Victoria Falls to Gabarone, Botswana took 1:10 hrs, both airports modern and clean. Botswana Immigration took two minutes, no visa required and it did not cost anything, just had to give them my Hotel address. There are phone shops at Arrivals and ATM’s, bought a Mascom SIM for BWP 10 and 5 GB of Data for BWP 100 about $8. The ATM fee was $3 and the Exchange rate was good, the first time this has happened, normally it is a rip-off hahaha. I had a free pickup but you can download and use the taxi App inDrive which I used on the return journey and it cost $4. Most fares around the Metro area are $2-3.
Victoria Falls Airport
Victoria Falls Airport
Victoria Falls Airport
Victoria Falls Airport
In the air
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Gabarone, Botswana
Gabarone – this is a planned city and building only started in 1964, population 246,000. Broad 4 lane roads, clean, not crowded, modern buildings and Shopping Centres, the most developed city I have been to in Africa so far. The whole of Botswana has a population of only 2.4 million and it is a big country. It has the highest per capita GDP in Africa and all this wealth comes from Diamonds. The people also have access to free health care and free schools.
A new museum has been built but the exhibits which have been in storage for several years have yet to be relocated. Instead there is an Art Exhibition in the building at the moment.
Harare to Victoria Fall, Zimbabwe, both in the same country so no immigration formalities. The Harare International Terminal is brand new and very nice. Flight took an hour uneventful. I had organised a taxi with the hotel $30 which is the standard fare, no Uber here.
Harare Airport
Harare Airport
Harare Airport
Harare Airport
Harare Airport
Harare Airport
Harare Airport
Harare Airport
Inside
Old Harare Airport
In the air
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Victoria Falls Airport
Victoria Falls Airport
Victoria Falls – small town full of tourists, no beggars or touts a relief, things here are a little more expensive. Each entry to the Zimbabwe Falls NP is US$50 if you leave to get lunch and come back that will be another $50. Entry to the Zambia side of the Falls is $20 and a $30 Visa fee when you return to the Zimbabwe side. The Falls themselves were disappointing because there was too much water flowing over them and the spray blocked the view and you get wet from the spray. It takes about two hours to walk to the end and back. There are some monkeys along the way for entertainment hahaha and a Cafe. I went on a 10 min helicopter ride over the falls and this was the best part of the trip, cost $160 last minute fare. This is the best way to appreciate them.
Lilongwe to Harare, Zimbabwe – short flight 1:15 hrs. While waiting in the Departure lounge I chatted to a guy sitting next to me, first time travelling out of India on a business trip and he said when he arrived in Lilongwe he was at the luggage belt and saw his suitcase coming around. Instead of waiting for it to come to him he put his backpack down and went to get it. During those couple of minutes someone opened his backpack and stole his travel wallet which had $2,800 and his yellow fever card. He went to the Police but they refused to register a complaint because he could not provide a receipt showing the source of the USD. The same guy was ahead of me and when we got to immigration where there is a security guard who checks your passport and he asked him for $’s to let him through, he said he had none, they did not try that with me. At the Gate we met another guy who had $300 stolen from his backpack while in transit from the Airport to his Hotel, it was in the back of the hotel shuttle. Zimbabwe Visa on Arrival for which you pay US$30 cash or credit card quite painless. SIM cards and ATM’s are availabe at the Harare Airport I bought an Econet SIM with 10GB for US$13. The Taxi App to use here is Rida cheap and plentiful or inDrive which has fewer cars.
Heading to Lilongwe Airport
Lilongwe Airport
Check-in
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Harare Airport
Zimbabwe currency – THEN
Zimbabwe currency – NOW
Harare – population 1.5 million, broad 4 lane streets mostly in good condition, cleaner and less crowded. The currency is the US$ though in April a new currency was introduced called the ZiG which was 9.5:1 then and now it is 14.5:1 US$. The previous currency got out of hand when they ran out of space to add zeroes after they got to Trillion dollar bills hahaha. The ATM’s dispense US$, I learnt this the hard way when I withdrew what I thought was $400 ZiG and it turned out to be US$400 with a US$15 ATM fee, the highest fee so far. I wanted a ZiG note as a souvenir and it took a lot of searching to find one, they are rare and only 10’s and 20’s have been printed so far. They have a Museum an Art Gallery, some nice Churches, an impressive Heroes Monument and a surprising shopping centre called Sam Levy’s Village where you mainly see the white population.
Lusaka to Lilongwe another short flight 1:10 hrs. I used the Yango app to call a taxi cost MWK 250 or US$10 which is half the price of the Airport taxis. There is an ATM at the Lilongwe airport but the maximum withdrawal was MWK 80,000 or US$45 and the Fee was 10,000 hahaha. The only time you need cash is for taxis otherwise you can use your card in most places. The Airport taxi into Lilongwe cost US$25 on the way back using the taxi driver I found on the EcoDrive app it cost 30,000 Kwacha or US$17 which according to the taxi driver is the standard fee.
Lusaka Airport
Lusaka Airport
Lusaka Airport
In the Air
Looks like a river
Lilongwe – population 989,318, not a tourist destination. The only interesting thing I found was the Lilongwe Wildlife Centre which is in the heart of town and is a very nice walk through the forest alongside a river. I did not see any wildlife hahaha not even a bird which was strange. The whole place is surrounded by an electric fence to prevent poaching.
Dar es Salaam to Lusaka is a two hour flight. Departure is from Terminal 3 which is new, with modern facilities, air-conditioned and clean but the clever security people are the same. My luggage was scanned at the entrance to the terminal and I was asked to open my suitcase, this has only ever happened to me in the Caribbean in the past hahaha. I have no idea if these people get any training or what sort of equipment they use or do they just want to have a stickbeak. Check-in and immigration only took a minute, no queues and efficient. Comfortable flight with Air Tanzania on a fairly new B737-MAX9. Landed at Lusaka, bus to the terminal which was also new, clean and air-conditioned, immigration only took a minute, no Visa fees, once again fast and efficient. There are 3 ATM’s at the terminal, my Mastercard only worked at the Zanaco Bank ATM no fees and a good exchange rate. Next door is an Airtel shop where I bought 6 GB data for ZMW 100 + 5 for the SIM card or US$4 in total. The recommended rideshare service here is called Yango and you can bargain with the driver on the app hahaha. I paid 350 Kwacha or US$14, a regular taxi was US$30, you need a local phone number to use the App. Good roads and clean on the way to my hotel. Checked-in, paid with my credit card and they said that Lusaka only has electricity for half the day or less and they only run their generator in the morning and evening and rooms start on the 4th floor with no Lift when the power is off hahaha. I told them I can not manage 4 flights of stairs so they agreed to cancel the booking but their terminal could not give me a credit so someone had to get cash from somewhere which took about an hour. I booked another hotel in the CBD that ran their generator automatically whenever there was no power as they should. This hotel only accepted Visa so make sure you have both Visa and Mastercard when travelling in Africa. The CBD is not the best area to stay in, too many people loitering, touts and beggars, crowded and there is nothing to see. Book a hotel close to one of the big Malls like Manda Hill Mall which is in a nice area and has everything and Yango is so cheap it will only cost you US$2 to go anywhere. Unexpectedly the people here speak English very well better than any of the previous African countries.
A word of caution, about US$200 in small bills was stolen from my backpack in my hotel room. First time this has happened in 16 years of travelling and 133 countries. It was cleverly done just before I left so I only noticed it after I landed in another country and was unpacking. Apparently this is not unusual in Africa.
Bujumburra to Dar es Salaam – Before you enter the airport you get wanded by Security, walk a bit further and a Passport check, enter the airport and luggage goes through a scanner had to take everything off, next Departure form check which I knew nothing about so the guy who could speak English got my phone and passport and filled in the form online and downloaded it, next the most primitive check-in ever, everything falling to bits but the girl was very helpful and let me look at her screen and choose my seat. No queues anywhere, next immigration, two guys ahead of me, took ages, photo, both thumb prints, and both hands fingerprints, and I am leaving the country did not have to do this when entering hahaha. Another Bombardier Dash 8 – Q400 with frayed seatbelts but plenty of legroom. We made a short stop at Kingoma to drop off and pickup some passengers. Walk down the stairs and a bus to the terminal. Slow processing at Immigration, staff are in no hurry to process passengers, one advantage to this is that your luggage is waiting for you when you get to the belt. Next to an ATM where I paid a US$6 fee and then to the Vodacom shop and bought a SIM 30 days 9 GB Data, TZS 25,000 or US$10. Uber is available in Tanzania but the drivers ask for cash and try to bargain with you, I just hang up and call another car. Cost from the airport to the CBD was US$8 and the regular taxi’s want US$25.
Bujumburra Airport
Inside the Dome, one Gate
Departure Lounge
In the air
Lake Tanganika
Dar es Salaam – population 5.5 million, rubbish everywhere, crowded, pot holed roads, no traffic rules, chaos in general hahaha.
Dar es Salaam to Zanzibar – I took the 07:00 ferry a 1:45 hour journey arriving at 09:45, early morning and the seas were calm. Buy your ticket online from Azam Ferries cost US$35 each way. I was at the ferry terminal before 06:00, do not get there early because they only open the gates at 06:00. You are supposed to be there an hour before the ferry departs but people were turning up at the last minute. Comfortable seats and plenty of legroom. I did not have any luggage which gets loaded seperately and is chaos at the other end when getting off the ferry. You have to queue (I use the term loosely, it’s a mob hahaha) at immigration to fill in a form so bring a pen and then get your passport stamped.
Too early
The Ferry
Departure Lounge
Inside the ferry
A bridge
Dhow
The other Ferry
Fishing
Fishing
Dhow
Boarding Bridge
Zanzibar Port
Zanzibar Port
Zanzibar City has a population of around 220,000. The main attraction is Stone town or the old city, many tourists, narrow streets, clean and a very nice place to visit. You can walk around everywhere. The most annoying thing about the place are the touts who follow you around and then ask for lunch money. Most of the attractions are closed so after two hours of walking around in hot and humid conditions I had lunch and waited for the return ferry at 16:00. The return ferry was packed being the last ferry of the day and the ride was rough, even I felt a little woozy, not nice.
I used the MOVE ride share app to get a taxi to the Kigali airport. The Move cars are only Volkswagen’s in much better condition than the regular taxis and the trip cost RWF18,000 or US$14. The hotel will call a regular taxi and it will cost you at least RWF25,000 or US$20. Well before you enter the airport there is a checkpoint where your luggage is scanned and sniffed by a dog and you are searched, I was the only car there, can’t imagine what it would be like if there was a crowd. After that it was plain sailing, Immigration only took a minute and Security had a whole body scanner, the first one I have seen in Africa, did not have to remove my laptop from my backpack or drink the water in my water bottle. There is also a currency exchange that has US$ where I changed the last of my Franc’s. Rwanda was a surprise, clean, organised, civilised with modern facilities. Short flight 28 minutes to Bujumburra.
Before you arrive in Burundi you must go online and fill in a form and print the Entry document, it is only valid for 30 days starting from the date of application. I had to do this twice because the first time was earlier than 30 days and it only tells you this on the Entry document after you have completed the application and it is in French. Anyway it is not a big problem because the whole process only takes a few minutes and Entry is granted with no fuss and no charge at this point. When you arrive at the airport you must go to a counter and show your Entry document, next to another counter and pay US$90 cash for the visa and get a receipt, then to a third counter where a full page Visa is stuck in your passport and a stamp on another page. Finally to a fourth counter where you have to connect to the Airport Wifi and go to a webpage where you fill in all your details again and you download an Entry permit and now you are free to enter Burundi hahaha. Next you baggage will be scanned and out of the airport, a ride into town costs US$20.
Heading out of Kigali
Kigali Airport
Rwanda
Rwanda
Bujumburra Airport
Bujumburra Airport
“One of the smallest countries in Africa, Burundi’s land is used mostly for subsistence agriculture and grazing. Deforestation, soil erosion, and habitat loss are major ecological concerns. As of 2005, the country was almost completely deforested. Less than 6% of its land was covered by trees, and over half of that being for commercial plantations.Burundi is the poorest country in the world by nominal GDP per capita, and is one of the least developed countries. It faces widespread poverty, corruption, instability, authoritarianism, and illiteracy.” – Wikipedia
Bujumburra on the shores of Lake Tanganika was flooded in parts due to a 2.5 meter rise in the water level of the Lake. Population 1.2 million, roads in poor condition, buildings dilapidated, no fridge magnets hahaha and nobody had heard of a Souvenir Shop. There were many UN Agencies and NGO’s, I had never heard of most of them, charity is big business here. Hotel prices are high because they are booked out by the UN and NGO’s. A restaurant will have 100 items on the menu but the only ones availabe will be Chicken and chips, Omelette, Pasta and Pizza hahaha.
Entebbe to Kigali another very short flight 36 min, while they may be short flights they still cost US$250, a bit like the Caribbean short expensive flights. This time bus to the aircraft and walk to the terminal when we landed, at least it wasn’t raining. Immigration was slow again but I was processed in 2 minutes and being from a Commonwealth country it was free. There is an MTN phone shop just outside Arrivals where we wasted 30 minutes trying to get a faulty SIM card to work, some of these people don’t know what they are doing. Withdrew some cash from the ATM next door, there are 2, choose Ecobank, lower fees. The taxi driver (organised in advance US$20) stopped at an Airtel shop a bit further on and I got my SIM card there RWF 5000 or US$4 for 2GB per day and unlimited calls and SMS valid for a month, started working immediately and no problems for the duration of my stay.
Heading for Entebbe, rush hour traffic going into the city
Enter Entebbe
Duty Free
Rain
Inside
Lake Victoria
Lake
Rwandaa
Rwanda
Rwanda
Dirt roads
Russian Mil Mi-24 helicopters
Rwandair
Kigali
Stadium
Arena
A hard earned thirst
The local drop
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Kigali – The first thing I noticed was how clean everything was and how good the roads were. The backroads are dirt and a mess but the paved roads are in good condition and well maintained. There actually are pedestrian crossings and cars stop for pedestrians, very civilised, not much traffic compared to Nairobi and Kampala. Population is only 1.3 million. The people here are significantly smaller than the people in Kenya and Nairobi. The roads do not have names only Letters and Numbers.
In April 1994 Rwanda’s President Juvénal Habyarimana was killed when his aircraft was shot down near Kigali. His death was followed by the Rwandan genocide, with Hutu extremists loyal to the interim government killing 500,000 to a million Tutsi, moderate Hutu and other tribes in 3 months. The Rawandan Patriotic Front gradually took control of most of the country and seized Kigali on 4 July 1994 putting an end to the Genocide.
Belgian Peacekeepers Memorial
Memorial
The Last Stand
10 pillars, one for each Peacekeeper
Betrayed and Killed
The Legend
History
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Clean and no traffic
Moto taxis
Imbuga City Walk, Car free zone
African food
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Mango juice
Boyilo
Cold but not chocolate
The Sign
Kandt House Museum – the history of Rwanda written on boards with photos, very interesting.
Olympic Record
An Expedition caravan of 3000 people
There is no Uber here so I used Moto taxis, there are thousands of them and the riders must carry a helmet for their passenger, cost less than a US$1 for a ride. If it rains you get wet as I did once hahaha. Some of the bikes are electric and there are Battery Exchange Stations when you need a refill. There is an Uber like app called Move with very few cars. This is a city of steep hills and walking anywhere gave my dodgy knee a workout. Hotel Rwanda, watch the film. The Genocide Memorial is a park with mass graves. The Campaign Against Genocide Museum, no photos allowed, nothing much in there anyway, boards with photos and words.
Nairobi to Entebbe Airport which is the airport for Kampala, Embraer 190 small aircraft and a 35 min flight. No boarding bridge here, walk down the stairs and then walk to the terminal. There have been a number of films made about the Israeli raid on Entebbe airport to rescue hostages in 1976.
Nairobi Freeway
Enter the Airport
Waiting
Boarding
In the air
Lake Victoria
Landed Entebbe Airport
Airtel Money – A bank
CJ’s a good place to eat
The Menu
Kampala – Capital of Uganda with an estimated population of 4 to 7 million people hahaha estimates vary and it is growing. It is part of the Buganda Kingdom which has a King and it’s own Parliament that is separate from but comes under the Uganda Parliament. The King is only King of Buganda not the whole of Uganda. It is packed with people and Boda Boda’s (motorcycle taxis). I was given the same warnings as Nairobi but people also said it’s not as bad as Nairobi, you still don’t see anyone using their phone in public. They have Uber, a little more expensive than Nairobi but still the most convenient way to get around. I did not try the Boda’s, still getting used to the idea hahaha.
Idi Amin ruled as President from 1971 to 1979 a brutal despot who killed upto half a million of his people. The victims were members of other ethnic groups, religious leaders, journalists, artists, senior bureaucrats, judges, lawyers, intellectuals, foreign nationals and anyone he felt like killing.
The Uganda Museum, interesting and in need of some TLC.
Uganda Museum
Uganda Museum
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Banana Beer
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Jinja on the banks of Lake Victoria is the source of the Nile River. I hired a car and driver and it took 2.5 hours to drive the 80 km, cost UGX 300,000 or US$80.
Breakfast
Boda Boda’s
Shiva Temple
A bit of freeway
Stadium
Trucks coming from Kenya
Source of the Nile
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Speke
Is it or is it not the Source
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Speke Memorial
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Fishermen
From here to Egypt
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Bridge over the River Nile
Sugarcane
Good roads
Flat tyre
Nice
Brewed in Uganda
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Buganda Palace which also has Idi Amin’s torture chambers on the grounds, the Royal Mile a very nice walk and at the other end the Parliament of Buganda. The Royal Mile is lined with sculptures of animals which are the totems of the various tribes of the Buganda Kingdom. From there I walked to the Gadaffi mosque, being Friday it was packed and I could not go inside.
Buganda
The Palace
Idi Amin Canon
Torture Chambers
Torture Chambers
500,000 killed by Idi Amin
Bark Cloth
Bark Cloth
Bark Cloth Art
The Palace Gates
The Royal Mile
The Tribal Totems
The Tribal Totems
The Tribal Totems
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Buganda Parliament
Buganda Parliament
The KIng
Tribal leaders visit the King
Tribal leaders visit the King
Buganda Parliament
The Royal Mile from the other end
The old King
Buganda Parliament
Buganda Parliament
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In need of TLC
The Gadaffi Mosque
Promenade
Boda Boda’s
Pizza
Independence Monument and the Uganda Parliament.
Independence Monument
Homeless
Independence Monument
Independence Monument
The First President
Big Boy
Wedding in Progress
Impala
Kampala
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Uganda Parliament
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Between 1885 and 1887 Mwanga II, the Kabaka (King) of Buganda ordered many Christians to be burnt at the Stake. A church has been built on the site in Namugongo. Once again I hired a car and driver for the trip there and back on a Sunday cost UGX 100,000 or US$26.
