A very welcome reunion!

Well chaps, if you thought overlanding was all plain sailing, that trucks don’t break down, and that it never rains in Africa, then I’m afraid we’ve got news for you.

Happily reunited with Athena in Swaziland!  Everyone donned their Odyssey shirts to celebrate!

Let’s start with the truck... Due to new regulations, we weren't able to use our faithful Athena through South Africa as she is UK-registered, so we unfortunately had to charter a truck for our time in the first country of our expedition.  The truck that we chartered needed some attention, and on closer inspection by a mechanic one Friday afternoon, some maintenance was deemed necessary. It had to be Friday, didn’t it? So while the rest of the world is saying T.G.I.F., we had to wait until Monday for the new part to arrive...

In the meantime, we resorted to hiring local transport so we could get out of the rain in Chintsa and move on to Coffee Bay. All good, though a bit of a squeeze to get 22 people’s luggage, sleeping gear, tents and food into this trailer.

Quite a tight squeeze...

Anyway, Bering (our add-on driver for a couple of days) delivered us safely to the Coffee Shack, which was a great venue to celebrate the first of the birthdays on the trip – Matt’s.  We had a couple of days here – Lee, Rogan and Mike tried a bit of surfing, others walked to Hole-in-the-wall, did some drumming, bought some beads, and sampled a traditional Xhosa meal. Oh, and a night of heavy rains.

Ana on the drums

Traditional Xhosa dancing

Monique and friends

Matt and friends

Moving on, still with Bering and his bus, we left Rogan to collect the truck, and Bering took us through the Transkei, to the Drakensberg mountains. Unfortunately, despite Bering’s running commentary about what dangers could be encountered whilst driving, and which is the most dangerous animal to hit (as we avoided cows, pigs, goats, sheep, dogs, chickens), his vehicle was also playing up and by the time we reached Kokstad, the radiator needed some attention. And we needed to wait...

Waiting, waiting...

But we made it to the Drakensberg eventually, and had a couple of awesome days there – hiking, swimming in river pools and going up the Sani Pass and in to Lesotho.

David at Sani Pass

Spectacular Drakensberg scenery

The Sani Pass is definitely at 4x4 only road!

Abby & Elaine

Monique

Jen getting up close and personal with some bushman art

Sheep shearing

We were back in a truck for our final leg in South Africa, heading back to the coast and up to St.Lucia and Cape Vidal. A stunning spot – national park that includes wetlands and coastal reserve, as well as a section with some big game – we saw rhino, buffalo, kudu, waterbuck, warthog, bushbuck and even hyaenas; and from our camp at night: spotted genet and a bushpig. Unfortunately, it rained much of the way from the Drakensberg  to here, followed by a beautiful morning spent on the beach, and then a massive electric storm that lasted the whole night. Think we were all ready to leave SA and head to a new country and a new truck – Swaziland and our faithful Athena (our Odyssey truck’s name), to take us the rest of the way to Cairo. A happy day and a beautiful sight J, Athena is great, and much appreciated after our other forms of transport!

White rhino

Spotted genet

Spotted hyaena

Stunning beach at Cape Vidal

Swaziland is a small landlocked country, so we’ve only spent 4 nights here. We camped at Mlilwane Nature Reserve, which is a little sanctuary for mostly smaller game, in an area where poaching was once a huge problem. The nice thing here is that you can explore the reserve on foot, so observe the animals from outside of a vehicle for a change.

Martin

Monique

Not the prettiest, but still always a favourite, warthogs

We then headed (along with the rain) up to Shewula Community Camp, situated up on the plateau in Swaziland. It cleared up enough for a walk around the village, followed by some Swazi dancing, and a delicious meal prepared by the camp.

Now it’s Mozambique for a week, hopefully between rain we’ll get some good beach time! (Yes, it’s rainy season, and it can and does rain quite frequently, and I’m sure that’s not the last time you’ll be hearing about the weather from us!)