Welcome to Tom and Jana's 2007 Africa Journal!
Two weeks of teeth-rattling, bone-jarring, 4x4 self-drive adventure through the wilds of southern Africa!
Tom and Jana at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
Our trip started and ended in Johannesburg, South Africa, and included Moremi Game Reserve and Chobe National Park in Botswana, and Victoria Falls in Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Open map with detailed driving route in a seperate window
Open the map in a new window and zoom in and scroll around with us as we take you on our trip through southern Africa!
Credit for the text of this journal, as usual, goes to Jana, who always
keeps excellent records when we travel. She also managed to keep track of all
the paperwork associated with the rental vehicle, park and campsite
information, and border crossings. Tom did most of the driving this
time, so Jana was also tasked with navigation, which included marking and
plotting on our hand-held GPS unit.
This journal is rather text heavy this time. We have tried to include
detailed border crossing information that might be useful to people who plan
to make a similar trip, but such detail will be of little interest to the
casual reader. Reading trip reports from other self-drive adventurers was
hugely helpful to us, so we are trying to contribute what we can. Some of the
resources we found particularly helpful in planning this trip are linked at
the bottom of this page.
Use the detailed menu below to jump to any part of our journal.
October 10 & 11
Knoxville, Tennessee, to Johannesburg (Kempton Park), South Africa
October
12
Festival Mall, Kempton Park, South Africa
October
13
Johannesburg, South Africa, to Palapye, Botswana
October
14
Palapye, Botswana, to Maun, Botswana
October 15
Maun to Third Bridge, Moremi Game Reserve
October
16
Third Bridge to Xakanaxa, Moremi Game Reserve
October
17
Xakanaxa, Moremi Game Reserve, to Savuti, Chobe National Park
October
18
Savuti to Ihaha, Chobe National Park
October
19
Ihaha, Chobe National Park, to Kasane, Botswana
October
20
Kasane, Botswana, to Livingstone, Zambia
October
21
Zambia & Zimbabwe - Victoria Falls, "The Smoke that Thunders"
October
22
Livingstone, Zambia, to Francistown, Botswana
October
23
Francistown, Botswana, to Johannesburg (Kempton Park), South Africa
October 24 & 25
Johannesburg, South Africa, to Knoxville, Tennessee
Tom, the Webmaster
Jana, the Author
Useful links:
Wild
Dogs have an excellent Botswana self-drive trip report from June
2007.
SA 4x4 Community Forum is a good discussion forum for
Botswana and other southern Africa destinations.
The
Overland Forum is another good forum for Botswana and southern
Africa.
Virtual Tourist has a decent discussion board.
Fodors forums can be helpful planning your trip.
Trip Advisor occasionally has something useful in their
forum.
Lonely Planet isn't great for self-drivers, but is a good
place to get general questions answered.
Bruce Muirhead has some great photos from his self-drive
trip August-September 2007.