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Thru Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania & Overland Tours, 2005

Sent in Apr. 7, 2005 from Zanzibar.

1. Prices in Lonely Planet.  As I said with Latin America,
the prices quoted in Lonely Planet are outdated.  Multiply all
by 2 at least also in Africa. $=12,000 Zimbabwe Dollars on the
black market, 6,000 official.  Exchange ONLY thru your hostel,
NEVER on the street.  I did at the Shoestrings Backpackers in
Victoria Falls.

2. Caution when traveling on your own in Africa:

a) In cities.  Dont walk around in any city after dark;
take a taxi.  It is generally safer around hostels but not
always.

b) Buses.  If traveling on your own, you will need to take
many buses.  Finding the right bus station itself is often
difficult enough, as also getting there at a reasonable
price.  DONT arrive at a place after dark.  Often the buses
drop you at a dimly-lit light pole; you have no idea where
you are, where you should be heading, how far. You'll be
ripped off by taxi drivers.  Either do the trip in stages,
or take an overnight trip.

c) Taxis.  At bus stops many people will approach you as
taxi drivers.  In fact, many are muggers of sorts.  Find a
taxi with a taxi sign on it.  Many drivers operating a
broken down car parked somewhere will quote you supposedly
a cheaper price to get your attention.  Then: 1) They will
quote you say 40 local currency and then insist that they
said 140 and you misunderstood.  2) Tell you the place you
want to go is far and costs such and such, when it may be
around the corner.  Ask the bus driver, a shop, a
decent-looking local as to what you should pay.

3. Tour OR on your own.  If you are an experienced
traveler, you can do a lot on your own in Africa.  But know
that somewhere sometime you will experience delay,
hardship, chaos and you'll be ripped off.

a) Some game parks (eg., Okawanga Delta) do NOT allow
individual visitors; you must be part of a group.  However,
often you can join a tour from the hostel in the gateway
town,; you do not need to join an overland tour as I am on
right now. Overland tours cut lots of hassle, but of course
for a price. And some game parks and tourist places may
turn out more expensive on your own.

b) Places like Namibia and Botswana are large countries
with low populations.  So public transport, where it
exists, maybe scarce and you may be forced to wait a few
days, or do the trip by hitching.  This is why I will join
another tour from Windhoek, Namibia back to Victoria Falls,
or rather Livingston, Zambia (across the Zambezi River from
Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe), and fly from there to
Johannesburg when done.

4. TOURS.  The most popular tours in East Africa are:

a) 42-days Cape Town to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe to
Nairobi--often combined with 14-day Gorilla Tour (in Uganda
and Rwanda or Zaire). Or a free--but for $120 Local
Payment--3-day add-on to Masai Mara in Kenya.

b) 21-days to first half of (a)

c) 21 days the 2nd half of (a)

d) 14-day Windhoek to Vic. Falls (doing Namibia and
Botswana).

World Wide Tours .... may be the best of the bunch, also
best prices.  Check their web site for options and prices.

5. Tour Prices.  Note that in addition to the tour price
you also need to make a Local Payment (supposedly for food
and misc. purchases along the way).  For example, the tour
may be $850, plus local payment of $270.  The latter must
be paid in US Dollars before the trip.  In addition, many
options are extra, like the 3-day Serengeti and Ngorongoro
Crater: $300.  If you dont go, you'll be hibernating at the
camp waiting for those who participated to return.

With regards to the local payment, on our 21-day tour
Victoria Falls to Nairobi, there are 19 passengers.  At
$270 each this comes to $5,130.  This pays more than just
food and gasoline and camp costs.  I suspect it also pays
the salaries of the hostess--a delightful 23-year-old named
Sharon from UK--the cook and the driver, both of whom are
from Kenya.

6. About the tour.  This is a camping tour.  So each
morning, often at 5am you have to collect your tent, and
set it up each evening at a new camping site.  Breakfast is
about 30 minutes after wake-up. Often we drove about 10
hours a day covering about 600km.  There are stops every 2
hours or so, a lunch break, then dinner at the new camp
site.  The passengers are divided into groups of 1)
Security, 2) Wash-up, 3) Cooks Kelp, the teams rotating
among duties.  I disliked setting up the tent the most. 
Also while you see the whole countryside, the stops are at
white-owned camps outside  of towns.  So there is not much
to do in the evenings but drink beer at the bar and join a
yak-yak session.  So boredom can be an issue.  Some
passengers are on a 56-day tour from Cape Town, also
connecting to the 14-day Gorilla Tour from Nairobi.  This
would be much too long for me;  I decided to do these of my
own, on the way back to Johannesburg, 7,000+ miles from
Nairobi.

7. Tour payment options.  You can charge the tour price to
your credit card.  The Local Payment component must be paid
in Dollars at the beginning.  The same goes for the options
like $280 for the 3-day Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater
excursion.  You can pay the latter with Traveler's Checks
with 4% commission, or charge it to your credit card plus
11% fee.  Which means bring along lots of Dollars if you
are thinking of doing Africa on a tour.

8. Cash Needs.  Bring along lots of single Dollar bills to
pay taxi fares, tips etc.  I started with 50 of such.  Have
on hand also $5, $10, and $20 bills for various expenses
and on-the-spot exchanges when you dont have local currency
for say bus fare, etc.  Use the larger bills for large
expenses.  Dollars are universally accepted except for
buses, restaurants, the kind for which you must pay in
local currency.  Exchange at the hostel, NOT on the street.

9. Excahnge Rates. $=12,000 Zimbabwe, 4700 Zambia, 1100 in
Malawi and Tanzania currency.

10. Things to bring along.  A roll of toilet paper, insect
repellent, rain coat in rainy season.

11. Victoria Falls, on either the Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
or Livingstone, Zambia side, across the Zambezi River
deserves a 10 rating.  Both towns are quaint, neat.

12. Zimbabwe and Zambia are almost entirely desert-like bush
country, as in Krueger Park in South Africa.  In contrast,
Malawi, next to Lake Malawi is very scenic and green.  The
Northern parts are very mountainous and nice.  This goes
also for Tanzania, going east to Dar Es Salaam.  The city
is on Indian Ocean.  Parts of mountain sides in both Malawi
and Tanzania are jungle like bush country.  We passed thru
several national parks along the way, like the Mikuni in
Tanzania.  We saw some elephants along the way.

Baobab and Flat-top Acacia Trees.  I had
mentioned that northern Malawi and Western Tanzania are
particularly scenic.  Malawi is a vertically long and
narrow country, adjacent to Lake Malawi.  On the other side
(to the east) is Mozambique then Tanzania at the northern
end of Malawi.  We followed almost the entire length Lake
Malawi, camping at CANDEY Beach site for 3 nights, then the
CHITIMBA site up north, 150km before the border to
Tanzania.

The area is mountainous, with green bush country blending
to bush jungle at places.  The Baobab trees, with their
bloated trunks, appeared first, then the flat-top Acacias
so typical of Africa.  While the climate and vegetation are
obviously tropical, this is not the same tropical landscape
as for example in Hawaii or Miami.  The flat-top Acacias
are seemingly there to confirm that this is tropical
Africa, not some other place.


Sirman