Back on the road again in Africa

Back on the road again in Africa

Having delayed our return to Johannesburg by 2 weeks to give time for our Ethiopian visas to arrive, we flew back on Sunday 29th April. We were pleased to find the Enterprise more or less as we had left it but for the addition of an infestation of very small ants in the woodwork above the back door. We have had to remove an inside panel and are treating them regularly with spray. It could have been worse: we heard a story of termites completely eating a camper to powder, unnoticed by the owners!

Our first few days in Craigavon, Fourways (a north-western suburb of Joburg) with Bill and Mary was very busy, repacking the Enterprise , shopping and a few little fixing jobs, besides going to collect the balloon from Nells who had done some small repairs and made a new bag for the envelope with more handles to make loading it easier. He was able to sell us some propane to refill our tanks which was fortunate as South Africa has a shortage and the Harrop's were worried about the supply of propane for their balloon flights. We also had an unexpected flight in one of the Harrop's big balloons with British pilot, Garry. Our last night in South Africa was spent at the Country Park campsite at Muldersdrift where we had been before to settle in to life on the road again.

Events back in the UK and France when Chris spent Christmas and New Year in hospital has somewhat dented our confidence and we are finding it harder to adapt to life in the Enterprise but I'm sure this will become easier as we get further on and have new adventures. So far we are covering already travelled territory in Botswana. We overnighted in Francistown at the Tati River Lodge, where I was roused frequently during the night by wailing and chanting, we suspect for a funeral.

Driving north yesterday, we passed through Nata where we had stayed before and it wasn't long before we encountered elephant and giraffe alongside the road, a wonderful sight as this is just the main road and not a game reserve. Arriving at the Senyati Safari Camp at 3.40 in the afternoon we found they were fully booked. Luckily a word with the lady owner (risen from her sickbed!) secured us a parking place as she had remembered us from October and was very friendly. We have no facilities and it is a little like wild camping for a high fee, but well worth it for the animals. We were again treated to a couple of groups of elephants at the waterhole after dark, with many tiny babies this time. A beautiful big owl was fishing for frogs and ran across the grass very close to us and this morning we had zebra grazing close by as we had breakfast. I heard a growling in the night which I had thought were baboons but we were told there was a lion in camp so it could have been that, and Chris had been outside in the dark to put the barbecue away!

I am writing this to send later while waiting for a puncture to be repaired near the Kazungula border. It has been there for a while but it makes sense to have it fixed before leaving Botswana. We will return to Senyati for one more night and leave early tomorrow to cross the Zambezi on the ferry to Zambia. Once out of Botswana we can relax a little. We have a few worries, the first of which is that we had no temporary import paperwork when we entered the South African Customs Union at the Swaziland border last year. We just hope we can leave without penalty or having to return to Pretoria.

Our general plan is to continue onwards through Zambia from where we went last time up the Great North Road to Tanzania. If we can, we will make a third attempt to fly in DRC as we go close to the border. We have already flown in Tanzania and Kenya so the next new countries will be Uganda, Rwanda and possibly Burundi. Returning to Kenya we will traverse Ethiopia to reach Sudan. This is where the second of our concerns lies as Sudan is suffering a severe fuel shortage and it is a big country to drive across to Egypt. Can we carry enough diesel to make it? We will see!!