Check out this little video we put together…Just to give you an idea of the kind of terrain we covered in 18 days!

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 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

After an incredible day and half in Monkey bay we made our way over to Senga bay (about a 2 hour drive) to make the next check point. As we have learnt, the Put Foot guys don’t hold back at the check points and the food and party that is laid on is always madly awesome. Malawi was no exception and the “Lumo” themed party was loads of fun! check out some pics (of quality that declines in converse proportion to the amount of alcohol that was consumed).

our porch has a 180 deg lake view!

Lumo themed party set up

Booze and fire…always smart

Later that night

even later on

RealFin

On our first stop in Lusaka we said goodbye to Amanda, the sensible one. She had to get back to varsity and work. We made a few rules to keep safe on the trip, like no night driving. African roads are full of people, animals,crazy truck drivers and bicycles. Not 4 hours after her flight left we drove for about three hours in the dark to get to Chipata. It was the the scariest, most pot holed stretch of road we have ever encountered. Once we arrived in Chipata we then discussed making use of the 24 hr border and getting an extra day on Lake Malawi! Luckily we decided against it, but the quality of decision making and quality of living has definitely decreased since Amanda left! From dodgy roadside motels to Russian sausages from street vendors, we definitely miss the sensible female influence.

The sensible one is the one in the middle – just to be clear

The sensible one is the one on the left – just to be clear

The sensible one is on the right this time – just to be clear

Drake Fund Advisors

This post does not need many words…the following pictures should give you some vague idea of our insanely special Lake Malawi is:

Boat trip out to the island

Boooya

Local Fisherman doing their thing

Like an aquarium – only its a lake

Fresh water tropical fish – are you for real real

Fish everywhere – EVERYWHERE!

Snorkel Snorkel

Better for in the water

RealFin

We woke up on the morning of the 27th to find Kevin looking very sorry for himself with a more than sagging roof rack. It had probably been broken for a while with us blissfully ignorantly driving along – lalalalalala…life is golden….lalalalala. But with some bad roads ahead we needed to get things fixed up and out of this came one of the highlights of our trip so far. On the side of the road in a tiny town somewhere between Lusaka and Chipata we met Lizwe who went to work manufacturing us a new rack! What a legend:

Kevin looking sad with a broken roof rack

Lizwe the legend manufacturing a new rack on the side of the road

I really like this man

A much happier Kevin the rally car

Drake Fund Advisors

As the rally moves across some amazing countries and landscapes, its has come as sad news that one of the checkpoints has been changed. Announced yesterday by the Rally Chief, we will unfortunately not be sampling some 2Ms and R & R’s on the beaches of Mozambique due to some political unrest along a portion of the rally route in Mozambique.

However, it does mean that we will now be adding another country to the route as the rally moves the final checkpoint to Botswana another beautiful country and setting for the rally! And it may give us the chance to pass through Zimbabwe on the way!