Hilux 4x4 Forum

CasKru wrote:Jis Thanks Hennie... stunning trip report.

Ek neem aan hierdie kamp is baie sentraal geleë

Als is net 'n klipgooi ver :twisted: :D:

Cassie, klipgooi dalk wel, maa "sentraal gelee" is die 1 ding wat ek nou NIE daarvan sal se nie...

We left Jakobsen Beach at about 07h00 on Thursday. The past 2 days were a magical refresher for our souls. These are some sights in Tanzania.

There is a huge difference between the poor rural people, and those centred around bigger towns like Kigoma, Mwanza and especially to the east, like Dar es Salam and other. Some people live in brick homes, but most like this. Everything is basically transported on bicycle to the enarest town or village, and from there by truck to the nearest big town and further. Potatoes, sweet potatoes, kasava, tomatoes, red onions, fruit like pineapple, papaya, mango, sugarcane etc are sold fresh on the road. Even the very young do their bit. Young boys transported wood on push-bicycles made entirely from wood, everything on that bicycle works, and everyting is from wood... These maraboes strode nonchalantly between the people in a village. And we passed this sign... And then there was the road...

Yes, the road.

We had also spent some of the time at Jakobsen checking each and every bolt and nut on the caravans, and all other bolts and nuts we could see on the vehicles. Each of the 184 wheel nuts on the vehicles and vans were checked and tightened.

We had initially planned on driving to Tabora, and from Tabora to Mwanza on Friday, and from there to Serengeti on Saturday. Dewald however managed to arrange for us to stop at Geita, at a mine his company, Moolmans Mines operates not far from Mwanza. It was to be little over 500 km to Geita, according to the GPS some 8 hours plus driving. It would however give us an extra day spare.

We ran into Mr Jooma, our angel from the 1000 Hippo’s campsite in Katavi, whilst we were refuelling in Kigoma. He said the road was very good.

Now I will tell you this: If that road was “very good”, I certainly do not plan to ever drive on any road any Tanzanian labels as “bad”, never mind “very bad”! Apart form some 48 km in the middle, the rest was bad. Very bad. Bil Jan swears even less than Dewald, and I am not going to publish his comments on the road here. It again shook seven kinds of white stuff out of us, and it took us eventually some 11 hours driving. It was not only the road: it was the one day where we had to deal with the road and Tanzania's kamikaze truck- and bus drivers. Words cannot describe some of the encounters- pardon the quality of the pics, they were mostly taken in the drive...

The busses is something special- I can understand why the Tanzanian at the Border told us the road to Katavi, that took us 7 hours, was a 3 and half hour drive, as that is probably how long it takes one of these busses... They really and trully belive that the faster they go, the less the impact of the bad road... The saying "the narrower the road, the wider the truck got new meaning... Being on a bicycle, well, what is that about a picture and 1000 words? This is Hannes, and a truck.... I'm quite sure very few trucks end up like this very nice old one.

Hennie baie nice trip report met great fotos lyk my die busse wat so jaag is maar n Afrika ding met ons laaste trip Zim toe was dit die selfde ding hoe slegter die pad hoe vinniger ry die bus . Ek het een versoek sal jy bietjie kamp kostes en brandstof pryse en beskikbaarheid daarvan deurgee al is dit op die eindevan jou trip report?

Sal so doen Frans.

Somewhere during that day Dewald and I got quite a bit a bit ahead, so we stopped and waited for Jan and Hannes. Dewald first checked his van’s new leaf springs, then stuck his head under Gump to check out the setup there. He popped up to tell me that a very important nut was missing. I first thought he was joking, but then saw that the nut holding the bolt on which the leaf springs rested, was gone! It is an oversize bolt and nut, and we didn’t have one that large between the three of us. Dewald then saw that the levered bolt with which Gump’s spare wheel was fastened, was the same size. After sawing off the lever, Jan and I tightened it on. It’s still there- hasn’t moved a nano.

Later Jan called Hannes, both behind me and Dewald, on the radio, telling him that he saw something shiny, looking like a bolt, on a little bridge, and that Hannes must please stop and get it. Few minutes later Hannes called: Jan checked: it was obviously a freshly broken off, high tensile steel bolt, I relayed the message to Dewald, stopped and crawled under Gump. All seemed in order.

We carried on. About two and half hours of brutal gravel road later we reached Geita. As we waited to be cleared by security, I saw Gump hung low. Then I saw why: one of the two bolts with which the tow hitch was attached to the A-frame, was gone. That was the bolt Hannes picked up. Gump was literally hanging onto Forest with one single bolt. That Gump was still there, considering the road, was only, only a miracle.

We made camp in Moolman’s Mines personnel village to a very warm welcome. Hot showers in a guest house, electricity. Hospitality. To put the cherry on top, next morning just after 7 some of their engineers arrived with replacement high tensile steel bolts and nuts. Thank you Moolmans and Dewald!!

While we waited, I tried to get the most of the dust off- fruitless waste of energy I may add... We left Moolmans on July 6 with the prospect that Serengeti Stopover camp was the destination. We were nearly there. It was to the day exactly 3 years prior, 6 July 2009, that we went down Van Zyl’s Pass…

We drove to Mwanza, where we caught the ferry across. Another special experience.

I was low on fuel close to Mwanza- but decided to test my fuel warning light. We stopped at the ferry boom on 65 km since it came on. As the boom lifted, Murphy pitched up, and Forest died as we rolled forward into the ferry area and stopped behind Hannes. Swamb's and I did Mclaren proud- 3 minutes later I was back behind the wheel- having dumped 20l of fuel from a locked jerry into the tank!!! Jan and Dewald got on to the ferry, but then they closed the boom and loaded trucks and busses, and thereafter the passengers walk on... They left us behind but we got on the next ferry about 20 min later. Hannes and I promptly celebrated the ferry trip in suitable fashion... We did some last moment shopping in Mwanza, and after some more interesting driving in Tanzania finally arrived at Serengeti Stopover camp, only 1 km away from our destination, fairly early- we actually got to set camp in daylight…

Ek wag in spanning vir die volgende episode Hennie

Die foto van die hippo (kop pic p2) is awsome :!: Maak poskaarte daarvan en sal beslis koop, baie mooi pic daai

We had planned to sleep at Serengeti Stopover, and drive into Serengeti to Seronera the next day. A very kind guide in Stopover however gave us other advice. As the migration was in the western part, where we were to enter, if we did what we planned, it would mean driving through the migration to our camp some 140 km on gravel, and then having to drive back on the same road the next day to spend more time in the migration. He advised to go into Serengeti next day, but to came back and camp another day outside Serengeti at Stopover camp. Good advice. I'm not good with strangers, but it's really clever and sharp to interact with the locals on a trip into Africa. We had a very good, relaxed enjoyable evening at Stopover.

Then: The next morning. Finally. Three years of dreaming, two years of talking, eighteen months of waiting, twelve months of serious planning, six months of preparation, four months of excited anticipation, two months of nervous organising, one month of frantic last minute arrangements, some 4 500 odd km later........ a dream came true.

Thanks Mark. (I actually considered stopping, thought maybe the report was too long-winded, everybody has lost interest...)

The next posts will be photo's taken in Serengeti. Certainly not all of the best, it is mostly mine, as I do not have Jan or Dewald's Serengeti photo's, nor all of Hannes's.

I will explain some of the photo's, but mostly the posts will be photo's only, as I simply have no words that can add anything to it... Hallo Naas... The king of beasts...

NO Hennie NO...........

Please don't stop :!: :!: :!: Your daily pace is good....for someone your age

My wife asks me every day(without fail).....has Hennie posted yet, mates of mine SMS this week, what's happening....where Serengeti report

+700 views already Many, many people read never post or comment forum and non active members, I assure you :wink2:

I have goosies right now and am excited after viewing the last few pics

Hannes and Louize stumbled onto this on day 1, seems as though there was a crossing not more that 24 hours prior, as some 40 plus Wildebeest carcasses had spilt up against this low-water bridge. The vultures and maraboes had not really started their work...
They were however already so stuffed that Jan herded them across the bridge like sheep...
They simply couldn't fly, sat on the ground...

OOOOMS wrote:Die foto van die hippo (kop pic p2) is awsome :!: Maak poskaarte daarvan en sal beslis koop, baie mooi pic daai :thumbup:

Dki Mark. Daai is Hannes se foutie- hy sal hierdie lees...

The migration is all that is said about it and more. There are simply no words or pictures able to describe it.... To stand and turn 360 degrees, and as far as the eye can see, this massive entity consisting of hundreds of thousand of animals, constantly running, moving and milling around...
(Hannes's pics were much better, but it got lost in translation from raw...)

Absolutely stunning - must put it my "To Do" list.....

HJ

My daughter and I went for a drive, and landed up caught in the middle of a herd of about 60 elephant, some sleeping on their feet, mothers and babies crossing right in front of Forest, while 2 youngsters were wrestling 5m behind our back bumper, quiet, calm, no threat, just being elephants
EN GARDE!
FIGHT!

Jy maak my so bleddie jealous..... :-(

HennieJ2 wrote:Jy maak my so bleddie jealous..... :-(

x200

Hennie - Warthog: Nie net is jou skrywe puik nie maar blerrie goeie fotograaf ook

A very entertaining read and fantastic pics! Like Mark says, not everyone posts, and I for one don't want to clutter an excellent report with too much 'outsider' chatter. Interesting that the close-up of the giraffe's face shows that he / she still has a thorn stuck above the cheek and in front of the eye ...... acacia surely.

Keep it up Hennie, always look forward to seeing that you have posted an update.

OOOOMS wrote:

HennieJ2 wrote:Jy maak my so bleddie jealous..... :-(

x200

Hennie - Warthog: Nie net is jou skrywe puik nie maar blerrie goeie fotograaf ook

+1

Jy beter aanhou met die post, as jy ophou fire ons jou opslag!!!

Flippen interresante post, goeie werk

Hi Hennie, Please don't stop. I'm one of those that read lots and post little. This is on of the best Tr's I've read and the photos are out of this world. well done.

Mud Dog wrote:A very entertaining read and fantastic pics! Like Mark says, not everyone posts, and I for one don't want to clutter an excellent report with too much 'outsider' chatter. Interesting that the close-up of the giraffe's face shows that he / she still has a thorn stuck above the cheek and in front of the eye ...... acacia surely.

Keep it up Hennie, always look forward to seeing that you have posted an update.

Well spotted Andy I missed that totally...... The large bump on the gerry's head and 'dark' prominent colors of the animals distracted my attention :wink2:

@ Warthog
Some more questions / observations I have, you can possibly assist with later

Q:1) IMO 2way radio's are valuable asset when travelling in convoy - Your opinion and what did you use VHF / UHF or 29mHz? Anh how did you find them?
2) Ferry costs? Zam / Tanz
3) Did you take a SatPhone? If yes which one and if no do you feel you ever needed to take one?
4) Bookings? Did you make any bookings prior to the trip anywhere?
5) Meat? Did you take all your supplies from ZA? See you mentioned you made oz-tail potjie earlier.
6) Maps / Information? What source/s did you find most valuable and accurate? I would assume there were lots.... )
7) Total trip cost? Hmmmm, ja difficult one I know, perhaps a bit of a breakdown, food, accom., fuel, toll, other?

General:
Spares like nut's and bolts / washers can come in very handy for the smallest / largest job
From experience of past OL trip, I always take my own inv welder, welding rods, angle grinder and drill with.....
The use of local information is valuable....very :!:
Never :!: Assume 200km in ZA and 200km elswhere time wise is the same. They live in a totally different time zone

Fantasties!!

Mark,

@ Warthog
Some more questions / observations I have, you can possibly assist with later

Q:1) IMO 2way radio's are valuable asset when travelling in convoy - Your opinion and what did you use VHF / UHF or 29mHz? Anh how did you find them?
Mark, I will NOT do a trip like this without radios. It not only is a necessity in respect of safety, it just adds so much to the trip. The driving was really long and hard, and the 4 men did all the driving exclusively (think Alta may have helped Jan once or twice) Apart from 2 evenings when I was really tired and gatvol, the driving never seemed a burden- because you kuier the whole day on the radio while you're driving, helping each other passing slow trucks, chatting, joking, sharing interesting sights, warning the others of potholes... Hannes was normally last, as he took the most (and usually the best) photo's, and he was constantly called on the radio, and told to check out this or that on this km from next. Although we did 9 500 km in 4 vehicles, and spent the greater part of daylight on at least 20 days in the vehicles, it feels to me as though we had one long kuier 4 weeks long.

2) Ferry costs? Zam / Tanz
That ferry was in Tan- it's a 15 minute ferry across the bottom tip of lake Victoria to Mwanza- saves you a drive of about 5 hours. Cost- if i remember correctly was $5 US. (I will go back one day for a long ferry ride on one of those awesome lakes...)

3) Did you take a SatPhone? If yes which one and if no do you feel you ever needed to take one?
Yes, we (Jan) took one, so I don't know which. We however had fair to very good cellphone reception where ever we went. Even in Katavi, where Kavango 1's leafsprings broke, and for me was the furthest we were form civilisation, Dewald was able to communicate by cellphone with his people. I spoke to my office from the very centre of the market in Kigoma. Later, when Hannes' vehicle's wheel studs broke off, I called Dewald litterally from between nowhere on my cell. So maybe, it was an overkill, but, I will always take a satphone with anyway, just in case...

4) Bookings? Did you make any bookings prior to the trip anywhere?
We only made one booking, and that was at Mana Pools in Zim. All the other places we litterally just pitched up and got place, even at 22h30. I was never worried, because firstly, I always got the impression and feeling that they will go out of their way to accomodate you (just outside Arusha we pitched camp on a camping site's parking area...) and secondly, we were at any time able to be self-sustainable for at least 3 days.

5) Meat? Did you take all your supplies from ZA? See you mentioned you made oz-tail potjie earlier.
Yes, we took some meat from here. But it was mostly for the special times where it was our turn to cook for the whole group. There is a huge Pick & Pay in Lusaka, Shoprite is present in most of the major cities of Tanzania (like Arusha) plus they have a U-Turn, and in Malawi there is People's. All have excellent quality produce, same as here.

6) Maps / Information? What source/s did you find most valuable and accurate? I would assume there were lots.... )
We all had maps- I had the 1:1 300 000 Tanzania map, and the Mapstudio 1:3 500 000 Southern Africa map (Jan also had this one- it's the one on which we initially plotted our trip in Nov 2011) The rest we mostly got from T4A- there are 1 or 2 things on T4A not correct, but Dewald will sort that out. And then the Inet, just search and read.

General:
Spares like nut's and bolts / washers can come in very handy for the smallest / largest job
Jan, Dewald and myself each had a bag with assorted sizes of bolts and nuts. Essential.

From experience of past OL trip, I always take my own inv welder, welding rods, angle grinder and drill with.....
Jan had all these (and more) in his truck. (I'm actually quite confident that with what they had, he and Dewald would have been more than able to easily service a Boeing 747 on a runway in Africa- these 2 bil's of mine are absolutely awesome!)

The use of local information is valuable....very :!
Absolutely.

Never :!: Assume 200km in ZA and 200km elswhere time wise is the same. They live in a totally different time zone :blackeye
Again: ABSOLUTELY. We have the watches, Africa has the time.:!


Announcement: The following episode will follow shortly.

These ellies were just enjoying the mud- just like any kid...
THIRSTY!! We saw a lot of game-view vehicles at a tree, but could see nothing. Later Hannes arrived and called us on the radio, told us there were cheetah under the tree. We went back and dutifully fell in the back of the line of game drive vehicles. It was not 15 minutes later, that a family of 5 cheetah, I suspect Mom and 4 bigger cubs, made their way towards us and landed up in the shade of another tree not more that 15 meters away from us...

Hennie great report en fotos bly jy is besig met die vlgde episode

Hennie, dit moes `n spsiale vakansie gewees het - dit is `n baie lice report en jou fotos is besonders.

warthog wrote:Mark,

@ Warthog
Some more questions / observations I have, you can possibly assist with later

Q:1) IMO 2way radio's are valuable asset when travelling in convoy - Your opinion and what did you use VHF / UHF or 29mHz? Anh how did you find them?
Mark, I will NOT do a trip like this without radios. It not only is a necessity in respect of safety, it just adds so much to the trip. The driving was really long and hard, and the 4 men did all the driving exclusively (think Alta may have helped Jan once or twice) Apart from 2 evenings when I was really tired and gatvol, the driving never seemed a burden- because you kuier the whole day on the radio while you're driving, helping each other passing slow trucks, chatting, joking, sharing interesting sights, warning the others of potholes... Hannes was normally last, as he took the most (and usually the best) photo's, and he was constantly called on the radio, and told to check out this or that on this km from next. Although we did 9 500 km in 4 vehicles, and spent the greater part of daylight on at least 20 days in the vehicles, it feels to me as though we had one long kuier 4 weeks long.

2) Ferry costs? Zam / Tanz
That ferry was in Tan- it's a 15 minute ferry across the bottom tip of lake Victoria to Mwanza- saves you a drive of about 5 hours. Cost- if i remember correctly was $5 US. (I will go back one day for a long ferry ride on one of those awesome lakes...)

3) Did you take a SatPhone? If yes which one and if no do you feel you ever needed to take one?
Yes, we (Jan) took one, so I don't know which. We however had fair to very good cellphone reception where ever we went. Even in Katavi, where Kavango 1's leafsprings broke, and for me was the furthest we were form civilisation, Dewald was able to communicate by cellphone with his people. I spoke to my office from the very centre of the market in Kigoma. Later, when Hannes' vehicle's wheel studs broke off, I called Dewald litterally from between nowhere on my cell. So maybe, it was an overkill, but, I will always take a satphone with anyway, just in case...

4) Bookings? Did you make any bookings prior to the trip anywhere?
We only made one booking, and that was at Mana Pools in Zim. All the other places we litterally just pitched up and got place, even at 22h30. I was never worried, because firstly, I always got the impression and feeling that they will go out of their way to accomodate you (just outside Arusha we pitched camp on a camping site's parking area...) and secondly, we were at any time able to be self-sustainable for at least 3 days.

5) Meat? Did you take all your supplies from ZA? See you mentioned you made oz-tail potjie earlier.
Yes, we took some meat from here. But it was mostly for the special times where it was our turn to cook for the whole group. There is a huge Pick & Pay in Lusaka, Shoprite is present in most of the major cities of Tanzania (like Arusha) plus they have a U-Turn, and in Malawi there is People's. All have excellent quality produce, same as here.

6) Maps / Information? What source/s did you find most valuable and accurate? I would assume there were lots.... )
We all had maps- I had the 1:1 300 000 Tanzania map, and the Mapstudio 1:3 500 000 Southern Africa map (Jan also had this one- it's the one on which we initially plotted our trip in Nov 2011) The rest we mostly got from T4A- there are 1 or 2 things on T4A not correct, but Dewald will sort that out. And then the Inet, just search and read.

General:
Spares like nut's and bolts / washers can come in very handy for the smallest / largest job
Jan, Dewald and myself each had a bag with assorted sizes of bolts and nuts. Essential.

From experience of past OL trip, I always take my own inv welder, welding rods, angle grinder and drill with.....
Jan had all these (and more) in his truck. (I'm actually quite confident that with what they had, he and Dewald would have been more than able to easily service a Boeing 747 on a runway in Africa- these 2 bil's of mine are absolutely awesome!)

The use of local information is valuable....very :!
Absolutely.

Never :!: Assume 200km in ZA and 200km elswhere time wise is the same. They live in a totally different time zone :blackeye
Again: ABSOLUTELY. We have the watches, Africa has the time.:!


Announcement: The following episode will follow shortly.

Tx Hennie, you just about predicted what I thought you would answer

Sorry, one thing I forgot to ask

Trailers? Did you not find them a bit of a bother?

And then: Next moment a young Thompson's Gazelle ran right into the family of cheetah... You could see the surprise on their faces; "What?! Mom ordered Macdonalds! Home delivery!!!" They immediately set after the gazelle, with me, (and Hannes) frantically trying to take pics...

I was on the wrong side of the car, had the wrong lens on, wrong settings... managed to get 2 photo's just one step above "Rating: Rubbish"
(My daughter was sitting next to me. I have a couple of excellent close-ups of the back of her head should anyone be interested...) After getting the gazelle down FIVE times, Mom finally came to help the youngsters to get it properly down the sixth time- we only realised afterwards that she must have been the Mom- she sat still during the initial chase (We didn't realise she was the mom, very good looking- considering the age of the kids...)
And promptly Mr Hyena pitched up and collected the kill...

A few hundred metres away, was another tree, which we also passed earlier without seeing anything, until my daughter saw... The leopard woke up, and after stretching, moved up higher into the tree, where we could see it feeding on a gazelle. During the feed, the back half of the gazelle carcass broke of and fell to the ground. After eating it's fill, the leopard retired to the same branch, where it licked itself clean. Then 2 warthog's approached the tree. (I wanted to get out and warn my other family...
The leopard was interested, and got down lower in the tree, but it also had it's fill. It merely rested in the tree, watching the warthog rather bored as the warthog feasted on the leftovers of the leopard's gazelle, completely oblivious to death 3 meters above them... We then had to leave for camp. Hannes got on the other side of a herd of elephants crossing with small calves, and this lady took some serious exception to their close proximity... We drove back to camp, when suddenly my daughter shouted: Stop, stop! I duly did, thinking there was another twist for a picture.

There was. It was this. She took the perfect picture of the perfect end to a perfect day in Serengeti.

Trailers, Mark, difficult. We did Namibia and Kaokoveld with a trailer and tents. Done that. Got the t-shirt. Not again.

Hannes and Louize did Nam with rooftop tents. I'm built rather "compact", not for speed, or like my physio once said: "You're not very supple, are you? No, I'm not." So RTT, no, I am probably going to donner out of it some time, so, no thank you.

Yes, caravans (and trailers) slow you down. Yes, fuel consuption will be up. Yes, it restricts your mobility (although both my kids reckon I'm a Ninja with a trailer- whatever that means.)

But I slept in my own very, very comfortble bed every night (Swamb's and myself both have dodgy backs, but the bed was almost more comfy than the one in our bedroom... We had all we needed, clothes, safety, a complete kitchen, food, fridge, a shower... A complete home.

There was only 1 night, at Chicamba dam in Mozambique on our way back, where we did not sleep in Gump. I must have made at least 8 trips to Gump, collecting various things such as clothes, coffee, cold drinks, whisky, tooth brushes and -paste, etc, etc.

If you're savvy and careful, it will not bother you. I'm not goin' anywhere in Africa without Gump.

To continue:

It was the same day that the others went on the hot air balloon safari. These are Hannes' pics.

Some more of Hannes's pics:
It was some 5 hours later, and these 2 teenagers were still going at it... Until Big Brother stepped in (probably for the umpteenth time) to break it up... And Mamma took us across safely

Hennie dit moet seker een van die beste reports wees wat ek nog op die forum gelees het. Hou baie van jou fotos veral die olifante.

All of us returned to camp at Nguchiru Camp that night somewhat subdued. Hannes, whom is somewhat of a motor-mouth, and has proved it over the previous 2 weeks, was exceptionally quiet. When we sat around the fire, he mentioned that he now understands a syndrome that is mentioned in medical circles. An information/emotion overload.

It's like when your computer tries to download to big a chunk of info, and then just hangs... overload. That is exactly what we experienced. (I am still suffering from it- I think shortly after Serengeti my mind and body overloaded, took everything in, but stopped processing, and is now trying to clear the back-log. My computer was still running and processing, but there are certain things I see pic's off now which I do not remember...)

It's just too much. The experience. Being there. The sights. The pictures. The people. The scenes. The smells. The sounds. The fine, powder sand in Tanzania. Bad roads. Busses and trucks. The water of the lakes. The animals. Life. Death. The fight for survival. Dust. Sunsets. The grunts of a thousand wildebeest. Gravel. Awesome, awesome, awesome places. Good food. Friendly people. Love. Chatter. Support. Kindness....

Hennie:
Q: Stupid question

Did you not even wonder why your house is where it is?

Al wat ek kan se -Dit is MANJIFIEK!!!

Was die lugballon die moeite werd? Sal jy dit weer doen?

Jacques, ons gesin het nie die lugballon ding gedoen nie, maar die ander in die groep het. Hulle was so verbrands ordentlik teenoor ons dat hulle letterlik nie 'n woord daaroor gepraat het na hulle teruggekom het nie. Ons het ons redes hoekom ons dit nie gedoen het nie, maar om net regverdig te wees, sal ek hulle komentaar vra en hier post na hulle vir my gestuur het.

To all who have posted comments so far: thank you. I do tend to get long winded sometimes, and i really thought that I was boring everybody.

Your comments are humbling.

OOOOMS wrote:Hennie:
Q: Stupid question :mocking:

Did you not even wonder why your house is where it is? :lol: :lol:

Plenty times Mark. After the Nam trip, and again now. I think if it was only up to me, my house might just be where my tent pegs are, or where Gump's wheels are parked... (I think Malawi will suit me fine...)

However: I'm married to the best wife God could have given me, but her nickname in her own family is Kayavas, which litterally means "tied to home". These 4 weeks were the longest we were ever away from home, and for her it was really something major. Her roots are here, and as long as God blesses us with each other's company, (although my company might not always be classified a "blessing") that's where I will be.

Hennie, you have taken some great pictures here. I particularly like this one:


but also this one:


And how beautiful is this one:



But then actually, I like all of them! SO I guess I'd better not fill the Internet up with the pics you've already posted.

Great report!


-F_D

Hennie.... WOW... WOW..... WOW

I always thought I knew the reason why I don't read trip reports - but this makes it even worse!

Hennie, you makes me very lus to just packup and go travelling!

Thabogrobler wrote:I always thought I knew the reason why I don't read trip reports - but this makes it even worse!

Hennie, you makes me very lus to just packup and go travelling!

Manne en mannine, die wat nie toer nie! En die wat wil!

Ek het dit aan al baie genoem:

As ek weet wat ek nou weet( nie dat dit te kaat is nie), sou ek dit 20jr terug moes begin

Daai trip is so 1 tot 10 op my Bucket list

Wow wow wow... Hennie you really missed your calling in life, you could definitely be a pro photographer, and that's from someone that study photography for 3 years.

Your pics are truly inspirational, you got everything just right, composition, exposure and of course the subject matter! Impressive!

Mr_B wrote:Wow wow wow... Hennie you really missed your calling in life, you could definitely be a pro photographer, and that's from someone that study photography for 3 years.

Your pics are truly inspirational, you got everything just right, composition, exposure and of course the subject matter! Impressive!

And how I wish I can get my hands on some of those originals....

Would realy like to take them myself!!

But Hoppy... it's not possible to take this quality pics with a Canon...

Mr_B wrote:But Hoppy... it's not possible to take this quality pics with a Canon...

Jip... you well need a camera for that...

Mr B, all the pic's you have seen and will see were taken with Canons...

warthog wrote:Mr B, all the pic's you have seen and will see were taken with Canons...

Hennie, Allan knows I'm a Canon fanatic, always have been! But, on a tight budget I can pick up a Nikon D5100 for R3999 brand new, so it looks like I may be jumping the proverbial fence to the competition. One day, when I need a real camera again, I'll invest in a decent Canon kit!

Any how... let's get back to the real show... can we have some more sir...

To continue (now I understand what F_D meant...)

And suddenly- we had to leave. We went to bed, got up, and had to leave. It is simply not fair that you look forward to something for so long, and then have to leave so shortly...


In the major Tanzanian Parks, you pay for entry per 24 hours. If you go in at 09h30, you have to leave the next day before 09h30, or pay an exorbitant amount of $ US for another day. We had to leave Serengeti before 09h30, and had planned to drive to Ngorongoro, unhook the vans without setting up camp, and get down into the crater the same day, to leave early again the next morning.

Again 2 guides at Seronera gave us other advice. We were to leave Serengeti on time, but waste some time between Serengeti and Ngorongoro, before going into Ngorongoro with enough time to reach the campsite, but leaving us enough time to only descend into the crater the next day and spend as much time down as possible. Sounded good.

We left camp at Seronera early enough.


When we reached the gate out of Serengeti into Ngorongoro, we did some shopping, took some pic's and had brunch.

All went smooth until Dewald and Jan were suddenly confronted by a warden. She allegedly received a sms that they had driven off-road in Serengeti, refused to stop when asked to do so by a warden, and then refused to produce their receipts to be in Serengeti. Jan just kept calm. but Dewald understandably got quite upset, because it was just simply horse-manure. Eventually they realised that they were not going to get a bribe, and just let us be. Hopefully they learnt not to mess with people with GP or MP registration numbers.

The patience also did not last. We very soon decided to rather pay for an extra day than to waste further time...

warthog wrote:To all who have posted comments so far: thank you. I do tend to get long winded sometimes, and i really thought that I was boring everybody.

Your comments are humbling.

Not long winded at all Hennie :!:

Waiting for the next episode......

wow, wow en nog baie wowwowowowowowowow!!!

Wow!!

Breaking camp at Nguchiro, Seronera, Serengeti... The road is, well as the road is. As a policeman who stopped us at a roadblock in Serengeti explained, the road is what it is so that we have to drive slower so that we can see all the animals... We stopped to take THE PHOTO of the trip... Brunch at Ngorongoro gate. The office and entry to Ngorongoro is atopp a rocky hill litterally slap bang in the middle of this massive plain...

The previous pics and these are with the exception of one or two, all Hannes'. Speaking of which, the greatest frustration in compiling this tr was that I was not able to put in more of the literally hundreds of awesome pics we took, and the difficulty in choosing which to use and which to loose...

Just after we entered into Ngorongoro, Dewald called and said there was a road turning off right, which, according to the gps, will also take us to the crater, but at least we will be off the main road, which was not only busy, but also rather bad. We immediately agreed.

The viewing was immediately awesome. I managed to get both the gazelles, Thompsons and Grants on one pic. The road was beautifull at first, and we motored. However, true to Tan form, it gradually worsened, until we were back to 20 km/h. I peeked at the Ngoro map I bought, and saw that the road was actually classified as 4x4 only, and not to be used in the wet season. It was serious, serious dust, poepstof. The others (especially Hannes) complained, but it was actually enjoyable for me and Swamb's. Look, I personally prefer that kind of road over corrugated gravel anytime... We finally left the bushveld type area, and after driving over a large dusty plain the scenery turned green and lush. We met the first Masai people... We reached the campsite at the crater at about 16h00, and after gratefully washing the most of the dust of, set up camp. Its was still daylight, but it was already very, very cold...

Loooooouvely