We konden Malawi, dat zichzelf graag “The warm heart of Africa” noemt, binnenrijden. We reden naar een hele mooie plek vlakbij Livingstonia met fraai uitzicht over Lake Malawi. Daarvoor moesten we wel eerst 10 kilometer een berg oprijden via 22 haarspeldbochten over een heel matig weggetje; zelfs de low gearing moest ingeschakeld worden. De plek werd gerund door een vriendelijke Belg die het grootste deel van zijn leven in Afrika had doorgebracht en ons veel nuttige informatie gaf over onder meer andere plekken waar we naar toe konden gaan. De lodges en camping die hij heeft opgebouwd (Lukwe) zijn zeker een aanrader. Nu Chris er was schakelden we wat meer over op de vakantiemodus en deden we het rustig aan. We hebben Livingstonia bekeken dat we bereikten na ruim 3 uur lopen en waar het uitzicht ook heel mooi was.
Finally we could enter Malawi, “the warm heart of Africa”. We drove to a very nice place near Livingstonia with great views over Lake Malawi. It’s called Lukwe and is built up by a friendly Belgian guy who gave us a lot of useful information and advices of other places to go to in Malawi. If you’re in Malawi, Lukwe is well worth visiting. Now that Chris was here for two weeks we decided to relax and take it easy. We walked to Livingstonia which took us about 3 hours where the view was also amazing.
The next destination was Kenda Beach where we arrived in the evening. Just before we wanted to go to sleep it started to rain like crazy and like we hadn’t seen yet until then. It would continue raining like this the whole night. The tent that Chris had borrowed was not suitable for this kind of rain and soon there was a small pool inside his tent. We placed it under a roof and covered it extra which was just enough. It took a couple of hours the next day to fix the road to the Beach Resort where we were staying since there was a hole of 1,5 meter deep in the road because of the rains. We chilled for a couple of days and spent time at the beach, played football, drank a few beers, smoked the shisha that we bought in Abu Dhabi, had good BBQ’s and socialized with a group who were on an organised trip with an overland truck. We found out that footballs are wanted and popular in Africa, as it had disappeared the following day.
After Kande we drove to Senga Bay that is also at Lake Malawi. We had a great walk at the beach meeting local fishermen who went fishing with heavily loaded boats (carrying smaller fisher boats made out of wood) and many enthusiastic kids performing hilarious poses for our camera. We bought two freshly caught butterfishes. At night there were hundreds of ants that were no problem for the rooftop tent on the Landcruiser but a big problem for the guy sleeping in his tent on the grass…
De bestemming was Wildlife Camp in South Luangwa National Park waar we naar toe reden na 250 liter diesel getankt en inkopen gedaan te hebben in Chipata. We zaten er gelijk middenin; we stonden aan de rivier waarin volop krokodillen en hippo’s zaten. ’s Nachts graasden de hippo’s naast onze tenten en een olifant stond bij de dichtstbijzijnde boom te grommen. Verder hoorden we huilende hyena’s en aapjes die waarschuwden voor, naar de volgende ochtend bleek, waarschijnlijk een luipaard met haar jong. Overdag liepen er volop apen rond over de camping dus we konden niks van eten laten slingeren. We wilden alles eruit halen en boekten een gamedrive, een bushwalk en een nacht gamedrive. De eerste gamedrive met gids Moses was gelijk een groot succes want we zagen 4 wilde honden! Hier leven er in Afrika waarschijnlijk nog maar zo’n 4000 van en de laatste keer dat onze gids ze had gezien was alweer 4 maanden geleden. Hij was net zo enthousiast als wij dus de achtervolging werd ingezet en we zagen fantastische situaties; ze renden achter elkaar over een savanneveld en tot in de wijde omtrek zag je groepen impala’s en zebra’s evenals groepen baboons de grootste mate van alertheid hebben; iedereen hield ze in de gaten en was klaar om te vluchten. Ook vloog er een groep aasgieren mee want die wilden er snel bij zijn als de wilde honden een succesvolle jacht zouden hebben. We hebben mooie foto’s kunnen schieten en ze van heel dichtbij kunnen zien, erg gaaf. Bij de nacht gamedrive hebben we hyena’s gezien en een groep van 3 mannetjes leeuwen. De bushwalk was ook heel goed, we hadden 2 zeer ervaren gidsen die ons over iedere soort boom, plant, mier, termiet, ontlasting etc. wel iets konden vertellen. Bijzonder om te zien hoe alles met elkaar samenhangt.
Tussen de gamedrives door werd de BBQ steevast aangestoken en hadden we topmaaltijden waaronder 1 met de in Malawi aangeschafte vis.
We hebben ook nog zelf een keer rondgereden en gingen af op een groep aasgieren die aan het rondcirkelen waren in de lucht. Ter plaatse ontdekten we een dode hyena die werd uitgevreten door de aasgieren en waarvan we later begrepen dat die gedood was door een val van stropers. Ook in dit 4e park in 4 verschillende landen dat we bezocht hebben waren de neushoorns overigens allang verdwenen door stroperij. In North Luangwa loopt een project ze weer te herintroduceren maar dit is zeer kostbaar omdat het gebied waar ze uitgezet worden omheind moet worden en continu bewaakt.
Na South Luangwa zijn we in 2 dagen naar Lusaka gereden waar Ali is afgezet op het vliegveld waar Wiep hem na een week weer op zou halen. Wiep en Chris hebben een paar dagen gerelaxt bij Pioneer Camp net buiten Lusaka en wat onderhoud gedaan aan de Landcruiser. Daarna heeft Wiep Chris op het vliegveld afgezet. Gelukkig attendeerde Wiep hem net op tijd op het meenemen van zijn paspoort. Mzungu Chris het was gezellig dat je er was en twee weken met ons hebt meegedaan met ons avontuur!
After a stop in Chipata for shopping and filling up the car with 250 litres of diesel we arrived in Wildlife Camp close to South Luangwa National Park, a great place at the river where many hippos and crocs live. At night we saw hippos grazing very close to our tents and there was an elephant just 5 meters away from the car. We heard the howling of hyenas and the screaming of monkeys because there was probably a leopard with her cub at the campsite, as we heard later. During the day there were many monkeys so we had to make sure we didn’t leave any food outside of the car. We booked an organised game drive, night drive and a bush walk. The first game drive with our guide Moses was very successful; we saw 4 wild dogs! There are probably only about 4000 wild dogs left in Africa and the last time Moses had seen them was already 4 months ago. He was as enthusiastic as we were and quickly followed the dogs with the car. We saw great wildlife scenes: all groups of impalas and zebras and baboons etc. were very cautious and continuously following the wild dogs, being ready to flight if necessary. A group of vultures followed the wild dogs in case they would hunt successfully. We got to see them from nearby and shot some good pictures.
At the night game drive we saw hyenas and a group of three male lions. The bushwalk was very good with two very experienced guides who told us everything about every tree, plant, faeces, ant, termite or whatever else we saw. It was very interesting to see how everything in nature is connected to each other.
In between the game drives and walks it was BBQ time and we had great meals, especially the butterfish from Lake Malawi was very good.
We also did a game drive ourselves and drove to a spot where a lot of vultures were circling in the air. We found a dead hyena that was being eaten out by the vultures. Later we heard a wire that was set up by poachers probably killed the hyena. Speaking of poaching, this was the 4th National Park we visited in 4 different countries, and in all of them rhino’s were distinct because of poaching. There is a program running in North Luangwa to re-introduce the rhinos but this is very expensive since the area where they are re-introduced has to be fenced and guarded 24/7.
After South Luangwa we drove to Lusaka in 2 days and dropped Ali at the airport where Wiep will pick him up again after a week. Wiep and Chris relaxed at Pioneer Camp near Lusaka and did some maintenance to the Landcruiser. Then Wiep dropped Chris at the airport. Luckily Wiep reminded Chris about his passport just in time… Mzungu Chris, it was really nice you’ve joined us for two weeks!
Wiep spent a full day at the inefficient Toyota garage in Lusaka for service to the car, solving a short-circuit problem and having the brake shoes of the back wheels renewed. Then he went to Lake Kariba for a few days and also maintained the whole inside of the car so we were ready to continue our trip to Cape Town.
After Wiep picked up Ali at the airport we decided that our next destination would be Lower Zambezi National Park in Zambia. We followed the route that tracks4africa showed us on our gps. At some point we saw that the next road was a “not recommended” road. Since we had already covered half the distance we decided to continue driving and see what the road would be like. In the beginning it was ok but the road started becoming narrower with more bends, and some parts were quite tough. Later on it got worse and we had to get out of the car multiple times to make a plan how to take this with our car, move stones, etc. One of us stayed out of the car to give instructions. On one part of the track there the car slipped heavily and we almost ended in a deep gutter. One wheel came loose for about half a meter but fortunately we made it after all. We doubted whether to continue but we didn’t have much choice. There were a few other hard parts and at one point we thought the car would turn over but fortunately this didn’t happen. We have a small movie which is not very high quality since Ali was walking backward and giving instructions at the same time.
route_lusaka_-_lower_zambezi.m4v |
Na zo’n 23.000 kilometer afgelegd te hebben gingen we verder naar het 20e land van deze reis: Zimbabwe.
It got dark so we really needed our Warn lights that helped us arriving safely on Kiambi campsite. An English couple with their Big Orange Bedford (www.bigorangebedford.com) who Wiep met earlier reserved a nice spot for us at the Zambezi. The next morning we saw how great this spot was, overlooking a bend of the river. We stayed for a couple of days and did a nice river cruise. We drove a bit further towards the Park but it was already like we were in the middle of it. On the campsite we stayed at there were elephants and at night hippos grazed next to our car. We had to watch out for the Vervet monkeys who were ready to steal anything if you would leave a window or a door of the car open. It was cool to see that it is possible that wild animals and people can live in the same area together. We spent a day in the National Park and saw great landscapes.
After travelling about 23.000 kilometres we continued to the 20th country of this trip: Zimbabwe.