Wednesday 29th March

Back in Africa

 I'd forgotten how public life is. Everything happens outside and it's all there to see.

We set off from Johannesburg and have driven up the N1 and turned before Pretoria onto the N4 to travel west to the Botswana border. There is so much going on and lots to see. People are walking alongside the busy roads and there's view into villages of tin shacks with washing strung between them. This morning there are people cutting the grass on the verges, with tractors and strimmers and there are  neat bales further on.

 The roads are good and mostly toll. There is dual carriageway in some places but mostly it is single lane with a hard shoulder that is also a crawler lane, although there is not quite enough space when cars on both sides pass vehicles in the crawler lane.

The road to Botswana is straight and it's easy navigation so hopefully we will get to our first campsite easily.

Testing the tent

Sorry no photos yet as I have some technical issues with my blog!

Our adventure has begun. We had a very easy flight to Heathrow and a delayed flight on but all was well. Nobody slept very much but we were collected from the  airport to get our vehicles. They are fantastic, great big hi-luxs with double cabs and lots of kit! We think that we are prepared for every eventuality with lots of water, two tanks of fuel and some gadgets - sat nav, walkie talkie so we can communicate between the cars, and a satellite phone. We've also go penknives, a sling shot and a flint and steel. We've stocked up with food for the next few days and managed a swim at the hotel in Johannesburg.

It is spring here as we get ready to travel to warmer climes. Work is (almost) finished we are (almost) packed and we are certainly ready to start our adventure. We have managed to catch our magnolia tree which has just come out.

Packing again

As we start packing again I remember the feeing of last time - when we were moving to Malawi for three years. This time we are going for 3 weeks and it's not just me, two kids and a doctor, we are taking friends and their children too.

I described moving abroad like the cupboard under the stairs - if you don't look you can forget what's in there or what is involved. As we prepare again I feel a bit like when you drive into an enormous puddle (something we used to do a lot in the rainy season in Blantyre) and you don't know how deep it is so I used to imagine I had my eyes shut and just go for it.

So join us again as we journey across southern Africa, beginning in Johannesburg and travelling up through Botswana to Zambia.

back in town

It is as if I had only left for a holiday. Things have changed but not rapidly and not very noticeably. Malawi is green once more after the rains but much of the maize does not look healthy and our driver said that the rains have not been good.

Our journey was not unusual, we were meant to land in Blantyre on Saturday but the airport is closed so we had a night in Jo'burg on Saturday and made the most of our stay, looking around the Apartheid Museum. Our flight to Lilongwe was easy, although Jo'burg airport was very confusing, especially as we left our bags at left luggage in arrivals but the taxi dropped us at departures! We were met at Lilongwe airport but the driver said that this wasn't our car as that was broken down so we went to their office, all the way into town, to discover that we had self-drive not taxi and the car was still broken down! Anyway another driver was found we were delivered to our hotel and enjoyed dinner.

Monday has been a busy day of meetings and talking.

getting in the swing

Back in Africa, it’s lovely to see the familiar sights of ladies carrying babies under thick blankets on their backs and piles of vegetables and fruit for sale at the side the road. To smell the hot smells and to hear the sounds of different languages. 

But I had forgotten about time and how everything takes longer than I expect, I am re-learning the art of waiting. And I am once again surprised when the customer service is excellent and not when it is not.