What to say?
We were on the road for over two and a half months, covering 13,000km. We've driven through South Africa, Swaziland, Botswana and Namibia. We've visited Capetown, Jo'berg, Durban and Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. We've met some fantastic people, both on our own jaunts and as part of two brilliant motorhome tours. It has been absolutely wonderful.
We don't pretend to understand the countries that we travel through; how could we? Although we do what we can (township and town walking tours by local guides for example) we just touch the surface, talk, read, observe and try to fathom how it all works. The wildlife was out of this world; we didn't expect to be so moved by the experience of being so close to magnificent animals in the wild.
In South Africa we saw a country on a journey. We had some wonderful, friendly, conversations with people from all walks of life, from different tribes, from city and country. We had to remind ourselves that it's only 20 years since free elections were held here and we were deeply moved by our visit to the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg. As Europeans, we did feel uneasy about the nature of the distribution in wealth and the clear remaining social divisions and attitudes. Then we remembered -only 20 years.
Capetown: A Country on a Journey
In Swaziland we saw so many industrious people, many, literally, carving a living. We were (willingly) persuaded to buy most of our wooden carvings here, a number of which sit in our UK home. It's Swaziland that supplies many of the carvings we saw (expensively) displayed in Capetown. Travelling though Botswana gave us little opportunity to dally on the way but we will always remember the awe we felt as we travelled into the Sowa Pan at sunset. It was from here that we visited the wonderful Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, but we will always remember our visit to a local village, talks with the Chief and the time we spent in a local junior school that was shockingly short of resources.
Zimbabwe Schoolchildren
Sowa Pan, Botswana
Moving into Namibia, we felt the sense of adventure deepening. It's such a large and varied country with such a small population. We found the time to talk to locals but we were travelling large distances on washboard roads for much of the time and the fascination here was the land itself. Of course the punishing nature of the roads produced problems and punctures but, somehow, it really didn't matter; in fact, it heightened the sense of adventure as we travelled in groups for mutual support. There was an indefinable sense of loss as we left Namibia..perhaps the dust really is in our blood.
In our view the motorhomes were great; yes, there were problems but the punishment they took on really rough roads was unbelievable. The support provided on the Southern Africa leg by Rian of BOBO was outstanding. On South Africa leg, a lot of this fell on the C&CC tour leaders and we were grateful for their support and advice.
Would we recommend this to anyone with a sense of adventure? Absolutely!
Thanks for Reading
Geoff & Sue
We were on the road for over two and a half months, covering 13,000km. We've driven through South Africa, Swaziland, Botswana and Namibia. We've visited Capetown, Jo'berg, Durban and Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. We've met some fantastic people, both on our own jaunts and as part of two brilliant motorhome tours. It has been absolutely wonderful.
We don't pretend to understand the countries that we travel through; how could we? Although we do what we can (township and town walking tours by local guides for example) we just touch the surface, talk, read, observe and try to fathom how it all works. The wildlife was out of this world; we didn't expect to be so moved by the experience of being so close to magnificent animals in the wild.
In South Africa we saw a country on a journey. We had some wonderful, friendly, conversations with people from all walks of life, from different tribes, from city and country. We had to remind ourselves that it's only 20 years since free elections were held here and we were deeply moved by our visit to the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg. As Europeans, we did feel uneasy about the nature of the distribution in wealth and the clear remaining social divisions and attitudes. Then we remembered -only 20 years.
In Swaziland we saw so many industrious people, many, literally, carving a living. We were (willingly) persuaded to buy most of our wooden carvings here, a number of which sit in our UK home. It's Swaziland that supplies many of the carvings we saw (expensively) displayed in Capetown. Travelling though Botswana gave us little opportunity to dally on the way but we will always remember the awe we felt as we travelled into the Sowa Pan at sunset. It was from here that we visited the wonderful Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, but we will always remember our visit to a local village, talks with the Chief and the time we spent in a local junior school that was shockingly short of resources.
Zimbabwe Schoolchildren
Sowa Pan, Botswana
Moving into Namibia, we felt the sense of adventure deepening. It's such a large and varied country with such a small population. We found the time to talk to locals but we were travelling large distances on washboard roads for much of the time and the fascination here was the land itself. Of course the punishing nature of the roads produced problems and punctures but, somehow, it really didn't matter; in fact, it heightened the sense of adventure as we travelled in groups for mutual support. There was an indefinable sense of loss as we left Namibia..perhaps the dust really is in our blood.
In our view the motorhomes were great; yes, there were problems but the punishment they took on really rough roads was unbelievable. The support provided on the Southern Africa leg by Rian of BOBO was outstanding. On South Africa leg, a lot of this fell on the C&CC tour leaders and we were grateful for their support and advice.
Would we recommend this to anyone with a sense of adventure? Absolutely!
Thanks for Reading
Geoff & Sue
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