11 Weeks Through Africa/ The trip of a lifetime? Hope so.

The route map: Kenya to Cape Town

On January 17th, 2010, after spending 3 weeks in Uganda, I get picked up in Nairobi, Kenya, for a 6-week overland trip through Southern Africa—from Kenya, we drive down to Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, and finish the journey in Cape Town, South Africa. Epic!

I always fancied the idea of traveling extensively through Africa, seeing her natural beauty first hand. After extensive research, I learned that the only way to see so much of Africa in a relatively short amount of time (and cheaply—flights within Africa are ridiculously expensive) is to drive. The safest option is to go with one of the many tour companies that specialize in overland Africa trips. I’ve chosen to travel with Topdeck, a UK company, whose South African arm is called the African Travel Company. There are many other tour companies, including GAP Adventures, Acacia Africa and Intrepid which I considered, but Topdeck was priced the best—all companies cover nearly the same route and feature the same highlights. On my trip, we’ll spend the entire 6 weeks camping under the stars, driving from location to location, while the tour company takes care of all but a few meals.

The agenda, in very short form, is as follows:

• Kenya: the trip starts here. We’ll be driven in a specially built, large van with 12 or so other adventurers. We head south; first stop: Arusha, Tanzania;
• Tanzania: Driving past Kilimanjaro to Ngorongoro Crater (home of some of the best lion and wildlife viewing on the continent) and Serengeti National Parks; onward to Pangani and Dar es Salaam, Zanzibar for 3 days; continuing south to:
• Malawi: we spend four days driving along the western side of Lake Malawi, stopping off to camp on the white sands in various bays along the way;
• Zambia: drive of doom from Malawi to Livingstone (I’ve done half of this drive before—from Lusaka to Livingstone—8 hours each day of not a whole lot besides iPod, card games, and dozing if you can). Livingstone and Victoria Falls, and the other activities you can do here are well worth the effort: elephant back safari, cruises up the Zambezi River, horseback riding, microlighting over the falls, white water rafting, and so much more;
• Zimbabwe: Victoria Falls (one of the 7 natural wonders of the world), from the other side of the Zambezi River;
• Botswana: Chobe National Park and what I’m most looking forward to, the Okavango Delta! Rainwater from Angola seeps south to creates the Okavango Delta, the largest delta in the world, which draws thousands of herd animals from surrounding countries to drink and be merry for the months that it floods the Botswanan plains;
• Namibia: Etosha National Park, Cheetah Park, Spitzkoppe (the Matterhorn of Namibia), Swakopmund (base of the Namib Desert with some of the most spectacular sand dunes—over 300 meters high), to Fish River Canyon, second in size only to the Grand Canyon in Arizona;
• South Africa: starting at the scenic Orange River, for a half day canoe trip, to the Cederberg Mountains and surrounding winelands, finishing the trip in Cape Town, where I’ll spend 4 nights thoroughly exploring the city.

I’ll be covering the entire trip via a Netbook which I’ve yet to purchase (Christmas present?) and will, of course, have lots of photos to share as well. Watch this space…

Related posts:

1. Traveling Off the Beaten Path/ Watching my bank account bleed dry
2. Arrival Cape Town/ Ending the journey of a lifetime
3. I traveled through Africa…
4. Cederberg Mountains/ Back home in South Africa
5. Botswana/ Chobe National Park