Route

We planned to depart from our hometown (Malelane) around 6 November 2018 and to be back home by 15 January 2018 – that means almost 10 weeks on the road.

Cobus and Henriette (our companions for this trip) have only the December holidays to do their trip, so we planned to do the northern part together over 3 weeks in December. We will meet them north of Dar es Salaam and do the northern circle route through Tanzania (including the days in Kenya) as well as the return route through Malawi together. The last section we are not sure of yet – maybe through Zimbabwe with Cobus and Henriette or through Mozambique on our own – we will decide when we get there.  Cobus and Henriette may even join us through Mozambique if they can arrange an additional week away from work.

Countries we plan to visit:

• Botswana
• Namibia (Caprivi – Zambezi area) if we do not enter Zambia via Kazungula ferrry near Kasane
• Zambia
• Malawi
• Tanzania
• Kenya (only three days near Amboseli for that iconic view of Mount Kilimanjaro)
• Mozambique
• Zimbabwe – with the latest developments around shortages of fuel and currency we would prefer not to return via Zimbabwe, but time will tell.

Planned Route – Eric & Ina

We have some items in our bucket list that we hopefully will accomplish during this trip:

Zambia:

• Tiger fishing at Kabula Lodge on the Zambesi
• Barotse flood plains on the way to Liuwa Plains
• Liuwa Plains National Park – wildebeest migration in November
• Kafue National Park
• South Luangwa National Park
• Kasanka National Park – the fruit bat migration in November (7-10 million of these bats are here for 2 months from the Congo – largest mammal migration in the world)
• Kapishya Hot Springs

Tanzania:

• Lake Tanganyika
• Ruaha National Park
• Udzungwa Forest Reserve – primates such as red colobus, Sanje Crested Mangebey , black and white colobus
• Bagamoyo – typical old fishing village atmosphere on the east coast
• Peponi Beach – seaside relaxation to break the trip
• Tarangire National Park
• Ngorogoro Crater – want to go into the crater if possible
• Serengeti – wildebeest migration in south-eastern region during December
• Lake Victoria
• Jakobsens at Kigoma (Nothern Lake Tanganyika) – plan to include trip to Gombe Streams to see the Jane Goodall Chimps if possible

Kenya:

• Amboseli Bush Camp – view of Kilimanjaro and a day trip into the Amboseli National Park

Malawi:

• Makuzi Beach Lodge on the shores of Lake Malawi
• Chembe Eagles Nest on the southern shores at Cape Maclear
• Liwonde National Park

Mozambique:

• We have been up to Pomene Beach near Vilanculos and want to see the northern parts, but we are not prepared to include Pempa in this trip – we prefer to travel down from Quelimane if we decide to return via Mozambique
  

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We plan to visit numerous national parks and reserves on this trip, but due to the cost of camping in these parks, we have to choose the few that we definitely want to visit. Some national parks are on the road to some of our destinations and we will only drive through them, but we will experience the surrounding landscape and possibly may encounter some wildlife on the road through these parks.

North Luangwa National Park is also a park we would like to visit, but the park will be closed during our trip due to the rainy season. Therefore we will have to go back via Lusaka to access the Great North Road to Kasanka.

Some of the animals not seen in our South African parks that we hope to see:

• Gerenuk
• Lesser kudu
• Sitatunga (have seen in Okavanga Delta)
• Black & Kafue Lechwe (have seen red lechwe in Moremi/Savuti)
• Puku (have seen in Moremi/Savuti)
• Thompson’s gazelle
• Grant’s gazelle

Planned route – Cobus & Henriette