the route

planning the route was simple. we knew we wanted to spend some time seeing mediterranean europe and parts of the middle east before touching african soil so we decided on the following route:

cross the channel to france, drive through the swiss mountains to italy, and then down the east coast to catch a ferry to greece. across northern greece into istanbul and from there follow the turkish coastline to syria; next stop jordan with a short ferry crossing into egypt. from here we will cross the sudan into ethiopia, followed by kenya, uganda and tanzania.

we do not know what the intended route south will be (that will be determined closer to the time), however, we do know that we will want to see as much of southern africa as possible (malawi, zambia, botswana, namibia, south africa, mozambique, lesotho and swaziland).

route update - early november

we're trying to avoid the short rains in the east of africa and the cooler winter months of the south - whether this is achievable we will have to see. our extended stay on the beach south of mombassa meant we escaped the cooler and wetter climate of the highlands but as our return to nairobi has proven we are back to the short rains and grey weather.

some countries feature on our itinery that didn't appear the first time around - namely, rwanda and zimbabwe. rwanda as this where we wish to see the mountain gorillas and zimbabwe as we hear nothing but good things. so the route is as follows: from kenya into uganda, rwanda, tanzania reaching malawi in time for christmas.

from there we will drop down into zimbabwe, into the north-western territories of south africa, passing through swaziland and lesotho before travelling the garden and wine (yipee)route and through the western cape. then we backtrack to namibia (where the idea for this trip first started), zambia, back into zimbabwe, botswana, then the final leg back down to cape town.

 

route update - mid january

life on the road is all about freedom and it should be no surprise to hear that our route has changed once again. we will now go down through mozambique into south africa. this isn't because we don't fancy zimbabwe (the tales of 24 hours to get through customs hasn't put us off!) but the turquoise seas, the promise of good diving, delicious seafood and the 'vibe' has tempted us to mozambique. from there we will hit south africa when its still summer and then namibia, botswana, zambia, zimbabwe and then south africa again.

this is where we expect to be, and when

country no. of nights when
malawi 3 weeks end dec to mid jan
mozambique 1 month mid jan to mid feb
south africa 6 weeks mid feb to end march
namibia 1 month end march to end april
botswana 1 week beginning may
zambia 2 weeks mid may
zimbabwe 1 week end may/beginning june
south africa one week beginning june

kusafiri: swahili for "to travel"