Overland to Tanzania via Botswana, Zimbabwe and Zambia and home through Malawi and Mozambique.

Well it is just about time to hit the road and head north in a vehicle that has caused us a fair amount of aggravation in the four months we have had it. Isuzu certainly hasn't bathed its self in glory and I am left in no doubt that GM and their agent Reeds have no idea what the term "customer satisfaction" means.
On a short run up to Ai-Ais and the Richtersveld we soon discovered that we had as much dust in the cab as there was outside, The springs had gone flat with only a partial load on board and the radio only worked in shouting distance of a transmitter. After nearly two months of arm wrestling with Reeds we had modifications done to the vents in the cab and new front springs fitted but the back springs were way below spec. In desperation I had an extra blade fitted to the back springs myself and I guess that we are as ready as we ever will be.
We are packed and what isn't in its going to stay behind. We are meeting our travelling companion in Gaberone Botswana on Monday which gives us four days of leisurely driving to get there. Beaufort West, Kimberly and Vryburg will be our overnight stops.
Well we have made to Moun in central Botswana in one piece. The trip up through the Karoo was very pleasant and the flowers were out in full force, it was realy beautiful. We met up with Pieter and Christin in Mafekeng and spent a few hours at the Toyota agency repairing his steering arm which had broken on the way in from Bella Bella. We crossed into Botswana with no problems and headed for the Central Kalahari Deep sand tracks and thorn bushes encroaching on the track made going tough. On the third night we were in a bush camp relaxing when we realised that there was a fire in my engine compartment. We were able to put it out before it did too much damage and traced the cause to the main battery cable which melted on to the exhaust pipe.After much sliding around in the sand under the vehicle I was able to fix it and all has been well since. Game viewing was good and even the lions made a showing for us

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We have spent the morning stocking up on perishables fuel and water  and we are now heading for Savuti and Linyanti. We are expecting it to be a rough trip as the roads in this part of Botswana are very deep sand. I don't know when we will next get a wifi connection to update this. They are few and very inefficient in this part of the world.

Well here we are two weeks later with our first usable connection. We are camping at a lodge on the banks of the Kafui River in central Zambia. As expected the run through Botswana was hard going and one stretch on the way to Linyanti we took an hour to do 6k. Elephants rule the area and we saw hundreds. Camping in Linyanti we had one big cow walk between our cars and throw our chairs around with her trunk. After scaring the living day lights out of us she walked off with what I am sure was a smile on her face. That night a massive Leadwood tree gave up the battle of holding up her branches and it all came crashing down about 10m from where we were sitting. From there it was a short run up to Chobe where we had a stunning encounter with a leop

ard that was stalking some wart hogs.
The we crossed into Zimbabwe at Pandamatenga and into Hwange NP for the annual game count. We were appointed to count at a small water hole not normaly accessable to visitors. In 24 hours we had 368 annimals come through, most of which were elephant. Then it was on to Zambia via Victoria Falls. Np drama at the boarder and we spent two nights in Livingstone cleaning up and shopping. Yesterday we came up through South Kafui NP and in the next two or three days will cross into North Kafui NP.