When I first started planning this trip I went online and found websites like Africa Overland Network, which had 50 or 60 blogs from people who had done trips like this. Many were from the UK, where it is a “thing” to outfit a land cruiser and go from the UK across a bit of Europe and the Mediterranean to Cairo, Egypt and then from “Cairo to Cape Town” transiting from Africa’s north coast to its southern tip.
I imagined our evenings would be like so many spent while sailing, which is sitting around a campfire with a dozen like-minded adventurers swapping stories. Dee and I, north bound would give the south bounders the skinny on the next leg of their trip, and they would reciprocate telling us all the must visit stops they had come through.
Some of the blogs I read were from over a dozen years ago and I guess if I had done the math I would have figured out that 60 blogs spread over a 12-year period comes out to a whopping 5 vehicles per year. Even if only 1 in 10 have a blog, given the sheer size of the entire African continent, our chances of meeting them are virtually nil.
In fact in two months we have run into exactly 3 overlanders from Europe. One we spoke with for less than 5 minutes. The other two, including a very intrepid motorcyclist, we shared a pleasant evening with. We have also met a grand total of 5 South African’s up this far north in Tanzania.
I now recall reading a post on the South African 4×4 forum asking if it was even possible to do a self-drive safari in Tanzania. The answer is yes it is possible, but NO YOU DEFIANTLY SHOULD NOT DO IT AS TANZANIA SUCKS. I will certainly vent more about this later.
One of the reasons trans Africa trips have diminished in popularity is the difficulty of finding a route that does not include a war as part of your itinerary. Libya, Syria, Egypt, Mozambique, half the countries in West Africa- take your pick.
A few days ago we reached the northern apogee of our trip and began arcing back to the south, towards our destination of Cape Town by early August. Yesterday we celebrated two mile-stones: we passed the 10,000 kilometer point and we escaped from Tanzania (did I mention the place sucks)?
We are now in Zambia and like most Africa countries the people seem warm and friendly. The next segment of our trip will cross the most remote country we anticipate on this entire trip- going from the Great North Road in Zambia into North Luangwa and then South Luangwa National Park and exiting the park via the normal route. I saw a 4 wheel drive track on the map and have found a few vague references to it online to someone who did it a few years ago, but there were later in the dry season. I hope local knowledge will see us through. We shall see.
Bye for now.
Rob
Brilliant! Loving your blog.