Zambia, Botswana and Zimbabwe

We drove the length of Zambia, stopping at the site of David Livingstone’s death and the capital, Lusaka, en-route to the Victoria Falls on the Zimbabwe border.

We met a French Canadian couple at the Falls.

They joined us for a picnic at the Zambesi National Park;

where we visited the nearby ‘Big Baobab Tree’.

We cut across the north-western tip of Zimbabwe into Botswana – and the Chobe National Park.

Continuing south-west, we spent some days in the Moremi National Park.

Leaving the watery world of the Okovango Delta, we drove through Maun, down a sandy track to Ghanzi; and then south-east, across the Kalahari desert, to Gabarone, the capital of Botswana. We then headed north back into Zimbabwe via Francistown.

We spent a few days in Bulawayo, as guests of Lionel, a school teacher we had met in Moremi. From there, we visited Matobo Hills National Park; the site of ‘World’s View’ – Cecil Rhodes’ grave.

The Nswatugi Cave in the Park has ancient rock art.

The extraordinary ruins of Great Zimbabwe were our next stop; built and occupied by the ancestors of the Shona people between the 9th and 15th Centuries.

Zimbabwe’s Eastern Highlands (Chimanimani National Park and Honde Valley) is wonderful walking country; with views into neighbouring Mozambique.

After a few days in Harare, we drove north to the border with Mozambique at Aldeia Chuchumano. Mozambique was in the throes of a civil war; so we waited at the border for a convoy of 50 trucks to form; to be accompanied to Malawi, via Tete, by an escort of armoured personnel carriers.