Soul of Africa Tour - Copenhagen to Cape Town

There was no rush to leave Lilongwe. I would be staying at Mamarula B&B, not far from the border town of Chipata. Again a favoured meeting point for overlanders, and a journey of about 150 kilometers. The unknown factor when crossing borders is the time it is going to take with all the administration on both sides, but no problem in this case. Checkout from Malawi took about 15 minutes, and I was through the Zambian customs procedure in about 30 minutes.

I would have to drive almost 700 km to Livingstone, through the Zambian capital of Lusaka, so an early start was essential. More than one person had warned me that the almost 1300 km from South Luangwa to Livingstone on the T4, would be boring and uninteresting. It actually turned out to be an enjoyable trip, with the road leading through many small villages and markets, often following the railway line to Lusaka, and past huge tracts of land on both sides of the road. A fair bit of roadwork taking place along the way, but only good to see the road being maintained! 

As I got out of my dorm room at Fawlty Towers at 06.15 to freshen up and “hit the road” early, a Chinese girl ran up to me from her room, and explained that she had lost the charger to her iPhone. If I had one, could she please use it til the shops opened, and she could buy one. Realizing that a dead iPhone had to be the ultimate crisis for a young Chinese girl, I lent her my charger, and told her I would be leaving within the hour. She was absolutely delighted, and immediately got connected to her friends.

After some research I had decided to stay at Camp Swamp at Sepupa, a 350 km drive from Maun. The first 100 km were in a southwesterly direction, and then 250 km due north edging the western side of the Okavango swamps. Camp Swamp had boats taking tourists into the delta. Their big hit was a 3 day trip to an island in the delta, with game walks included. I would make do with a much shorter trip.

It was a short 70 km drive from Camp Swamp to the border crossing between Botswana and Namibia at Mohembo. Tidy small customs buildings on both sides at this remote border post. Very friendly and helpful officials got me through both sides in about 30 minutes. On the Namibian side at a security point, as a foreigner I had to enter my details again, and I was free to go. The day before there was only one entry, and the day before that, 6 entries. So not exactly a busy borderpost.

I started off early the next morning, along the C28 gravel road towards Windhoek, a trip of just over 300 kilometers. The first few kilometers were pleasant tar road, then followed really good gravel road, but soon it turned into a sandy and very challenging gravel road. For once I had not filled at least one of the fuel bladders with extra fuel, and I soon realized that it would be touch and go with the fuel supply, with the bike using considerably more under the sandy road conditions.

I was in two minds which route to take to South Africa - the quick 250 kilometer route straight south along the B1 towards Springbok, or the much longer journey to Lüderitz, back to Aus, down to Rosh Pinah along the C13, exciting Namibia at the border crossing in Oranjemund. The latter was certainly a lot more enticing, with it’s ghost town Kolmanskop not far from Lüderitz and Oranjemund, a small diamond town that had been closed to the world until a year ago. As I was still ahead of schedule it was an easy choice!

Immediately after crossing the Oppenheimer Bridge, I stopped at the South African customs buildings, at Alexander Bay. Not a busy crossing by any standard, and shortly afterwards I was in the Northern Cape heading for Port Nolloth, where I had decided to spend the night.