CAMPING LUANGWA

I have such an amazing campsite that I decided to stay an extra day. Camping right on the riverbank which is like a huge horseshoe of the river, looking into Luangwa Park. The river is full of hippos and crocodiles which spend the whole day laying on the sandy banks across from me. Last night the hippo was by the ablution block eating the grass and then had three right up by our riverbank grazing. It's hard to sleep at night with the hippo's trumpetting all night but what a pleasure. This morning an elephant came up and was eating in the bush thirty feet from my tent and managed to get some great shots. Tonight is full moon and am going on a game drive and hopefully see some leopard , as the park is known for the highest leopard concentration in Africa so hoping we are at the right place at the right time. Last night I was preparing my supper , two carrots and an advo when my neighbour called me over and in a split second the bloody verve monkey grabbed my advo and took off, so was only a two carrot very healthy meal. Ended up drinking red wine with my German buddies till midnight and trying to find a salution for Africa , which I really do not know if there is one. Firstly get the Chinese out of here , they are in every country greasing the palms of the corrupt officials.

PETAUKE TO MFUWE, SOUTH LUANGWA PARK

What a ride up here, could not call it a road more like a track through many villages passing many cyclists and kids herding cattle and the odd ox wagon. After about 100 km N you get to the Park whoch is across the river and that's where I saw Giraffe's ,warthog, Impala and then plenty of elephant. The remaining 70km along the park there was an actual road and a fairly good one. And then there were 4 elephant's blocking the road so I stopped , maybe 60 ft away and just waited and watched was great until oe appeared right to the left of me, I don't know who was more surprised but I did kinda shit myself. He was in muskth, and a little agitated as they are when in muskth. He gave me a little false charge and waved his ears, but not having a reverse gear , I couldn't do a thing and besides he was bluffing and eventually they all went into the bush . Five kilometers later was Wild Camp ,so I pulled in and have a spot right on the river which has a bunch of hippos in and two crocdile on the banks, so that was an awful nice welcoming. The Germans that were at my camp last night came up the same track and are with me here and now I have a nice spaghetti dinner invite.

WINDHOEK TO LUSAKA

We all left each other, the others flew out at 5 am and I left at 7:30 and froze at 9 deg.C. Headed N to Grootfonteinand then easterly to Rundu which was a 700km trip. Rundu to Katima Malilo was 615km ,all asphalt roads. Rested in Katima for a day at a real nice camp on the Zambezi. Met a great couple from Germany who are volunteering at an orphanage in Malawi for the last three years, had me over for breakfast and they were on a 650 and a Trans Alp and will be visiting them on the way down? Crossed into Zambia, had some Kawacha from the last time I was here, but only to fid out it is worthless cause they have changed the numbers on the notes. ATM was out of order so had to buy some from the local human bank. The road to Livingston was potholed worse than Noriega's face and then with all the goats and cattle and cows it was 3 hours for 160km. I pulled it Shop rite for some chow and there sat the famous Faan Fourie who I was planning to stay at which I did. His camp is on rapid 14 overlooking the river, a fantastic spot. Yakked with him and then shot down to the Falls, stripped down and changed in the parking lot and went down to the falls. Was so much spray you could not see a thing , then went to the Victoria Falls Hotel, just to see how the rich folks live, then went back to Faan's camp and had my dehydrated spaghetti bolonaise for dinner, was lovely. Left early for Lusaka, rode with a heavy heart cause my brother is going in for a big op today, which I just heard about, so hope it all went well, need to try and get hold of someone and find out. Was 50km and some crazy drivers on the road and off, arrived at the camp only to find a dead Zebra at the gate , was kicked to death by the female, cause he was being frisky. Sent via the Samsung Galaxy Note® 4, an AT&T 4G LTE smartphone

Han's Farm to Windhoek. 248km.

Had a delicious  meal last night of Orynx , and slept in a bed which was most welcomed after sleeping for 12 days in my safari  tent and the lovely feather mattress I have.
The comfort through me for a loop this morning, as I often wake up not knowing where the hell I am for a few seconds, it's weird. Being in a luxury tent is real weird for me as that is not my style, and that's not by choice. It was proably 5:30 am and I washed up and scurried up for breakfast with the rest of the German hunter's.
They buggered off hunting and I lazed around for awhile and then bid Gertrude farewell and left on my bike.
I nixed the asphalt road to Windhoek  and took the lovely dirt road D1967 to Otjibingwe and then D1953 to C28.

Was a fabulous ride, bike road just beautifully,  the road had pebbles and hadn't been graded for awhile and the bike kinda floated on the road. I encountered a Zebra, which decided to run on the road for about 2 km in front of me and then he met up with 2 of his mates and they then took off into the bush.
The dirt route was a 100km fit her than the tar but so well worth it and  the C28 was an absolute  blast and only passed about 4 vehicles on the whole route. Pulled in at the BMW dealer , cause am having my 20000km service done and they will look after the bike while I am gone in the 4x4 for 18 days.

Since leaving Cape Town I have done 4500km of which 4000 have been on dirt.
The sand is my worst enemy, can somewhat do the thin medium sand , but the thick shit is no fun cause I know I am gonna come second. Then picking up that beast fully loaded takes every ounce of muscle I don't have and in 36 deg C, it's a test everytime. Once you're up and off again ,it's just a memory.

So now I have to change blogs to royinnamibia.blogspot.com  for my 4x4 trip.