This is real Africa

Hello people

At the moment I am in Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi. In the last 2 weeks Linda and I have been crossing Botswana and Zambia and what a ride it was!!!

After my return in Port Alfred from Cape Town with Hans and the Toyota Hilux 4x4 D/C aka “The Beast” I had 3 days to buy some last things for the car like a jack for lifting the car, 2 new tyres, a bed in the back and some other things. It felt good being back and to see my fellow students again. Many of the Humanitarian group left already travelling through South Africa but all of the other Dutch and South Africa students were there and everybody was planning to leave on that Thursday the 2^nd of July just like me.

Erik a friend of mine was also planning to go to Johannesburg and he would be driving with me the 1200 km in 2 days time. Said goodbye that morning to some people on the campus and thanked the coordinators for the awesome stay at their campus. For many students these 10 or 20 weeks were their highlight of South Africa but mine it was just the early breakfast of the huge dinner called Africa. ;)

That night we slept in a small town called Windburg just passed Bloemfontein and the day after we drove to Johannesburg where I would stay at Kas a friend I met 2 months earlier while travelling near Lesotho. But first I had to go to the AA (Automobile Association) to pick up my Carnet de Passage, this 10 page documents has all the details of the car on it and it helps with crossing borders and for some it is even necessary to have or else a South African car is not allowed in that country.

After driving around Johannesburg to find it we got stuck in some serious traffic jams but finally I managed to drop Erik of at his girlfriend’s place and I made my way to Kas his place inside a huge gate were my car would be safe. Quite necessary in one of the most dangerous cities in the world.

Linda had a delay of an hour and a half so I could sleep a bit more, she finally arrived around 11:30 at Johannesburg International Airport. After only seeing each other on web cam with shitty connection it felt good to have her back for our huge Africa trip.

The next 2 days we stayed in the northern province of Limpopo to rest and buy some camping equipment before crossing into Botswana were we stayed at a Rhino Sanctuary seeing about 8 rhinos and other wild animals.

As you might ask how can we sleep in the back of our car when it is only 1.20m by 1.50m and 0.50m high but diagonal it is about 1.85m and when you zip 2 sleeping bags together you manage.

When we headed up more north we experienced the mosquito’s so I created a net inside the back to prevent us from being bitten. We are not taking any malaria pills as a few doctors told us that it is very bad for your health when being in malaria region for 9 months. It is safer to get malaria and then treat it with medicines which takes 3 days which we carry with us, this way you build up some resistance against the disease.

Botswana is an enormous country with less then 2 million people in it, we found that the people were not that friendly and the prices were almost European and the amazing Victoria Waterfalls in Zambia were waiting for us. In general the roads in Botswana were really good. The last 80 km we encountered the pothole roads which make Africa so infamous for.

As the South Africa-Botswana border was hassle free the Zambia border wasn’t. This 750m crossing over the Zambezi river on a small ferry was extraordinary and when we reached the Zambia side we had to visit 5 counters to get all of our paper work done. 208 dollars in total; 50$ for a visa each, 20$ for the ferry, 20$ for road tax, then carbon tax, then third party insurance. But with the friendly Zambians on our side it took us less then an hour. Arrived in the small city Livingstone we checked in a nice hostel where we stayed for 3 nights. The following day the Victoria waterfalls were on our list. Just like the waterfalls between Brazil and Argentina, these falls are amazing. Raincoats were really necessary as we both got soaked wet even wearing them. A month has passed since my last two bungee jumps in south Africa. But the bridge jump between Zambia and Zimbabwe was yet on my list. What an amazing jump this was with a spectacular view over the Zambezi gorge.

Of course I heard of the sad news of Michael’s tragic death but amazingly I found in a cinema a live concert which they showed on a huge screen. Just amazing. After resting for 3 days in Livingstone we made our way to the north-east of Zambia.

Zambia is the real Africa: friendly people, dusty cities and friendly police officers. After overtaking a few cars on a part were I wasn’t really allowed to, the police stopped us, and we got a fine of 270 000 Kwacha equal to 50 euros. But with the least amount of hassling I got it for 50 000 Kwacha (about 7 Euro). Who says corruption is bad??? Changing our plan from first visiting the south Luanga national park which would cost us 75$, we headed to Malawi where we are staying now. After walking around a small market we bought some nice shirts and food. And some specific moments in life you buy the best things; and what did Linda find?.... an official McDonalds shirt for 13.000 kwacha not even 2 euros (check the photo with my white/red stripped shirt) How sweet is that and that in a country where there are no McDonalds!

The main difference between Botswana and here are the warmer nights, especially recognisable of the condense in our car the next morning, the friendlier people, the mosquitoes which are still hated really badly by Linda and the natural candies of cold sugar cane (type of bamboo stick were you suck the sugar water right out of).

Just been in Malawi for a day this country is easily classified as one of the poorest and most populated of Africa. Of the 12 million people, half of the population is under the age of 15. The car is still doing amazing and many people look back to see the German and Dutch flag shining in the front of our car.

Today the amazing Lake Malawi is waiting for us and we will chill out on the beach, doing completely nothing.

Again for photos check http://picasaweb.google.nl/jcopray/

Greets from amazing Africa.