Very detailed Africa travelogue with lots of information for anyone planning a trip. Indexed for easy reference. 11 Countries over 3 months.
3 months in Africa -- detailed travelogue, travel tips, indexed
Larry2006-05-27 03:11:54
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insert your normal ignition key, or the engine won't
start). Avis wound up giving me the same car I drive at home (only with
everything reversed) -- an automatic white Honda Civic (called the "Ballade"
in South Africa), though nobody bothered to tell me about the immobilizer --
and I wound up sitting there for five minutes trying to figure out why it
wouldn't start before I went back into the office to ask.
In general, driving in Southern Africa is fine, but requires more
concentration than driving elsewhere. The worst problem you'll face will be
the roads themselves: in South Africa, Namibia and Botswana, the roads are
kept up quite well, but with the exception of a few toll highways, even the
major freeways are only one lane in each direction. At any given time,
you're likely to have a line of trucks chugging along at 80kph, a line of
cars wanting to pass you at 160kph, and pedestrians darting across the
road -- with the same situation happening in the on-coming direction as
well. Helping matters though, is that other than speed (which is a major
problem in South Africa), drivers here are generally much more courteous and
less aggressive than their counterparts in California. If you're driving
and a car comes up behind you, it's common practice for you to move to the
shoulder in order to let the other car pass, rather than making him have to
cross the line. If you do this, custom is he will turn on his back blinkers
twice ("thank-you") at which you will then flash your lights at him twice in
return ("you're-welcome"). This is very different from the U.S., where
flashing your lights means to move aside, and flashing your blinkers means
to back off. The only problem with moving over to the shoulder, of course,
is that you must be careful of all the pedestrians and cattle you'll find
wandering there.
...
See photographs from:
Botswana Gallery
,
Cape Verde Gallery
,
Kenya Gallery
,
Lesotho Gallery
,
Malawi Gallery
,
Mauritius Gallery
,
Swaziland Gallery
,
Tanzania Gallery
,
Zambia Gallery
,
Zimbabwe Gallery
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I just thought it might be helpful for you to know how i am finding your system.
Thank you
Susan J, 2008-01-28 14:00:20