HAPPY NEW YEAR 2000 FROM DIVE THE DREAM IN AFRICA

Go to Dive The Dream route map and updates

 

 

25th November - 1st January 2000

Click this photograph to view shots taken on the road from Cape Town to Kenya The Long Road to Kenya

 

Our Route

Leaving South Africa, we travelled off road and dived in Zimbabwe, took a day to bump and jolt our way through Mozambique's Tete Corridor, drove through, chilled out in and dived in Malawi, reached Mikumi Game Park in Tanzania for Christmas and broke down in Kenya for the Millenium!

Our journey over the last 32 days has been eventful to say the least. Since our last update from Cape Town, we have covered over 7,000km, travelled through 5 countries, tolerated 9 border crossings and around 30 police road blocks, and eaten a truckload of mangos, pineapples and the inevitable 'on the road' fare of noodles and more noodles. We gave ourselves a month from Cape Town to Kenya. This included a perfect amount of rest days for us and 'Truck' which enabled us to take in some of the sites and erm.. get a bit of diving in here and there.

We have experienced varying degrees of hospitality, from the hitchhiking rangers of Matusedona National Park, who invited us to camp with them when stranded between two flooded rivers to the police officers in Zimbabwe who tried (and failed) to fine us £200 on the spot when we were driving within the limit. The majority of the time we have found that due to our transparent 'wealth' in the form of a laden LandRover, there is nothing friendly about the demanding screeches of 'give me money' everytime we drive through the poverty stricken towns. There have however been many an unforgettable conversation and some very enjoyable evenings with members of local tribes along the way.

If you want to find out logistics of this section of the trip including entry information, Truck statistics, costs, exchange rates, border costs, then click here.

Zimbabwe

Click here to dive Chinhoyi Caves

Spent ten superb days in Zimbabwe taking in the Victoria Falls, Lake Kariba and diving in the most spectacular inland site experienced so far. We crossed the SA/Zim border at Beitbridge and travelled to Bulawayo for our first stop outside South Africa. This called for a fair few beers as we were beginning to think we'd never actually leave SA. We drove to Vic Falls the following day and encountered our first of many police road blocks.

Victoria Falls

Just mind blowing but the town leaves a lot to be desired. Hassling street sellers, dirty campsites, haschish sellers at every turn. Bars filled with testosterone and machismo, - a result of the many adrenalin sports on offer around the Falls.........We went out for a drink, witnessed 2 violent bar brawls and retired early.

The municipal campsite seemed to be the obvious budget option around the Falls as the rest seemed to comprise of 5 star hotels and lodges however we have since discovered that we should have stayed at one of the Shoestrings resort chain at Vic Falls. This would have been perfect - off the main drag, comfortable, clean and friendly. But it wasn't to be and we left as soon as we could after spending a wonderful afternoon at the Falls.

If you come here, make sure you eat one evening at Vic Falls Safari Lodge. For a reasonable £7 per person, you are treated to a cordon bleu 3 course dinner and the added luxury of being able to watch the elephants and game drinking from a nearby watering hole.

Entrance to Victoria Falls National Park was $10US



Off Road along Lake Kariba

Coffee stop overlooking Zambezi River on the road to Binga, Zimbabwe
Negotiating rivers has become a popular pastime
The Road from Victoria Falls to Kariba took us off main roads and far away from police road blocks.

We travelled for 3 days on the gravel roads through Tonga country with a nice Swiss couple for company, and back up in case of breakdown.. Rene and Helga, It was great to finally be able to see another side to local village life away from the pleading demands on the tourist trodden routes.

After a game viewing boat trip on the Lake Kariba, we drove south along the main road to Harare to see a man about a cave...

THE WARM HEART OF AFRICA" - MALAWI

Go to Diving Lake MalawiFrom Harare, we drove straight through the Tete Corridor, Mozambique and into Malawi using a one day transit visa. Still on a tight schedule to reach Kenya for the Millenium, we decided to drive straight through to Nkharta Bay so we could rest by Lake Malawi for a couple of days. Misjudging the distances and road conditions, we ended up spending the first night sweltering on our thermorests in the back of Truck, fighting off hoardes of mosquitos in a hospital carpark in the middle of nowhere! Hmm so much for planning! The next morning, we set off for Nkharta Bay. This, by the way, was the furthest north that Mark had reached on his last trip through Africa before being carted home with malaria. This time, although we're not taking prophalactics (for the short term visitor prophalactics are recommended) we were armed to the hilt with creams, sprays, coils, nets, long sleeves and trousers. I'm sure it wasn't just the mozzies keeping their distance from us...

Diving Lake Malawi

We couldn't pass by this expanse of water without checking out what was underneath so we went to see Aqua Africa, the diving specialists of Nkharta Bay.

There are thousands of varieties and colours of cyclid - This one just happened to stay still long enough!
Diving in this freshwater lake was very pleasant indeed...much like diving inside an aquarium.
Lake Malawi is the 9th largest freshwater lake in the world and holds 70% of the world's aquarium Cyclids. At its deepest, the bottom is 700m however most of the diving is done above 20metres as not much Cyclid life lives further down and the nearest recompression chamber is a long way off in Pretoria, South Africa. Although the diving itself is definately unchallenging, the numbers of brightly coloured fish was surprising to us. The main reason for diving here are the 1500 varieties of freshwater Cyclids endemic to Lake Malawi.

Aqua Africa has been open since 1993 and is now run by brother team Andy and Ian Botha who took over in '95. The centre is NAUI affiliated and offers courses up to Divemaster level.

 There are 11 main dive sites around Nkharta Bay which generally comprise of big underwater boulders covered in algae which provide some interesting swim throughs and hundreds of beautiful fish. There is no best time of year to dive in the Lake but the winds and weather as always can be unpredictable. The highest temperature can reach 31 degrees in December and the lowest 22 degrees. A night dive is recommended here as scores of the large locally named dolphinfish (which look as dolphin-like as a loaf of bread - click here for photograph) surround you within minutes of entering the water - an exciting sensation in the dark as you never quite know where they're coming from. The catsharks and ........ are also often seen at night. A casual dive with Aqua Africa will cost approximately $15 US including full equipment rental.

Accomodation - Nkharta Bay

We stayed at Njaya Lodge, Nkharta Bay - not the cheapest place in town, but nicely out of the way - 40 minute walk or 5 minute drive on bumpy dirt tracks. We camped in the grounds facing the lake. We were there in the run up to Christmas so there were parties happening all over the bay. This seems to be an area that attracts the "cool party animal" type traveller so if you like music, cocktails and late nights chilling by the Lake then this is probably your destination. The Lodge has its own beach on the Lake which is beautifully relaxing in the day time. The water was a welcoming 28 degrees and we realised when we fell in, that this was the first time since arriving in Africa that we had actually been swimming and sunbathing at the beach... about time.

Click here to see more photos from SA to Kenya

Truck Update

We love you Truck!

Well, we did until you broke down on the Eve of the new Millenium! Couldn't have timed it worse!
 Having been very obedient, we completed our daily maintenance checks like clockwork. Before leaving SA, we renewed the oil filter and changed engine oil. Our only problem between SA and Kenya was that when driving in Low Range on dirt tracks in Zimbabwe, the change back to High Range was difficult and kept jumping out.

After letting 'Truck' cool down, we topped up gearbox oil and she was fine again. On reaching Harare, Mark renewed the gearbox oil. No problems again until 3000km later in Kenya.... While driving around Tsavo National Park, the gears refused to lock back in high range so we drove for 2 days in low range using up double amounts of fuel and hoping she'd last until we reached Mombasa. About 150km out of Mombasa, we heard a loud rattling in the engine. Click here to find out about horror story on New Year's Eve. To cut a long story short, we found a cheap, cheerful and very innovative mechanic in Mombasa who, through improvisation and determination, got Truck back on the road after £120 and 3 days hard work.

To see how much Truck has cost us from SA, click here.

Phase III has now begun. This will take us slowly slowly (pole pole) along the coast from Kenya to South Africa through Tanzania, Pemba, Zanzibar, and Mozambique.

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