Victoria Falls

The main reason why most people come to Livingstone is to visit Victoria Falls. The falls were "discovered" and named after Queen Elizabeth I by David Livingstone in 1855. However, locally, they are still referred to by the original Kololo language name of Mosi-oa-Tunya, the smoke that thunders. The falls are about 10km from Livingstone, right on the boarder where the Zambezi River divides Zambia from Zimbabwe.

There are a number of walking trails around the falls, the most dramatic (and wettest) being the Knife Edge trail. The walk takes you along the top of the gorge edge opposite the main falls and over an incredibly wet foot bridge.

Even with our, very un-flattering, rented rain coats we still had a fair old soaking as the up-draft from the falls causes it to rain upwards onto the trail.

We also made the hike down into the bottom of the gorge to see the boiling pot whirlpool.

The walk down through Palm Grove Gorge was very Jurrasic Park and featured some rather large spiders.

Whilst we were there we also had a bit of a close encounter with a troupe of baboons who looked like they were in the middle of a turf war. As we made our way down the trail about 50 baboons came hurtling down the valley side at us howling and bearing fangs.

It was a little nervey for a while but eventually they moved past us and back onto the cliffs.

Getting some good photos of the falls proved to be quite challenging for a number of reasons. The first problem is their size. The falls are 1.7km across and 108 meters high but squeezed into a gorge only about 100 meters wide. This means that you can't get much of it in your viewfinder at one time.

The other big problem is the spray. The average flow of water over the falls is one million liters per second, although we are here at the back end of the rainy season and it is considerably higher at the moment. This creates a hell of a lot of mist and spray which comes at you from all directions. Trying to keep your camera dry and lens clear is quite a challenge in the swirling wind.

The mist and spray also make it difficult to see. If the wind is blowing in the right direction you may be able to see a couple of hundred meters down the gorge.

However it can suddenly switch and reduce visibility to a few yards. When you also add in the problem of the sun glaring in the mist it gets even more difficult.

It's not all about the natural wonders of the falls though. The area around the falls is also a haven for adrenalin junkies. Quite a few of our fellow truckies indulged in some of the more extreme activities. We would have loved to have had a go but our budget was a little tight . . . or were we too chicken?

At 111 meters, the bungee jump from the Victoria Falls Bridge is the third highest in the world giving you about 4 seconds of free-fall.

The bungee also included a go on the rather terrifying looking bridge swing and the flying fox, a sort of death slide across the gorge.

Living it up in Livingstone

After 3 days on the road, arriving in Livingstone felt like crossing the finishing line at the end of a marathon.

Thanks to some roadworks, a large part of the journey on the final day had been over dirt tracks. When we finally stepped off the truck it looked like we had just come out of a sand storm. Everyone was absolutely filthy and had a nice head to foot coating of fine red dust. Thankfully we didn't look too out of place as we were staying at a campsite called Grubby's Grotto, which was both grubby and grotty.

The best thing about Grubby's is that it's fairly close to town, meaning that we could easily walk into Livingstone for some entertainment. On Wednesday evening 18 of us hit the town for a very cold drink at an open air club called Steprite. Luckily we were able to get a charcoal burner to huddle round to keep warm. Who would have thought that Africa could be so cold!

Last night all 22 of us went into town for an evening at a really quirky 1930's cinema called the Capitol. On a Thursday they have a special offer where you get to see two films and have a meal for the bargain price of about £3.50. We got to see the very funny Jim Carey film Yes Man and the very long Baz Lurman flick Australia. For those who have seen Australia, the Hugh Jackman character Drover and our truck driver Gav are indistinguishable from each other.

The cinema was a proper old school affair with a big balcony and tatty red velvet seats. We even had an introductory spiel from the manager and an interval where the usherette came round with drinks and snacks. When was the last time you saw service like that in a cinema back home? The only thing missing was the Pearl and Dean theme music and we would have been right back in the 70's.

Today we officially left the overland expedition and struck out on our own again. Although the truck will be in Livingstone until the 20th, and we'll be here until the 21st, we needed to find some alternative accommodation. In total 3 of us are leaving the trip here but as 9 more people are joining we needed to make way and give our tent back. We've moved across town to a place called Jollyboys where for the first time in two weeks we have 4 walls, a roof over our heads and the luxury of a proper bed. Good times!

As we left Grubby's our fellow truckies departed for an evening booze cruise, which Amy had declared to be a fancy dress event. Everyone had bought costumes for each other from a market back in Malawi and some of the results were more than a little scary.

Now that we've left the truck we've got to start thinking for ourselves again. All the exciting stuff like how to get from A to B, where to go to eat and what to do to entertain ourselves. Tomorrow night we're probably going to take in the excitement of the Capitol cinema again (they're showing Twilight) and then on Sunday evening we're going to go back over to Grubby's to say goodbye to the expedition before they depart for Botswana in the morning.

Truck off

We've decided to end our journey with the overland truck in Livingstone and cut short our stay in Africa. We're going to stay in Livingstone until the 21st July and then catch a flight down to Cape Town in South Africa. We'll probably stay there for a week to 10 days before heading back over to Asia.

The overland truck has been a great way to travel through Africa and is certainly a lot better than traveling independently. It's probably the best way to travel here unless you have your own vehicle. It allows you to get to all the main tourist sites without having to spend days on the dirty, dangerous and overcrowded local transport. Best of all, by camping, you avoid the filthy, grubby and overpriced budget accommodation that's usually stuck in some dangerous part of town. We were also incredibly lucky to have such a great bunch of people to share the overland truck experience with.

So why are we leaving if it's such a great way to travel? The main reason is cost, Africa is just too dam expensive! Traveling on the overland truck is cheaper than when we were going under our own steam but we're still spending over twice our daily budget. To stay in Africa for another couple of months will wipe out our money. The only solution is to escape back to Asia where the costs of being a tourist are significantly less.

Another deciding factor is the weather. Joining the overland truck has meant that we were heading South through Africa earlier than we originally expected. This means that we're here smack bang in the middle of winter rather than the spring time. The daytime temperatures have been fine but once the sun sets it can get really cold, and it will get worse as we head further South. Gav, our driver, used the word "brutal" to describe how the weather will be when we get to Namibia. Camping in the cold isn't particularly fun, especially when you don't really have cold weather winter gear with you.

The long road to Livingstone

We left South Luangwa on Monday morning and set out on the 3 day journey to our next destination, Livingstone and the Victoria Falls. Zambia is deceptively large, about the size of England, Ireland and France combined and unfortunately we had to make our way from one side to the other. The Lonely Planet warns of the fun that we were in for, "Zambia is a gargantuan country, many of the roads are crap, and transport is frustratingly slow."

When we left Croc Camp we stopped at the local village of Mfuwe for some slightly unusual meat for that evenings dinner. The local hippo population is a little out of control and requires an annual cull to keep things in check. This year there are licences for the killing of 800 hippo, the steaks of which are on sale for the bargain price of $3 a kilo. We decided that when in Rome. . .

That evening, when we camped at Mama Rula's Camp in Chipata, we fired up the jico stoves and had a gourmet dinner of grilled peppered hippo steaks.

Here's Glen with a nice loin of hippo.

So what does hippo taste like? It was actually really nice with a taste and texture that were very similar to beef.

The next day was an early start, on the road at 7am for the 8 hour drive to Lusaka, the capital of Zambia. Lusaka is a really ugly city and looks like it was built by some mad communist architect who's buildings were too ugly for a Siberian gulag!

Thankfully we were staying a few miles out of the city at a great campsite called Eureka where we were visited by zebra and antelope as we sat around the fire after dinner.

Our final day on the road in the truck was another 8 hour slog as we made our way to Livingstone which we would use as a base for visiting Victoria Falls.

South Luangwa National Park

Our stay at Croc Village Camp in the South Luangwa National Park turned out to be quite eventful for a number of reasons.

The location of the campsite, on the bank of the Luangwa River right on the boarder of the national park, was fantastic. In order to keep you on your toes the campsite was unfenced. This meant that all the animals from the park were free to roam into and around the campsite. It provided us with some great wildlife viewing opportunities.

Every night a herd of hippos came into camp to munch on the grass around the tents. We also heard, but thankfully, didn't see lions. I'm not sure how resistant our canvas tents are to an attack from a hungry lion. As if that wasn't dangerous enough the river bank at the side of the camp was lined with crocodiles. Apparently 4 locals from the village have been munched in the last 5 years!

We were also visited on a number of occasions by a herd of wild elephants. We were even able to spend a morning following them on foot after they wandered into camp.


On our last morning there we were woken by a troupe of monkeys who were using our tent as a slide in order to get out of a tree.

The monkeys had been causing havoc around the campsite earlier in the week. When we went on a game drive on Saturday morning they broke into our kitchen supplies and made off with a box of cornflakes, a packet of biscuits and the sugar bowl. Dan tried to get some revenge by setting a monkey trap but they must have been full after eating our breakfast . . . or maybe too clever for our dumb contraption!

Unfortunately the monkeys weren't the only creatures who where interested in a bit of stealing. As the campsite was unfenced it also meant that the local thieving scumbags, as well as the wildlife, were free to roam through the camp.

In the early hours of Sunday morning Adam and Annie's tent got robbed whilst they where asleep in it. The thieves unzipped the tent and managed to get away with 3 cameras (with all their photos on), an Ipod, toiletries bag, Annie's handbag and Adam's passport. They then tried the same trick on Matt and Nike's tent but luckily Matt woke up and disturbed them before they got in.

Whilst we were staying at Croc Camp we also did a couple of game drives into the South Luangwa National Park. The wildlife wasn't quite as plentiful as in Kenya and Tanzania but we still saw a fair few animals.


And the scenery was quite spectacular too.

One of the things that made the experience a little different was the use of open sided vehicles.

Great for taking pictures but very nerve wracking when there's a wild lion about 6ft away from your leg.

One of the big draws at South Luangwa is that it's one of the few parks to offer night time drives. They start at dusk and carry on into the evening searching out the animals with a giant spotlight. This gives you a chance at seeing some of the harder to see nocturnal animals. Although photographing them is somewhat more challenging.

Nando's

After 3 days at Kande Beach we set out on Thursday morning for the 4 hour drive to the capital of Malawi, Lilongwe.

When the Lonely Planet describes somewhere as "hardly awash with excitement . . . isn't particularly interesting . . . soulless" then you know your in for a rip roaring time.

Thankfully we weren't stopping in Lilongwe for its tourist sights. It was simply a good place to re-stock the truck and a the best place to camp for the evening between Lake Malawi and the boarder with Zambia.

The best thing we could find to say about Lilongwe is that it has a Nando's . . . and we don't even like Nando's!

Ordinarily you would have to pay us to go into a Nando's. We both despise the greasy chicken based restaurant chain and are constantly amazed at their popularity. Whenever you see one in the UK there always seems to be a queue 50 people deep out of the door. We just don't get it. And what's that rubbish about having to fetch your own drinks?

Since we left Asia a month and a half ago the food, on average, has been so dull that even Nando's looked exciting. So we put our prejudices aside and went in for some lunch at the only fast food joint that we have so far seen in Africa. The verdict - ok it was tasty but you still won't see me in that 50 deep queue out of the door.

After de-greasing after Nando's we left the excitement of Lilongwe behind us and headed to Mbuya Camp on the outskirts of town for another evening of high altitude, low temperature camping.

Friday was going to be another fairly long one on the road with a 9 hour journey to our next stop at South Luangwa National Park. We were lucky to spot some wildlife before we finished loading the truck. This massive 4 inch long praying mantis was sat warning himself in the early morning sun as we prepared to leave Mbuya Camp.

Pig day and cooking complexity

Everyone had been looking forward to the Tuesday at Kande Beach, a day that had been officially designated as pig day. We bought a pig from the local village and had it slaughtered so that we could have a hog roast. After wiring the gutted but still warm porker to a spit we dug a fire pit and spent the next 10 hours cooking/drinking until it was ready.

Even if we say so ourselves, the results were quite spectacular. Little Percy went down very well indeed! Even Simon Harrison would have been proud of our results.

The following day was our nominated cook day. In pairs, everyone has to take it in turns to cook dinner for the other people on the truck. Cooking for 22 can be quite challenging at the best of times but when you have to cook over a charcoal powered jico stove it adds another dimension of difficulty.

Just to make things even more tricky you also have to provide a veggie option too. We decided to do a beef and a vegetable chili.

Shopping proved to be quite a challenge as we weren't sure of the quantities that are needed to feed 22. We ended up buying far too much stuff and probably cooked enough for 40. At least there was some left for seconds . . . and breakfast! Best of all it looks like we haven't managed to poison anyone.

Apart from cooking and eating we had hoped to be able to do some freshwater snorkelling whilst we were at Kande Beach. Lake Malawi is supposed to be one of the best freshwater dive sites in the world with over 500 species of fish, more than any other inland body of water. However, most of the time we were there it was quite windy which caused large waves to be whipped up on the shoreline making it too rough to get a boat out. If you swim out from the shore there is the risk of bilharzia, a minute worn that can penetrate your skin and migrate to to your bladder. From there it can cause anything from a rash to kidney failure. We decided to give it a miss.

The one thing that nobody was able to avoid at Kande Beach was the dodgy electrics. Something had gone seriously astray with the wiring on site which resulted in the destruction of 1 phone charger a couple of camera battery chargers and nearly everyone getting electrocuted in the shower.

Truck on

We were sat relaxing at Mikadi Beach last Thursday afternoon when an overland truck jammed full of loud and obnoxious kids pulled in. The group also contained possibly the loudest Irish woman on the face of the Earth who's best mate had one of those Cybil Fawlty "machine gunning a seal" laughs. To say that our hearts sank was a bit of an understatement. We were thinking that we wouldn't be able to stand the evening in the bar in their company, let alone a fortnight squashed into a truck.

We breathed a huge sigh of relief when we found out that they weren't with our truck but a different one. Thankfully when our truck pulled in we were greeted by a really nice bunch of people.

So who's on the truck? In total there's 22 of us including the driver, Gavin, and his assistant/fixer, Summer. There's also 3 Americans (Alan, Mandy and Dan), 2 South Africans (Grant and Sue), 3 Kiwis (Jarred, Amy and Glen), 6 Aussies (Mat, Adam, Annie, V, Sam, and Adriana), 1 Italian/Australian (Mike), 1 Maltese/Australian (Nike) and 2 other Brits (Humza and Gaj - although Gaj does claim to be a Sri Lankan prince!)

After briefly meeting our travelling companions we retired to bed for an early night in preparation for a 5am start the following morning. The first 2 days on the truck were set to be the most difficult. 2 consecutive days of 12 hours on the road in order to cover the 850km to get across Tanzania and into Malawi. When we set off at 5am on Friday morning it felt a little bit like we were a bunch of Albanian refugees trying to escape from Sangate in the back of a lorry.

Part of the drive on that first day was through the Mikumi National Park. With the sides of the truck rolled up we had an excellent view of the wildlife and managed to spot elephants, giraffe, zebra, antelope and monkeys. We then made our way into the mountains to camp for the evening at a place called The Old Farmhouse near Iringa. The camp site was really good and was built around a fantastic Bedouin style tented bar. The only problem was that because of the altitude it was bloomin' freezing. We think it's quite possibly the coldest conditions we've ever camped in. Yes, it was even colder than North Devon.

After a freezing night in the tent we then had the pleasure of another 5am start (Liz is absolutely loving these early mornings) as we headed for Malawi.

Just before the boarder we had an interesting encounter at a filling station with a guy called Mr Cool (we're not sure if it's his real name) who became the unofficial black market money changer for the the truck. By using Mr Cool we managed to change our money over at a rate that was significantly better than the banks and currency exchanges. The only danger now is that we're all sat on a pile of counterfeit Malawi Kwacha.

Once over the boarder we made our way to the village of Chitimba on the shore of Lake Malawi. The lake is absolutely massive, 500km long and nearly 100km wide. Standing on the shore with it's golden yellow sand it feels more like a sea than a lake.

The following day those who were feeling fit (or stupid) enough took a 9 hour hike into the surrounding mountains to visit the Manchewe falls, a 50m high waterfall with a cave behind it. Apparently the local villagers used to use the cave to hide in when the slave traders passed through.

The next morning we hit the road again for the half day drive South down the lake to Kande Beach where we would be staying for 3 nights.

Mikadi Beach

We thought that we were somewhere fairly isolated when we were in Jambiani but we perhaps didn't realise quite how isolated it was until we had been back in Dar es Salaam for a day. It wasn't until the morning of the 30th June, a full 5 days after it had been reported, that we found out Michael Jackson had died! We are probably the last two people in the world to hear the news.

After recovering from the previous days horrors induced by the Zanzibar ferry we had a fairly hectic day at the shops trying to sort out the things we would need for when we joined the overland truck. We'll be camping and although the tents are provided we have to bring our own sleeping gear. We jumped in a taxi and headed off out to find the Tanzanian equivalent of Asda. We ended up having to make a jaunt to Mlimani City Mall which is Dar es Salaams biggest out of town shopping centre. It was just like a trip to Merry Hill, a load of disappointing shops in the back end of nowhere. Thankfully we were able to find our camping essentials and got kitted out with an overpriced air bed, pump and duvet.

We then made our way over to Mikadi Beach, which is a few miles South of Dar, where we had a couple of days before meeting up with our overland truck.

When we checked in at Mikadi Beach we were told that because they were full we had been upgraded from our beach front banda to the honeymoon suite . . . or honeymoon straw hut.

We had plenty of wildlife to keep us company. We had a flock of bats roosting in the porch and a swarm of mosquitos feast on our limbs. The mossies were so bad that we had to "double bag" the bed with 2 mosquito nets.

Despite the mossies the accommodation at Mikdi Beach is the first accommodation that we've had in the whole of Africa that has felt like good value for money. For once we are somewhere that is clean and with good facilities that doesn't cost a fortune.

It is also the first beach we've been to since Torquay where no one has tried to sell us anything. We'd forgotten how relaxing it could be sat on a beach without continually being asked if you would like a massage, drink, ice cream, mango, wood carving, coconut, sarong, t-shirt, pineapple, some henna, some jewelry, some shells or a snorkelling or dolphin watching trip. However; Liz would love a copy of Heat magazine for all the Jacko gossip . . . Where are those bloody beach vendors when you need them!

We're guessing that the only reason why there's no vendors here is because it's too dangerous and even they fear a good mugging. There are warning signs all around the camp.

And just in case you forget when you are on the loo, the back of every toilet door is emblazoned with "WARNING! INSIDE CAMP = SAFE. OUTSIDE CAMP = NOT SAFE". The closest internet cafe is about a two minute walk back out of the camp onto the main road. Even for a walk this short they recommend that you take one of the camp's security guards with you.

Because the Masai are renown as fearsome warriors many of them work as security guards, more often than not dressed in their traditional clothes. Since we arrived in Kenya over a month ago virtually everywhere we've stayed has had Masai security guards. It's now got to the point where it doesn't feel safe unless there's a club wielding Masai within 50 yards!