Schlagwort-Archive: world trip

World Trip 2018-19, Zambia

Zambia – Summary & Pictures

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People: Zambians were nice and relaxed. They made us feel very welcome. We met some other backpackers along the way, some on holidays, some on longer trips.

Food: I somehow ate lots of veggie burgers during our short time in Zambia. Lol. I’m not sure if there’s really a typical Zambian cuisine, but the international food we got during our all inclusive stay at Marula Lodge was pretty good.

Weather: Sun & heat. Travelling Zambia, I always had the lyrics „I just wanna make you sweat“ in my head. Wonder why!?

Costs: We’ve put the one day in Zimbabwe together with Zambia. Despite visiting Vic Falls, going on safari in Kafue and package-holidaying at South Luangwa, we managed to stay slightly below our budget target and spent about 46€/person/day. This is excluding the bungee jump.

Accommodation: Apart from Marula Lodge (where we stayed in a dorm), we always camped, which helped to keep our costs down significantly.

Infrastructure: There’s busses everywhere, but they take a looong time. They were also usually crammed and super hot and stuffy with no windows opening and the aircon broken for years of course. It was exhausting!

Illnesses: We both caught a stomach bug in Kafue, which kept us awake for one rather unpleasant night.

Safety: No issues. The main bus station in Lusaka was very hassly though!

Itinerary: We visited the two main highlights of Zambia – Vic Falls and South Luangwa National Park. In addition, we detoured to the lesser visited Kafue National Park, but skipped Lower Zambezi because the wildlife didn’t sound very exciting and we couldn’t find a good deal.

Highlight: South Luangwa National Park!

Lowlight: Lusaka.

Click on the photo below to see all our best photos of Zambia:

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World Trip 2018-19, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Victoria Falls – Zimbabwe & Zambia

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We arrived in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, after a lengthy bus ride from Windhoek that ended up taking about 23 h. We didn’t catch lots of sleep on the bus, but considered ourselves fit enough to head for the waterfalls after dropping our bags at the AirBnB we had booked.

There is one main trail on the Zimbabwean side of the falls, leading you to 14 different viewpoints. As we visited just after rainy season, some viewpoints were more like „shower points“ with not much of a view but lots of spray from the incredible amounts of water pouring down the falls.

However, there were still many beautiful views to be appreciated and we spent a couple of hours walking around, taking many photos, as always.

Next day, we crossed the border to Zambia. Before entering Zambia, there’s Victoria Bridge – essentially in no man’s land between Zimbabwe and Zambia. In the middle of the bridge, there’s an option to bungee jump – about time to try this! I must say, the moment just before jumping, when you’re standing on the edge, is a bit scary. But I didn’t even have time to think much or consider pulling back: the guys were already counting 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…bungeeee! And off I was. Overall, it was a really cool experience and I enjoyed some upside down views of the gorge.

After watching my video, we continued through Zambian immigration to Livingstone, the town on the Zambian side of the falls. We spent a couple of days here, relaxing and getting organised as we had many things on our to do list – such as booking our flight home! And of course we also visited the Zambian side of the falls. We were a bit skeptical about how much we would be able to see since the spray was worse than on Zimbabwean side. And we certainly got drenched at a couple of trails/viewpoints! There were still some nice ones though where we were able to see something.

All in all, it’s good to have seen the falls from both sides – but we much preferred the Zimbabwean side!

Botswana, World Trip 2018-19

Botswana – Summary & Pictures

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People: People from Botswana were friendly, but a bit more on the professional level rather than naturally friendly like in Namibia. As in travellers, we again met some older couples, many from South Africa. Similarly to Namibia, we usually only had short conversations on the go, but did spend one fun boozy evening with some South Africans in Moremi.

Food: Again, we self-catered apart from a visit to Nandos which means I can’t judge the Botswanan cuisine.

Weather: Again, we were rather lucky with the weather, with the sun being out most of the time. Unfortunately, we did get some rain during our most important safari days which we partly blame for not seeing as many animals as expected.

Costs: We put our Namibia and Botswana budget together, since it is hard to separate. Botswana was a bit more expensive (mainly the campsites in the national parks), but not much more. On average, we spent 65€ per person, per day which already includes our rental car that was already over 70€/day, and the car insurance. So all in all not too bad I think!

Accommodation: Camping, camping, camping! While we had one of our best campings in Gweta (Planet Baobab), we also had some really bad ones that were extremely overpriced for barely any facilities (Savuti, South Camp Moremi etc). We also wild-camped three times.

Infrastructure: Travelling Botswana, you definitely need a 4×4. The roads in the national parks are incredibly bad sometimes: deep sand, deep puddles, mud that got us stuck once,… But surprisingly we made it through Botswana without any flats or other issues!

Illnesses: All good!

Safety: Apart from the nightly elephant visit in Moremi, we never felt unsafe.

Itinerary: We followed a typical route: after visiting Chobe Riverfront, we ventured into Savuti, and through Khwai to Moremi and Maun. Afterwards, we detoured to the East to see the pans (Makgadikgadi and Nxai), came back the same way to Maun and then took the rather unusual route up to Drotsky Cave and back into Namibia at the tiny Dobe border poast. We had to give a miss to Central Kalahari Game Reserve because the campings were fully booked, and Kgalagadi Transfrontier National Park because it was too far off our route. A reason to come back one day, maybe!?

Highlight: Savuti.

Lowlight: Moremi, what a disappointment…

Click on the photos below to see our full photo album of Botswana:

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