Post series: Africa Trip 2016

We have had an amazing two months away and feel very privileged to have experienced some of the the beauty of the African continent and to have met some really amazing people who live in various parts of it. We know we will be back again and hope it is not too far in the future.

Most of all we thank our Father God  who watched over and cared for us every day. His goodness and faithfulness knows no end! We really experienced the reality of us making our plans but of our Father directing our steps, according to His better plans !

After 4 days we headed back towards Stellenbosch. We stayed over in Johannesburg with Marc’s brother and his wife, Rina and the following evening at Adams View guest cottages, overlooking the Gariep Dam(the largest man made dam in SA).  The view is stunning and the cottages are well equipped, including a fireplace for cold evenings. A very nice end to our time away!

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Drove out through Numbi gate near White River and made our way back into the “real world”. Marc’s work contract had ended before we left on our trip and while we were away, he was offered a monitoring and evaluation project with Phakamani, a non profit development micro financing organization in White River. He worked for the next few days on it, while I caught up with some friends in the area and was also invited to speak to a ladies cell group about God’s calling for Israel amidst the nations.

Home

Drove into the Pafuri gate the next morning and made our way down to the Letaba camp site near the middle of the park. We had no booking and the camp was fully booked according to the internet site and the gate officials but we decided to arrive and ask anyhow. Turns out they could give us a space and we enjoyed what was to be our last “summer temperature” evening.

We had really good sightings of numerous elephant herds and giraffe families, as well as buffalo, zebra and many buck. Also spotted lion and leopard, but from a distance.  The central area of the park is extremely dry and many animals have migrated north.

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Once through beit Bridge border, which only took us 30 minutes to get through in total, we headed towards the Kruger Park’s most northern gate, Pafuri , as we intended staying over at the Punda Maria camp. About 500 metres from the entrance to the Tshipese mineral hot water springs resort, one of our rear tyres totally burst, taking part of the cars plastic moulding and a rear light cover with it!

Needless to say we decided to spend the night at Tshipese instead and Marc enjoyed relaxing in the hot water after changing the tyre.  We also figured out that we would never have made the camp concerned before the gates closed, so all worked out well in the end.

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We then drove to Lusaka where we took up our new German friends, Ursula and Harald (who we met at the Kapisha hot springs camp site earlier on the trip) with their offer to stay over with them. They spoilt us with a wonderful meal and we enjoyed our evening together before we departed the next morning for Harare. There we stayed over again, as on the way up, with friends in Borrowdale, before driving towards the Beitbridge border into SA the next day, on my 49^th birthday! Beitbridge border post not the best birthday gift (at least it only took half an hour to get through), but who cares, the whole 2 month trip has been the most amazing gift!!

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After 2 days we left for South Luangwa Park in Zambia, instead of driving through Mozambique, as we had planned, due to the intense fighting between government and rebel forces taking place.

We arrived at the beautiful Wildlife Camp site, just outside the main park gate, on the banks of the South Luangwa  River.  The facilities were good and clean and the position exceptional as we overlooked a massive bend of the river. Elephant and giraffe arrive regularly to drink, amid the many hippo and crocodiles who permanently reside there.

The following morning we passed  three lion with their kill from the night before, next to the road, on our way towards the park entrance. Zambia (just like their neighbours,Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Kenya) charge a premium price for non- residents to enjoy their parks.  (We are determined to lobby for SADC pricing as the prices are restrictive for most South Africans).

The park is very beautiful and we saw numerous elephant, giraffe and buck up close, as well as a leopard walking in the road in front of our car. The difference to SA parks is that they allow you to drive off the main roads.

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Woke up and headed off for Lilongwe the next morning. We drove up the mountain pass on the only national road to the capital when we came across 2 trucks that had connected on a sharp bend, on a steep incline! Needless to say, no vehicle was getting past them anytime soon, as they were going to be there for a while…Additional  trucks were already backing up on both sides and we quickly made out way back down before we were  hemmed in for the  day!

The only other route was straight over the mountain along a trail for 70 km before connecting back onto the main road…so off we went.  It is not like we had not done this before on the trip….It was very steep and rocky, but once again we were very grateful for our car’s ability to handle what came it’s way. When we reached the top of the mountain plateau, we were pleasantly surprised to find massive road works and the road scraped clean and level, for the rest of the 70 km.

We arrived at Michael and Igna (family of good friends), who we had not met before, but who  extended excellent hospitality to us, although still renovating their home. They also have a heart to see His kingdom extended in Africa. We had good fellowship and also attended the church service at Africa Bible College, where they work, with them.

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The road down to Malawi from Tanzania had very few cars on it.  I think we drove past about 5 cars and 5 trucks, at most, the whole way down, after the turnoff south.  Very beautiful courtyside with tea and banana planatations.

The border post into Malawi was small and one of the friendliest and quickest so far on the trip.

The country is clearly extremely poor and yet the people are the friendliest yet… from the border post and police officials to everyone else we met.

The fraud committed by the last few presidents have played its role in preventing much needed progress for the country and the people are suffering particularly badly at present. Although their first president, Hastings Banda was clearly a dictator, he was one of the better ones they have had yet…

We descended down towards the massive Lake Malawi and arrived at the beautiful camp site of FCE, Malawi. We could not have wished for a better spot and we were the only one’s camping there the first night!

They supplied wood for a massive bonfire and we sat up until late at the lake’s edge under the stars. We decided to stay and relax for another day.  I caught up on my supply  of vitamin D  and we chilled under the trees on the water’s  edge.

On our last evening we invited the camp manager, Spencer and his wife, Ida to join us for a braai and had a good evening of fellowship with them.  They are a lovely godly couple with a heart for their people and are reaching into local communities with various programmes for the children, teachers and as well as ladies and men’s discipleship programmes through FCE.

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We stayed over at the very nice Old Farmhouse campsite outside Iringa, Tanzania and left the next morning for the border into Malawi.

We were pulled over for speeding as we were leaving Tanzania, just as when we had arrived… Guess we had forgotten the ititial lesson learnt!

They wanted us to pay them cash immediately, but Marc insisted that they first write out the official fine. After reminding Marc that “the clock is ticking”, they realised that they were not going to get what they wanted and let us go with a warning.

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