Well Namibia is fantastic…

After visiting the Ruacana Falls which are currently in flood and absolutely spectacular we decided to head a little further west to Opuwo to see this part of the country. On arrival in Opuwo we were haggled by some young indigenous folk and we realised how harsh we have become from the continual harassment we have received throughout this trip as you are a “white man” that clearly means you must have money and you must give… give… give, so now that we could actually express ourselves in English these poor little beggers got a proper mouthful (we will have to work on our humanitarian side again). We stayed at the Opuwo lodge which was average but nothing to write home about and saw some of the local Himba people and the great country side but we did not do much more in this area.

look at us camping!!

From our swimming lessons in Angola we had damaged one of the tension pulleys on Mo and needed to get a replacement so headed through to Oshakati on the Monday to get a replacement part. We decided to take the short cut through the C41 which is actually still being built so took a lot longer to get through than expected, as the effects of the flooding is all over the north. On arrival in Oshakati we discovered that it was actually a public holiday so there was no way we could get some work done on Mo so decided to head a little further east towards Ondangwa. We were forced to stay in a B&B here as the one and only campsite around a small dam was now one large dam with underwater campsites and a few happy geese.

From Ondangwa we were then directed to Tsumeb as the Toyota parts we required were not available. This is directly due to the recent earthquake and Tsunami in the East which has resulted in a shutdown of parts availability.

water in Etosha 

There was much excitement from Clauds as the next day we were heading to Popa Falls in the Caprivi Strip to meet up with her folks, Ed and Gail who had decided to come and join us for our Namibia leg and even bought a tent to initiate their first camping holiday. We had a call from them on their first night to say that they were in a puddle of sweat but their tent was finally up! We set off early in the morning and joined them for 2 nights at Numba River Lodge which was only partly flooded. Ed came prepared with half the bottlestore and had even hidden wine under the spare wheel in his Freelander.  This campsite is particularly pretty and well designed and between catching up, we managed to fit in a boat cruise to see the Popa rapids. From here we headed into Etosha for a 3 night stay, 1 at each camp heading west. Although exquisite, there was so much water around that the game viewing didn’t meet expectations but we did see a pair of mating lion, magnificent birds and countryside. Will need to return one of these Augusts sometime.....

Nam roads 

Next stop was Twyfelfontein after a visit to the petrified forest and our first sighting of Welwichias, hardy slow growing ancient plants that typify photographs of Namibia. Twyfelfontien is famous for its rock engravings done by the nomad communities. We stayed at a campsite called Xaragu which means Meerkat and besides the infestation of king crickets, we had a very pleasant 2 nights stay. Gail and Ed were now into the whole camping idea and we can see that this certainly won’t be the last of this new type of holiday experience! Even if little lessons are learnt along the way like keep your tent closed at all times to avoid midnight doom sessions when the mozzies creep out of the corners where they have been waiting!

Skeleton Coast 

Although Skeleton Coast was a big tick for us, we couldn’t have done it faster as a comedy of errors unfolded and we thought Ed and Gal were ahead of us and they the same which resulted in us trying to catch each other. Bear in mind that there is no cell phone reception for 200km! Anyway, we eventually tracked them down and caught up in Henties Bay for a bottle of wine to curb the nerves!

more typical scenery

As we pulled into the Municipal chalets, Andrew commented on just how awful these little huts looked and imagine having to stay there, just as our GPS announced ‘arriving at destination on right!’.....damn! it is however the best value for money at R270 per self catering chalet per night (2 people). Wined and dined at a few of the many great restaurants that seemed to be around and of course indulged in many an oyster!

a rare sight in Etosha!

On our way to Sossusvlei we stopped off at the old army base (and had a quick look from the outside before the guard came to enquire what we were doing) where Ed served more than 45 years ago, Rooikop, a great step back in history and some very funny army memories were shared with us! One that tickled our sense of humour most was the assistance provided to those men that had been called up and were dragged out of the bush for their conscription but could not tell left from right. To ensure that their marching ability improved, they were to tie a rag around one ankle, and some grass on the other and the marching continued with shouts of “Gras....lappie.....gras.....lappie!”

Sossus Oasis

And onto Sossusvlei, to stay in a beautiful upmarket camp ground (Sossus Oasis) where each site has a latte shaded area, your own toilet, wash up area and shower ‘on suite’, a novel concept and even biodegradable wash up liquid was provided. (there is such a thing as executive camping).

here Gail comes up the dune

Due to the unusual amount of rain Namibia has had, we were lucky enough to spend a full day picnicking (yet another few glasses of wine of course) in Sossusvlei as a real vlei filled with water. Ed and Andrew even had an afternoon swim after climbing the dunes (a fine exquisite red coloured sand that we have not ever encountered before).....you can see why so many calendar photos are taken of this area. Claudia spent ages on the dunes desperately trying to photograph a barking gecko which burrows into the sand constantly and is not an obliging participant!

one teeny bit of exercise that we did!

the elusive gecko

From here we took the scenic route down to Luderitz on the D707, what a spectacular route with scenic changes through the desert – every hill we came over seemed to present another new type of landscape, from dunes to rock, to grass to purple mountains, then grey – you need to see for yourself.

Namib wild horses

We stopped to see to wild horses of Garub, the theories of their ancestry are not exactly understood but they are thought to be escapees from either a shipwreck, a rich farmer who fled before the war, or the soldiers that served in the war but sometime during this period. We counted over 150 and were lucky to see them as water and food is certainly not scarce at the moment.

picnic in a cave

Luderitz – windy, arid, barren, harsh but dramatic! Stayed in a self catering apartment on the experience advise that camping is just not fun on the coast when the wind howls as it usually does! We spent the day looking for agates on Agate beach (and found 2!), visiting Diaz Cross, the lighthouse on Shark Island and watching the seals before another round of oysters at Shearwater Oyster Factory – we even skipped the tour as it was the same price as another 6 oysters!

sunset in Etosha

The following day it was onto the Fish River Canyon with a visit to Kolmanskop diamond ghost town on the way which was abandoned after WWII once the diamond barons returned and discovered larger stones at the mouth of the Orange River and established Oranjemund. Kolmanskop is fascinating by how the Western world can arrive in a desert, make ice which was provided to each household daily, build a railway of 60km in 10 months, a hospital that could sustain 250 patients for a community of about 1400, build grand homes, have a dedicated entertainment manager with bowling alley, gymnasium and hall all within 10 years only to abandon it all for greener pastures. A well worth visit.

Agate Beach - Luderitz

As the last stop with Ed and Gail, we arrived at Canon Roadhouse to visit the famous and second largest canyon in the world. Impressive, but again, harsh climate and scenery with no vegetation – we decided that we needn’t return to hike the 85km to Ais Ais. We waved the fogies goodbye and made our separate ways onto SA. What a great holiday and a very good way to ease back into ‘normality’.....

Fish River Canyon

So here was are, in Elandsbaai SA, after a last stamp in our passports for a while and a better than expected nights camping stopover in the craggy mountains of Kamieskroon at Pete’s B&B with a 270 degrees view of what will be covered in wild flowers once the rains arrive.

Kolmanskop Ghost Town

A brief summary of the next few weeks includes meeting Simon tomorrow for a week’s cruise to CT, thereafter, Southbroom to see Ammy and Mark’s new bambino, Mia, then Easter with the Gordons and catch up with Daryl and Chris in the Drakensberg and then we can’t avoid it anymore, we will be hitting jovial Joeys and look forward to seeing you all, but for now, around and about is rounding up until............

aaah no! Last stamp imminent!

first night in SA - Kamieskroon

Dry Land... Where art tho'?

And here we are in Namibia, been a while since we had internet connection specifically since our 3G bill rolled in, I won’t even mention what it was but we refrained from even trying to link up.

The last 2 weeks have been fast but fun! We were seriously looking forward to Gabon, the one country we had read about and were particularly keen to see the mystical surfing hippos, beach ellies and of course some gorillas! We headed for Libreville, the capital, so we could try and resolve our Congo visa and find out about flying into the secluded reserve Luango on the coast. Libreville is expensive so we decided to drive North of Libreville to the land tip Cap Estas where we found the village Mama and managed to agree that we could camp in front of her house which was on the beach. Yet another beautiful spot, and Thomas from the local restaurant took us out to the village bar for the evening and even insisted on paying for our beers! We had a great evening despite our broken French!

poor trees!

The Congo visa was a no go unless we bought another (the entrance guard made us re-dress twice before we were allowed in even though I was wearing a long dress and Andrew a collared shirt – our embassy outfits) and Luango was closed due to the government not having reissued the airplane license to get there – oh Africa! So we now needed to hot foot it out of Gabon to hit Congo by the 11^th March.

We did however stay at the Albert Schweitzer hospital in Lamberene which was fantastic which is built on the banks of where 3 rivers join. The museum was really worth a visit and they have set up the Nobel Prize winner’s old hospital pretty much as it would have been – you don’t want to have had to have dentistry in those days! The Dr is specifically famous for having set up the hospital for Leprosy sufferers and to imagine how they were so intrepid to head into deep Gabon in the early 1900’s is remarkable!

Albert Schweitzer Hospital

We unfortunately hit Congo at 5pm on a Friday which is a no-no in Africa – drunken border officials and the potential of beers or cigarettes in the car was more a priority than getting our formalities done. But nevertheless, we managed to escape the policeman trying to catch a lift with us to South Africa for greener pastures and the toothless wonder who kept repeating my second name as if he could taste me, and slept the night in the only “Auberge” in the village. For $5 you get a double bed with fan and mozzie net, concrete slab in a grey facebrick room just big enough for the bed and a wooden slat door – and free bar music thudding and loud neighbours – but you can survive anything for a night!

No comment!

At this auspicious place, we also came across a traveler from Luxembourg who apparently (no English, some French) had traveled by ‘camion’ (truck) from Dolisie (12 – 18hrs) and was not being allowed into Gabon. We are not sure exactly what happened as his visa looked correct but he was told that he had to go back to Brazzaville and fly in to Libreville instead. So what transpired is that he hopped in the car with us and we drove him back to Dolisie. It is amazing how when someone ‘official’ either makes a mistake or misunderstands there’s no going back and although all seemed legitimate for him to cross the border, you can bet that some misunderstanding along the way resulted in the initial suggestion to fly in which then became the only way.

I had spent the night wide eyed as our Luxembourg hitchhiker had told us how the road to Dolisie was absolutely “CATASTROPHE!!!!” and “DANGEREUX!!!!”. With this in mind and the distance, we hit the road as the sun was rising and within 10mins came across the first stuck truck and our hearts sank. But this was really it and yes the roads are pretty appalling and the rains have started but we got to Dolisie by early afternoon and gave Boban a slightly different experience in Mo which he called “royale”.

and the roads with rain begin (Congo)

You can usually bank on staying at a Catholic Mission in most towns which is what we did in Dolisie. You are usually welcomed by the nuns and provided with a spartan but adequate room and feel safer by the fact that it’s a religious institution. From Dolisie we headed for Pointe Noir which is divided between poverty and secluded and expensive expat communities. You can camp at the Yacht Club but it would have been difficult to sleep due to the heat and the many begging hands everywhere so we opted to stay in a hotel and spent a luxurious night with a/c, a pool and white linen – what a treat! The next day was out of Congo into Cabinda, out of Cabinda and into the DRC. Cabinda is part of Angola and the visa overlanders get issued is a double entry 5 day visa so you get 5 days for Cabinda and 5 for the rest of Angola and if you look at a map, you can quickly see how ridiculous 5 days is to get through such an enormous country.

You can always bank on staying at a mission

We spent 2 nights at the Sisters of Jesus and Mary mission in Moanda and even wandered down to the beach to find a barbeque and bar and the whole community dressed in their finery for the occasion. It made us feel scruffy when we looked down at our grubby camping gear and you certainly stick out like sore thumbs! But nothing like some fatty kebabs, fried fish, fried plantain and a few beers to while the afternoon away. The remnants of the war are all around you in the DRC specifically the deserted grand hotels that would have been spectacular in their day.

And another mission (DRC) where we bumped into Stanley and Julia again with their 2 girls, Senna 15months and Oewyn 5yrs

We left the DRC very early so as to hit Angola and start our 5 day visa clock. There are 2 main roads you can travel, either the inside “highway” or the coastal road. We picked the inside road for the first half of the country so that we could travel quickly and try to get to Lubango and try extend our visa. First off we travelled the whole afternoon once border formalities were complete through windy mountain roads and little villages – quite beautiful but had to eventually turn around once stopped by a policeman who had to mimic using a canoe to explain to us that the bridge further down the road (past Madimba) was no longer and there was no other way around! There went day 1 but we did bushcamp in an old quarry and had a river bath which was all part of the adventure. Then the next day we had to retrace and hit the coast expecting to fill up in N’zeto which is a substantial dot on the map with an airplane symbol implying petrol (to us anyway) as petrol is cheaper in Angola than DRC so we had not yet filled up. We just made it to find a dusty single rd town with a few rusty pumps in the middle of the road that had clearly not worked for years and years. Hmmm, now what? We managed to flag down a Portuguese lady in her diesel Land Cruiser and with much pointing (Andrew and I will beat anyone at charades after this trip) we managed to find out that Mo took Gasolina and not Gasoleo which was another new word we needed to learn in Portuguese Angola – we had just gotten used to asking for ‘essence sans plomb’. Anyway, we ended up paying double for the cheap petrol as we bought bottles from a house on the side of the road.

Don’t bother trying to get an extension, we wasted our time at Immigration in Lubango as the initiative was zero and a transit visa was a transit even though we tried to explain that we wanted to explore the coast, spend money and do what tourists do, even for an extra 5 days….but no!

Filling up with gasoline in N'zeto

We bush camped again outside Xangango so that we only had a 2 hour stretch to the border the next morning, we’d get into Nam early and start heading to the west to explore. Hah! What a morning that was. The rains have seriously started and of course it has already resulted in Namibia flooding in the north. We had the most exciting, hair raising and unpredictable drive. We decided to take the ‘shorter’ cut from Xangango to Ruancana but not only being the only car on the road and no evidence of any other tracks, we started splooshing through the odd puddle, skidding through slooshy mud and it got wetter and wetter until we met up with one massive lake where the road was supposed to be – now what? We found a little village (i.e. 3 huts and a small herd of cattle) and were directed in our best Portuguese understanding and a map drawn on the ground onto another potential route but no indication of a border on this route and of course we weren’t keen on another smuggler’s route episode but we had little choice.

Bushcamping in Angola 

Another bushcamp in Angola outside Xangango

At this point we heard another car in the distance and quickly found his tracks and started to follow – it was quite phenomenal what this car in front of us was doing and was a lot braver than what we would have done without the reassurance that we wouldn’t be stranded in Angola for months in the middle of a vlei.

ok, but what's on the other side?

Mo swimming!

Mo waiting to cross the river

Hundreds of metres of knee height water not knowing what was waiting for us further on and less and less possibility of turning around. We hit the overflowing river and could not believe we were supposed to go through but again, there were tracks going in and no sign of the vehicle so we pressed on. Once we got across the river we both looked at each other almost in surprise that it was possible – go Mo and Andrew! I think we were about 10km from the border according to our GPS when we came around the corner and saw the last thing we wanted to – a Land Cruiser drowning in the middle of a mass of water. Gulp! This time he didn’t quite make it.

at least there are winching trees around!

here goes nothing!

there she goes!

We apprehensively wandered up and were at least relieved that they were still running but in a hole. This is when serious 4x4 started when we had already breathed a sigh of relief once we were through the river. We tried to approach from behind to winch them out, Mo then got stuck, we then winched ourselves out onto a bank and then winched them out and there is no way I can explain the terror of what I was feeling whilst Andrew was getting max 4x4 satisfaction! I don’t think we could actually believe it when we got through and somehow came to an official border we did not know about – I don’t think I have been that happy to see dry land, we made the 5 day visa limit and although the first camp in Namibia at Hippo Pools Community Camp was partly flooded, we could still camp in a few sites and spent the rest of the evening replaying our adventure over and over, giggling hysterically and still a little gob smacked that we made it. We have however decided that we’ve done enough swimming in Mo for now and so the dry and good tarmac roads of Namibia have been a welcome relief!

hmm, now we also stuck

passenger vehicle we had been following

AJ in full swing!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

From Banter Graphics, all your friends and family, and everyone that follows your blog. We wish Claudia a very Happy Birthday!

We hope you have am amazing day and get spoilt as much as you can be in the depths of Africa.

We all miss you both. Keep well and travel safely

We will always have Cameroon!

So we are loving Cameroon… the people, the scenery, food, beaches etc. have been outstanding!!

We left mile 8 (Etisah Hotel) after three days of glorious weather, on our final day we helped some local fishermen get their boat out the ocean and they had a few Grouper on board, so we bought a decent sized fish and headed to the market to buy some coals, cabbage, tomatoes and whatever was available and home to have a lekker fish braai (Stancill it reminded me of our vacation at the Keys!!)

You need to like cabbage, tomatoes, onion, avo, bananas, paw-paws, pineapples, cassava to do this trip! Once in a while you may find lettuce, carrots or celery but that's about it!

The following day we headed into Limbe as it was time to move towards Yaounde as we still needed to get Visas for Congo and DRC. We joined John and Jenny (a great couple we have met doing an overland trip back to SA) for a fantastic lunch at the Limbe Wildlife Park where a South African has opened up a restaurant with her husband whom used to manage Moyo (so the burgers, Pizza and ginger icies were superb)… highly recommended!! We decided to look around town to see if we could find a cheap hotel as we wanted to get moving early the following day to get to Yaounde and it was our 1 year anniversary so thought we would spoil ourselves , and what a find… The Holiday Inn Resort which is towards the main town gave us a room with A/C, massive swimming pool (3m deep), hottish water and a TV with 60 stations for only 14 000 CFA (around R 200.00)!!! I asked the waiter to set a little table out in the garden for us as a surprise for Clauds, so the two of us headed down to a romantic dinner and had the most fantastic meal (Bar fish and pepper soup with Plantane) the only warning about the spot is check your Vodka and Gin as someone is making a buck by adding water to the bottles.

Amazing swimming, surfing not so much!

It was time to head up to Yaounde so hauled through on some of the best roads we have had on the trip thus far and booked into the Presbyterian grounds… what a dump and run by the most ungodly people around, all they are interested in is money and charge for extra water and to plug your computer in. we looked around a bit and the hotels are incredibly expensive or just way too dodge… Ringworm once on this trip is enough! I also drove through the presidential lane again so we had eight cops jumping out at the gringos taking our passports, drivers licence and carne while we still are wondering what the hell we have done wrong. Anyway it is a massive circle with four lanes entering the circle the four lanes continue straight through the circle and exit on  the other side, there are road markings going straight through and apart from two small no parking signs on either side there is no way to know that this is now the “presidential lane”. So once again I was sitting with the police… needless to say my skills are definitely improving and after changing the topic of what we had done wrong kept asking them where the church was, we are lost and need to get to the church, we are good citizens and are staying at the church, us god fearing people. So we got another police escort with two cops who showed us where the church was (luckily a different church across the road), we gave them 3000 CFA ($ 6) for their time and waited until they were gone before returning to the original church. I think we have mentioned there are 3 trucks with around 25 people in each doing a similar trip and that every two of these trucks pulled in so the lawn was scattered with tents and 50 people which was too intense for us and we needed to move the next day… oh I almost forgot, Clauds had slight food poisoning too from a funny tin of tuna (no week would be complete without an ailment of sorts).

Camping at St Benedict's Monastery with Julia and Stanley, Niels and the kids (Yaounde, Cameroon)

Monday we hit the DRC embassy after the taxis tried to rip us off and we decided walking would have to be the option, and bumped into Stanley and Julia (an amazing couple travelling with their two kids of 14 months and 5 years… incredible). They thankfully told us where they were staying at the Monastery on the hill so we made the instant decision to go and join them. The DRC visa was pretty straight forward, it cost 90 000 CFA ($ 180.00) each, BLOODY EXPENSIVE. And they were issued to us the following morning at 10h00. We did some shopping as there are really great food supermarkets in Yaounde, as well as great  patisseries. We sorted out Mo’s “leaking” problem, so all good on that front.

The shop under the tree that arranged Mo's new light in less than a day from Douala!

We collected our visas the next day to deliver them at the Congo embassy and were told to return the next day at 1, which we duly did and needed to get onto the road to make the 4 hour journey to Kribi for some more beaching! We were told to wait with no explanation and no questions allowed until about 2:30 when they eventually handed our passports back and ushered us out. They were surly, dismissive, and had another agenda which we are yet to work out. We then noticed that they had made the expiration date on the visa the 11^th March (must be used prior to this date) which was too soon but when questioned we were told that it wouldn’t be a problem as a visa is a visa! But we have learnt our lesson on this trip and although we could not get any joy out of them, we reckon we still haven’t quite finished with our embassy visits and need to see how we can resolve this in Libreville.

Lope Falls - Kribi, Cameroon

Anyway, we got to Grand Batanga that evening, about 15km south of Kribi and pulled into a charming little place called Etoile de Mer where Andre (Belgian) lives with his 7 year old daughter and they run a small hotel in the back of their house and allow camping in their garden which is right on the shore with a toilet, and shower for use. We ended up staying 3 nights and Andre make tuna carpaccio with olive oil and parmesan for us accompanied with a bottle of blanc de blanc and his home made vanilla, litchi and cinnamon rum. Quite superb! He is an incredible carpenter so his house is beautiful and an auto-electrician by trade so we were sent in to Kribi the next day to his friend Ebaneser to buy a new filter and oil which he assisted us in changing which was great as Mo was nearly due for a mini service.

Camping in Andre's garden - Grand Batanga, Cameroon

On the border of Equatorial Guinea we read about a park called the Reserve de Ca’ampo run or affiliated to the WWF with gorillas, chimps, various other primates, birds etc and decided we would drive there and suss it out for a few nights. Having arrived on a Saturday afternoon, we managed to find the off-duty office manager and we arranged that we would leave early the next morning with our obligatory eco-guard and guide for 2 nights.

Ecoguard and guide and the supposed road through the park

We spent the night on the banks of the river overlooking Equatorial Guinea but not where we intended on staying as the little chalets on Campo beach seemed deserted and after waiting around a while and no-one arriving the house manager of quite a larny house next door offered to set up a room for us for the same price as the chalets (about $6). We drove over and parked Mo round the back and were welcomed into the house for the night (the owner was away in Libreville – not sure how that was all supposed to work but it suited us). He then went to the effort of setting up a little table on the patio for us so we could enjoy the view and we cooked the usual one pot wonder of 2 minute noodles and sauce of sorts. The hospitality of some people is remarkable. It was up early the next morning to collect William our Eco-guard at 5 and drive through to the park to collect the guide and set up camp at the huts they have built near the village. It was about a 45km drive along good dust roads. Bitter sweet as although the roads are good, it is only due to the loggers that have started decimating the forests in the area – the circumference of the trees that go past in the trucks that drive like bats out of hell leaves you with a very heavy heart…….after the adrenalin rush as they clang and rattle past you in a cloud of dust.

Our latest camping spot on the tip north of Libreville. Village Mama allowed us to camp for free for a 'cadeau' at our discretion

We had read in the Bradt Guide that it was possible to drive through the park and we were thinking of doing this at the end of our stay as a more direct route to Gabon. Hah! You can’t even get a car near the park as the last bridge would swallow Mo and the roads in the park are so long gone that it is actually only possible to go on foot now! Unfortunately the park is really nothing to write home about as poaching is rife and although we saw 3 species of monkey and a few birds, nothing sticks around long enough or nothing is even really there to see. It is a very sad situation. The park only has about 50 visitors a year and although it was pricey (about $150 for 2 nights in a cabin with no bedding, electricity or running water, the guide, eco-guard and the camera fee (which we didn’t even use)), no park can possibly be sustained on such an income. We doubted whether anyone patrols the park and reckoned that it’s only when there are tourists that they even enter the reserve. We did however see evidence of forest elephants, buffalo and apparently may have come close to a single gorilla but there are no proper paths and hacking one’s way through the forest is noisy and incredibly hot and frustrating after 5 hours of nothing. It was however fantastic to see the original forest but unfortunately we won’t be recommending a visit and can sadly see the end of this movie already as the logging encroaches on the park and the plan is to reconstruct the road right through.

Crossing the equator - we tried dismally to test out the flow of water down a plug hole on either side but failed! A celebratory swig was easier.

We headed back to Grand Batanga for a night as we needed to get a small part for Mo as we had a small oops! when collecting our eco-guard at 5 in the morning. We reversed very gently into a bulldozer and smashed the rear lights of Mo on the one side. Although the bulldozer wheel was clearly in sight in our camera, the digger was just above our camera and protruded quite substantially. But not a disaster at all. We found Efram in Kribi at around 11am (by asking the Laundromat) who made a call to Doula and promised that he could get us a new one by that afternoon! We gave him til the next day as we needed to get the laundry done and to our surprise, we pitched up the next day and there it was, exactly the right thing, ready and waiting and had been sent using the chiefs service so transport of the part only cost about R30. Somehow when you think Africa could be broken, it can seriously surprise you!

Cameroon's Kribi coast

That night we stayed at Tara Plage in Kribi as we had bumped into Fran and Tom (SA and Zimbo), our other over landing compatriots who we met in Ghana and had the most magnificent tuna steaks with grilled plantain for dinner!

South African Zimbo war!

You will love kitties!

Typical lunch: in Gabon