Ok, so I've just been on the most amazing trip of my life, lets see if I count recount some of the fun I've had and maybe inspire some of you to do a similar trip. My trip took me on a 5000km journey from the spleandours of Cape Town, up through the deserts of Namibia and the deltas of Botswana to the Victoria falls of Zimbabwe, one of the seven natural wonders of the world.
Day one was Cape Town, a night in a lodge to meet my other fellow travellers. We had people from all over the world and it turned out in the end that we were very lucky, we got on , had great fun and I've made friends I'll keep forever.
Day two was a journey up to Lamberts bay, mostly just driving through the East coast of South Africa. Our camp site was surrounded by razor wire, get used to this in southern africa. It didn't look like it did that much good since you could see where people had used a matteress to get in over it any way. The most secure places to stay in have 1500 volt electric fences to keep people out! We went ot a great outdoor restraunt specialising in seafood, R100 eat all you want.
Day three was the final stage in South Africa upto Orange River, the boarder with Namibia. Swimming in the river followed with drinking in the bar. Had a laugh getting to know another group doing an overland tour with a different company which were doing a very similar tour and we would bump into throughout the rest of the trip.
Day four was a short drive to Fish river canyon, the second biggest canyon in the world after the Grand Canyon. On the way stopped at Ai-Ais, which translates to Ow-ow. Water comes out of thermal springs at 60+ degrees C. The swimming pool was as hot as a bath which is not what you need when the temperature is 40+ degrees! The canyon was impressive, but so was the dangerous scorpion I was confronted with in the bowl of the sink when attempting to brush my teeth. Not to mention the two inch long armoured cricket or gekos eating insects in the loo.
Day five was a hot and long drive up to Sessriem. Here we camped out and the next day got up at 5am and drove into Sossusflay. We walked up Dune 45 for sunrise.
They have the biggest dunes in the world here reaching up to 350 metres. The sand is this great orangey red colour due to all the iron contained in the sand which rusts and the dunes do not move as the wind blows from one direction for half a year and the other the second half, so all they do is get bigger. It was absolutely exhausting climbing the dune but the view was well worth it. Running down after was a lot quicker! After sunrise we went right in to the flay and were taken on a bushman walk. The guide had grown up in Namibia and learnt all about the desert from the remenants of the true bush men, the San. These people lead a harsh life of pure survival in the desert - so harsh that they were known to leave young children behind when a hunter made a kill and the group had to make the long walk over the dunes to reach the meat - thoes that could not keep up were left behind, better the mother survives to have more children!! 
The highlight of the walk was the dead valley. This is a section of the flay that had been completely sealed off from the river that occours once every ten years, by a dune completely crossing its path. There is a great flat area with a white, broken limestone sand floor with dead trees standing there for 600 to 900 years - not enough moisture for them to rot.
This place was striking, very eerie. Watch the film The Cell, there are scenes shot there. We had to be out by 10am since it gets to hot after that, the air can reach 50 and the sand 80! For me this was one of the highlights of the trip, one of the things I said I wanted to do was see the deserts of Namibia and I was not dissapointed. Namibia has such an incredible landscape.
Day seven was a long drive to Swakupmound and two nights in lodge, much appreciated after all that camping. In swakupmound I got very drunk both nights and threw myself out of a plane at 10000 feet - he,he,he. Got the video to prove it and all.
Day 9 was a long drive Etosha National Park in the north of Namibia. We had two days and three game drives here and saw Lions (with cubs), Rhino, Wilderbeest, Hartebeest, Gemsbok, Giraffe, Impala, Warthog, Zebra, Elephant, Jackal, Hyena, Springbok, Springbok and more Springbok. I could bore you for ages about all the animals but to be honest nature documentary is gonna do a lot better than me!
On day 11 we moved on to the Waterberg Plateau National Park. Here we took a short (but very hot and sweaty) hike from our camp site up to the plateau. Impressive views, see my photos. Also we were pleased with clean showers and oh my god, grass to pitch our tents on!
Day 12 we moved on through Wintock, the capital of Namibia where we dropped someone off and picked up four others for the next stage of the trip through Botswana. We left Windhoek for Gobabis where we decided to cook rather than go out to a resteraunt. For the whole trip the majority of our meals were prepared by our guide Morgi. All meals were prepared out of the truck and over camp fires and we were amazed at the meals he would concoct, anyone would have thought he had a complete kitchen with staff on hand. We all got fat. When we cooked we discovered how hard it is cooking for 18 people over camp fires. We did a good job, tasted great, only didn't eat until 10! Still it was great fun and everybody got drunk.
Day 13 and into Botswana. Slightly less barbed wire, less white people, less hassle in the towns. More mud huts, but maybe with a sattelite dish or a mercades parked out side! Donkeys and elephants to contend with on the road, lazy disinterested service from the Botswanese (however I liked it here, layed back, less hassel). We camped at Maun, gateway to the Okavango Delta. For me this bit of the trip was a complete unknown, I had no idea I was going to be in otswana before I left home and had never heard of the okovango delta. It turned out to be one of the best bits of the trip. The delta is formed by the okovango river which is the only river in the world which does not reach the sea, it just gets soaked up into the sands of the kalahari desert of central botswana. I was extrvegant here and took a scenic flight in a small plane over the delta which was well worth it. I felt like I was in a nature documentary, flying over elephants and hippos and buffalo and more.
Days 14 and 15 were one of the highlights of the trip, a tast of real africa. We were taken into the delta by mokoros, small dug out canoes. I have far to much to say about this than I can say here but basically we drove for 2 hours in a 4x4 where we were met by local villagers and then us and all our stuff were loaded into mokoros and polled into the delta. We made a camp - and this is in the wild here, no fences! We were taken on walking safaris where we got to within 50m of elephants! We went swimming in the delta and could hear hippos snorting 800m away. I had a go at polling a mokoro and I think that may be next proffesion! We went to the hippo pool on mokoros - a bit nerve racking. The days we were in the delta was christmas day and boxing day, Morgi cooked us two turkeys over a camp fire! We could hear lions roaring at night, had torential rain, lightening, thunder like it was the end of the world and sun to dry out the next day! This was great, a real adventure, ask me about this and I'll tell you more over a beer!
The next eventfull day was when we reached Chobe National Parkhaving passed through Nata. We went on a river cruise and saw heards of elephant, hippo, crocodiles and more. It was incredible, dramatic thunderous skys, wildlife real close, check the photos!
On day 18 we reached the Victoria falls where we would spend the last few days of our trip. I went rafting on the best river in the world for rafting, it was so good but I am definatley coming back in september when you can do the whole river and vitually all the rapids are grade five and above! The falls were impressive, check my photos. However money in Zimbabwe is a nightmare. There currency is constatly devaluing so people want foreign currency. This creates a black market where you can change your money for up to 10 times the official rate. This should make Zimbabwe a really cheap country however since every one knows you change your currency on the black market they change their prices accordingly (in vic falls any way, I expect things would be better out side of this purely tourist town), this means you could theoretically end up paying $60 for a pizza!
Not a great end to the trip in some ways but hey, it was new years eve so all was soon forgotten! This was a trip of a life time made all the better by the guides and friends I travelled with. I will never forget this trip. If you go to southern africa, do smething similar!
Day one was Cape Town, a night in a lodge to meet my other fellow travellers. We had people from all over the world and it turned out in the end that we were very lucky, we got on , had great fun and I've made friends I'll keep forever.
Day two was a journey up to Lamberts bay, mostly just driving through the East coast of South Africa. Our camp site was surrounded by razor wire, get used to this in southern africa. It didn't look like it did that much good since you could see where people had used a matteress to get in over it any way. The most secure places to stay in have 1500 volt electric fences to keep people out! We went ot a great outdoor restraunt specialising in seafood, R100 eat all you want.
Day three was the final stage in South Africa upto Orange River, the boarder with Namibia. Swimming in the river followed with drinking in the bar. Had a laugh getting to know another group doing an overland tour with a different company which were doing a very similar tour and we would bump into throughout the rest of the trip.
Day four was a short drive to Fish river canyon, the second biggest canyon in the world after the Grand Canyon. On the way stopped at Ai-Ais, which translates to Ow-ow. Water comes out of thermal springs at 60+ degrees C. The swimming pool was as hot as a bath which is not what you need when the temperature is 40+ degrees! The canyon was impressive, but so was the dangerous scorpion I was confronted with in the bowl of the sink when attempting to brush my teeth. Not to mention the two inch long armoured cricket or gekos eating insects in the loo.Day five was a hot and long drive up to Sessriem. Here we camped out and the next day got up at 5am and drove into Sossusflay. We walked up Dune 45 for sunrise.
They have the biggest dunes in the world here reaching up to 350 metres. The sand is this great orangey red colour due to all the iron contained in the sand which rusts and the dunes do not move as the wind blows from one direction for half a year and the other the second half, so all they do is get bigger. It was absolutely exhausting climbing the dune but the view was well worth it. Running down after was a lot quicker! After sunrise we went right in to the flay and were taken on a bushman walk. The guide had grown up in Namibia and learnt all about the desert from the remenants of the true bush men, the San. These people lead a harsh life of pure survival in the desert - so harsh that they were known to leave young children behind when a hunter made a kill and the group had to make the long walk over the dunes to reach the meat - thoes that could not keep up were left behind, better the mother survives to have more children!! 
The highlight of the walk was the dead valley. This is a section of the flay that had been completely sealed off from the river that occours once every ten years, by a dune completely crossing its path. There is a great flat area with a white, broken limestone sand floor with dead trees standing there for 600 to 900 years - not enough moisture for them to rot.
This place was striking, very eerie. Watch the film The Cell, there are scenes shot there. We had to be out by 10am since it gets to hot after that, the air can reach 50 and the sand 80! For me this was one of the highlights of the trip, one of the things I said I wanted to do was see the deserts of Namibia and I was not dissapointed. Namibia has such an incredible landscape.
Day seven was a long drive to Swakupmound and two nights in lodge, much appreciated after all that camping. In swakupmound I got very drunk both nights and threw myself out of a plane at 10000 feet - he,he,he. Got the video to prove it and all.
Day 9 was a long drive Etosha National Park in the north of Namibia. We had two days and three game drives here and saw Lions (with cubs), Rhino, Wilderbeest, Hartebeest, Gemsbok, Giraffe, Impala, Warthog, Zebra, Elephant, Jackal, Hyena, Springbok, Springbok and more Springbok. I could bore you for ages about all the animals but to be honest nature documentary is gonna do a lot better than me!
On day 11 we moved on to the Waterberg Plateau National Park. Here we took a short (but very hot and sweaty) hike from our camp site up to the plateau. Impressive views, see my photos. Also we were pleased with clean showers and oh my god, grass to pitch our tents on!Day 12 we moved on through Wintock, the capital of Namibia where we dropped someone off and picked up four others for the next stage of the trip through Botswana. We left Windhoek for Gobabis where we decided to cook rather than go out to a resteraunt. For the whole trip the majority of our meals were prepared by our guide Morgi. All meals were prepared out of the truck and over camp fires and we were amazed at the meals he would concoct, anyone would have thought he had a complete kitchen with staff on hand. We all got fat. When we cooked we discovered how hard it is cooking for 18 people over camp fires. We did a good job, tasted great, only didn't eat until 10! Still it was great fun and everybody got drunk.
Day 13 and into Botswana. Slightly less barbed wire, less white people, less hassle in the towns. More mud huts, but maybe with a sattelite dish or a mercades parked out side! Donkeys and elephants to contend with on the road, lazy disinterested service from the Botswanese (however I liked it here, layed back, less hassel). We camped at Maun, gateway to the Okavango Delta. For me this bit of the trip was a complete unknown, I had no idea I was going to be in otswana before I left home and had never heard of the okovango delta. It turned out to be one of the best bits of the trip. The delta is formed by the okovango river which is the only river in the world which does not reach the sea, it just gets soaked up into the sands of the kalahari desert of central botswana. I was extrvegant here and took a scenic flight in a small plane over the delta which was well worth it. I felt like I was in a nature documentary, flying over elephants and hippos and buffalo and more. 
Days 14 and 15 were one of the highlights of the trip, a tast of real africa. We were taken into the delta by mokoros, small dug out canoes. I have far to much to say about this than I can say here but basically we drove for 2 hours in a 4x4 where we were met by local villagers and then us and all our stuff were loaded into mokoros and polled into the delta. We made a camp - and this is in the wild here, no fences! We were taken on walking safaris where we got to within 50m of elephants! We went swimming in the delta and could hear hippos snorting 800m away. I had a go at polling a mokoro and I think that may be next proffesion! We went to the hippo pool on mokoros - a bit nerve racking. The days we were in the delta was christmas day and boxing day, Morgi cooked us two turkeys over a camp fire! We could hear lions roaring at night, had torential rain, lightening, thunder like it was the end of the world and sun to dry out the next day! This was great, a real adventure, ask me about this and I'll tell you more over a beer!
The next eventfull day was when we reached Chobe National Parkhaving passed through Nata. We went on a river cruise and saw heards of elephant, hippo, crocodiles and more. It was incredible, dramatic thunderous skys, wildlife real close, check the photos!
On day 18 we reached the Victoria falls where we would spend the last few days of our trip. I went rafting on the best river in the world for rafting, it was so good but I am definatley coming back in september when you can do the whole river and vitually all the rapids are grade five and above! The falls were impressive, check my photos. However money in Zimbabwe is a nightmare. There currency is constatly devaluing so people want foreign currency. This creates a black market where you can change your money for up to 10 times the official rate. This should make Zimbabwe a really cheap country however since every one knows you change your currency on the black market they change their prices accordingly (in vic falls any way, I expect things would be better out side of this purely tourist town), this means you could theoretically end up paying $60 for a pizza!Not a great end to the trip in some ways but hey, it was new years eve so all was soon forgotten! This was a trip of a life time made all the better by the guides and friends I travelled with. I will never forget this trip. If you go to southern africa, do smething similar!
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