It's the End of the Year 2023 – Our Overland Roundup October-December 2023 and Other Thoughts
It’s end of December now and looking back for the last months we suddenly feel like: “Where the time has gone?”. It's been a bit of a whirlwind, and then some downtime, but many great experiences.
So, it’s almost the end of another year. It’s Christmas now, and we’re writing you this from Zambia.
We’ve had so many things happening during the recent months, and as it’s almost a New Year, we thought to write a little roundup and some thoughts reflecting the year past, and on the year ahead of us.
This turned out to be a long post, that will probably be cut out in your email, so be sure to click it, open it in your browser, and read it thoroughly in full.
However, first and most important: we want to wish all our readers and subscribers a Fantastic and Happy Christmas and Amazing New Year 2024!! 💫 🎄
Then let’s get started! :)
October in Zimbabwe and Zambia
Our October was full of traveling around Zimbabwe and Zambia. Looking back to it now, it was a pretty exhausting month, too, even though we spent several days in one location at a time.
But it still was a handful. Let alone, our time in Mana Pools was so eventful that even though it was magnificent, it also took a toll on our energy.
Sometimes, after a bit more hectic period of traveling around, being in many different places, and having many experiences, you suddenly realize you are pretty tired.
Then, you just have to take it more slowly for a while and gather back that energy and strength. And after we made the sudden change of plans and crossed the border of Zimbabwe to Zambia on the 18th of October, we have taken things more slowly – and it has been fantastic!
By the way, we will write separate, longer stories about all these places mentioned in this post later, but here is a quick “skeleton route” we’ve taken so far during October, November, and December.
Enjoying Wild Camping Near South Luangwa and Other Treats of Zambia
In Zambia, we first spent almost a week on a nice, relaxed campsite right across the border in Chirundu, where a resident hippo called “Socks” visited us daily.
He was quite a character, wandered around the campsite every day grazing and not minding much about us humans around. He was still wild, though. So, keeping an eye on him when he was nearby was always necessary.
Then, when we were in Lusaka for a few days, we did a bit of maintenance for our car, HB the Defender, and some other work we had neglected recently. Staying in Lusaka is never exactly a treat, as we tend to dislike big cities, but luckily, we got to stay in one nice place already familiar to us from our recent visits, so it made the time more bearable.
Then, we spent the rest of October and early November mostly in and near one of our favorite national parks in Africa: South Luangwa.
We also spent several days wild camping along the fantastic Luangwa River, where we could watch elephants crossing the dry riverbed every day, along with impalas, baboons, and warthogs grazing by.
The elephants were plentiful there as the National Park was right on the other side of the river.
A herd of elephants also visited our campsite many times, mainly after dark or very early in the morning, when we were still in the tent just waking up, and we could hear them cutting branches just a few meters from us.
Then we just listened to them browse, and when the herd had moved on, we emerged from the tent to have our breakfast at the Rivershore.
We spent days sitting, writing, reading, and watching the animals live peaceful lives nearby. We just co-existed with the surrounding wild nature and were an integral part of it. And we loved every second of it!
We also had a leopard living nearby, as on many mornings, we saw his/her tracks around the area of our camp. And then, late one evening, we noticed that she/he watched us from a tree afar with eyes gleaming in the beam of our flashlight. It was an exhilarating moment, yet even a bit uneasy.
But we still never saw her/him. Elusive leopard, as they are.
From South Luangwa, we drove back to Chipata for one night before crossing the border to Malawi.
November and Early December Around Malawi
We were so excited to be able to visit Malawi finally! It was on our list already before COVID came in early 2020, and after that, there were all the border closure aftermaths and hassles, and we never really were in the area at the right time.
The worst rainy season in Malawi usually occurs in December/January-March, and as we don’t particularly love driving in the mud, we’ve skipped it.
But now it was still a good time to go to Malawi, so off we went.
And Malawi was a great country!
At first sight, we weren’t so fascinated by the vast amounts of people everywhere and the small number of wild animals and/or unfarmed lands.
But after spending about 1,5 months in Malawi, we grew to significantly like this country. And we started to understand why so many people rave about this little country and absolutely love it.
The beautiful Lake Malawi certainly is not the most minor reason for all the hype. ;) We spent the “lion’s share” of our time in Malawi at the lake, too.
A snorkeling trip to the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Lake Malawi National Park was one of our highlights!
Swimming amidst the hundreds of multi-colored, different-sized fish who came very close to us in the water was amazing and relaxing.
But also, Malawian people are extremely friendly, helpful, and easy-going folk.
We found a fantastic little campsite called Chembe Eagles Nest right at the lake shore where we could sit and watch the lake waving quietly beside us while working on our laptops – or doing nothing at all.
This was precisely the “quiet” downtime we had yearned for! And it worked wonders to our energy levels and recuperation after our hectic times.
Not Boring Moments, Though
However, as our lives as full-time overlanders is not without surprise twists and turns, we’ve also had a few incidents recently.
When we were driving to Cape Maclear and stopped to refuel at a local gas station, HB the Defender suddenly didn’t start anymore!
We had had a few intermittent starting problems already before Mana Pools in Zimbabwe, but after that, nothing out of the ordinary in weeks, and then suddenly – BOOM: no start!
Fortunately, locating a possible culprit was not so difficult as with Defenders; it’s often the starter relay and/or the ignition switch.
A friendly local man called a mechanic who soon came with moto taxi, and together, we diagnosed the imminent problem: the starter relay didn’t work.
Then, off he went to Monkey Bay to try to find a new one but returned with the repaired old one (and he even showed what was off and how it was repaired; we are a bit smarter again).
He put the fixed relay back, and Honey Badger sprang back to life like nothing had happened!
Then we drove off to Cape Maclear, and the mechanic came with us, too. There, he also cleaned our ignition switch, the connectors of which were a bit dirty. Since then, we’ve had no starting problems at all. We went to Liwonde and Majete and came back to the Lake Malawi. All good. 👍
However, we changed a new ignition switch when we drove through Lilongwe again and kept the old one as a spare. The repaired starter relay is still there, but we have a spare for that, too. To be on the safe side, you know.
But Overlander life is never uneventful, we can say that. ;)
But then again, if there’s a problem, there’s always a solution. So, no need to ever worry too much. Things will be fine.
Visits to Liwonde National Park and Majete Wildlife Reserve
As mentioned, we also visited the two most important National Parks of Malawi, Liwonde and Majete. It’s almost hard to say which one we liked more, but maybe Liwonde takes that spot by being more prominent and more exciting landscape-wise.
Majete Wildlife Reserve was very bushy this time of year, so it was harder to spot wildlife. Also, the area where you could drive (and where it made sense to drive) was relatively small. So, driving back and forth on the same tracks gets a bit boring after a day or two. But the tracks going along the Shire River were beautiful, nonetheless.
Both these parks have made remarkable comebacks in a few decades from the brink of environmental disasters with virtually no wildlife left to the wildlife havens they are today with the help of African Parks. They have done stunning work in reviving these parks back to life!
We always got positive replies when we asked local people what they think about African Parks and their work. It's not such a wonder, as they also do a lot of good community work. And it shows its strength in many ways (i.e., decreased poaching, schools built, jobs created for local communities, etc.).
African Parks may be criticized about many things by some people, but they have certainly made a lot of things right in rewilding Africa… It was great to see in practice.
Driving the Extra Miles to Visit the Amazing Nyika Plateau
After our above National Park visits, we spent another five nights at Lake Malawi at the same fantastic spot in Cape Maclear and then continued driving further north on its shore.
We pondered a lot whether to drive north still to visit the NyiKa Plateau – a UNESCO World Heritage Site, too. It was a long drive of more than 700 kilometers to get there and back down again to the border of Lundazi between Malawi and Zambia, but we are so glad we did it!
We even spent a night in the Vwaza Marsh Wildlife reserve on the way.
Nyika National Park was absolutely amazing place! We only wished that we would have had more than two nights to spend there.
We will go back there someday, we’re sure. It was wildly different than any other place in Malawi! It was just stunning with its vast plains, clean and crisp air, blooming orchids, roan antelopes (and many other species!), pine forests, etc.
The road to Nyika Plateau (M9) was more like a track for the most part, even needed the low-range gears in a few spots, but it was worth it nonetheless.
After visiting Nyika, we drove back South, and then said goodbye to Malawi and crossed back to Zambia, where we are now spending Christmas in Kapishya Hot Springs (one of our old favorite places in this country).
And now, it’s time to reflect on the past year. We’ve had many great experiences, and we’ve been able to visit many new places. We’re so happy about it. We are also incredibly grateful for everything we’ve experienced this past year. Yes, also for the unfortunate experiences, as they taught us new things and strengthened us.
We love our life, all our dear friends and family, and everyone with whom we’ve shared these experiences this year. You know who you all are. ;)
Again, we wish you a great end of the year and amazing Christmas & holiday times! 💫
May you be happy and peaceful with your loved ones. And remember that being present is sometimes the best gift you can give. It’s not about things, after all.
…Being present is something that we have sacrificed for our Overlander lifestyle, as we usually won’t be there with our families during these holidays, and sometimes it feels a bit hard. But you have to live with your choices. And we are happy with the choices we’ve made.
And we can spend time with our dear families when the Borealis summertime returns.
Be it winter or summer where you are, enjoy this special season! ❤️
….And because Santa Claus/Father Christmas lives in Finland, we couldn’t resist that GIF. Sorry ;D
Stay Wild & Adventurous & Love Your Life,