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On 8th April we set off from Cotonou in Benin to Lagos, the capital of Nigeria. We had arranged to rejoin the overland tour in Kano in northern Nigeria. After considering our schedule carefully we decided that we would fly from Lagos up to Kano since the journey sounded boring and time consuming. On arrival at the domestic airport in Lagos we found that there was a flight to Kano leaving in twenty minutes. We frantically rushed around to change money on the black market and buy the tickets. A few minutes before the scheduled departure time Paula and I were running across the tarmac to get to the waiting jet before they pulled away the boarding stairs. Exhausted we rushed up the stairs, the crew closed the main door behind us and before we could find our seats the plane was taxiing to the runway - only in Africa!
1992 Diary - Africa (Part 2)
Gjcmcclurg2005-12-23 14:25:40
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see why the country was called 'The warm heart of Southern Africa'.
Malawi is dominated by the huge, fresh water, Lake Malawi running the length of the country. We camped for several days on the eastern shore of the lake at Chintheche. One morning, as the sun climbed out of the lake, I was lucky enough to see a Fish Eagle fish for breakfast - it was quite an idyllic setting. We spent the few days at Chintheche swimming, enjoying the sandy beach and generally relaxing. In the evenings there was also a well stocked bar to add to the holiday resort feel of the campsite!
Further south on the lake we stopped in at Salima Bay which again had a pleasant beach. I had great fun in a local market bartering away many of my clothes for beautiful wood carvings - I was only just decent when I finally left the market! On 31st July we left Malawi and entered Zambia. We apparently needed to make up a little time so we spent a couple of days driving through the country with a brief stop in the capital, Lusaka.
On the evening of 2nd August we crossed the bridge over the Victoria Falls Gorge from Zambia to Zimbabwe. The next morning a group of us hired bicycles and cycled down to the Victoria Falls National Park. We spent a couple of hours admiring the awesome falls where the mighty Zambezi River plunges over 100m down into the gorge. The falls sent up a huge column of spray and it was easy to understand why the falls are known locally as 'The smoke that thunders'. After the falls we went for a very civilized tea at the famous old colonial Victoria Falls Hotel. In the evening we all went out on a 'Sundowner cruise' on the Zambezi. On the cruise we spotted several hippos and crocks as we downed a few beers and watched the sun sink into the river.
The next couple of days we spent whitewater rafting on the raging Zambezi. The first day we were given a short safety talk before the 700 feet
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See photographs from:
Zambia Gallery
,
Tanzania Gallery
,
Malawi Gallery
,
Kenya Gallery
,
Zimbabwe Gallery
,
Cameroon Gallery
,
Burundi Gallery
,
Botswana Gallery
,
Nigeria Gallery
