One of the classic Southern African off road routes is the 400kms through the northern bush of Botswana from the gateway town of Maun across the wildlife-rich Moremi and Chobe National Parks and into the small riverside town of Kasane. It traverses the eastern edge of the largest inland delta in the world, the Okovango Delta, where lion, cheetah, leopard and African wild dog share the floodplains with herds of elephant, impala and buffalo. Hippos and crocodiles inhabit the deeper channels and lagoons. Tall termite mounds are homes for families of dwarf mongoose and the mighty African Boabab trees stand guardian over the thick forests that rise up in Chobe. This is Africa at its most primordial.

Although dotted with luxury safari lodges it’s possible, with the right permits, to make this trip alone as an independent overlander in a well-equipped 4×4, camping out in a few areas without the sanctuary offered by the lodges. The sandy tracks made by the 4×4 safari vehicles from the lodges allow a huge area to be self-explored. In the dry winter months of June to October, the high season, these few permits are booked up months and sometimes years in advance. In the wetter summer months the going is tougher, tracks become impassable as the marshlands swell with the floodwaters from the rains as far off as Angola, and fewer independent travelers venture into the interior. Campfire stories of vehicles being swallowed up by mud and stranded overlanders disappearing as they abandon their vehicles and set off on foot in a vain search of help add to the mystical allure.

This route was firmly on our plans, regardless of the season, but it looked very unlikely ever to happen for us as Botswana and much of Southern Central Africa have received more annual rainfall than anytime in the last 10 years during Jan and Feb. In Namibia, as we headed towards Botswana, we crossed some overlanders who where leaving Botswana behind having been warned off from making the trip in Maun. Much of Moremi has been closed off, however, after spending plenty of time in Maun talking with locals about possible routes through the drying conditions, things sounded increasingly more favorable. So after getting the permits from a remarkably confusing official at the Department of Wildlife, filling up the reserve jerry cans with diesel, restocking supplies, double checking the sat phone worked and Eric practicing in a car park how to use a high lift jack in case we needed to change wheels in the middle of the bush with prowling predators around, we set off with a healthy degree of excitement but also nervous apprehension.

The next few days and nights (and we write this with a sense of relieved disappointment) went by without the challenges we had expected. The routes were more navigable and the going far better than expected (although the detailed detours that we got from the few locals we met on route certainly kept us from getting stuck on a number of occasions). Well practiced now at first wading into a murky water crossing to check the depth of the water and soil conditions before driving through, or more precisely Eric wading in as Monika kept a watchful eye out from the safety of the cab for any predators, the powerful torque of the high wheel base Land Cruiser cut through the water, mud and sand with confidence.

After so much rain the bush and forest of Chobe was thick and dense and the grasses of the plains and marsh so tall that wildlife viewing was expectedly but unfortunately limited at best. That was the downside; the upside was we felt all alone in this vast wilderness. We did not catch a sighting of the famed prides of lions that inhabit the area, although one night camping by ourselves the roar of an adult male lion only meters from our tent reverberated through the humid night air and the huge paw prints on the track let us know they were watching us even if we could not see them!   We often crossed paths with the mighty elephants as we tried to keep a wary distance of each other and the giraffes peered over the tree tops to gaze lazily at while we trundled by. As we were being tormented by insects one night the laughing of the Hyenas reminded us that we were the visitors in their land.

Having heard reports of a leopard with cubs close by we set out one evening at sunset to find her but despite Eric’s confidence in his newly honed track finding skills all we came across was the ubiquitous impala. We may have to wait until Tanzania and some more experienced rangers for us to see our big cats!

So without the wildlife viewing to detain us and having no significant obstacles on the off road route to delay us we crossed the border earlier than expected into Zimbabwe. We’d heard plenty of reports of difficulties trying to get a vehicle through these borders and of the requirement to “help the process” along by greasing the wheels of bureaucracy with “incentives”. To our welcome surprise the Zimbabwean custom officials were overwhelmingly helpful and friendly. With a characteristic laid-back ease they welcomed us in as if we were long departed friends. Having spent so many years enduring the aggressive interrogation of the US Customs and Homeland Security officials at JFK or SFO airports we thought perhaps there is an opportunity here for some cross-cultural exchange initiatives.

And so it is that we arrived into Victoria Falls and took up residence for a few days at the delightful old colonial hotel of the same name that overlooks the mighty falls. Given the rains mentioned above, the Zambezi river with it’s huge catchment area, is thundering over this remarkable geological fault. Walking along the opposite edge of the Falls earlier, through a micro-rain forest created by the spray that forms towering clouds in it’s own ecosystem, was simply breath-taking. The commercialism that has sprung up around this natural wonder dissolves into the background as your attention is utterly captivated by the sheer immensity and raw power of nature on display. When David Livingstone first came upon these falls on his epic African exploration in 1855 he lyrically remarked “Scenes so lovely must have been gazed upon by angles in their flight” and with this in mind, we joined the brigades of tourists we so desperately do our best to avoid and hired a helicopter to give us the very view of the angels.

In addition, it was with some embarrassment that Eric joined Monika on her attempt to overcome her vertigo by bungee jumping from the famous Victoria Falls Bridge that spams the chasm of the gorge.

There is a danger for a traveller to be rather cocooned from understanding the reality of life for most Africans. Be it from traveling through the corridors of relative prosperity created by the tourism industry or camping out in the remote areas of wilderness one can easily miss the contact and conversation with the locals that reveal the daily struggles of African life. To overcome this we try to bridge that by engaging in as many conversations with the locals as possible as we park up or 4×4 in their villages. One small example and striking aspect of life that we are so fortunate and often take for granted is access to and relative affordability of medical care. A simple story that reflects this of “Monty” a 28 year mother of three who is also working to support her parents and her four sisters. Only after many hours of chatting and with us asking about her health did she reveal that she is often unable to eat or drink and is tormented by bouts of unbearable pain due to the condition of tonsillitis that she cannot get treated. She simply cannot afford to travel to see a specialist let alone an operation or the medication required to heal a condition that for many of us was a simple visit to our local hospital as children. She is only given two sick days off from work a year and if she exceeds that she risks to loose the job and income that is so vital to her family. It’s a story shared by many.

After almost 4000kms of continuous off road behind us we now are considering taking a far easier potholed but tarmacked route across southern Zambia as we transition around Lake Kariba to the more remote lower Zambezi River where we will set off for a few days and nights canoeing downstream and camping out on it’s shores. Hippo and crocodile are in abundance so we are prudently organizing a local guide. From there we will move into Malawi and start heading north up through Tanzania.