Backing in Southern Africa – Getting to South Africa Via Botswana

Published by Johnny on June 21, 2010

I had to be in South Africa by the 16^th of June to meet some friends and watch the first of my matches and I was in quite a quandary in how to get there on the right date – should I fly from Vic Falls to Joburg (expensive :S), go through Zimbabwe (would need another visa :S) or go through Botswana (notoriously set up for rich older Europeans and Americans). We heard a rumour that the visa for Botswana was free so that made the decision for us, and off we went to the dodgiest border crossing i have seen in a while…

The Zambia/Botswana/Zimbabwe/Namibia border crossing

Got a cab from Livingstone to Kazungula, the town bordering Botswana and from there my initial presumptions that this trip through Botswana would involve nothing more than a couple of buses through Francistown then Gaborone (the capital) then jump over the border and Joburg suddenly went a little less regimeneted, although that is certainly not a complaint.

The tone was set when we crossed the border the wrong way around by walking through immigration from the wrong side therefore inadvertently missing the hordes of Botswaneans surging through the correct entrance but, predictably in Africa, the immigration officials didn’t bat an eyelid and began process our exiting from Zambia. I then got stamped out by a seemingly blind border guard who looked at my 6 foot 2 English friend with black hair, then back to my passport photo, then at him again then nonchalantly shrugged and stamped him/me/us(?) through. The quirkiness continued when, busting for the toilet, I realized I had no local currency but luckily enough the paying toilets became free when we allowed the toilet dutyguard to sing us a song on my friend’s guitar while everyone relieved ourselves – “welcome to Zambia, thanks for visiting my peaceful country full of joy” and so on and so forth until everyone was finished!

We then crossed the smallest international border in the world apparently via a very dodgy boat – 700m of water separating Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana to and Namibia.

To cut a long story short, we crossed the river and got told there were no buses going through Botswana after 8am (it was not 9.30am) so we got dropped off on the highway and began to hitch-hike the 500km to the next destination Francistown. The search wasn’t looking fruitful until a guy came charging up in his car, flung open the door and when a load of Botswaneans approached him for a lift he declared “No no no no, I am here only for the whites” and waved them away! He was one crazy dude – also, he had lost his right arm in a car crash a few years ago and now drove only with his left arm. We naturally used that as a bargaining tool and before long Daika, our onearmed chauffeur, was caning it down the highway to Francistown.

His driving wasn’t too bad (:S) and we managed to avoid the elephants and giraffes and boars and donkeys that insisted on crossing the road at the seemingly most inopportuned times but things got a bit hairy when his mobile phone rang and HE ANSWERED IT with his left hand, going 120 km/h when it struck me, if his left hand is on the phone and his right arm is stting on the side of a Bostwanan road after his crash – what bloody arm is he using on the steering wheel?!!? After a few more occasions like thise we finally reached Francistown, got dropped off at a campsite, pitched the tents, said goodbye to Daika (crazy dude) and headed into restaurant to watch the football.

Literally crossed the road in front of us!

The other guys watched outside on the bigscreen while I checked my emails inside alone. 2 guys and a girl asked could they watch the football with me, of course I agreed. It transpired that one of the guys was the recently retired former Botswana football team captain, record caps holder with over 125 and national hero! He had just come back from England last month where he was playing at Stamford Bridge and St James Park with John Terry and Alan Shearer. I spent the evening with these guys, they bought me booze, dinner and then… his mate has offered me a lift to the capital city 500km from here and I can stay with him and his family tonight. Tomorrow he will help me arrange my passage to Joburg – I hate to generalize but Africans do seem amazingly friendly, I really am falling in love with this continent!

Tags: Botswana, cheap travel, General African Stuff, south africa, zambia

Backpacking In Zambia – Victoria Falls

Published by Johnny on June 20, 2010

What a cracking country Zambia has turned out to be! I want to say, right off the bat, everyone should visit Zambia if they get the chance – amazing sights, fascinating culture, warm and open people and scenery to take your breath away

I arrived in Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, headed to one of the 2 guesthouses and threw of my bags. Standard practice with my lack of planning meant that I had no local currency, no idea what to do or see and no map so I spent the rest of the day rectifying that! Walking around the city, people are so keen to talk to you and with the former British colonization, nearly everyone can speak English.

I often had people walking me around the city, showing me where I needed to go and not once was I asked for any form of payment, a welcome break from my years in Asia and the constant haranguing from touts!

As far as a city goes, Lusaka is pretty relaxed. There’s not necessarily so much to see or do but simply walking around and soaking up the atmosphere can easily fill a day. There are a couple of local markets that I walked around which were an experience in themselves and I even managed to find a Subway franchise and treat myself to a footlong meatball marinara (easing myself back into my backpacking ways slowly after a year in Australia )

Lusaka soon came and went and I was off on a 5 hour bus (that’s an African 5 hours apparently which is somewhere between 7 and 9 hours in reality) to Livingstone, the town closest to one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World – Victoria Falls. Essentially, Vic falls was the reason I had come to Zambia so I was buzzing at the prospect of finally seeing it. The bus journey was fine, if a little overcrowded, but it was broken up sporadically by various breakdowns, overenthusiastic gospel preachers and wildife so it was certainly entertaining. The roads in Africa, so far, have seemed pretty good so it was relatively smooth throughout (*disclaimer – relatively smooth in relation so some less developed countries I’ve been too, relative to the West it’s like a very, very dusty rollercoaster)

Livingstone is awesome. Of course it’s set up for a fair bit of tourism being so close to Vic Falls but it’s laid back, relaxed and affordable. I stayed in a cracking hostel called Livingstone Backpackers for around $8 a night for the dorm. I shared a room with a cool Dutch guy who had driven from Holland in a 80’s military landrover through the centre of Africa to be here, he had some crazy stories about getting put in prison in the Congo for 3 days en route and taking a secret agent across a few countries over 3 weeks – I love the people you meet on the road!

On day 2 I got peer pressured into bungee jumping off the bridge which crosses one of the gorges at Vic Falls. 110m freefall for $110 fee, extortionate – yes, but worth every cent! Jumping off the bridge, into a circular rainbow caused by the mist coming off the Falls, white water surging past beneath you and a full view of the Falls behind you as you bob up and down after your jump waiting to be reeled in. Don’t get me wrong, I was terrified but it was definitely something I would recommend.

You can feel the wet mist coming from the falls from nearly 1km away, it truly is something special and you can see the ‘smoke’ (read:mist) from miles and miles away surging up from the falls high into the sky, it’s difficult to describe it so you should come and see for yourself

The bridge that you jump off for the bungee :S

This day marked a special date too – the start of the world cup!! We watched Bafana Bafana (South Africa) draw with Mexico in the local bar and the atmosphere was great, I really hope an African side goes far in the tournament because the continent will go crazy. After the game we got dragged to another couple of bars and then to a Zambian club and let me tell you, these guys no how to have a good time!! Everyone ear to ear smiles, dancing like crazy, buying me drinks because I was a guest in their country – one of the best nights out I have ever had for sure, I clambered back to my dorm about 4am I think :S

Early start the next day, pretty standard in Africa it seems so everyone is up around 7am. I went with the crazy Dutchman and his car to National Park to see the Falls close up. The water levels at the moment are the highest they’ve been in 40 years so the mist is at an all-time high, which is a sight to behold. I think to get the best experience you would need to come both at the peak of wet season to see this and also at dry season to see the sheer size of the falls, or am I just looking at reasons to come back?! We walked around the park, monkeys running around EVERYWHERE, completely unperturbed by humans. I was walking around in flipflops when some guy tells me to go down a track because it’s beautiful but “watch out because I saw a cobra down there” WTF?! You don’t here too many sentences like that back in Ireland.

It’s almost needless to say but the Falls up close are something else. The noise is deafening and the volume of the water is incomprehensible, my photography does it no justice at all but here are a few snaps regardless:

At one point you cross a bridge probably 100 metres from the centre of the falls and as you cross you are entirely engulfed in the spray, literally soaked! Brilliant experience and you can hardly see anything due to the amount of water in the air – crazy.

I’m back in the hostel now, thinking about leaving Livingstone today I have to be in Johannesburg by in 3 days for my first World Cup match and I have no idea how I am going to get there :S either through Botswana or Zimbabwe by bus I guess…

STOP PRESS:

Luckily I bumped into some guys who are also going to Johannesburg via Botswana although they are aiming to arrive one day later than me, rather than go alone like Steven F*cking Glansberg I thought I’d arrive in South Africa a day later with them. Anyway, that meant I could visit the Victoria Falls from the Zimbabwe side of the border this time so I nipped over to Zimbabwe today and WOW!!! I thought it was amazing yesterday… the Zim side blows the Zam side out of the water, it was awe inspiringly beautiful today, from the Zim side you get a much better grasp on the sheer size of the falls and they are much better viewpoints so if you make it this far then go that extra step and check it out from Zimbabwe – you won’t regret it!

Tags: General African Stuff, victoria falls, zambia, zimbabwe

Backpacking in Africa – Zimbabwe

Published by Johnny on June 18, 2010

Just to confuse things I’m going to take a detour from my trip around Asia :S It’s just that my Asian adventure was last year and I’m trying to transcribe my journal onto the blog, RIGHT NOW I have just arrived in Africa and I’m very excited so I want to write a little entry about that.

I flew Air Zimbabwe from London to Harare, one-way and on my own – starting another leg of another (unplanned) trip around the world. The vague idea is to get from the bottom of Africa, all the way to the top by land over 6 months or so – taking in the World Cup, climbing Kilimanjaro and trekking with Gorillas in Uganda/Rwanda – all depending on the common constraint… cash :S

So I arrived in Harare on my own and to be honest I was pretty scared, never been to Africa before and I was all on my lonesome. The backpacking Gods were shining brightly on me though and I ended up meeting a Zimbabwean girl who asked me to help her lift her excess luggage off the conveyor belt onto her trolley. A little bit of chat ensued and to cut a long story short, within 90 minutes I was at her extended families place with her cousin getting fed breakfast by the maid!

Really, they were so nice. I spent my first day in Harare getting driven around by these 3 girls, shown the sights, introduced to the highend of society ( I gathered their social class early on, firstly by their massive house, security guests and 2 full-time ‘help’ and swcondly by the virtue of the fact that President Robert Mugabe went to her cousin’s wedding because she was married to the Secretary of Defence for Zimbabwe!!) so I landed on my feet and my African fears were quickly dissipated. That combined with the fact that Air Zimbabwe made a mistake with my flight so I was comped a 5* hotel in the city centre for my first night’s sleep in Africa made my initial experiences all the sweater!

Harare, as a city, is pretty nice – open, spacious roads punctuated with palm trees, but the poverty and disparity in wealth is there for all to see. The average monthly salary is around $150 but the cheapest accommodation there is $100 per night!!! It is NOT a cheap place to travel, consider yourselves warned but it is interesting, and race/colour/creed or whatever you want to call it is never far from people’s tongue. The family took me out for drinks and I was having a conversation with one of their (black) friends about their group’s relative wealth. She began to tell me about the farm her family owned and she was so quick to insist it was nothing to do with Mugabe’s ‘reallocation’ of farms that I didn’t even have time to crack a joke about it

The next day, by a turn of fortune the ODI (One Day International) cricket final was on in Harare, featuring Zimbabwe (Zim to the locals) against Sri Lanka, by new-found, awesome friends soon had us in the corporate boxes section watching the final for free and a great day was had until I had to rush for my flight to Zambia.

In the airport I managed to obtain a couple of remnants from Zim’s recent turbulent economic past:

Anyways, awesome time was had, with awesome people met and I’m off to Zambia, a little scared all over again albeit not so much after such a positive opening experience to this beautiful continent.