Hello!

Today we posted the third of our little reports on our trip, which will takes us from South Africa back to Germany over 'only' 10 months, up the eastern route.

You can find us at http://www.wanderwheels.wordpress.com/

The first may not interest you soo much as it's more about friends: but we do add an odd sentence about First Impressions of South Africa.
https://wanderwheels.wordpress.com/2...-south-africa/

We continue into Lesotho, which was far too short, but hugely recommendable, you can easily spend 10 days to 2 weeks here.
https://wanderwheels.wordpress.com/2...om-in-the-sky/

And the return to South Africa for part two.
https://wanderwheels.wordpress.com/2...-south-africa/

As we condense a lot of impressions into a little post, there's a bias towards informing our friends, family and colleagues back home, of what we've been up to, what we notice most etc.

But if you, here on our favourite forum (and i only ride a motorbike really badly, but still I like you and the site :-))
would like any specific insights I would be happy to consider them going forward.

For South Africa our road highlights were certainly:

* the cobra tour around the ocean road after Gordon's bay, by Cape Town, to Betty's Bay, Kleinmond and over the Franschoek Pass (not very 4x4-ish, I realise!)

* Seweweekspoort, Swartberg pass, Montagu Pass, the Oxwagon Trail from Bonniedale Farm, Attakwas Pass, Prince Alfred pass (?) etc around Calitzdorp, Prince Albert etc

* Baviaanskloof

* Wuppertal to Maatjiesrivier in the Cederberg area

* Richtersveld trails to De hoop to helskloof.

Once again, if any of you would like any specific information/interest focus I would be happy to consider them, if I can!

And if anyone planning a similar trip has any questions, we may be able to help with, just let us know!

A great weekend to all and happy viewing!
Helen & Jens

Namibia was next en route, 6 weeks meandering, having friends to visit and paragliding, with our first foray into sand driving along the beach to Sandwich Harbour.

Despite the time we had there we still missed so much out, particularly the north with damaraland and kaokafeld: good reasons to return 1 day!


Some people we met on the road, who made an impression on us:
https://wanderwheels.wordpress.com/2...tings-namibia/

A more humorous look at the animals we saw:
https://wanderwheels.wordpress.com/2...art-1-namibia/

Descriptives of the breath-taking landscapes:
https://wanderwheels.wordpress.com/2...rs-of-namibia/

Some short statistics on our travel anniversary, 16 April:
https://wanderwheels.wordpress.com/2...anniversary-2/

Some musings on Botswana and funny stories of our animal encounters there.
Thoroughly enjoyed our trip here and packed a lot in in the 4 weeks... if only we had more time!


https://wanderwheels.wordpress.com/2...n-in-botswana/

https://wanderwheels.wordpress.com/2...rt-2-botswana/

https://wanderwheels.wordpress.com/2...rt-3-botswana/

https://wanderwheels.wordpress.com/2...to-our-hearts/


Nice weekend everyone!

A short intermezzo in southern Mozambique, where we enjoyed the fresh fish and seafood, dinner with a lodge owner who's participated in Paris-Dakar before
And a nice cross country track back to Gonarezhou national park in Zimbabwe.

Hadn't quite realised how huge Mozambique is, we didn't even dent it....

https://wanderwheels.wordpress.com/2...in-mozambique/

Nice weekend!

Thx for sharing. Very interesting read & fantastic pictures!

In Southern Africa there's so much to see - it could keep you busy for months ;o) But your main point is the trip from Cape Town to Germany, so time is naturally a limiting factor.

Enjoy the rest of your trip!

__________________
Only when we pause to wonder
do we go beyond the limits of our little lives.
(Rod McKuen)

Thanks Vaufi!!

Every day we debate whether we shouldn't just leave the car for a few months and come back in the new year to do some more.
We are so torn!

But at the moment the need to be closer to family win the day... for now... !

Here is a link to the blog of friends of mine that travel that way - have a break every now & then, before carrying on. Buschtaxi - Unsere Pfade

__________________
Only when we pause to wonder
do we go beyond the limits of our little lives.
(Rod McKuen)

Cool, thanks... Dont get me tempted! Though I almost have an inferiority complex just looking at their title photos... fab!!

Friday evening, at least where we are, and here's a new country episode for your weekend reading.

Perhaps a little bit too much of a hot-headed rant for some at the beginning, but I needed it.

Hope you enjoy it.
Nice weekend!
Helen & Jens

https://wanderwheels.wordpress.com/2...lawed-diamond/

A game of snakes and ladders is how Jens describes our short time in Zambia.
We were just a couple of weeks too early for the tracks we thought about doing, and although we knew how big Zambia is, we didn't actually really put it into perspective: I don't think we would ever have managed our original plan in the short time we were intending to be there.

Lower Zambezi and South Luangwa National Parks didn't disappoint at all.

And Bruce got a full service and 2 new BF Goodrich tyres in Lusaka. All set for the continued journey back to Germany!

https://wanderwheels.wordpress.com/2...nds-in-zambia/

Happy Sundays from Rwanda!
Helen & Jens

Malawi was a welcome change after all the recent animal experiences.

It was really nice to be surrounded by many nice people and you can choose whether you stuck to tourist/expat things or get more involved and try to understand the culture and the country.

Yesterday we were sitting with another couple who were holed up in Blantyre for a couple of weeks awaiting spare parts.

They now have a completely opposite view to ours regarding Malawians, and they guy we were sitting with even went as far as to insinuate they might be "dumb" and that it's no wonder they are one of the world's poorer countries when the men never go out to work in the fields and never improve their standards or learn from others.

We did at least agree that we are not fully convinced that foreign aid is always a help and not a hindrance to a country's development.

Anyhow, none of that is discussed in our blog: more the glimpses of what we saw and enjoyed, including a rare paragliding opportunity.

Hope you like it as much as we enjoyed the country!

https://wanderwheels.wordpress.com/2...bigger-hearts/

Helen & Jens

Short and sweet: our transit up the west side of Tanzania towards Rwanda.

https://wanderwheels.wordpress.com/2...ough-tanzania/

With Rwanda's history, it was never going to be an easy visit and the blog was even harder.
We're sure it won't be to everyone's taste, but if you do read it, we hope you appreciate it!

https://wanderwheels.wordpress.com/2...het-in-rwanda/

Helen & Jens

What better antidote to Rwanda's difficult history - a trip round Uganda and celebrating 2 birthdays, with friends from Germany.

What a great country this is for a visitor: at least on the surface. We didn't dig into the vicious past with Idi Amin or the current political situation, which is not our usual style.

The country is a little microcosm of East Africa we found: parks with animals, savannah landscapes, lush forests, chimps and gorillas if you can afford them, hiking in the mountains if you're feeling fit, dirt roads which look fantastically sticky and slippery when wet, and wonderfully friendly, well-educated people with very little language barrier. GREAT!!

https://wanderwheels.wordpress.com/2...ons-in-uganda/

Up the east side of Lake Turkana in Kenya is today's blog post.

For our friends and family following jens on Facebook, he warned them this, and our next one still to come (on Omo) are Must-Reads.
They are both such incredible places to visit!


Definitely the TOP route on the trip! Don't do it on a GS though: light enduro best.

If a detailed report on what to expect re surfaces and timings would be useful, I'll be happy to post one.

Hope you enjoy it, too!

https://wanderwheels.wordpress.com/2...turkana-kenya/

Helen & Jens