Retrospect Southern Africa

May 2017

Retrospect 10.2014 to 05.2017

Southern Africa – wildlife paradise – imposing landscapes – encounter with simple, endearing people – a continent that elated us, but also stimulated reflection. 

SOUTH AFRICA

• Johannesburg „Jo’burg“, amazing, fascinating, ugly, millionaires villas, slums with shacks, compact traffic, morning and evening traffic jams for hours
• Purchase of vehicles with own traffic register number
• Kruger National Park, home of the Big 5

• Kwazulu Natal Province with stealing baboons, hopping hornbills, snakes, lizards, screaming, cuddly, sweet bush babies with mega-Bambi-eyes, lurking crocodile
• After the discovery caught fire purchase of the Land Cruiser; the bank of all places is scared of black money; theft safety and insurance are important topics in Africa.
• Cape Town with its Table Mountain and cute dassies
• Winelands Cape Region: «A meal without wine is called breakfast»; cellar tours with seductive wines; aromas of gooseberries, litchis and white peaches
• Franschhoek Motor Museum, fist class garage gold
• Cape of Good Hope, tourist hotspot
• Karoo with desert-like landscapes and golden quiver tree forest
• Garden Route, waves breaking on the cliffs; wild beaches; beautiful but touristy

BOTSWANA

• Central Kalahari Game Reserve, isolated, wide open spaces, Africa in its irresistible pureness
• Burning vehicle in the largest sand area worldwide on our first off-road tour followed by a complicated tow-in procedure
• Makgadikgadi Pans, extended lifeless land, solitude in the salt desert, Kubu Island with reddish grey granite formations and baobab trees, whose fruit grant super-powers
• Chobe National Park, boundless wilderness with hundreds of massive elephants, fragile giraffes, compact hippos, nought baboons, roaring lions, snapping crocodiles and a shy leopard
• Okavango-Delta, sunsets to kneel to, breath-taking, wildlife abundant marshes from a bird’s eye.

• Moremi Game Reserve, patch-work of lagoons, forests; water-crossings; elephant encounters in unfenced camp
• Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, rough and wild; orange red dune belts; green acacias; deep blue sky; cumulus clouds within reach; lioness at a successful oryx hunt followed by a bloody encounter with hyenas 
• Mabuasehube Game Reserve, life threatening close encounter with lion
• Daily beasty Africa – movie material; we love it!

NAMIBIA

• Picture-book landscapes
• Sossusvlei, glittering dune landscape in the unique desert with the Dead Vlei
• Spitzkoppe, dramatische Felsformationen wie riesige Marmeln im Sandkasten
• White Etosha Pan; wildebeest, zebras, antelopes, satisfied lions at the waterhole; lots of tourists with rental vehicles on the roads
• Small desert-dwelling elephants with longer legs and lager feet than the «normal» ones, they walk up to 70 km daily in search of water
• Off-roading in the Kaokoveld with visits to the half-naked Himba, covered with their brown «special lotion»
• Tyre loss of the Conqueror Commander in the Caprivi Strip with repeated African relaxation action and the thus inevitable damage

• Mbunza, a people at the Okavango, warrior dance, nearly back in trance just thinking of it

• Tiras Mountains and NamibRand Nature Reserve with unique landscapes and diamond starry skies
• Walvis Bay with fresh fish, breezy camping, ocean view from rocky half-island
• The desert is alive, Little five in nature conservation area

ZIMBABWE

• Lots of road blocks and sadly generally run-down infrastructure throughout the whole country
• Poor, friendly, black inhabitants and corrupt clan with and around Mugabe
• Matobo National Park, spectacular landscape with the grave of Cecil Rhodes
• Hwange National Park, large herds of elephant at water holes

• Lake Kariba, the world’s largest barrier lake with thousands of crocodiles
• Victoria Falls, impressive with its thundering smoke

ZAMBIA

• South and North Luangwa National Park, untouched nature with wildlife; hers of buffalo, steep roads and breath-taking vistas
• Tree-breaking elephants directly at the campsite
• Birds defending the nest with eggs against a green tree snakes at the Mutinondo Wilderness Lodge
• Luambe National Park with herds of grunting, mouth-opening Hippos

• Kapishya Hot Springs, relaxing in solitude and grand nature
• Authentic Africa feeling

TANZANIA

• Road blocks with burning tyres upon entering the country; waiting for the elections whilst camping on the helicopter landing spot at the Utengule Coffee Lodge
• Peponi Beach Lodge, daily fresh catch of the day on the menu; Dau race; pure sailing but no America Cup
• Tourist rip-off in the national parks
• 4 weeks Lake Malawi vacation at Matema-Beach celebrating our anniversary “10 years on tour“
• Oh yes, I nearly forgot: Malaria of Edy at the Blue Canoe Lodge, short but violent, luckily without any repercussions

MALAWI

• Zomba Plateau, that after deforestation has been declared as forest conservation area
• Completely overloaded Buffalo Bikes; millions of devastatingly poor people; far too many very young, poor mothers
• Eagles Nest with grand sunsets at the Malawi Lake horizon
• Real Africa pure - poor

MOZAMBIQUE

• Lucky; crossing the conflict areas in the north without negative experiences
• Walks along secluded, sandy beaches

• Traditional villages, extended families are living on little space in mud huts under poor conditions
• Large, empty hotel and camping resorts; melancholy when we think about previous visits

SWAZILAND

• Valleys, hills and little towns
• Tragic Africa, rich and poor; the corrupt king lives with his many wives ostentatiously and extravagantly whilst the people live in severe poverty
• Mantenga Cultural Village, harmonic choral singing and wild, traditional dances 

Unforgettable travel experiences after sometimes intensive and adventurous 31 months on the road - we are ecstatic about the next stage – our life – our adventure!

 NOTING IS IMPOSSIBLE