We rolled into a chilly Joburg on Saturday afternoon, in desperate need of a shower, some clean clothes and a long overdue afternoon nap. Who says three weeks of holiday is easy? Kev has really surprised us on the trip, returning an average of 15km per litre, no flat tyres, no mechanical difficulty and besides a window that won’t stay up was the perfect car for a long trip like this. We rewarded him with a day at the spa on Sunday and he is now looking like new. They had to wash out some Etosha dust, lake Malawi beach sand, Zambezi mud and a variety of bugs from all the countries we visited, not to mention the coffee stains from numerous early morning garage coffees where Kevs bonnet was used as a table. Coming home on the N1 was a surreal experience. We have been negotiating tiny roads littered with goats, people, bicycles and at times elephants and now we were confronted by multiple lanes (an endangered species anywhere North of SA) and fast moving traffic. It took us a while to get out of the slow lane an accelerate above 80km/h!

Clean me

So shiny

KFP

Team AK and Kev rolled into the finish line at Itumela Lodge in Palapye Botswana, not the beach in Mozambique but an equally awesome finish to a real African adventure! We were greeted at the finish line with a cold and well deserved beer, had our photo taken, set up the tents for the last time and got ready for the last checkpoint party. We covered 9000 kms across five African countries, saw some really amazing places and met some very special people, all accomplished in Kev, the little Citi Golf. It has been an awesome adventure and one we will never forget.

Finish Line

KFP

We left Kasane and headed for Nata on Wednesday. Our progress was halted slightly by a herd of elephants crossing the highway! As you head down Botswana it gets drier and flatter, similar to what we experienced in Namibia a few weeks ago. We found a camp site near Nata and Kev got stuck for the first time on this trip. I would love say he got stuck on a 4X4 course, but we somehow managed to beach him on the road into the CARAVAN PARK!    We set up camp, made what we now think may have been a donkey or goat stew with some beer bread and hit the hay.  Hard to believe we will be at the finish tomorrow.

Nata

Ellies – you can never get enough of them

Don’t get stuck Kev

We took a trip onto the Makgadikgadi pan yesterday afternoon. Unfortunately Kev couldn’t join us as the roads get rather hairy. So we hopped into a landcruiser with our guide “KK” and headed off. The pans are flooded at the moment and will dry out again in Sept. We were treated to one of  the best sunsets of the trip. Check out the pics!

Landcruiser…and also the vehicle

So flat

The pans

Shaaaaaame!

Too much the perrdy…not Michael…the sunset

KFP

We really do love alliteration! After Kev’s boat cruise we pulled into Kasane and found a cheap and cheerful camp site on the banks of the Chobe River. It took a while as half of SA is up here at the moment! We booked a sunset cruise and had hippos and crocs swimming around the boat,  herds of elephants crossing the river in front of us and huge herds of buffalo within spitting distance. After all that we were treated to an amazing sunset over the river. It really was an incredible experience and we would highly recommend making a trip up to this special place.

Yawn

Shame

Hippos and croc

Ellies

More Ellies

Spotter

How perrdy

Special place

You will never regret watching every sunset

KFP

We pushed on from Lusaka to Livingstone to get an early jump on the border at Kazangula the following day. We arrived at the border post to find masses of people, long lines of trucks, road works and hundreds of money changers! Luckily we found a kind gentleman who, for a small fee, helped us negotiate the crossing in quick time. Once we stamped passports,  paid our tenth local municipality tax and the ferry fees we got in the queue for the ferry. Kev had to pick up some pace to get through the two meters of Zambezi between the shore and the ferry, but he negotiated that with little effort. The Botswana side of the border was a complete opposite to Zambia, with a beautifully paved ramp to receive us and about five people, a goat and a rather mangy looking dog. Hello Botswana!

Kevin on a ferry

Looking good

Zambia to Botswana

So Happy old Kev dog

Mike and Kev

KFP

Its not like we have made some kind of breakthrough in the field of psychological research by saying that your perception of a distance, or more accurately, how long it seems to cover that distance, is affected by your state of mind before you set out but this has become more and more apparent to us as we have progressed through Southern Africa. We drove over 1700 km from Lusaka to Lake Malawi and back; 25 hours of car time in order to hit the third check point. Before we started the Put Foot Rally a 6 hour trip to Durban was a mind slog but when you get your head around bigger distances it is amazing how quickly the 6 hour mark comes and goes. Kevin the Rally car has now traveled over 7000 km since he set out from Johannesburg and our perception of distance has completely been altered by this Put Foot Rally 2013!

We only had a day and half to enjoy Lake Malawi! Was it worth it? Was it worth all the pain and discomfort of sitting in a citi golf for 25 hours. Was it worth the frayed nerves that come with night time driving on pot holed and livestock covered roads? The answer is a unanimous “YES”. You just have to check out the pictures from this post to see why. Unforgettable memories that have almost been made more special by what distances we have had to overcome…

It also didn’t hurt knowing that when we got back to Lusaka we would have a hot shower and luxurious Protea Hotel bed to climb into…We love you Protea Hospitality Group!

the light at the end of the tunnel

Our final and 4th stage has very kindly been sponsored by:

KFP