The Toyota Landcruiser Owners Club

[Traveller1041]

Howdy To All

Has anyone shipped there Cruiser to Capetown or Walvis Bay Recently and used a good uk based
shipping Firm.

My wife and i intend to ship down that part of the world and just travel about for some months getting in
a much as possible and shipping back after a visit to has many countries as possible.

If anyone on the Forum has done this Please contact as i would love to chat and take any advise on
firms to use or place's to go and stay etc.

This would really be helpful for our trip...Regards to all Keep Cruising

[Google]

[misterpaul]

Hi,

I didn't ship from the UK but from Oct 2009 I drove from Cape Town up through SA, Nam, Bots, Zim, Moz and then carried on north up to the Uk. Just got back a few weeks ago. If you want any recommendations for camps / places to visit, etc just ask.

I don't know if you've found it already but http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hubb/ is a really good place to have a look around for info.

Cheers,

Paul.

[Traveller1041]

Howdy Paul

Thank you very much for replying to my Post Cheer's....

Yeah that would be great Paul any Good campsites and lodge's or Hostel's with camping facilities would be spot on. In 2006 i done
a trans africa on my Honda africa twin xrv 750 down west coast of Africa which was awesome.

So i have been to Namibia and South africa.....But if you have any other place's that would be great Paul
we wish to go from Cape town Namibia botswana and just go from there Did you work along the way
or just chillout.

We are ready to go but need some etc Funds to live on when we return....How did your trip go
all ran ok.

Any information would be great on your kit and any tip's

Regards

Daniel & Louise  

[misterpaul]

Hi,

this is a rough idea of the route we took. From Namibia we crossed into Botswana through the Mahango game reserve then down to Maun. There's an office in town where you can book the national parks. We stayed at Audi Camp which was good for us but quite quiet. It seemed to be where most overlanders stay. If you want more of a party vibe the Bridge backpackers has camping too. Then we went to Moremi national park which was excellent for wildlife but very wet and muddy and hard driving. Depends on the season though. After that back to Maun to restock with food then to Central Kalahari game reserve which was also good for wildlife. Then to Nata where we camped one night at a lodge but I forget the name. It's south out of town on the Francistown road. Then north to Kasane where we camped at Chobe Safari Lodge. This is a luxury lodge type place that also has camping, so you can use the pool without paying the high room rates. Then into Chobe national park which was great. There's also a 4x4 track between Moremi and Chobe. We didn't take it as we'd had enough of driving through deep mud in Moremi, but if you're there in the dry then this route could be worth considering. Then back to Kasane, then across into Zimbabwe.

We stayed in Victoria Falls town to visit Mosi-oa-Tunya (Vic Falls) which is well worth doing. We camped at Shoestrings Backpackers. There's also a campsite in town but more expensive than the backpackers. After Livingston we went to Hwange national park (also signed in some places as *beep* national park). This place was good - the best campsite is a small basic one at Masuma Dam. The ranger there was a guy called Godfrey who was really good to spend time with. If you meet him tell him I sent you. After Hwange we spent some time in Bulawayo, camping at the caravan park close to the centre. Bulawayo was a nice city with a museum and art gallery that we found worth having a look at. After Bulawayo we stayed near Masvingo to see the Great Zimbabwe ruins, then Chimanimani national park then we crossed into Mozambique near Mutare. Great Zimbabwe is worth seeing, Chimanimani was ok and Mutare was just somewhere to stop the night.

In Mozambique first stop was Chimoio. There's a backpackers there but no camping that we found. We went north to Pebane and camped at a lodge on the beach. The place was nice but half closed down and we couldn't buy much food in town. Plenty of fish and prawns but no veggies. Then further north to Ila de Mozambique, no camping on the island but there is a place on the mainland just where the causeway starts. We stayed on the island which was ok. Then Pemba where we camped at Russel's Place. It was ok - there's also another campsite that people told us was nice - but it's a good place for meeting people. Then Ila de Ibo. You have to leave your wheels on the mainland for this one, but we enjoyed it there. The choice of accommodation is either really budget or really expensive, nothing in between when we were there. But the island is very atmospheric and for me worth a visit. After this we went back south towards Pemba, then turned west towards Montepuez, Marrupa, Cuamba and crossed the border into Malawi at Chiponde. This road at points was basically a goat track only just wide enough to drive and had some log bridges that only just took the weight of a loaded up 4x4. We'd thought about going to Niassa national park but it was too wet to make it there at the time of year we were there.

Are you planning on going to Malawi? Let me know if you want some info, but Malawi is so small it's not too difficult to find your way around.

In terms of hassles with paperwork or border crossings, there weren't any whatsoever. We used a carnet, but we really got that for countries further north. If you're just concentrating on southern Africa I wouldn't bother, just get temp import permits at the borders. One thing that's useful is getting the Comesa yellow card 3rd party insurance. This saves you buying insurance at every border. With visas we just got them at the borders. ATMs worked fine everywhere for getting cash on visa debit cards. We didn't work along the way, just travelling.

We have a HZJ75 troopie with a rooftent and awning, dual batteries, and drawers in the back. The troopie is a great truck and we didn't have any problems. The rooftent was a good investment and the awning was also worth having for rain aswell as sun. We didn't have a gps and didn't really miss it for this area, but it's a personal thing.

Alright, can't really think of much else but if you have any questions give me a shout and I'll do my best to answer them.

Cheers,

Paul.