November 6th Many hours of airports flying and overly smiley Qantas staff, although their food is much better than BA, and we hit Auckland…. Bit of a bounce but we hit it. We had to go through some ridiculous Bio Hazard Zone - they seem a little paranoid here about bringing in new species and food!? However that done, we headed out into the great outdoors... these guys are so friendly! Fresh of the plane we encountered nothing but smiles and long stories about...

November 2nd Fed up of long drives we set off on our long drive to South Africa… my word the differences between the two countries is remarkable but also instant… across the boarder we hit professionally laid tarmac, saw real pavements and even a computer at customs (not just a big filing cabinet!) We still managed to find dodgy roads though but where we finished up was all worth it… Bushman's camp just outside of Kruger was like an Oasis of organised calm...

October 30th Bye bye comfortable Livingstone... hello truck! With only six of us going onto Jo'burg we did rattle around in the truck built for 24 people but it meant we could spread out! A quick drive and we arrived at the Botswana border crossing - where the Chobe and Zambezi river meet along with four African nations. This place was chaos with only two boats, one with a dodgy engine. We were told for safety reasons we had to cross on foot out of the truck - w...

October 24th Another lie in and an opportunity to take advantage of the swimming pool in the African sun was not to be sniffed at. We needed several hours of sun bathing to prepare for our border crossing into Zambia - the $140 price tag was stressful enough but what can be a difficult crossing actually went without a hitch, just another dodgy currency changer man! 150km later and we hit our next campsite in Mamarula- the quality of the showers is definitely get...

October 20th Alarm goes off at 5.30am - ouch. It's still dark and cold but we're maestros now at packing up tents and belongings at lightning speed. We've got 500km to cover and a Malawi border crossing (which was very uneventful) to get over in order to get to Chitimba our stop off before hitting Kande beach. Just before we hit the border we stopped at a disused service station to meet up with 'Honest Freddy' and change our currency into Kwachas... so honest we...