening and it was looking like it was gong to rain.  

Eventually it got dark and we asked another guide, he suggested we just go to the public campsite and sort it out in the morning.  Fair enough, conceding defeat he lead us to the closest public campsite and we arrived in the dark, again.  And it began to rain.  Sigh.  

It wasn’t the best introduction to the Serengeti.  Visiting such a prestigious park we had built up high exceptions and run up high expenses, so to arrive and spend two hours not finding our campsite, and to camp at the wrong camp in the rain was a bit demoralizing.  

At the public campsite there was a large group of locals camped there, it almost looked like a camp for contract construction workers or something, but we found out after talking to them that they were students from a wildlife management school.  We picked an out of the way spot and popped the tent in the rain, grabbed some perfunctory snacks for dinner and retreated to the tent.  As we listened to the drone of their generator and the rain drops smacking against the fly we were feeling bummed, but also confident that tomorrow was a new day and we would have a fresh start.  

The morning was overcast, left overs from the rain the night before, and we set out quickly for our fresh start.  Almost immediately out of camp we were treated to a small pride of lions in the grass, things were looking up.  The lions were mostly sleeping, so we continued on and discovered that we had been close to our designated campsite, it was about a half a kilometer further along the road.  There was indeed a sign, but it was almost completely obscured in the tall grass and we probably would have missed it in the dark.  We scoped out the spot for that night and were feeling good.

We headed off to the southeast towards some of the kopjes on the plains.  Quickly the acacias of Seronera thinned out and we were in open savannah with only a few trees dotted here and there on the grassy plains.  The Serengeti is famous for it’s rocky outcroppings, kopjes, which are also favorite lounging places for lions and incredibly beautiful.  Sure enough, following the tracks wandering around the rocks we found lions sleeping off whatever they had been up to during the night.  Wonderful.  

We also saw elephants in the distance, and our fair share of zebra, topi, warthog, giraffe and a few wildebeest that had not joined the main migration.  Also Thompson’s gazelle and impala.  

Later in the morning we were heading back towards central Seronera and we heard a hissing noise from the back and discovered our first flat tire.  We had let some air out of the tires to ease the pain of the corrugated roads along the western corridor, but maybe too much, as we had a small sidewall tear from the rocky conditions from this morning.  

At least it happened in a convenient location.  It was pretty flat and we had good visibility around us, so a quick scan to check for predators and we hopped out to change our tire.  Several guide vehicles drove by as we were working and courteously checked to see if we were okay.  In about 20 minutes we were done, on our way with our first flat behind us.

We carry two spare tires, so even with almost a week in the bush ahead of us we had another spare should we need it.  We added getting the sidewall fixed, hopefully, to our growing Arusha list for after the park.  

That night we settled into Sero 4 special campsite to enjoy the sunset.  The campsite is set on a gently sloping hill with a wonderful view towards the east of a small valley, mostly yellow medium length grass around and two flat top acacias at either end of the campsite, a great spot.  

At dusk just as we were starting to make dinner we saw headlights charging towards us and we thought maybe some rangers were coming to check our permit.  As they came closer we saw a roof top tent on a land rover and I guessed, correctly, that this campsite was double booked.  After the initial surprise we introduced ourselves and all was amiable.  There was plenty of room for two without interfering with each other.

While working on our dinner we chatted a bit with our new neighbors, and we heard the whooping call of hyenas not too far away.  A habit of campers in the bush is to carry a strong flashlight and occasionally scan the perimeter for the reflection of eyes.  Ostensibly green eyes are harmless grazers and yellow eyes are predators, but of course sometimes the distinction is fine and yellow eyes alone do not belie the difference between a lion and a harmless small wild cat.  We made our scan as the call of hyenas got closer and sure enough there was a hyena not 20 meters away edging the perimeter of our camp, no doubt investigating us.  

Hyenas are often referred to as scavengers, and this is true, but they are also hunters perfectly capable of taking their own prey, often in packs.  Seeing the hyena inspecting camp was disconcerting, but we watched him and he continued on his way.  We kept an eye out for him for the evening, but he backed off further into the grass.  Waiting to scavenge our trash we hoped, but later we talked to a guide who said the reason hyenas can be so dangerous is because we let them get close enough that when they decide to attack it is too late to do anything about it. 

That night we had curried lentils and I tried my hand at making chapati, an Indian/East African flat bread.  Though not perfectly round it was flaky and warm and turned out pretty well, something I’ll definitely practice some more.

Back to campsites.  Trouble with special campsite bookings seems to be quite common in the Serengeti.  In the few days that followed every self driver we met had either double bookings for their campsites or found that the camps they had booked were totally inaccessible, either roads were impassable or the camp was overgrown or whatever.  With the incredible expense it costs to be in the park, just over $300 USD a day for us, and that isn’t including of course the cost of having your own vehicle, it is frustrating that the park doesn’t appear to know who is camping where and what roads are usable.  Obviously the tour operators who are setting up large tented camps must have a better system to ensure that they aren’t double booked, and I presume that they inspect the sights before setting up and do what maintenance needs to be done so they can operate.  

The next day we checked in with the park, not at the tourist office, not at the visitor center, not at park HQ, but at the airstrip, of course.  As far as we could tell the park office at the airport (no sign) is the only place that either knows what is going on or can find out.  It was good we checked in before heading out to the Western corridor to our Grumetti campsite, because we were told that camp too was already booked, that the officials at the Ndabaka gate had incorrectly given us that site even though they had called the main office in Arusha.  We were given a new special campsite, Kira Wira Hill, but again they didn’t know exactly where it was, but assured us there was a sign.  All of this was a bit exasperating, but I suppose is just part of the deal.  I thought maybe we should have made more of an effort to book in advance, but since even other self drivers we met who had booked a year out had encountered similar problems perhaps it didn’t matter.

That morning we had great luck of sighting two huge male lions with regal looking manes.  There weren’t up to much, but they did pose for us in the morning light, it was nice.  We also spotted a mother serval, a medium size spotted cat, with a young cub.  The cub was barely larger than a house cat kitten and must have been very young, and while the mother was watching us with concern the cub was playing around and seemed to be having a grand time.  It was great to watch.  Eventually the mother picked up her cub and ran into the grass.

In the afternoon we made our way west, towards our Kira Wira Hill special campsite.  The Western corridor is more densely wooded than the central and southern plains of the Serengeti.  The attraction is the Grumetti river, and that a large portion of the migrating wildebeest congregate there to cross the river before they make their way north to the Masai Mara.

Driving in we had marked on the GPS where the large herds of wildebeest were, so it was interesting to come back and see if they had moved.  We found that they hadn’t moved much, but there more of them.  Many many more.  It is staggering to see so many animals.  Even in just the two days that we had been in Seronera it was obvious that huge herds of wildebeest had moved into the area, preparing to cross the Grumetti.  The herds were spread out in the plains along the main road and along the river, wildebeest numbering in the tens of thousands.  It’s unbelievable that such a fantastic amount of grazing animals leaves any grass left at all, but it seems they do.  

We did find our camp with relative ease that night, about two kilometers off the main road just at the tree line.  We made camp and gazed at thousands of wildebeest on the plain below.  As we watched the sunset there was an endless chorus of wildebeest making their curious honking noise, cavorting and grazing.

It was my birthday that night, and Jenny had attempted the impossible, to make me a proper gin and tonic.  As everyone knows, a gin and tonic is just not right if you don’t also have ice and lime.  A lesser drink might be consumed skimping on the details, but a G&T is all or nothing, in our opinion anyway.  Lime we had managed to find in the market, a challenge in itself as all limes and lemons are all green and are all referred to as lemons.  Ice was another story.  Our 12v fridge has the power to freeze, as evidence by the numerous vegetables we had ruined by turning it down too far and by the milk for Jenny’s tea that is often half frozen in the morning.  

She had put a few plastic containers of water in the bottom and turned it down to it’s coldest setting.  Frozen vegetables, check.  Frozen milk, check.  Frozen water…no.  Stubbornly they had refused to freeze, too much agitation on the bumpy roads I suppose.  Oh the hardships we endure!  I happily settled on cold beer, and Jenny made me French fries, sautéed carrots and boerwors over the fire.  We could still hear the honking of a thousand wildebeest in the dark and lions calling, close enough to make us eat in a hurry, and life was good.

Logistical Notes:

In no particular order, here are a few things that might be useful if you’re visiting the Serengeti on your own.

There are no garbage facilities, it is strictly pack it in pack it out.  We wished we had known this before we were a couple days into the park, we would have organized our trash differently.  We ended up being able to get rid of trash once in Seronera, but I wouldn’t count on this.  We burned our paper trash in our camp fire and packed out the rest, which was getting pretty rank at the end.  

This is also a good reason to attempt to bring beer in cans if you can find it, as the empty bottles are heavy and take up a lot of space.  We were unsuccessful at finding canned beer in Bunda.  If coming from the west I suspect that Mwanza is the only place you could get it.

Provisioning from the Ndabaka side of the park, Lamadi has an well stocked open air market for vegetables, and meat I suppose for those more adventurous than us.  Bunda has numerous small duka shops with haphazard selection, and I’m sure a vegetable market somewhere, but we couldn’t find it.  

There is fuel in Seronera, usually.  Don’t count on it if you can avoid it, and later we learned in Arusha that the fuel quality in the park is poor and can wreak havoc on a more discerning engine than our trusty 4.2, reputed to be able to burn almost anything.

Special camp sites.  We think they’re worth the extra $40 USD ($20/ea) per night for the full Serengeti experience.  Finding them and booking them is another story.  I’d suggest doing as much research as possible on GPS coordinates for sites prior to coming, don’t count on the park being able to direct you.  There are signs for most of the sites, but there are not always, and even when they exist they might be obscured by tall grass.  Site 5 is not close to site 4, for example, and site 6 might be 20 kilometers away on a different road, so be sure you’re headed the right way if you can.  

There are no facilities at all (i.e. no water, no toilet) at the special campsite, it’s just a place that is designated by the park that may or may not have cut grass and probably a good view.  If you want during your game drives you can always stop by the visitor center, airport or public campsite to use the toilet.  The public campsites also have showers.

Research special campsites here.  I’ll post all GPS coordinates for the special campsites we stayed at in the next post.

There is a very small shop in the staff village, but don’t count on it for provisioning.  It has a few odds and ends, but no real staples.  Toothpaste, cigarettes, cookies, bottled water, maybe peanut butter and an eclectic assortment of other food, but it’s sparse and expensive.  Beer is available at the bar in the staff village, but expensive.

Just this morning we saw the “big 5”, (black) rhino, leopard, lion, buffalo and elephant; not to mention giraffe, zebra, topi, Thompson’s gazelle, hippo, warthog, impala, waterbuck, giraffe, and no doubt some stuff I forgot on top of that.  This combined with the truly stunning vistas of the Masai Mara and we are really almost speechless.

But before I get too far into the wild I’ll catch you up with getting here.

We left Kacheliba on Monday morning and headed back up to the highlands towards Eldoret.  Our next big destination was the Masai Mara Conservancy, and now here we are.  We considered taking the route Richard had recommended through the Cherengani Hills to Lake Baringo and Lake Bogoria.  Reportedly you can make it through to Baringo in a day, but we tend to travel slow, and as we needed to provision and fuel we came to our senses, for once, and decided not to bite off too much.

It is with regret that we didn’t have time for more of Kenya, it’s an embarrassment that we can’t spend more time here.  Next time.  For now we went up the escarpment and took a right on the A1, heading south to Kitale.  Provisioning at Kitale was easy, there are two large supermarkets across from each other down town, Transmatt and Khetia’s, both well stocked, with the odd exception of eggs.  Eggs are obtainable in flats of 36, too much for us, or in a paper sack of 5.  I probably don’t have to tell you that a paper sack is not the ideal way to transport eggs, even if you aren’t off roading.  We found this elsewhere too, sort of hilarious.  We searched around and found a sort of plastic egg carton thing which hopefully will work.

Kitale had really grown up since I worked in the area in 2008.  Then we used to run to Kitale to go to the bank and hardware store and so forth so I felt I sort of knew town a bit, but visiting now it’s clear that things, whether just in the region or maybe Kenya in general, are booming.  Where there was before only two filling stations that would often run out of fuel, there are now what seems a dozen.  Traffic is thick and before it was calm, the open market has expanded exponentially and hotels are restaurants are many instead of few.  North of town on the A1 there was a garish brand new multi story hotel complete with bell hops, a pool and all kinds of bling, but strangely no sign.  It seemed open and operational and I wonder who their market is?

After provisioning we turned onto the B2 and made our way towards Eldoret.  Eldoret is larger than Kitale and also has been booming.  It seems there is an oil pipeline distribution hub here, petroleum trucks line the road on the way into town for kilometers.  After my second failed attempt at getting a sim card for my phone we headed about 20 kilometers out of town to Naiberi River Overland Camp.

Naiberi is geared towards the overland truck business, large trucks plying multi week trips throughout various regions of Africa, with low budget backpacker style travel.  Overland trucks have a bad rap in the self drive overland world as they often crowd camps and can be a bit too loud partying.  There was an overland truck with 12 passengers here today, but they were completely pleasant, no complaints.

The camp is on a hill, with four large covered open “kitchens” (a generous term) with a sink, power outlet, lighting and braii/fire area and an almost flat parking space.  There is a lower campsite on a large lawn with no facilities that they said they don’t open up unless the upper sights are full.  It looked nice down there, but with the recent heavy rain the ground was saturated, and they also said it’s quite cold down by the river.  It was already pretty cold at our site, with the elevation being something like 2300 meters.

Ablutions are clean and pretty nice, with hot showers, flush toilets and decent lighting.  Between the upper camp and the lower camp there is a huge restaurant/bar/hangout zone with great atmosphere, if anything maybe a bit overdone, but someone has clearly put a lot of thought and effort into it.  Also in the bar area is a large fire pit and they stoked up a big fire in the evening, great for warming up.  Outside they had a pool and deck along with small covered areas around for hanging out in the afternoon.

After a lot of days on the road we decided to stay a couple days and regroup a bit, get laundry done and relax.  The first night we had dinner at the restaurant and I had a really great Indian dish, chicken meri-methti (spelling?) with chapati.  Jenny had mutton nyama choma, a Kenyan national dish, and we were happy.

The staff here were really great, checking in with us often to see if we needed anything.  Organizing firewood, dinner, where to go in town to pick up a few things, laundry and even my much sought after sim card were all sorted out in short order.

Like Barnley’s Guest House, they mentioned that business was really slow.  I’d certainly recommend Naberi for a stop if you’re in the area.  Hopefully things pick up for them, it’s good to see someone putting in such effort and building a nice facility.

A couple nights at Naberi was great, but it was cold at night and we felt the call of the bush, so we pressed on to the Masai Mara.  Right out the door we took a wrong turn and went 20 kilometers or so the wrong direction.  We had to double back, much to the amusement of the police that had stopped us at a checkpoint earlier.  On our brief diversion we saw dozens and dozens of runners along the road.

Many residents of here do not have the time or need for such things as exercise, the daily lives of many rural Kenyans being very busy just getting by, and hauling all of your water or food or charcoal or whatever is plenty exercise enough.  However Kenya and Eldoret in particular are unique in that this is the home of most of the elite Kenyan runners.  Runners from Eldoret are famous the world over for long distance running, winning marathons and holding records in large numbers.  It was nice seeing these runners training along the road to make a connection to what I had read about.  I’d recommend the Radiolab podcast on Kenyan runners if you are interested.

Back on track we got onto the main highway towards Nairobi.  At this point I must take back all that I said about the Kenyan roads being hectic and stressful.  We found the A104 to be in perfect condition, with ample lanes, passing lanes on the climbs to get around slow trucks and also wide shoulders.  Pedestrians, boda bodas and matatus thinned out and we raced along with ease.

We passed the equator at 9100’ of elevation.  Kind of amazing to think how far we have driven.  We have about 9000 kilometers on the clock for this trip.  The equivalent from our home in California is a quick drive to Equador.  And now we need to drive back!  It doesn’t seem so far to us, each day has been an exploration, and when you’re not sure what each day will bring it’s easy to not consider, too much, how far you have to go.

A Logistical digression:

We turned off the A104 to the road marked B1 and C23 on T4A, not sure why the two names.  To further muddy the waters the very new looking road sign says the turnoff is for the A1.  I think this is because it eventually links up with the A1.  The sign is marked for Kericho.

From the A104 turnoff to Kericho the road is beautiful and passes through many kilometers of fervent green tea plantations.  After Kericho the road narrows but is in perfectly fine shape.

T4A would prefer we turned off onto the B23, just before Sotik.  However we did not, we took Stan’s advice (of Slow Donkey fame, who’s meticulous blog has helped many an overland traveler to follow in his footsteps.  We considered calling our vehicle “Slower Donkey” but decided against it) and pressed on the next logical turn toward Kilgoris.  This turn is simply marked “road” on T4A, but links up with the C17.

After Kilgoris the road turns to gravel (is marram the correct term?), a little bumpy at first but improving quite a bit after about half way to the Oloololo gate.

Digression over.

Getting closer to the Masai Mara we were beginning to see more traditional dress, though mostly combined with western clothing.  A baseball cap, jeans and a t-shirt, but a Masai blanket and hearding stick being the most common outfit.

Masai Mara

We arrived at the Oloololo gate around 3:30 pm, and logically we should have saved our money and camped outside the gate.  But the call of the wild was too strong and we plunked down our credit card so we could camp inside the park that night.  Park fees cover 24 hrs from the time of purchase, so it wasn’t totally ridiculous.

At the gate we bought firewood, at the exorbitant price of 1000 ksh a wheelbarrow full, and after a lot of waiting around they brought us what was almost a tree.  With the help of the rangers we wrestled it onto the roof rack, fearing a bit too much weight up top we agreed to have a big fire that night.

Wanting to get in a bit of an evening drive before heading to Eulai camp we charged into the park, foolishly not asking about road conditions, or directions to our camp.  In retrospect all of this would have been useful.

As is our usual tendency, we headed for the river road.  Normally water draws the wildlife, but since it has been such a huge rainy season this is not the case right now.  Fortunately the Mara Triangle is teeming with wildlife, so that part proved not to be a problem.  As a side note, the western part of the Masai Mara is operated by the Masai Mara Conservancy and is all the territory West of the Mara River.  This area is referred to “the conservancy” or “the triangle”.  Universally everyone will tell you that the Conservancy is better run, but what exactly that meant we were not sure.  We will find out.

Later we learned that this year the Mara has seen the most rain for 60 years.  This meant that the roads are very wet and muddy in some places.  Our river road turned into a two spoor track and from that it turned into the barest hint of a path, just two parallel lines of bent grass where vehicles had been before, but vague to say the least.  Slowly we progressed, seeing elephants and topi and having a grand time, back in a park, alone on a wild track and just us and the animals.

As we went along we started watching the clock with concern.  With the vague track and muddy conditions we were making slow progress, and it looked like we were going to be late to camp.  Sunset is 6:30 pm, and you are supposed to be in camp no later than seven o’clock.

We were getting close to where the track connected to the main road and we would be free and clear, but we came to a muddy ravine across the road, clearly impassable.  We had to turn back, and with that there went our hope of being in camp on time.

We made somewhat faster progress back tracking, but even then we were following the maze of tracks trying to find the shortest route to the main road without having to be turned back again.  A couple times we rolled the dice when given the choice between right and left and luckily picked correctly.  As we approached the main road we were treated to a pride of female lions with cubs, but we were so late and had so far to go we only stopped for a minute.

Back on the main road we made good time towards camp, and that is when we realized we hadn’t asked for any details about the camp site.  When we had said we’d like to camp at Eluai public campsite they simply said “okay” and that was it.

So here we were, late and racing towards our camp while losing the meager light that was left, having no idea of really where we were going.  The map that they gave us was very general, just a dot in between two roads.  Tracks 4 Africa had it marked clearly, so we put our faith in the GPS, but when we made it to the supposed turn there was no road at all.  Hmm.

It was dark by now, so we doubled back, the GPS showing an alternative approach.  Sure enough there was a muddy small track off the main road with no sign.  We took it, and crept into the tall grass.  A Rutted muddy track, and more and more it seemed we might be in the wrong spot.  No sign, a little used road.  We figured regardless where we found ourselves we would just camp and sort it out in the morning, but with grass a meter high all around camping would not be that great without at least a small clearing.

I zoomed way in on the gps and we followed the merest suggestion of a track in the grass and watched the screen for guidance, creeping along.  Finally we found a tiny clearing around an old termite mound and we called it good and made camp.  This is fully wild, no other people, no lights, no fences, just us in the bush of the Mara.  If it wasn’t for our late arrival we would have been thrilled.  Even so, after we got a fire going and after a much needed beer settled down a bit it was really nice to be out there all alone under the stars.  We couldn’t wait to wake up and see where we were in the morning.