Chad
It is your trip and if you feel that diluted experience is better than none, well go for it. We are all different and have different preferences, so of course the ultimate decision is yours, regardless of what I say.
That said, I would add few pointers:
- Comparison to USA: it is much easier to drive in US than on the roads of Africa - most of your route is tar, which also means a lot of chaotic local traffic, and possiblility of accident. But more importantly within a month (which really is not enough for me) you are going to cross what - 8 - 9 african border crossings with all attendant hassle (I never had to pay any bribe unlike some, but I had to spend a lot of time on some of them). Which means a border crossing every three days - sometimes even every other day. That gets old very quickly and can leave your trip with very sour taste. A lot of criticism of Africa and it 'corruption' comes from people who rush through and all they remember are unpleasant officials on the borders. If you spent in each country few weeks or month (I know that is not possible for you but just as an example), it is much easier to swallow once in a while a day of hassle.
- USA is much less diverse than Africa. Basically any east west travelling is much less diverse (and hence require less time to savour) than north - south, where the diversity of weather, enviroment and races is much more. If you have seen the series of Evan and Charlie, the Long Way Round, while laughable sometimes, was quite good IMO and the time frame for the show was all right to cover diversity of Russia, Mongolia, Canada and USA (which with exception of Mongolia are more or less the same country culturaly and ethnically considered from African context). If you have seen Long Way Down, it was utter rubbish as far as I am concerned. They didn't even have one installment per country and each country is brutally different from another (I assure you that Ethiopia is very different from Kenya or Egypt). To cover north west trip properly they would need much more space - leaving aside their silly worries about security and rushed trip down.
I understand your objective is Kenya (and that you will some stuff there after the trip). With that and your timeframe in mind, I would skip Uganda and Rwanda (you have planned like 3 days for both of those - you will be lucky to survive such an intense riding in Uganda where they drive like crazy - just crossing Kampala is probably half a day). And rather focus on the highlights along the way and stay in places. I would skip Monkey Bay (unless you are going to stay there) and definitely explore area in Tanzania around lake Natron and Oldonyio Lengai (see my African report) if you have time left (you can jump accross the border to Kenya if you run out of time). Also South Luangwa (I would recommend FLat Dogs) is a must as far as I'm concerned. If you feel really tough you should try to get there via shortcut from Petauke. I had lepards jumping three meters from me in the elephant grass there and encountered many giraffes and such. It will also shorten somewhat extremely boring and potholed route from Lusaka up.
Other - completely different option (which I did) would be in Malawi to go to Monkey Bay, and then cross to northern Mozambique, visit Isla de Mozambique and take road north through Pemba and into southern Tanzania, and from there up to Dar (which is a shithole, but I understand that you are hell bent on Zanzibar). This is very remote area where lions kill hundreds of people every year, so proper wilderness. This will give you nice contrast to the inner Africa in Bots, Zam and Malawi.
Here are some pictures from that area:
MOnkey Bay and surrounds:
Isla de Mozambique:
Northern Moz/ souther Tan:
Topic: Cape to Kenya final route advice (Read 6494 times)
