.: welcome

Siza iKhaya means ‘We are coming home’ in Zulu. Departing in May 2009, we drove home to Cape Town (South Africa) from our temporary home in Edinburgh (UK). This journey covered almost 28,000 kilometres and spanned 24 extremely diverse countries. Our route took us through Europe, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, East Africa and South West Africa.

The idea for this journey was hatched while chatting with a colleague during a late shift at work in June 2005. This was followed by massive enthusiastic research to check how feasible an idea we’d come up with. Since then, the trip has been scheduled and delayed a number of times for various reasons.

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Total distance travelled - 27,600km (17,250mi)

Diesel used - 3,123 litres

03/09/2009

Wow! We have FINALLY managed to log in to our site to do the ‘final’ update! Sorry for the delay.

We travelled down the lake for a few days, stopping at some great campsites and braving a swim at Monkey Bay. Unfortunately, Fat Monkeys (the campsite recommended to us) was pretty small and cramped, so we opted to only stay there for one night instead of two. After our time on the lake, we headed towards Zambia.

In Zambia, we spent a few amazing days at ‘Croc Valley Camp’ on the border of the South Luangua National Park. Here we were entertained by the hippos (very noisy!) and crocs (not in the actual campsite, but within sight) and elephants, monkeys and baboons who took a stroll through the campsite every day looking for food. What a beautiful setting!

The road from Croc Valley to Petauke was another pretty bad one and made even worse by the tsetse flies that kept getting in the windows! Another 8 hour, 180 km day. After a night in a small campsite in Petauke, we headed for Lusaka. We’d spotted a Wimpy (burger place) on our GPS so we decided to go there for lunch. After a few delays (road works and stuff) we headed into a stretch of town that could easily have been somewhere in Johannesburg! There was a mall type thing with a Woolworths, Steers, Debonairs, Ster Kinekor etc. We felt like kids at Christmas so we went to Steers instead – how much like home Southern Africa feels.

On the way to the Zimbabwe border we were pulled over by (yet more) cops. These ones were checking for third party insurance (which we didn’t have, but our insurance document stated world wide insurance so we figured we could fudge it and get away with it). When they saw our document they took Gerhard and Richard into their little hut and had a little chat... for about 45 minutes! The usual game of poker ensued – with Richard and Gerhard alternating their good cop/bad cop routine. Once again, we were let off, but unfortunately by this time the boder had closed – which we only found out when we got there. So we pulled into a big building to ask for directions, which we soon realised was a police station. As we were backing out (thinking we’d have no luck there) a (rather tipsy) officer pulled up behind us, forcing us to go back into the parking lot. He then asked what we wanted and we told him we were looking for a place to camp overnight until the border opened again. He then proceeded to tell us that we were welcome to stay there and showed us around the place, introducing us to his colleagues, and we enjoyed a beer in the back garden shebeen with them!

The next day we drove across to Zimbabwe where we joined Gerhard’s dad (Ben) and spent a few amazing days on a houseboat on Lake Kariba. We did a few game ‘drives’ in a small motorboat and had a couple of swims in a cage which lowers into the dam – lots of fun when there are crocodiles around! After Kariba, we headed to Ben’s home in Karoi and spent a few days recuperating and relaxing. We visited the family gold mine and managed to organise some US dollars to see us through the rest of our time in Zim.

We drove from Karoi to Binga in one day and stayed for two nights at the amazing Masuma river lodge (overlooking the lake). After this, we headed to the Victoria falls and spent one night in a small backpackers.

The following day, we left Zim and drove through Botswana in pretty much one day (one night’s stopover). We encountered some of the best and some of the worst roads on the trip in Botswana. We also, unfortunately, each managed to hit and kill at least one bird while driving! Richard took out two in his stint… one of them a pretty big guinea fowl.

We entered Namibia the night before Heather’s birthday and presents were bought from the local cafe at the campsite on the border. The next day we drove through to past Windhoek and spent the night on a stud farm in a beautiful setting. The closer to home we got the more it felt like home! We then drove on to Soussusvlei and spent the night warding off naughty jackals. The next morning we started really early (4:45) and drove to dune 45 for the customary hike to the top to watch the sun rise. We then drove on a little more to the dead pans and spent a few hours exploring Namibia’s beauty.

We headed down to Ai Ais after that where Richard’s parents were going to meet us. The original plan was that they would get there and then we’d arrive a day later but we decided that we were running ahead of schedule so we’d aim to get there on the same day as them and surprise them. Unluckily for us, Jean Philips is sharp as an eagle (and she was suspect when speaking to Richard on the phone) and she spotted M689 OOK on the sign in book (which is Bokkie’s registration and she knew it). So there the three of us were (Richard, Catherine and Heather) hiding behind a wall, while they came up the stairs, Jean looking around suspiciously while Chris wondered why she was dawdling so much. Eventually we came out to them and gave at least Chris a surprise. Ironically though, Heather’s brother was also supposed to come up with his family to surprise us but was unable to make it!

We spent 3 glorious days wallowing in the hot springs and just relaxing with family – feeling more and more like a family holiday than a 4 month long trek through Africa.

We crossed the border into South Africa on the 1st of September and drove down to Cederberg to stay at a campsite that the Philips family has been frequenting since Jean was young. There Heather’s brother and family met us and we spent two days braaiing, playing with the kids and catching up with reality.

Driving into the driveway at Richard’s folks place, we were greeted by an enterage of family members and over excited dogs (only 2 of the 5 dogs were actually ours!). And that’s it really. We’re now home for good, and both Heather and Richard have got jobs, so reality is actually starting to set in (boo hoo).

Oh, one useful statistic for you – Bokkie did not have one flat tyre the entire trip! BF GOODRICH – you rock!