Hello from Nelspruit in South Africa (SA). Blyde Canyon was good but we had a few wet days; we found the north part of the canyon the most stunning as you can see from the image.
We're getting ready to go to Mozambique tomorrow. We've had great times in SA and also travelling through Swaziland. In Durban, and particularly Anstey's beach on the Bluff to the south, we found ourselves amongst the surfers and had a great 4 days rest by the sea; it could have been Bournemouth in the summer with similar weather and scenery. Went to "town" by bus shopping and also walked by the sea in sight of whales and dolphins.
We left Durban and headed north along the coast to St Lucia and the wetlands reserve. All by ourselves in the "Blue House" campsite. We did a trip up along the coast through the reserve and also a boat trip to see the whales and dolphins. The first day was cancelled by the bad weather, i.e. high winds by the sea, but the next morning we got out and saw Humpback whales and dolphins. At first a lone calf whale and then it later rejoined it's mother and we also saw a large pod of dolphins, all very close to the boat. Needless to say we got wet as the sea turned rough. The beach landing was also interesting !!
From there we went to Swaziland, the borders were straight forward and even managed to get a visa for Mozambique in a morning. We camped in the mountains and had a night of wind and rain with mist in the morning. Again we were the only people in the hostel but it was a brilliant position overlooking the valley. From there we went north to Sabie and Graskop to visit Blyde Canyon. It started wet but cleared and we had a great drive along the escarpment and up to the three roundels in the north. We ended up the day at Hazyview camping in a forest. This was a great site and able to have our first braii of the trip. We then visited Kruger Park cos it was only 10 km away and it seemed a pity to miss the chance. However, it was in the high 30s and humid so it really got to us. We did see lions, kudu, impala, hippo, waterbuck and bush buck amongst others, but not in great numbers that we've gotten use to ..spoilt by Namibian and Zambian reserves I guess. So now we are almost ready for Mozambique and the Indian Ocean before we return to SA and Drakensburg.
To our overlander friends, hope you've enjoyed Namibia and got that adrenaline rushing again with sky dives and dune maddness. and you're still looking forward to a little luxury such as blueberry muffins and good coffee in Cape Town,...so for now adios

We're now in Livingstone, our second visit here but the Falls on the Zambian side are a trickle compared with the rainy season. We have travelled across Tanzania into Malawi and then west into Zambia. In Tanzania before the border we passed through Baobab valley along the Great Ruaha river with lots of the so called "Upside Down Trees" or Baobab trees; so many along the river valley and slopes. We also visited Isimila Stone Age Site because we had a days wait whilst a new trip member caught up with us. We reached the Malawi border on 6 October and then travelled south to Lake Malawi at Chilumba. The next day was onwards south up a steep valley side and then down to "Kandy Beach" on the shores of the lake. This was our home for a couple of days. The top of the escarpment was about 890 m with the lake shore at about 370 m so still above sea level. We commissioned some "T" shirts with a map of Africa on the back with the countries we've visited on including Angola (keep this to yourself) and Rwanda but they missed off Uganda and also used second hand shirts, so I guess we should know better!!
By Monday we were on the road again out of Malawi into Zambia. It was beginning to feel like we knew the area more as we approached Namibia! It was a long-long day as we had to catch up on a missed day, but worth the very rough drive to the Laungwa park. This was a great experience as we were able to walk with a guide in the reserve and see the animals at first hand. There are lions and leopards but we didn't see them whilst walking but did see hippos, buffalo and elephants at close quarters. We slept on a tree platform and saw elephants going through the camp. The highlight of the trip was a night drive when we saw a leopard kill an Impala at close quarters, within 3 metres. There was torrential rain during the drive, their first rain in October for 5 years !!, but it let-up a little for us to see the leapard and also many hippos going for an evening stroll. We also saw a pride of lions crossing the river and dodging the crocodiles (we could see the light reflected in their eyes). Luckily the rain was localised and when we got back to the camp everything was dry (we'd left the flysheet off the tent so it could have been a different story).
From there we drove south to Lake Kariba and 3 nights on a house boat. Didn't see much of the lake but it was luxury to have a proper bed and a boat not a truck to live in.
The campsite here in Livingstone is not as nice as "Fawlty Towers" where we stayed before with Alison and Margaret, but with a name like "Grubby's Grotto", what can you expect. The money is called Kwatcha and is difficult to get use to with 7000 to a pound so I'm almost a millionaire here. We did an activity yesterday, a jet boat trip up and down rapids, the closest we'll get to white-water rafting. We drove downstream of the falls and got a wire lift down to the river. As it is dry season (no real rain here yet) the river was low. Some of our group were doing rafting and we met them on the way down. Of course we all got very wet as the waves on the rapids came over and he kept doing these rapid turns with the aim of wetting everthing. Helen was stood on a sand bank next to the river and literally got swept off her feet as a wave from the boat came ashore and she ended flat on her back covered with water. Anyway, it was hot and we all dried off quickly during the journey back to the campsite.
Now looking forward to independent travel as we are both feeling the effects of the truck and group travel. It will be nice to decide where we want to stop and for how long. In retrospect, it would have been easy to do the trip with the Pajero, it would have taken twice as long because we'd have stopped longer in places but there are no problems finding accomodation or the state of the roads is nothing worse than we met in Nambia. However, the down side is still the cost and also selling the car at the end.
Next is Durban where we plan to hire a car and travel up the coast to St Lucia wetlands. Not sure after that....keep in touch.

Hello from Zanzibar. We're in the north of Zanzibar island having got here after a long, long journey yesterday, so just chilling out today, Dar (the capital of Tanzania) is quite modern and we're back in Dar on Tuesday for a couple of hours so we'll see a bit more. This place is great and reminds me of a more developed Indonesian island. We're at sea level and enjoying a tropical climate. Last week we reached 2300 m at the Ngorogoro crator and it was cold in the evening and mornings. Last week we had a demanding time with early morning starts and quite long drives over terrible roads, particularly in Serengeti, very corrugated but it was worth it. We've seen an amazing number of lions, hyenas, wildebeast on migration and the dead ones in the river that failed the crossing, together with mighty crocs that line the river in anticipation ! We've seen a huge variety of wild life including leopard, more hippos and loads of lions as well as a cheetah; the latter is difficult to see even in the Masai Mara. I won't bore you with a list of birds but I expect you can imagine; I'll just say our Namibian training has put us in good stead here.
We're both fine and ready for the next 2 weeks race through Tanzania, Malawi and Zambia. We have a lot of people leaving the trip after this stage and only 3 joining so we'll have more room in the truck, its called the "flying pig" and we wish it could fly sometimes! particulary up the hills.
We had a great Spice tour when we arrived here and saw all the spices being grown in a mixed woodland, Helen has photos of every spice, believe me. Also saw a Masai village etc with great photos of dancing and their compounds etc. They seem to live a traditional lifestyle in the region we travelled through particularly near the crater itself. We also have some videos on the camera of elephants demolishing trees at close quarters with full sound effects. We had elephants and wild pigs in camp at the Ngorogoro crater camp site. Again we had a 5.30 start in the rain and dark yesterday, so nice to forget the tent for three nights until Tuesday night. Our third trip starts on Wednesday from Dar. We haven't being stopping long enough to do any laundry so we gave it in here but it has returned in poor shape and wet so Helen is trying to sort that out. It is sometimes difficult to get internet access and often frustrating when we do, just like Rundu! Hope you're having an Indian summer in UK. Take care ....next posting is likely to be Durban after our flight from Livingstone. Still seeing Pajeros in Tanzania so I guess they've become an African vehicle after all.