Southern Africa

October 22nd to December 3rd 2007

A journey with Dragoman from Cape Town to Lusaka

The journey is split up as follows.

Cape Town

From the Cape to Lesotho

Lesotho

From Lesotho to Swaziland including the battle fields

Swaziland

Mozambique

Zimbabwe

Botswana

Namibia

Zimbabwe

Victoria Falls

Zambia

Bird and Mammal List

For the original Flikr page please link to Southern Africa 2007.

 

 

 

 

South Africa

Cape Town.

There was not very much time in Cape Town but a visit was made to Table Mountain and the Waterfront.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the Cape to Lesotho

Our route took us to Stellenbosch the wine capital of South Africa before traveling up the Garden Route as far as George where we turned inland to Oudtshoorn where we visited an Ostrich farm before camping near to the Cango Caves where some of us took the adventure route where we had to crawl through a 'letter box' and up a 'chimney'. The late opening at the caves lead to a dark arrival at Craddock for the night before an early departure for Lesotho.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ostrich Farm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cango Caves

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lesotho

Arriving in the dark and rain at Malealea we camped in a very large room for our stay here.  Louise and I made a long walk the next day to a waterfall and caves where we could see some rock drawings.  The bad weather forced us to move on a day early for Dundee.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From Lesotho to Swaziland including the battlefields

 The camp at Dundee was a favorite as it h ad animals roaming, lakes and a 'Playground'!  We left to visit the battlefields at Rorke's Drift.  The garrison of 139 soldiers, 35 of whom were hospital patients, fought off an attack which lasted 12 hours.  There were 600 Zulus and 17 British killed.  Eleven Victoria Crosses were awarded.  A late arrival at Milwane in Swaziland.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rorke's Drift

 

 

 

 

 

 

Swaziland

The camp site is located within a game reserve.  The day was spent walking in the reserve seeing the animals including a trek up to Execution Rock.  The following morning we visited a Cultural Village before our journey to Maputo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mozambique

After a day in Maputo we had a long drive through bush veldt to the small beach resort of Tofo.

In Tofo I did a scuba refresher course which included an afternoon dive in some choppy water

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our next stop was further up the coast, after a long drive, to Villanclulos.  Here I had four scuba dives out at two mile reef.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 A long drive took us up the Biera corridor to camp near the Zimbabwe border.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Zimbabwe        

Our first visit in Zimbabwe was to the Zimbabwe Ruins.  This complex was started in the thirteenth century, took about 200 years to complete and was occupied for 300 years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the way

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At Gweru we stayed at a nice lodge called Antelope Park.  The activities I did included walking with Lions, horse ride to view the animals and a night stalk to teach the hand bred lions how to hunt.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A pleasant camp in the grounds of a bungalow in the suburbs of Bulawayo gave us the chance to visit Matoba National Park.  Here we walked up to some caves where there were some excellent cave paintings and a walk in to see White Rhinos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Botswana

Next stop was Planet Baobab, a camp between Francistown and Chobe.  A trip to the Makgadikgadi Pans gave a few of us the chance to Mere Cats and large numbers of Zebra.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our visit to the Okavango delta started with a stay on Swamp Island.  Here we took trips out by makoros to see the  wildlife of the delta.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Namibia

At Ngepi Camp, with its quirky bathrooms, gave time to relax and take further bird walks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Botswana

Back in Botswana we had an interesting boat trip on the river alongside the Chobe National Park to view elephants, hippos and other wildlife before watching the sun set.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Zimbabwe

Back in Zimbabwe we visited Hwange National Park again to see wildlife before moving on to Victoria Falls.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Victoria Falls I took a night game drive, a canoe trip on the Zambezi, The Falls N.P., an early morning game drive and the activities from the gorge bridge.  The distance traveled up to Victoria Falls totaled 5802 Kilometers.

Victoria Falls

The Victoria Falls National Park

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Activities from the Gorge Bridge

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Upper Zambezi Canoe trip

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Evening Game Drive

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Zambia

Our welcome to Livingstone was having the truck broken into before leaving for Choma.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

© www.robs-journeys.uk