From Zanzibar To Windhoek

Finally back online again! Country after country without proper Internet connection and now everything is different. We arrived today morning in the lovely city of Windhoek in Namibia. The German heritage can be seen everywhere. It's like this country doesn't belong to Africa as we know it. Now after a long time I'll post a quik update what happened recently.

Travel from Dar Es Salaam (Tanzania) to Livingstone (Zambia)

It all seemed to be so easy. After a few lazy days at the beach on Zanzibar we wanted to continue to the Victoria falls. The falls are conveniently located on the way to Namibia, the next country on our list. The drama started when we arrived back from the island in Dar Es Salaam. We had to realize that we arrived on an important Islamic holiday: The birth of the prophet Mohamed. We wanted to organize our ride to Zambia the following day and almost all travel agencies had closed. The first travel agent we've visited told us that our bus of choice doesn't operate anymore. As we are now quite careful whom to trust we went to this particular company where they confirmed the news. To cut down the travel time (on land at least 24h) we've decided next to go to the airport to find us a cheap flight. There we had to realize that there are no direct flights. The cheapest fares started from about 560$ The next option was to visit the main bus terminal. After a while arguing around with some companies we found a bus that should manage the route in 24h.
The next day started early as usual. at 5:30 am we boarded the bus and our journey started to the border. After a day traveling and countless police and bus weight checks we arrived at the border. There the bus staff told us that this is the final station and tomorrow! a bus will continue to Lusaka. That was of course great news for us because we've planned to just cross the border and driver over night in Zambia. After a night sleeping on the bus seats of a old, wrecked down bus, we had to wait the whole next day after the border at the Zambian side to continue our journey. Finally at 6:30pm we could continue. After getting stuck in a mud hole we really arrived in the early morning in Lusaka. From there we had for the first time luck and found immediately a connecting bus to Livingstone (7.5h)

Livingstone (Victoria Falls)

The Victoria falls are the main attraction of Zambia besides of the wildlife. It is a big tourist hub and many activities are offered for the adventurous tourists like rafting, bungee jumping or even a booze cruise. The falls have now high water and everything is covered under a water spray. It's almost impossible to see the bottom of the falls. The best thing was that there is also a bridge connecting Zambia and Zimbabwe that could be entered for free! Everything else was quite heavily priced. The good months to visit are from June to October when the water level is low.


The end is near!

Today morning we arrived after a 16h travel from Livingstone in Windhoek, Namibia. It is a drastic change here from what we have seen in Africa. It seems to be a perfect, safe and tidy place to live. Namibia was a former German colony and the influence can even now been seen everywhere. German street names, food, cars...
This will be our last major stay in an African country. We plan to go tomorrow to Swakopmund and Walvisbaai to enjoy time at the port and with some fun activities. After that we plan to visit the oldest desert in the World with its well known red sand dunes. Maybe we also take this time a own car. Let's see!

At the end of next week we want to continue to our final stop in Cape Town. There we will board our plane back on the 1st of April and arrive on the 2nd back in Austria.