Chilling by the lake and Plan C...

Well, tomorrow we move on from Senga Bay – our first long holiday! These last few days have been really great. We have a spot about 30m from the lake, the water is always warm and inviting, and our coffee machine is still working (surprisingly!)

Up until this morning, we were neighbours with a couple and their 5 year old daughter returning to Holland (www.terugdoorafrika.nl); a father & son from George on 2 month travels and a small overland crew on their way back south on their 24 day round trip.

As of this fine Christmas morning, and right up until 2am tomorrow morning (so we hear) we’re also neighbours with half of Lilongwe ... apparently the whole town has an agreement to go to Senga Bay (Steps Campsite) to enjoy the water, the sun, the parking facilities in the campsite and the tables & stuff that the campers leave lying around!!Basically it’s been like we’re camping on Clifton 4^th Beach for the day – but in Africa! (Actually very pleasant and happily festive). We moved upwards away from the campsite crowds to the hotel upperclass – where they charge you to swim and provide entertainment (singing & drums & dance through blown speakers) while you eat your buffet lunch. We booked a lunch table with our travelling neighbours from the 24^th; and shared our picnic table and braai grid, as well as Xan’s toys with our neighbours from the 25^th a bit later on when we found our Truck again amongst the growing crowd in the campsite.  It was quite an education on how other cultures celebrate Christmas.

So our time at the lake has been fantastic. The picture of the kids swimming with their clothes on is from the first late afternoon we got here – before we were even parked and plugged in to our site they were in the water clothes and all, and since Xan convinced himself that he CAN swim now, he’s been absolutely LOVING the water – he’s even taken up Stand Up Paddleboarding ... exotic beginning.  We’ve been enjoying having the PaddleBoard here with us, and even got in a few waves this morning after a night of stormy wet season wind swells.  Laura has enjoyed the peace of paddling without the stress of looking out for shark fins, the occasional imaginary hippo grunt is a bit unnerving though.

Hendrik & Alex & their daughter “Phine” (Josephine) have been great neighbours – the girls especially have enjoyed playing Barbie dolls, and dressing in their best dresses together. They’re 7 weeks into their 5 month journey back home to Holland after 4 years in SA building, running and now selling a game lodge in Hoedspruit. Trusty Landcruiser 70 s/w doing the job for them!

So our plans have changed again... now the latest (plan C) is that we’ll leave Max in Nairobi at Jungle Junction (a place where overlanders leave their trucks and cars and motorbikes while they go back home for a break ... long term secure storage) and we’ll fly home near the end of January, and return to Nairobbery sometime later (May onwards) to do plan M, N, O or P (Ethiopia? Uganda? Southern Africa? Sudan & Europe? Cairo?)... its great not having a plan!

Tomorrow (26^th) we’re heading further north to Nkhata Bay for another 3 day relax, and then we’ll head further north (past Koronga where the earthquake was) to a National Park (Nyika) and then Tanzania (Zanzibar, Serengeti, Ngorogoro) & then into Nairobi, Kenya. We’re driving straight past Kilimanjaro International Airport, and have 4 extra beds (roof top tents) with us if anyone wants a ride into Serengeti?

That’s it, we’re having a great time, and trust that you’re all having a good time too!

enjoy the rest of 2009...

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aah, the start of the holiday...

What a great 2 nights we've had relaxing and catching up ... suprisingly in a parking lot of a backpackers place in Blantyre! I was here at Doogles on my motorbike trip in 1998; Laura & I came here (and lost $1000) in 2000; and its pretty much exactly the same now in 2009! We've climbed out of the 40 degree lowlands (northern Moz & southern Malawi) and into the cooler highlands of Blantyre - it's amazing how refreshingly cool 27 degrees can feel after 40 degrees.

We've adjusted our plans for the next few weeks - instead of pushing into Tanzania & Rwanda, we'll spend more relaxed time at the lake, and in Zambia, so our rough plan is now:

 - Malawi lake (Senga, Nkhata Bay) & Nyika National Park for the rest of this year

 - Zambia (South Zambezi National Park & Vic Falls) till about 6 January

 - Namibia (Etosha & home) for the next week

 - and that leaves us with a week or two of spare days to fill in our trip as we wish! probably around the lake, but we're not sure.

If you know anyone who wants to rent the truck from us next year on a Cape Town to Nairobi holiday, please let us know - and we'll pick it up in Nairobi and do the Tanzania / Kenya / Rwanda part at that stage ... we're really stoked to be here now and very much enjoying the slower pace and the comfort & self sufficiency of our little family in the middle of where-ever we want to be! Fantastic!

There's always a story or two... we came into Malawi through a tiny border post on the southern most tip from Mozambique - a few delapidated buildings and a few "guards" sitting around waiting for the usual nothing to happen. On the Malawi side they were really friendly, but apparently didn't have the forms for a "Road Toll" and we didn't need 3rd party insurance because our normal policy has it ... we did get a Temp Import Permit (T.I.P) though. We were told we should head to the National Roads Authority in blantrye and pay the road toll - something between $50 and $100. 40km's from Blantyre we were stopped and asked for everything - road toll forms (even though at the border we were told that they can't stop us for that) T.I.P & 3rd party. 

So apparently we had made 2 offences and that would cost 10 000 kwacha - and the cop wouldn't take the R500 or the $60 that we had ... so I was told to sit with him at his little booth with about another 5 guys (some military, some hangers on, I don't know!) and he kept asking me how we would sort it out .. I think he tried to see if some of the people coming through his boom would swop Rands to Kwacha, but they wouldn't. .. and in the little market there was no-one doing enough business to have 10 000 kwacha! 

one military guy told me I must speak to him, a lady there said I must ask him to forgive me ... all of which I did very politely (i did have a R 50 note floating around in my hand quite a bit of the time (I realised later) so if he wanted a bribe he definately could have asked ... but he didnt. Eventually he said (after I had been sitting with him for about an hour in the 40 degree heat) "So, I think you must go" .. .and then he told me to take two young ladies with us to Blantyre while we went ... so we were paid R 500 to be a taxi I think?

In Blantyre today, looking for the NRA I went into a legal consulting company, and a smart guy said " Road Toll? What's that? we dont have a Road Toll in Malawi." and I went to the insurance company on the ground floor for the 3rd party insurance for a month, and they said: "we dont really do that". 

So I don't really know the rules of the game, but we'll play anyhow - worst case it will be a 10 000 kwacha fine (of which we have sufficient) and some wasted time (of which we have a lot) and some patience (I think we've recouped enough of that!).

Lydia and some of the ladies from Sunset Beach (& surrounds) have been knitting teddy bears to give to under privileged kids, and she gave us 15 to give as needed. Today a girl (Helen) came asking for a cork screw, and she stayed for about two hours telling her story - on a mission here (from England) as an Occupational Therapist and with a passion for community based orphan care, she was telling us of the horror story of the mission she was placed with - how the waste and comfort of the leadership couple were seriously affecting the orphans that they've been entrusted with, and how their support have been turning a blind eye to everything, and how she's been trying to shine the light on their bad deeds & poor stewardship & low levels of love and dealing with huge oppression and blockages all the way! She's partnering with a local pastor in Blantyre who is currently looking after 15 orphans and they're building and doing good work ... well we thought that if someone came with the need at the right time, then we couldn't be picky, so the orphans that she's assisting with will be benefitting from cute knitted teddy bears, and they'll love them! (thanks to Lydia & her friends who have put their knuckles into these bears, and we know that God will demonstrate love & hope through them to the right children at the right time - like he supernaturally does all the time - in Malawi. 

So, that's pretty much it for our regular blogging this year - it feels a bit like work, so we'll do a big update somewhere near the end of the year. Until then, have a great holiday and don't check your email or internet .... see you then! (Laura's phone is on quite a bit of the time, so you can sms her number if you need to .. we're going disconnected!)

See you in 2010.

Alex (& Laura & Kaylin & Xan)

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the turning point...

These past two day have certainly been memorable. I am typing this (Laura), because to be honest with you, Alex was so close to turning back, that he would probably give quite a one sided account of what happened. I urged him to look beyond our situation, and now here we are in Malawi!
So, what happened...... we left Inhosorro yesterday morning after a weedy swim in the sea and headed towards the Malawi border expecting a night stopover somewhere. We had a long day driving, on pretty good roads, however when we stopped around the kids bedtime we decided to put them to sleep in their bunks and carry on driving to gather some distance towards to border. So we headed off on a road which the map showed us to be a secondary road, but after 60km of lots of jiggles, we saw that the road crossed the Zambezi, by now it was well after dark. We reached the part of the road that should turn into a bridge to cross the river, and what the map didn't show us was that the road is no longer in use! Very very disappointing! So, we had to turn around, and drive the 60 bumpy kilometres back to the town where we had put the kids to sleep in the back. I must add, that with all the bumps and pothole juggling, Xan slid out of his bed. I did see it happen because I hardly took my eyes off the camera showing them asleep in the back. We pulled over and settled him down again. He had slid right through his safety railing! How does that happen?
Anyway, back at the little town called Caia, we slept at the petrol garage where we had ironically filled up with Diesel 120km earlier! The armed security guard guaranteed us that we would be safe so after a big debate about wether or not to turn back home, or go the long way round into Malawi, we decided to sleep on it. But our sleep was short because the trusty security guard woke us up with a knock on our door at 1:30am to ask us to move our truck to the back, and then again at 4am for his tip because his shift was finished!
Alex woke with a bit more travel enthusiasm, and we headed off towards Malawi. Around 10:30 though we reached another map misconception. We arrived at a ferry crossing, with no one around that could speak English very well, and a ferry that looked rather rickety. We were told (in bad English) that the ferry will be going across the river today, maybe around 2 or 4 'o clock. Now all we could do was wait. With the temp outside nearing 40 degrees, we decided to stay in the truck and do a little spring cleaning. We still had coffee beans all over the place from our little coffee machine accident, so I felt great after all was swept. At about 12:00 we noticed that some guys looked like they were sorting something out with the ferry. They had to row across the river, attach a wire rope onto that side, bring it back onto this side etc. This took a while and just as we were about to board the ferry a huge thunder storm arrived and we were told to wait until the rain passed. This took another 45mins. The kids enjoyed Alex's version of Cat in a Hat while we waited. We then crossed the river with much excitement, and we were greeted with some lovely muddy roads on the other side which Alex loved ofcourse!
The border into Malawi was a breeze, and we found a Lodge where we can park & camp. The kids even got a chance to run around catching fireflies before bed. Kaylin managed to put 2 into her "bugbox" and fell asleep with them next to her pillow. Sweet dreams my little Adventure Kids!

aircon, rain showers and potholes...

Whewie! 10 hours to do the 400km from Bilene to Morrungulo and every minute of the airconditioning was worth the investment. The road was TERRIBLE!! The road from Xai-xai north is really worse than no road at all – a multi coloured patchwork of potholes, some filled, some fixed, some half filled and some partially fixed. It makes driving smoothly impossible. The game is pretty much to see how long you can drive with the potholes between the wheels swerving left and right and off the road and on the road and across to the other side of the road, until you getted tricked into going into a big one and the whole truck shakes, the mirrors fold inwards and everyone gives a little squeal! Slow speed doesn’t help, nor does seeing a Landcruiser 200 flying past at 100km/hour at some point today (I’m sure he was flinching every now and again, and I’m nearly sure that fairness would mean he gets a pothole puncture at some point!).

Well we found our campsite – Morrungulo – as the light was fading fast. Lush and low hanging bushes & trees and they had space for us! We spent three nights here, using the pool, the sea and we even tried their restaurant (once). The pool and the sea were great. We had a bit of rain one evening and only a few leaks in the truck – so all manageable.

We were afraid of setting off again, because we knew that there was only really one more chance of staying by the sea before heading inland towards Malawi, and knowing that there was that patchwork road again (I always thought a truck would float effortlessly over the potholes with its huge tyres and over engineered chassis etc – meanwhile, if you’ve ever driving an unloaded bakkie over a bad road, you’ll be able to imagine an 8 tonne unloaded truck with super hard tyres!! (I’d let the tyres down but have no clue how hard they are! Normal 4x4 tyre pressure gauges only go up to about 3 or 4 bar, and the recommended soft pressure for these tyres is 5.5! So I suspect that at around the 8 bar level!))

After a dry steak and cool fans at lunch time in Vilanculos (Smugglers sports bar) we arrived at Inhassoro early evening. We had time to drive around looking for somewhere nice to camp, but most of the town is very village-y (which means lots of litter lying around the crumbling beach front ruins). After finding a puddle we checked out the guide books which confirmed Laura’s memory from about 9 years ago, and we settled at Hotel Seta campsite.

The sea here is nice and warm but there are thousands of beach weeds in the water – we’ll take a picture tomorrow, but it is really wierd, like millions of leaves in the water – way worse that swimming in sea weed. Kaylin didn’t mind though so we had a good evening swim before heading back to the truck for the night time routine.

Tomorrow we’ll go have that swim in the weeds (for photo sake) and then we’re going to hit the highway (apparently it’s a good road north) and try get to the lake (via Chimoi) as smartly as possible – I think it’s about another 1000km or so.

So we’re nearly ready to get to bed ... one more story, our coffee machine has been double sided tape, presticked and checked regularly. We always knew it would fall off sometime, but we kept on pretending it wouldn’t. Today it happened, while we were dodging potholes, it smashed on the floor (1 x chip in the floor) spread coffee beans and coffee grounds all over the place, and lost a few pieces of itself. After picking it all up and putting it back together we turned it on to see what juice it would give us ...suprise suprise! Jura ENA5 coffee machine is made rugged! Had a perfect cup of coffee – the machine is just a little louder than normal because the side panel has popped half off. Whew! We were nearly going to be home for Christmas!

getting to mozambique...

Well the border was more of an interesting experience than what we've previously had in our African travels in the past.  We did anticipate it to be a bit of a hassle, and prepared the kids well in advance, but we didn't expect it to be a 4 hour procedure!  As you can see from the photo, the queue of cars up the road to the border post took us 3 hours.  Luckily we found our 'guy' to help us through easily when we eventually got there.  It was pretty crazy in there, so once we stuck our heads in and saw the queue that we had to stand in, he took us to another smaller room with VIP above the door...... mmmmm...... we knew this was going to cost us, but went along anyway.  With only one other guy standing in there waiting for his passport to be stamped we realised that this was going to be a whole lot quicker.  While the kids and I waited on the plush leather couches next to the fresh flower display, Alex sorted out our passports with the friendly Mozambiquan official behind the desk.  It took a whole 5 minutes.  Nice!  Only after it was all stamped and done, did we realise as we walked out the door, that we were expected to pay the guard outside a little something for his trouble.  We gave our guy R50 to give to the guard, and felt a bit uneasy and tricked into contributing to a bit of bribery & corruption.  Unfortunately/fortunately that's just the way things work.

Now our real African Adventure begins! We headed towards Maputo with excitement.  We were so proud of the kids for handling the drive so well so far.  They really are great kids, ready for any adventure!  We got stopped at a road block and the traffic cop looked at all 4 of us in the front and said that it's not right for them to be in the front, but we showed him their seatbelts, and with a big smile he waved us on our way again.  Shew!

We hit major traffic passing through Maputo.  We weren't sure what the problem was but had to go with the flow.  We got to see a lot through the outskirts of the town as the major EN1 highway passes through some interesting areas.  We were going very slowly, and after about 2 hours we travelled about 30km.  Then we saw that it was a fender bender that had caused the traffic, and once we passed it we were on our way again.

We decided to head to a campsite called Laguna Camp, near Bilene.  It's 40km off the highway, with the last 7km being lovely sand track, which Alex of course loved!  Unfortunately we realised that one of the major downfalls of this amazing truck is the height.  We had to dodge a lot of low branches, wincing a few times thinking that our sunset picture is going to be scratched to pieces.  We got here, and booked 2 nights so we could recover from the hectic day.

It's been a great day today!  The campsite is on a hill, with a short walk down to a stunning Lagoon.  We spent the morning down on the lagoon beach, then back to the swimming pool in the campsite, followed by a lunchtime DVD & reading rest time, then back to the pool for a long swim..... aaaah very chilled out.  Holiday has begun!

We're heading further north tomorrow, about 400km if we can.  Looking forward to the drive and the adventure that awaits us.

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nearly ready to leave...

Today we had some fun in the mud at Nature’s Gate, some last minute shopping in Nelspruit, and then a bit of a drive to Komatiepoort, and finished off with an evening swim.

 

Now we’re ready to leave South Africa and get into Mozambique tomorrow morning!

cape town to nelspruit

Yippee! So we’re on the road. Thanks to my dad we have a relatively dry truck ... he spent Monday evening smearing silicon around the tents to try prevent the leaking, and it seems to have worked! On the drive up to the JHB airport I had rain storms, thunder, lightening and hail on the highway.

 

The nice thing about a truck with a comfortable house on the back is that you can sleep comfortably for free at the truck stops with the rest of the truckers, but can have a comfy bed and a duvet like at home. Only problem is that the truckers wake up at 5h00 every morning to get on with their deliveries!

 

After 2 days of driving flat out (i.e. 95 km/hour) I woke up on Thursday morning relaxed, and i arrived at the airport 5 minutes before the family did! We drove the next 4 hours to try to get to Nelspruit by bed time, and just outside of Nelspruit we hit a traffic situation – we suspect an accident or something, but after 20 minutes of waiting, we U-turned over the centre island and headed back to Nature’s Gate Caravan Park which I had seen, and had a delicious night’s sleep.

 

This morning is warm and drizzly, and we’re having a nice relax in this lush foresty campsite. Today’s plan is to go buy the last few things we thought about from Nelspruit and then head into Mozambique (or find a nice campsite in SA again ... ). It’s great not having a plan!

"Test" Weekend - by Laura Munro

We thought it would be a good idea to have a "test" weekend away, and seeing as though our annual Sunday School Camp fell on the weekend before our departure into Africa, this worked out well. Or so we thought. The weekend didn't start off so well.....

It's my job to do the inside 'check-list' before we drive off. Check that all the doors & drawers are locked, the shower extractor is shut, etc etc. After driving for about half an hour we decided to put the kids in the back so that they could fall asleep in their beds as we were running a bit late and they were exhausted from helping with all the packing. When we opened the back of the truck we were greeted with a floor smeared with yoghurt, feta juice, stawberries, blueberries and the tomato sauce jar (luckily unopened!). It seems that the full check list hadn't been 'checked', and the fridge hadn't been locked! A mistake that will only happen ONCE! We decided to not let the mistake get us down, who needs to cry over spilt yoghurt anyway, we got ourselves some big take-away coffee and headed on to the camp. Next hurdle........ after turning off the N1 towards Franshoek, the road took a sharp right turn, and oops! Alex's full coffee tipped over and spilt down at his feet - "very dissapointing" - his words exactly.

As you can see from the pictures, the weekend went on to be very enjoyable. Lots of fun on the lake. We got to test out our "SUPPING" (Stand Up Paddle Boarding) which we will be doing lots of on Lake Malawi.

Unfortunately the weekend

ended with another big obstacle.......

We headed of towards home on the N1 again. Kaylin needed to stop for a wee break, so we just pulled over on the side of an offramp. But, unfortunately when we wanted to start Max again, he just wouldn't budge! Totally dead! So there we were, all bundled in the back of the truck - kids thinking that this was a great adventure, us thinking...... whats plan B? Are we gonna have to cancel our trip? Who do we call to tow this thing? We got the number for the Mercedes Truck Assist, and they reassured us they'd be there in 45min - Great! Just then, we got a phone call from our good friends Candice & Kevin, who by chance had been having lunch in Paarl, and drove down the highway, and just couldn't miss this huge truck that looked oh so familiar. They pulled over and offered to take the kids & I home while Alex waited for the Assist guys.

The good news is - the problem was just that the starter motor wasn't connected. We presume it got disconnected from when the airconditioning was installed last week. The guy told us that we were lucky to have been able to start it on the weekend, the wires must of just been touching slightly. Simple, but stressful. Things we've learnt.... keep the phone number handy, there's a Mercedes Truck Assist no. in every country in Africa, they'll come fix any problem (hopefully we won't need them tho'), and... teach Kaylin to wee in the toilet on the move!

one week to go...

We hear that Africa is hot & rainy this time of the year ;-) so we have had the leaks sorted out, and today we're installing the aircon in the cab.

Our plan is for me to leave next Tuesday (8 Dec), and pick up the family from JHB airport on Thursday to start our holiday. Our very rough & flexible plan is as follows:

• week 1 - Cape Town to Inhambane (Moz)
• week 2 - Inhambane to Cape Maclear (Malawi)
• week 3 - Malawi
• week 4 - West Tanzania / Rwanda
• week 5 - North Tanzania (Serengeti / Ngorongoro)
• week 6 - north Tanzania to Zambia
• week 7 - Zambia / Malawi again
• week 8 - Botswana / Mozambique again
• week 9 - arrive back to "our house in the ground" (source: Xan)

Now normally when we travel, once we hit the turnaround point we generally have the unusual habit of just getting home, for example:

1. Blantyre to Cape Town in 2 days (after my bike trip)
2. Durban to Cape Town in one go from 12h00 midday (planned to take two days)
3. Lost in the Richtersveld (the whole day to get out of the river canyon) to Cape Town in 1 go
4. Swakopmund to Cape Town

etc etc...

But: our main plan is to be flexible and follow our hearts - if we don't get beyond Inhambane in 8 weeks, that would be a good change of plan to have!

So much to just finalise this week, and make sure that the work team are comfortable with me working "extreme mobile", and finishing off some contract work, and setting up for 2010, and making sure that Max is ready, shopping, carnet de passage ... absolutely can't wait!

leaks & face lift

this week rained a lot, and we're sorting out some leaks, a flat battery, and getting our ride pimped...

we did however successfully renovate our driveway to make Max fit, and a day after that we found a place up the road where we could store Max underground in a secure mobile home/caravan parking bay!!

But we're planning on keeping it at home for true mobile office days and spontaneous weekend camp-outs.

Max is now back in Knysna for a week or so to get some more of the 'snags' done so that we can hopefully be ready to leave on the 10th December as planned.

tweaks & corrections...

7 hours of work to make a start at the snaglist ... and the coolest thing was getting back into the truck this evening and feeling at home!

...the beginning

Today it all began! We picked up MAX the truck from Travelstar in Knysna at around 14h00 - had the quick electronics tour, and then reversed it out of their driveway into the road.

That doesn't sound like much, but it was a mission to find reverse, the driveway was sloping down towards the back, there were quite a few cars parked there, and everyone was watching! At that point I realised that an 11 tonne truck does feel very different from a big car - significantly different!

We drove through town, and had to find a dirt road quick - Phantom Pass was close enough, and there were even some mud puddles! Delicious!

Evening was coming so we went and found some parking at the waterfront which by now was all working quite nicely - we need just more width than 2 parkings end-to-end provide. Not sure if you can see us there in the background, but we're the white Mercedes in the background...

We drove to Jeffries Bay for the evening, and luckily we had already made the decision to be social campers (as opposed to reclusive campers) because everyone comes over and wants to have a chat and a look. After a looong family exercise walk on the beach and too much sun and the rest of the morning, we decided to head back towards Knysna so we could get there without too much travel time on Monday morning. We have a snag list which we need to discuss, including: TV doesn't work (for travel DVD's); the fridge opens if you wheel spin around a corner too fast; the toilet flush is super powered and sprays the door; and when the secondary fuel tank is pumped into the main tank, after a little while it all gets pumped onto the road! (much to the distress of the pump attendant at Tsitsikama).

Tonight we're near at Keurbooms Lagoon campsite - nice & lush, and right on the edge of the lagoon. Paradise. (note to self: dont forget to keep track of the days because we must get back home some time)