Put Foot Rally: 19 crazy days driving through 5 African countries

Imagine 150 teams driving in whatever cars from Cape Town, South Africa via Namibia, Botswana and Zambia to Malawi. Craziness guaranteed. And I came pretty unprepared to this adventure. My friends from Holland, Alina and Elliot, had sent out an email about a year ago with a link to putfootrally.com and the question who wants to join. It took me 5 minutes to decide. What I saw on the homepage: drive through 5 southern African countries, only for adventurers, support underprivileged kids and have a lot of fun on the way. I'm in! So while we formed a group Alina took over the first steps: rent us 2 cars and book accommodation for the checkpoint parties. 

Then for a long time nothing happened and I started my travels around the world. From far away with limited Internet I tried to follow the developments. Team members dropped out, new ones were found. Tasks were divided and slowly a rough route was made. So with minimum effort (read: book my flights and transfer money whenever someone tells me to) and mainly clueless I am at the point of departure. I had spent the majority of my 2 weeks home at my parents place in South Germany and flew therefore from Frankfurt airport. Via Amsterdam. With a 21 hour stopover. It was big fun. It took me no time to get out of the airport and home to my flat in Rotterdam. It is weird though, to go home and your luggage is checked through. 

Back in Rotterdam I met up with my friend Paul and we enjoyed a drink at the Nhow hotels "rooftop bar" which is only in the 7th floor, but still had amazing views on the river and the Erasmus bridge. Finishing off the evening with a wine with my flatmate and my neighbour and the next morning I am back on the train to Amsterdam airport. I think this was my most relaxed and fun stopover ever. 

And a couple hours (12?) later I am already in Cape Town! Funnily my plane landed right next to Lucias and we met in the immigration line. Lucia is Kenyan/Dutch and I had met her before in Holland and in a couple weekend trips. As she lives in the UK now she was on another plane, but with the same timing. So we shared an Uber to the AirBnB. We arrived around 10 pm and the group that was already there was struggling to stay awake, as they were on a wine tasting tour around Cape Town that day. Those were Elliot and Alina,  the German couple living in Holland and Olga and Ana, our two Spanish ladies. The connection is actually funny: while the two of them are old school friends and Olga brought Ana to the group, I know Olga from Holland and I had met Ana before as well because she works for Mars as well! Small world. As our two remaining crew members would only arrive the next day, the completely destroyed ones went to bed directly after welcoming us and two of them stayed for a welcome glass of wine with Lucia and me. 

I had hoped that I could see a bit of Cape Town the next day, but that was not meant to be. The morning we spent at the car rental company. They were not the fastest anyways, it was very busy with quite some put footers renting there plus there was so much to explain about the cars. They were amazing! Toyota Landcruisers. One brand new,  the other one nearly. They had 2 tents on top of each car and were fully equipped. From sleeping bags, pillows and towels to a full kitchen equipment with gas cookers, a fridge and all cutlery and plates, bowls. .. It had all the equipment needed to do easy fixes like changing a tire, an air compressor to change the tire pressure and many other useful things. I left before the whole explanation (including the 4x4 drive explanation) was over as Jasper, our 7th crew member and only full Dutch representative had arrived. As we were close to the airport I volunteered to pick him up with the rental car the guys had for the days before I arrived. So my first driving in South Africa (left lane traffic) was in this cute Polo. Equipped with my phone for directions and a picture of Jasper I made my way to the terminal. I have to admit, the general description of tall blond Dutch guy would have been enough to recognise him. Still funny way to meet someone, a bit like blind dating. We drove back to the apartment where Lucia was and waited together for the others. Sitting in the sun in front of the apartment, there are worse ways of waiting. When the others came back we realised that we are actually already late for registrations. So 4 of us took the Landcruisers and drove to registration, while I joined the shopping crew with the Polo. We got the most basic stuff for breakfast, drinks and snacks for on the way. After dropping the groceries at the apartment we drove out to the registration point. We were surprised not to find them at the bar, but finally found them at the car park. They had taken care of all the registration and putting all the stickers on the car. The cars looked amazing! We had two team logos, the Seal Deal for Steph, Elliot, Alina and Lucia (put the first letters of their names together. ..) and our car was the Masters of beer on Tour, with Ana, Olga, Jasper and me signed up. We weren't too excited about the names, but it turned out that especially Masters of beer was a name many people remembered (despite us not really living up to the name). We then finally went to the bar to join the welcome party and get some well deserved food. We didn't really eat a lot before. It became quite cold soon and once our last crew member Steph arrived, a British girl and friend from Lucia, we soon went back to the apartment. 

Some of us still returned the Polo to the rental company to not have to do that the next day. After some last packing we went to bed early as we were about to head out the next morning around 6am. The departure went smoothly and off we go. We had decide to drive directly to Namibia on day 1 as there were not many highlights on the route Cape Town to Namibia. But it meant that we had a long drive ahead and really had to push it to make it before sunset. We didn't know the quality of the streets, so we didn't want to drive in the dark on day 1. We were all excited to be on the road, and also managed our first border crossing out of South Africa and into Namibia quite well. We had the right papers and though there was a queue for importing the car, overall it was not too bad. Then we drove the remarrying 2-3 hours to our first camp site in Hobas. We didn't make it before sunset, but at least before complete darkness. The camping site was nice, we quickly put up the tents for the first time and then had dinner at the camp sites restaurant. We were in the middle of nowhere after all and no one was motivated to cook some pasta. We were all quite exhausted and most of us went to bed soon after. The Spanish girls shared one tent so I ended up with Jasper as a tent partner. We got along well so far, so I didn't mind. In the middle of the night we woke up because suddenly the alarm of the car went off. It was so loud, who had the key? Damn car! I wasn't sure if I'm angry, laughing out loud or be embarrassed for waking up the whole camp site :-) what a first night! 

The next morning we got up and started with a fancy breakfast. Jasper being a true Dutch started making Sandwiches for everyone for lunch, while the other team tried to fit an air filter in their car, as Steph was suffering from all the dust with her Asthma. We didn't manage to really hit our planned departure time, as we were all still learning how to put the tents back down and get the card ready. The First stop of the day was the Fish River Canyon. Just a 5 minutes ride from the camp site, there was a view point to the beautiful gorge. After an intense foto session with lots of selfies and group pictures we were on the road again. It was another intense day of driving. We made some cool stops on the way, for example at a brandy distillery in the middle of nowhere. We had a little scare when we nearly ran out of gas and the gas station from the map didn't exist anymore since years. Both cars had used up their extra jerry cans and the other car was even running low with the extra benzine. Luckily we made it safely to the gas station, making the resolution that from now on gas stations will be a more important part of route planning. When we finally arrived at one of the highlights, the ghost city of Kolmanskop, it was already closed. So we did a couple of picture of this funny little town which was abandoned because the sand took over and then made our way to the camping site. It was beautifully located in the town of Lüderitz, right at the sea. The negative aspect: as it was getting evening and a strong wind coming in from the sea, we were freezing! We tried (not very successfully) to find a spot out of the wind and then one car went to do some groceries. We just got in the store before it closed and it became very wierd as the complete staff had to wait for us to finish before they could go home. Moreover, they took away one of our baskets when we had put it down for a minute. Very wierd. The crew cooked dinner afterwards while Olga and me tried to take some night shots of the amazing clear sky. That means Olga probably has amazing pictures, I don't, but still enjoyed a bit "me time" with a beer, music and great ocean and stars view. 

The next morning started with a bit of an unplanned adventure. Our first car wanted to do a drivers change once we were out of town and didn't realise they were driving into sand. We followed and suddenly both of us were stuck. Luckily Ana managed to get our car out right away, so we had the worst case option of using the winch to get the other car out. We tried for a while without and luckily another put foot car saw us. They stopped and with one try they had the car out. They quickly explained the trick and we were all on our way again. Then we had a second incident, where our first car raced past a gate which was the way to go. They asked via the walkie talkie if they are on the right way and when we realised they weren't, the were already out of range. We trieed to race after them and reach them but just couldn't. At one point our batteries died and as there was no phone reception we had no way to reach them. So we just stopped, hoping they would notice us missing. It took quite a while. While waiting we met another put foot crew who were convinced that they were on the right way, but we convinced them they are not. We decided to go back to the gate with them as our other team could have also driven a circle back to the gate. There we decided to get comfortable and set up the table and chairs. Well, it never got so far as Jasper got into a fight with the folding table and ended up with a deep cut on his finger. Luckily Ana had quite some experience with first aid and took good care of the situation. In the mean time our second team had finally noticed us missing and came back. Finally we were back on the road and on the right way to the camp site.  

We ended up racing for the dark again, especially as the Sesriem camp site was supposed to close their gate at sunset. The one hour time difference in Namibia really didn't help, sunset at 5 pm really sucks. While we settled in there and put our tents up, Ana and Jasper went to the medical station of the camp site. It turned out to be a perfectly equipped clinic with a real doctor, who ended up removing the finger nail and putting a big bandage on the finger. We had some drinks and dinner at the camps restaurant and finished the evening with a drink from our cars and took a hopefully really cool team picture in front of the amazing Namibian sky. 

The next morning we again packed or stuff and then realised that we had a strategic advantage from staying at this camp site. The gates were still closed and a line of cars was behind it. We realised that we are already inside the park of Soussosvlei, so we could directly drive to the attraction before everyone else. Soussosvlei is an amazing sand dune area with a salt flat in between. The last 4 kilometers are deep sand and both of our cars got stuck again. Anna managed to get our car out again and we drove to the parking lot at the end of the road. The other crew followed the advice to further lower the tire pressure to 1 bar and then they made it as well. We hiked together up a bit on the dunes and then everyone ran back down the side of the dune to the salt flat, when they were done with hiking further. Jasper and me walked the furthest and I was sad I couldn't go all the way to the top. But as we had to drive again still quite a bit today, at one point we gave up as well and ran down. It was truly am amazing place and I was glad we were so early. We met many people coming in when we went out. We went back to the camp site, had a quick breakfast & made some sandwiches for the way and off we are again. As you could have guessed, it became another long day of driving. So we just drove through the city of Walvis Bay and straight to Swakopmund. It was a cute little coastal city, where we relaxed with a drink at a seaside restaurant. Unfortunately it was getting dark quickly so we made our way out of town to the lodge we had booked. The was a breathtaking view point on the way, where we made a short picture stop.  Unfortunately at the lodge we had a bad surprise. The booking website had messed up our booking and we were booked for camping and not the lodge. After everyone had been excited all day to sleep in a real bed for once and not to have to put up the tents, we were really disappointed. After some discussions we all decided to pay the extra and stick with the lodge plan. The second disappointment: the kitchen was already closed. We all weren't excited about having to drive back to the city for food. Luckily the owner offered us some steak to cook ourselves and potato salad. It became a very nice evening with kind of barbecue on the gas stoves and one or two drinks with it. We had a wonderful breakfast the next morning and realised that the lodge was actually a really cool place with horses, pigs, lamas, dogs, and a goat that thinks it is a dog and likes to chew on handbags. In the morning the two cars seperated. The Seal Deal drove back to Walvisbay to drop Alina to the airport. Unfortunately her grandma had passed away and she was flying back home for the funeral. In the meanwhile the Masters of beer on Tour made its way back to Swakopmund. We did some groceries and got medicine for Jasper's finger. I found it a really funny little city, the German influence was still very visible in the architecture and street names. After meeting each other again and refueling both cars (at a Shell of course), we were on the road again. Originally we wanted to participate in the shoe drop that day, but due to the detours in the morning, we couldn't make it. 

So off we are to the Toshari Lodge, the first checkpoint on the way. What that means? All teams come together at that day and there is a big party. Luckily Alina had booked these accommodations way ahead and so we were booked in the lodge. As two people joined later, we had only booked for 6 though. But we got lucky, as we got upgraded to 3 deluxe rooms, which had 2 double beds each. So no one had to camp and only two people had to share a bed, which was clearly bigger than the tents! After a great shower we made our way to the party. It started with free food, which was just amazing. After some speeches, the music started and we went around to mingle a bit. We didn't go all crazy, but it was a fun night with some dancing and drinks. There was another Dutch team, with 7 people and when my team went to bed early I stayed a bit longer with them. We slept perfectly in our fancy rooms and were even more delighted to find out that an amazing breakfast buffet was included. Most crews stayed the next night in the Etosha national park, but as that would have meant a really long drive the day after, my crew decided to drive a bit further. So we spent the day driving through the park with some minor detours. It was just amazing. Of course we saw plenty of Antilopes (which we called Bambis as we had no clue which is which). And shortly after the first highlight: a Rhino right next to the road. It was unbelievable. The guy was so relaxed and stayed for quite a bit. First we had him to ourselves, then some other cars joined. When he wandered off we also continued, to find the next highlight: a waterhole with plenty of elephants drinking and bathing, some giraffes in the background, a big herd of zebras next to it and a wilderbeast passing by. WOW. Oh yes, and at the next stop there were so many Bambis, Zebras, a wilderbeast and an Oryx that we first didn't even see the two lions in the back. If only we had seen a leopard or cheetah the day would have been perfect. But still, so cool! 

Once out of the park again we drove another one or two hours to the city of Tsumeb, where we checked in to a nice hotel. As it was already getting dark the group decided to have dinner at the hotel, which was nice with a funny German influence. We had decided the rooms into snorers and non snorers, which made it a good night for the non ones, and an awful night for the snorers. 

The next day we started with a little detour to a touristic highlight that another put footer had advised us. The Hoba meteorite. I don't remember the details but it is a big (maybe the biggest) meteorite. It was quite fun as we found out that when you stand on top of it you get a really weird echo and your voice sounds funny. We then drove straight to our camp site, the Shametu river lodge at the Popa waterfalls.  The camp site was actually really cool, right next to the river and with camping places each with an own toilet and shower and seperated by trees and bushes from the other camping places. We were all very happy we had booked this one for 2 nights. The diner was an amazing buffet, they even made steak for me as I didn't like lamb or fish. But what we enjoyed the most: the salads. Our diet really hasn't been very healthy lately. 

The next day I would have loved to go to a close by national park, but no one else was motivated to get in a car. We spent the morning being lazy, I did some laundry and then was reading my book at the waterfront, while some people made use of the little pool. We had a late lunch at around 1:30 and took it easy, as we had booked a river cruise at 3 pm.  Suddenly the lady from the reception comes to our camp site telling us we are late. It is 2:20, the cruise starts at 3? Well, I told you it is south African time. What? We are in Namibia! That does not make any sense! Ah well, here we go, 5 minutes later we are on the boat, apologising to the other guests. Our first stop was the Popa Falls. It was nice, but I have to say that the pictures in my guide book looked way more impressive! Then we hurried to the spot, where the hippos usually rest, trying to see them before they go into the water. They were really cute, with a baby one, and we got quite close to them. On the way down the river we also saw plenty of them in the water, with just the head bopping out from time to time. We enjoyed our cruise with a drink, passing by some crocodiles chilling on rocks.

In the evening we cooked dinner at our camp site: couscous with chakalaka sauce. It was actually really yummy. We ended the evening with a drink I learned in Peru from some Irish travellers: hot tea with honey, lime and whiskey. Funnily this trip is the first time where I actually started to drink and like whiskey. 

The next morning we were on our way to the next checkpoint. That meant another border crossing: from Namibia to Botswana. With the experience from the first border crossing this one was actually quite smooth and soon we were on our way to the checkpoint. To give a little relief to Steph from the dust we drove a little detour to stay on the main highway. It was a really good road and we could speed along the way, with Pumbas and Bambis next to the road. We arrived at the Sitatunga Camp where Alina was already waiting for us. Her trip back home went well and she made it back to Botswana safely. Finally the whole crew at a checkpoint. We settled in to our safari tents, the two extra people this time unfortunately having to sleep on the floor. The dinner at this checkpoint was unfortunately not as nice and for half of the people ended up in stomach issues the following day. It was again a nice party with some drinks and dancing and meeting new people. It was noticeable that quite some crews had skipped this checkpoint, but a small crew kept the party still going for a while. That was a bit unfortunate for us, as our safari tent was very close to the dance floor, so we all slept so so. The next morning we had to get up early as we had booked a flight over the Okavango Delta. Our crew got split and I ended up in a plane with 5 of us. It was really cool, beautiful landscape and amazing to see giraffes, elephants, hippos and Bambis from above. 

After the flight we had breakfast and after doing groceries and refueling we were on the road again. We had changed the original route a bit from here as we were all tired of the really long days in the car. Alina had taken care of that while being in "good Internet land" and booked us at a camp site in the Moreni Game Park. The drive there was very cool with giraffes and elephants right next to the road. Once in the park however, we saw nothing! We arrived at the camp reasonably early and then the drama began. Alina had spoken with a guy on the phone who had told her a good rate for the stay. Now the lady there suddenly wanted 4 times the price! They were arguing for quite a while with no result. As we had no other option, as it was about to get dark again already, we paid and settled in. Even more frustrating as Alina had gotten even an email confirming the price but as we had no Internet, we couldn't prove it. So we set up our tents and started to get dinner ready. We had bought some meat and salad and wanted to do our first real barbecue. I had been looking forward to that for quite a while. It was a really cool evening and the camp was beautiful. We were doing the dishes with Bambis around us and an elephant passing by at the other side of the plain. We all enjoyed the evening, well except for those whose stomach was not really back to normal yet, and had some drinks around the fire. When four of us came back from the toilet, while it was already dark, we had a little scare. Right next to us was standing a Hyena! Super crazy scary. As some people trying to get out of there pretty quickly, we started screaming "don't run away from a Hyena!" Some still insist they didn't, well I would say they at least walked very fast at that moment. Luckily the Hyena figured that 4 of us are a bit too much to take on and walked away. From that moment on we didn't go to the toilet alone anymore. I decided it's not a good idea to tell the others that my guide book had said that a traveller had been attacked by a leopard at this camp 3 years ago. And I definitely didn't go to the toilet that night.

As the next day was supposed to be a short drive, we followed the invite of some other put footers to join their safari in the morning. They had organised a guide and so we ended up four cars in a convoy following the guide. Unfortunately the other team struggled a bit with getting their tents down and so we didn't make the original 6 am departure time, but ran about 1.5 hours late. Pity as we were sitting around waiting and as the early morning hours are the best for spotting the big cats. We drove around for four hours, with a lot of turning around and seeing basically nothing. I guess that is wildlife, but the Moremi Game Reserve was really not our lucky spot.

We had a quick breakfast at the camp and then made our way up north, close to the border to Zambia, which we were supposed to cross the next day. According to the map and the kilometers it should have been a very short drive, but as we were driving through the Chobe National Park and some really sandy areas, it took a lot longer than expected. Plus our first car missed a turn and didn't hear any of our honking or noticed that we didn't follow for about 30 minutes, which brought us on a road where the map said "awful road, don't take it" and added about 30 further minutes to our drive. The amazing thing though: suddenly there is a group of elephants crossing the way ahead of us. It is still amazing to just accidentally cross paths with these giants.

We arrived just at sunset at the Mwandi view camp, which had a beautiful sunset view over the plains. The camp had a fence around as there were elephant herds down on the plains. We did hear them from time to time and I think they were actually quite close by, but we never saw them. We had a great dinner there and I enjoyed reading my book at the fire place afterwards for a bit. As it had been a long day I went to bed early. 

And the next day was an early start again. We had about 1 hour to drive to the border and the headquarter had asked us to be there between 6 and 9 am. The crossing was via a small ferry and they had organised extra ferries in the morning for us. When we arrived there was already a big crowd waiting. We had managed our paperwork to get out of Botswana quite quickly and then realised that no car was moving anyways. It turned out that the other side had completely collapsed by the huge amount of people and cars trying to get across the border. I quite enjoyed the wait there though. We started making coffee and tea and I met some lovely other teams. It is great to hear from their journey and the adventures they had. Some people started playing Frisbee and it felt nearly like a checkpoint party. We somehow didn't do well in the chaotic queuing of cars (maybe we should have tried the bribery) and ended up being on nearly the last ferry with put footers. Those were scary small boats, where about 10 cars got put on, the passengers having to walk on. My car somehow managed to avoid paying the ferry (I have no money, my friends already paid) and arrived in the chaos on the other side. It was complete craziness, no clue where to go, a weird guy had collected one of our sheets and was gone with it. Luckily our other team had gotten the earlier ferry and helped us and kept us a spot in the queue. The personal immigration was easy and quick again, but the car was a drama. Elliot and Ana took care of us for the two cars and I am very grateful for that, I'm not sure I would have had the patience to handle this. We were waiting outside for them for hours, a little distraction came for me with two Dutch backpackers whose guitar I borrowed. Man, I haven't played in a while. I really need to practice more. 

In the end it took us nearly the whole day to cross and we missed the shoe drop again! When we made it to Livingston, we refuelled the cars and went for lunch at the mall. It was good burgers, but again it took quite a while. Seems like this was meant for us to be a waiting day. When we finally made it to the Waterfront lodge, where the next day we had our fourth checkpoint, we all settled in quickly and then took care of some organisational stuff. We decided to join the shoe drop in the morning (finally) and 7 of us booked a booze cruise on the river for the next evening and a helicopter flight over the Victoria falls for the morning after. I used the evening for some me time as the tensions in the team were really getting to me. So I read my book, sitting on the restaurants porch with amazing river views. Later I shared some pizza with the guys and after a good glass of wine started to mingle with other crews. It became a very funny night, watching Germany winning in the confed cup against Mexico and having some more drinks at the bar. A lot of crews had done the booze cruise this evening and were in a very good spirit. I got treated well with some free wines and some guys managed to introduce themselves about 3 times within half an hour ;-) 

The next morning we got up early to join the shoe drop. I think I didn't really explain that yet. So the put foot rally is not only about having fun and driving through Africa, there is actually a good cause behind it. All crews collected money upfront and with this money about 2000 shows were bought. The "shoes that grow" are a cool concept, where the kids can use straps to make the shoes bigger as they grow. And part of the rally is to distribute these shoes to underprivileged kids at schools. So early morning we and about 20 other cars lined up to go to the third shoe drop. Finally we make it to one. The drive through the city was interesting already. It was the first time we actually drove through a poor suburb. Our convoy attracted a lot of attention, many people waved at us on the way. Arriving at the school for me was a bit confusing, what do we do, how, when, where. But after a while it was all settled and me and some of my crew were sitting on benches, ready for the kids. They were brought to us by class and the experience was quite cool. Some were really shy and nearly didn't talk. You fitted their shoes, gave them a little bag with toys and they didn't say much. Some, especially the older ones were a bit more talkative. They all love football, I often heard British or Spanish teams. And they all seem to love math, not sure if they have a great teacher or if they were told that answer. Once we had distributed the shoes, the kids started to dance again. Two brave put footers started to dance with the kids and suddenly we were all dancing. I find it so amazing how these kids can move, they all have rhythm! And then it was already time to leave again and we drove back to the hotel. 

Most of the crew was going to Livingstone to see the city and visit the market. But the little tensions in the team were really getting to me and I noticed I hadn't been stuck with the same people for such a long time in quite a while. So I was happy to stay back and just read my book and enjoy the beautiful scenery of the river front. So I finally managed to finish the Harry Potter series and was offered some interesting readings as alternative :-) But first our booze cruise was starting. The evening before seemed to have been epic, so expectations were high. While Lucia was sitting this one out, the rest of the crew boarded the boat with 20 other put footers. We stationed ourselves strategically next to the bar and had a great evening with gin and tonic and delicious BBQ. We didn't manage to follow the last night's crew finishing the bars full stock, but it was not for the lack of trying. When we finally got off the boat (they did really not want to serve us one more drink) we went soon after to the checkpoint party. Dinner was nice again and entertaining. Every table had a small drum and the put footers were very enthusiast with trying. After dinner we went to the actual party place, where a live cover band had set up. It was an amazing even with a lot of dancing and one or two more drinks.

The next morning we had to get up early again and I was impressed by the Spanish ladies who had partied a lot longer the night before but seemed completely fit the next morning. After a short drive we were already at the helicopter place. Our group got split again and I was in the first group. Steph and me got lucky as we were assigned to the front seat. The flight was only 15 minutes, but it was definitely worth it. We flew over some elephants and after no time we arrived at the Victoria Falls. It was gorgeous. I had no clue what to expect. We had a brilliant view, flew a couple times around the falls and got some explanations from the pilot and then we are already on the way back again. The same thing for group two and soon after we are back at the hotel. A short and expensive but definitely memorable experience. An hour later we had picked up Lucia and the cars and were on the road again. We had changed the plan for the last couple days completely as we really didn't want any more 8-10 hour driving days. So we drove a couple hours in the afternoon and arrived before sunset at our campsite on the way to Lusaka. Our car decided to camp, the other car for some chalets. Before setting up our tents we had to clean out our car first, as we had a little incident with jam in the drawer. After a common cleaning and dishwashing action we quickly set up the tents and then went to dinner. Despite the promise of spaghetti, there was only beef stew or chicken. That's one thing you learn quickly in Africa. There's usually a menu and then there's reality. Well, dinner was good anyways. The best part of this evening for me though: there were super cool owls in the trees. You could see and hear them clearly.

The next day we are back on the road and reached Lusaka around noon. After some waiting we could check into our hostel. Then we went to the mall nextdoors for some lunch. As it was Sunday a lot of stores were closed, but we found a nice place for a late lunch. It took again some time, but another thing about Africa: time does not seem to be of any significance. After lunch there started a discussion, as some really didn't like the hostel. I didn't really get the fuzz, I had stayed in way worse places. We voted if we want to change, me No (we had already paid and as I said, not that bad), half of the group don't care and half wanted to move. So the plan was to do some groceries and get gas for the cars and then drive to check out another hostel. I had decided that I will just stay at the place we had booked and walked back to the hostel (seriously, it was a 3 minutes walk). When I arrived back at the hostel I had a pleasant surprise: my car crew had decided to stay as well. Even though we had to admit afterwards that the hostel is a bit dodgy, we had a great night. We had the whole dorm to ourselves and played card games and had some drinks together. I really enjoyed that evening.

The next morning we met the other team at 6am again to drive to our next destination: a last camp in a national park, the wildlife camp in the South Luwanga National Park. It was a long day on the road, but I enjoyed the drive. We took a detour as one of the guidebooks said the direct road is a nightmare and as far as we could tell from the start of the road we made a good choice. We arrived just before sunset and so could enjoy the lovely view from the camp site. It was right next to a river with hippos and it was a beautiful sunset. I'm a bit sad I missed the photo of a yawning hippo in front of it, but still enjoyed my sunset beer a lot. After setting up the tents we started making dinner. One group made pasta salad and the rest started the fire for the barbecue. I started with chopping the (quite thin) wood and enjoyed a lot the hacking on things :-) Unfortunately others were keen as well and I had to hand over the axe soon. It was a lovely evening with the best barbecue we had so far.

The next morning we got up at 6am again for what was to become the best safari we had. 5 of us had booked the trip and we were happy to just leave the cars and hop into the open safari car. Our guide Victor was really nice and explained a lot about the animals we saw. And we had the first highlight even before we entered the park. Elliot thought he saw a Hyena and so we drove a bit back and it turned out to be wild dogs. How lucky are we, they are quite rare and our guide hadn't seen them for at least a week. One even crossed he road right behind our car. So cool! The park was beautiful and we saw the standard animals from nice up close. The second highlight was soon after, when a Hyena passed us and came really close to the car. I have to admit, they are not my favourites, but definitely nicer to see them from the car than walking at night on the camp ground. It started to be a bit "standard" for a while, until we saw an elephant walking towards us. We had seen quite some elephants before and even in what we thought was close. But we had no clue. Victor stopped the car and just waited. The elephant was coming straight towards us. That close that his tusks touched our car. I didn't even take any pictures anymore as my zoom lens didn't get the head in full on the picture. We were just thrilled and couldn't believe what had just happened. After this we drove to a little lagoon and had a coffee and tea stop. We were all really happy, but had given up the hope for leopards and lions, as it was already 9am. When we went for a last round through the park, we suddenly saw a bunch of cars lined up. For those who have never been on a safari: that's usually the sign for something spectacular. And when we got there we saw them: three lions hanging around. The park is famous for leopards, but we had been told that lions are very unlikely to be seen as there are not many here. So lucky. And then even a Hyena came around and the lions got a bit restless because of that. Some movement. We then drove around the corner to get a better view on the third one. When the car stopped it was right next to me! I gasped and everyone answered ssssh. As if I could control being surprised by a lion. It was so close it took me a while to realise I'm not even using my zoom yet. Once all pictures were made we moved on. Another car blocked the way and we wondered why. Do I understand them right? Leopard in the tree? How cool! I have to admit I didn't recognise it as a leopard until I took a picture with my full zoom. But still, how cool. This was the end of our morning safari and we were all pumped up. Most of the way home we were thinking about what we will tell the three who hadn't joined. It ranked from being nice to rubbing it in their faces ;-)

Back at the camp we had late breakfast and a relaxed day. It was really a nice place, even with a pool. And at 4pm we all got ready for the evening safari. For the ones who had joined the morning, there was a bit of repetition and until it got dark we didn't see anything exciting. We had a drink at sunset and then the night part started. We had a second guide who had a big spotlight and he was constantly looking for animals. We saw some hyenas but for a long time just were driving with another 20 cars around searching for lions and leopards. It was really busier than in the morning! Finally we found the lions. It was cool to see them in the spotlight, but again they were just lying around. The only other highlight was a Jaennet we saw. None of us had ever heard of it, but it looked like a mix of a cat and a ferret, with a long striped tail and a spotted body. Once back at the camp I was exhausted after so many long days and went straight to bed. Most of the group still made dinner and seemed to have a good night. The only annoying part: around 11pm our car alarm started once more and due to some confusion about where the key is, it took them a couple minutes to stop it. Not a nice way to wake up. The next morning we packed up again and got ready for our last border crossing! From Zambia to Malawi. We had decided to skip Lilongwe and go straight to the final checkpoint at Lake Malawi to have one more day to relax. The border crossing went quite smooth, we had bought the insurance for the car already in town, which was way cheaper and easier. Plus we all had our US dollars ready for the personal visas, so the crossing went reasonably smooth. When driving in Malawi we noticed that the roads were crazy crowded. Not with cars, but people. After the crazy empty Namibia, Zambia already felt quite crowded. But it was nothing versus Malawi. We learned later, that it was also a public holiday, therefore even more people were out on the streets. As we unfortunately once more lost the other car, first they waited for us and as most of us were sleeping it seems like we drove past them and then waited 40 minutes for them. Luckily we had telephone reception so we could communicate, but it turned out they had taken a different route. So we decided to drive separately to the hotel. The last 30 minutes we drove in the dark, which was really scary with so many people on the street. We made it safe and were super happy about the hotel rooms. Some comfort at the end of the trip. We had dinner together and then again I went to bed reasonably early. The next morning I got up and realised that right in front of our bungalow there was lake Malawi and a cute little beach. We had a coffee/tea there and enjoyed the beach. The day ended up being quite a bit on the beach. One car drove down to monkey bay, but I wasn't interested in being another 4-5 hours in a car, so I stayed with the other lazy ones at the beach. We had a great day, playing frisbee and listening to music and trying to sweeten up the waiting time for food with one or two more drinks. While doing some souvenir shopping at the craft market next door, we found out that there is an actual finish line to drive over and get pictures taken. So we got the team together, took the cars and our 2 sober drivers drove over to the camp site. First we took our crew finish line picture and then all putfooters lined up to spell Putfoot and a couple drones took pictures from above. Then the party began and I had a great night. Unfortunately some of our team had a big fight, which I found really sad for the last day. We made it this far together, I wanted everyone to have a good night. But I had met so many amazing people that I just had a great night with a lot of dancing. 

And that was it! The next day my crew made their way to Lilongwe to fly back home and my solo backpacking adventure in Africa starts. The group's farewell was full of "be safe" (and one or two "enjoy") wishes. How can I summarize this adventure? It was incredible and intense, we saw amazing places and learned how to drive through sand and water. We met amazing people on the way. I was very grateful for the amazing cars we had rented, which had everything we needed and got us through everything. I'm glad I was able to share this adventure with a lovely bunch of people, despite the little differences on the way. Even though I've been on safari in Africa before, I am still amazed by the wildlife there and how close you can get to it (sometimes involuntarily). I'm intrigued by how different Namibia is to the three smaller and more populated countries Zambia, Botswana and Malawi. I'm a bit sad I didn't see much of South Africa, but I made many friends there, so I'm sure I'll find my way back there. Would I do it again? Maybe :-) I think the second time we would be more relaxed and able to just wing it. Not to stress so much at each other. Understand better what the distances mean and maybe go more to the places other put footers went. And if Mozambique will be on the route again this would definitely make me more tempted, hearing the stories of the crews driving back via Moz really got me hooked. So we'll see. If you read this blog and want to go next year or the year after: let me know and who knows :-)

We are ready to go! Seal Deal and Masters of beer on Tour ready for the road, Cape Town, South Africa

Masters of beer on Tour (what a name!) on the road and in put foot shirts

Lonely plains of Namibia

Middle of dusty nowhere, Namibia

Team picture in the desert, Namibia

Racing for the dark, Hobas, Namibia

Our first touristic highlight: Fish River Canyon, Namibia

Seal Deal having fun while we refuel. Namibia

Each dust cloud is one car, Namibia

Isn't everything beautifully red? No Sabine, that's your sunglasses, Namibia

Just a tree. Beautiful. Namibia

Our Landcruiser in its full pride, Sesriem camp, Namibia

Up in the dunes, Soussosvlei, Namibia

Salt Lake in between dunes, Soussosvlei, Namibia

Moon like landscape close to Swakopmund, Namibia

The first mountains! Somewhere in Namibia

Local women selling Art, Namibia

Rhino on the street! Etosha national park, Namibia

So cool Rhino! A black rhino I think. Etosha National Park, Namibia

Oryx in the middle of Zebras and Bambis, Etosha National Park, Namibia

Fighting Bambis, Etosha National Park, Namibia

Elephants drinking at a water hole, Etosha National Park, Namibia

The Hoba meteorite, Namibia

The kids were way more excited about the chocolate than the oranges. Namibia

Popa waterfalls, way more impressive picture in my guide book! Ngepi,  Namibia

Crocodile enjoying the sun, Ngepi, Namibia

Cute baby hippo, Ngepi, Namibia

Elephants from the plane, Okavango Delta, Botswana

They are so tall, but can you find the giraffes in a picture from the plane? Okavango Delta, Botswana

The second airplane over the Okavango Delta, Botswana

Zebra spotted from the road, somewhere in Botswana

Driving through sand in Moremi Game Park, Botswana

I want to get away, I want to flyy awayiay, Moremi Game Reserve, Botswana

A wilderbeast and giraffes on the way through Chobe National Park, Botswana

We called him Zazu and I found him hopping around the funniest thing in the world, Chobe National Park,  Botswana

Beautiful sunset from Mwandi view camp, Botswana

Can we make it through? Where best to go? Team discussion before the first river crossing. Obviously our Landies made it through, Botswana

What an adventure, my first helicopter flight, and Steph and me were allowed to sit in the front! Victoria Falls, Zambia

What a view! Victoria falls from above, Zambia and Zimbabwe

Fitting shoes for under privileged kids. What a great way to interact with the kids and being able to give back. Livingstone, Zambia

Wow, a wild dog, how lucky are we. Morning safari in South Luwanga Park, Zambia

Action shot of an impala, We finally learnt to distinct all the Bambis from our guide Victor, South Luwanga Park, Zambia 

Close up of a impala sticking his tongue out, South Luwanga Park, Zambia

Colourful birds in a tree, South Luwanga  Park, Zambia

This elephant came so close it touched the car. An open safari car! Our guide Victor enjoyed our slightly shocked faces. South Luwanga Park, Zambia

Hippos chilling in the green water, South Luwanga Park, Zambia

Usually baboons and makakees are not my favourite animals, but with a baby... South Luwanga  Park, Zambia

The hyena passing right behind our car. Way more comfortable than at night on foot. South Luwanga Park, Zambia

This photo is without zooming in. Again, in the open safari car. I am sure he starred me in the eyes. South Luwanga Park, Zambia

The only one we saw. Far away in a tree. Still cool to see a leopard. South Luwanga Park, Zambia 

The night drive was way less exciting, but still cool to see the lions again. South Luwanga Park, Zambia