Meeting date and time:

We will meet at Thebe River Lodge, for our first night, in Botswana on 6 May 2025, in the late afternoon. There is a good restaurant on site if you needed one. See the map below.

We will depart from from Kasane the next morning.  

Tour Distance:

From Kasane Botswana and back to Kasane Botswana 8500 km

Fuel availability:

Fuel will be available everywhere. If you can get 650km between stops you will be ok. We will strategise on tour to buy fuel in the cheapest countries and avoid the expensive ones as far as possible.

Fuel purchase:

We will buy fuel with cash. Credit cards will be excepted now and again but it is very unreliable.

The current diesel price is about USD 1.40 per litre

Cash:

We will do most transactions in cash but cards will work where we are at lodges, like a restaurant or boat cruise etc. 

We take USD only and exchange as we go. Remember large notes exchange for better rates than small denominations.

I take only USD 100s and 50s from you for payments I pay on your behalf.

DON’T TAKE OLD BILLS,  ONLY NEW USD BILLS, 2017 OR LATER

We will exchange where necessary at recognised exchanges.

Credit cards will also work from time to time. MasterCard might work but VISA remains the best option.

Cash budget.

On every tour I have the question whether we can fill fuel with a credit card, and on every trip it bites us when card machines don’t work and fuel stations only take cash.

Please refer to the cash budget on the spreadsheet.

Tourist visa.

South African passports need no visas except for the Uganda Visa @ about USD80pp, purchased on the border.

Non RSA Citizens: About 30 days from departure

For non South Africans please check your requirements with your own dept of foreign affairs.

We have always purchased visas at the borders on arrival.

International guests will normally get an East African tourist visa online, the rest on the respective borders.

Note you would need multi entry for Botswana, and Zambia.

Note Malawi has a new online application.

Cash in Botswana:

In Botswana you can use a credit card to fill up with fuel, so you technically do not need any Pula, but I would advise to have 500Pula with you in case of a fine etc. You can use the rest of your Pula when filling up in Kasane before we enter Zambia.

Food restrictions:

We should only have issues crossing in to Botswana with raw red meat, above ground veg and fruit. The rest of the countries normally do not have any issues.

We would stock up at a large supermarket in Lusaka on our way up north.

Plastic bags:

Plastic bags are being banned in more and more countries, it will be the case for us on this tour as well. It should start in Tanzania already.

The bags normally in question are carrier bags and rubbish bags. The plastic wrapping around your salami will be ok, the plastic in which your other foods are packed would be ok.

It is the extra carrier bags and empty used bags that is the problem, the shoprite bag we normaly take as a rubbish bag, the Pick and pay bag where my shoes is kept, the shoprite bag with my snacks for the day etc

Vacuum packed bags like Zip lock are also ok.

So for your rubbish bag start switching to paper bags and limit the number of plastic bags you bring.

Bin liners/black bags on a roll is normally fine.

Groceries:

We will stop for groceries as is needed, but the shops are small with only basics. 

The biggest stops:

• Lusaka day 3
• Rwanda day 13
• Jinja day 20
• Mzuzu Day 31

Otherwise many small groceries, markets next to the road, water and other basics available as we go.

Coffee and lunch stops:

I provide the water and boil a kettle. You bring your cup, coffee, tea milk sugar or whatever.

Braai grid:

Please bring your own. I have braai stands and provide the fire in the evenings, but not the grid.

Laundry:

There will be lodges that take in washing to be done, otherwise you will have to wash as we go. Our planned double days are:

• Kapyshia day 4
• Tanganyika day 7
• Rushaga Gorillas day 15
• Jinja Nile  day 20
• Chitimba Malawi day 30

4×4 driving:

There should be no 4×4 driving required, maybe a bit of slippery gravel up to the gorillas depending on rain. 

GPS: 

You do not need a GPS, you can just follow me on the whole route. However there are driving days where your life could be a little easier by using your GPS. Make sure to have Southern Africa and East Africa maps loaded.

Own speed own time is a term I use now and again when we just need to get from one spot to another without frills. It is always just a driving day and it means I set the departure time and if you want to do your own thing for the day you can.

Ie. I leave at 7am or whatever. However you may leave before me and make your own way to the next camp at your own speed with your own stops. Typically by then we know whos GPS’s are working and we might have seen that stretch of road before. Like the Lusaka road. I then normally leave on time with the group in front of me so if you have a problem I will find you on the road. Alternatively travel with me.

Water:

There is water for coffee cooking and cleaning everywhere. Campsites have taps.

We will buy bottled water at the shops as we go for cold drinking water.