Monthly Archives: June 2024

Kapishya Hot Springs

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We had been advised that a great place to break up the long journey through Zambia was the Kapishya Hot Springs.

One thing we’ve noticed is that you can spend many hours on the road and not get very far. Once we crossed the border at Tunduma, the road was good for about 160km’s, but after that, it was hard work. There’s endless trucks coming to and fro from the copper mines but at least they were decent drivers and kept a good speed. However, the road was riddled with potholes.

Once we left the Great North Road we hit red dust. We did wonder if we were going to find the place as some roads were blocked but people pointed us in the right direction.

Kapishya Hot Springs was a welcome relief to traveling. We wished we had booked longer than two nights. The natural hot springs are purposely kept at a shallow depth so that it is safe for children. There’s both campsites – where we stayed, and chalets. The restaurant caters for small and large numbers. There’s a cold pool and a very nice area you can have sundowners at.

Mark is the son of the original owners and even though he was raised in Zambia, sounds very British. He’s built up the business with farms, community development projects, chickens, greenhouses and fruit areas. There’s also a spa at the venue in case you want to have a good massage.

Kapishya takes credit card and also has free wifi – both a rare occurence in this part of the world. If you’re going to visit, you need to book ahead of time, and be aware, there are way easier ways to get there than what we took!

Camping in Tanzania

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We are often torn between booking every step of our trip, and winging it for accommodation. We decided that doing long hours and just hoping to find somewhere to sleep wasn’t going to be a happening thing, for the first week anyway.

So, we booked into The Old Farm House in a remote area but on our route. It was way better than we anticipated. It was quiet, plenty of water, and hot showers!

As we drove in, we met some people who were from Namibia – our ultimate destination. They gave us a bottle of sand from one of their sand dunes and told us to come over later. They had some friends who were coming in later too. These two couples traveled in super flash mtoorhomes, so it was an easy setup for them.

For us, it took quite some time. This was the very first time we had done a setup and actually stayed somewhere. Admittedly, it probably took us a couple of hours to get everything where we wanted.

The facilities at The Old Farm House are fantastic. You can choose to stay in a chalet which is very nice and well setup. You can get meals there but have to prebook as they do it all from scratch. We did our own meals.

We had a great night with our friends from Namibia and learnt a lot about their homeland.

The next day – we spent a lot of time packing up (we’ll get better) and headed to our next destination.

Prep Day

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The groceries have been brought. The bags have been packed. The itinerary is coming together. The Landy has been loaded. Now all we have to do is get going.

Sounds simple, but there’s no hand book that says what each country rules are. We found out just a week ago that if you don’t have a Namibia vehicle identification sticker on your car, you’ll end up getting a fine from the police. It was one of those random posts on Facebook that will save the day.

So, we downloaded some designs and sent them off to the printer. Simple instructions, print one each. A few days later we get back 5 of each sticker and two with major errors. On one of them Tanzania was places in Zambia and Namibia was spelt incorrectly. The printing company said they would redo them, but to date, still no word.

We’ll use what we can and see what we can find on the road.

Check out the video below on what else we had to do to the landy to make sure we don’t get pulled up by the police in different countries.

Do We Know What We’re Doing?

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It sounds awesome to spend a few months on the road camping and seeing some of the amazing wildlife and scenery of Africa. The closer we get to going on safari (trip) the more nervous we get about making sure we’re really ready to go.

I just read about a couple who were on safari in South Africa who were in a rooftop tent and a lion came up and started making holes in their tent. When you hear of safety precautions like not visiting the toilet at night and sitting with your back to the vehicle, it makes you a bit nervous.

This week we aim to buy an air horn as apparently that will keep the lions and leopards away.

One thing we’re doing is knowing how to put up our rooftop tent properly. It’s taken a bit of practise but once it’s up it’s great. We bought it from an American missionary who had been in Djibouti for 10 years but came back to Kenya occasionally for a rest, and camping. Unfortunately he got cancer so had to spend a few years going back and forth to the US for treatment. Once he got better, he and his wife decided to return permanently to the US to take up a leadership role in a church.

We bought the tent off him and it had hardly been used.

When we went to Northern Uganda last year to build some toilets, we slept in it for a few nights. It was way more comfortable than what we anticipated. You definitely have to be careful for a midnight toilet visit. It took is a few days to realise there was another piece that attached to the ladder to make it lean on a better angle.

We haven’t slept in the tent when it is pouring down with rain, but it does have a waterproof cover on it. I guess we’ll find out very soon.

There are a couple of windows in the tent for ventilation and lots of pockets on the inside walls for putting in things such as phones.

You can hear everything from the tent, so if we’re in a campground that is noisy, we’re going to have to suck it up. I’m a light sleeper, so hear every animal moving, birds singing and people talking – even from a long distance.

Do we actually know what we’re doing? Sort of, but in the end like everything else, we’ll just have to figure it out.