OverlandSphere
Overland Travel, Expedition & Adventure Information for 4x4, motorcycle and truck overlanders
We found an alternative tar or asphalt road to the busy tourist road (route 6) running from Addis to the Moyale Kenya border via Dila. We decided not to take this road as I had experienced it 5 years ago and it was slow and only offered cheap motels/hotels and is littered with people the whole route. Instead we drove…
Bye bye Axum Arriving annes house Addis We were so tired when we finally reached Addis Ababa on the 20th April. The journey from Axum had been 1000km of really bad roads, high mountain passes, dangerous hairpin bends and people and animals all over the road and we were practically stuck in the car all day. We saw several roads…
Nechisar National Park One of the most unusual parks I’ve been in. It was not too expensive to enter and we found it to be a perfect test before entering the south bound Turkana track with all its river crossings, mud baths and windy picturesque tracks. Nechisar is made up of jungle, river crossings, beautiful lake views and plains. We…
It took us 5 hours to drive the 196km to Bilene. Luckily we started early. T4A showed Palmeiras as a campsite and we decided to try it. On our way I found out that my Kindle can help tremendously with finding places to stay and general info by using Google. The Kindle has GPS reception where nothing else has. I…
The length of this dam wall that is also the crossing towards the main road to the coast, is 5km and they are busy lengthening it! Crossing the Massingir Dam wall The Olifants river that feeds the dam and the Hydro electric scheme This says it all…..but NOT enough Difficult driving through swamp land on terrible potholed road. Huge never…
We left Letaba camp a bit sad because we had to say goodbye to new friends. On the other hand we were fairly excited about finally crossing the border into Mozambique. Initially, after phoning the children for the last time, we were both quiet and after a while I asked Arno how he felt because I had mixed feelings of…
We arrived at the border and were stamped out of Malawi pretty painlessly. We expected the Tanzanian Border to be easy because we had our Carne and visas, and only needed to get insurance. There is an exchange bureau at the Tanzanian Border and we got good rate for our Malawian Kwacha… Which is always surprising at a border! We…
The drive to Livingstonia was slow, but absolutely beautiful! The most part of the road winds between part of The Great Rift Valley and the views are breathtaking! Mzuzu town is perched on the mountains at 1200m altitude, and driving to Livingstonia takes you all the way back to the Lake, and then up another mountain. As we started descending,…
Crossing over to North Sudan Driving down from Gondar in Ethiopia to the Sudanese border takes you from a very cool elevation of 2,100m down to just 600m. Upon arriving at the border town of Metema, we were completely dumbfounded by the intensity of the Sudanese desert heat. “Only 38 degrees today!” the locals cheerfully replied. “In Khartoum, it’s 46!”…
Truck on it’s side A herd of Camals A donkey carrying far to much hay Truck loses it’s load down a donga We found some interesting photo’s depicting Ethiopian roads while we driving south towards South Africa……
We are terribly proud of little Lily, she’s fitted in well with the travelling esp. when we have been forced to travel great distances. She’s really enjoyed running out side with no shoes on and seems to be picking up so many words, languages, experiences for a two year old. Here’s some of our favourites… Love your parentsxxx Lily’s bush…
We made our way up north to the Simien mountains to a town called Debark, looking for Sib and Pris who were two days ahead of us after they left Gondor. We arrived at the Simien National Park where we went looking for them and were told by the National Park Wardens that they were in the guest book and…
After a long day on the Marsabit Moyale road and then doing the border crossing from Kenya to Ethiopia it was time to call it a day. Our first night in Ethiopia was spent in a hotel 1, 5 km from the border. There we were also served out first Ethiopian meal, grilled goat meat with the traditional injera, bread,…
Metema border Lake Tana sunset Simien mountain bush camp, nic dragging a tree for the fire Bad road to Axum Their huts with a beautiful outlook over lake Tana Nicky lake tana Lily’s dog bite at Tim and Kims at Tana Bush camp in simian mountains outside Debark 12th-20th April We arrived at the Metema border at 9am on the…
The next day we drove to Nkhata Bay. My cousin, Lea, recommended Mayoka Village describing it as heaven. And I quote, “Seriously, Shannon, it is heaven!” SOLD! We headed to Mayoka Village and were a little disappointed because they had no camping sites for cars, their dorms were full and their rooms were a bit out of our budget. But…
This piece of road must be one of the most famous drives in Africa. Mostly for the wrong reasons. Cars break down and people have to camp along the road as they can’t make it all the way to the next town before dark. Well, here is our experience. The road looks pretty bad leaving Marsabit. In Kenya you drive…
Part 2: Iganga Hospital is a 200-bed district general hospital run, and largely funded by the government. It has male, female, paediatric and maternity wards, an outpatients department, pharmacy, laboratory, x-ray, ultrasound and an operating theatre. The gate opened straight out onto the main road and once inside there was always a great crowd shifting around the white buildings. Clusters…
We have always read about how remote and difficult this route is. As usual, I think I will say, we find that this is quite exaggerated. Turkana is of course not a good place to have a break down, but there are other vehicles using the road. At least a couple of times per day. As long as you have…
Malaria really is a HORRIBLE thing! Even between the fever and cold chills, you just feel like crap! I had few side effects from the medication other than nausea and tinnitus, but it still wasn’t pleasant! It was also terrible timing because we had SO been looking forward to Lake Malawi, and I was feeling so sick that I could…
Part 1: Children on the DRC border March 13 2013 Six feet in a drumroll syncopate with the downpour, rasping on broad-leaf snares. In an instant, we meet under haphazard semaphore, tumbling shrieks cut short. Each of us receiving a face; a frozen, flash photograph; glossy and sleek, panting clouds. Charging steep, you lead the game. Mouth set in mirth,…
From Malin’s slide show of rain, you have probably figured out that now is rainy season in East Africa. We knew of course, but decided that this would only make it more interesting. Our first stop after Zanzibar was Manfred’s place in Arusha where we had the Patrol stored, and from there, our idea was to cross into Kenya. Earlier…
It was about on day two that the bushes on our rear suspension failed. Long suffering, these rubber buffers prevent a metal on metal clash in the suspension components. Although this didn’t halt our progress, it made us wince every time we hit a medium to large bump, which happened about every three seconds. It did nothing for our confidence…
Driving north from South Africa in May 2012 we traveled in the dry season for 5 months. We did not have a drop of rain for at least three months in the middle, and it made life on the road nice and easy. As we have had a break and stored the Patrol for 6 months in Arusha, we are…
We were feeling a bit deflated after visiting Toyota and getting no answers as to what the problem with the gear box might be. We continued to camp at Mabuya for the weekend, hoping to get answers from Toyota on Monday morning. That night the Sharks were playing the Crusaders in the Super 15, and we desperately wanted to watch…
We’ve now been on the road for almost three years. There have been two longer breaks, one for about three months in Patagonia when we flew in to work in Antarctica, and a second break, for about 5 months when we signed up for another season in Antarctica earlier this year. Other than this we’ve been more or less…
After the long and hard road to Livingstone, it was time to take stock. We only had 3 weeks to get to Cape Town, but now, after all that driving, the odds were shifting in our favour. A quick check of the sat nav, revealed we were only 3 days drive from the Cape if we headed straight for it,…
The sun was almost extinct as we climbed the steps in front of Berbera police station to find an old man in a wicker chair. Two armed men in dusty berets flanked the Police Chief but he himself displayed no military attire. He wore only a swathe of burgundy fabric, richly embroidered and firmly swept around his bent body.…
I forgot to mention that on the way to Mkushi Farm, on the 27th March, I reached the milestone of driving 10 000km! It was so exciting, and Warrick and I were watching the odometer closely as it ticked its way towards 10 000km. We “ooh-ed” and “aah-ed” as it closed in on 9999.99km and planned to stop and take…
We arrived in Lusaka and stayed at Pioneer Camp again. The camp was much busier this time around and we bumped into a lot of overlanders who only had good things to say about traveling North. The next day we headed into Lusaka on a mission. We were going to make the Tracks4Africa download happen, come hell or high water.…
We spent our last night in Lusaka at Pioneer Camp. Pioneer Camp was really good to us, and all the staff were really friendly and helpful! I mentioned in my last blog that they had allowed us to use their computer and Wi-Fi to download our Tracks4Africa maps. Well, I spoke too soon. Yes, they did allow us to do…