12th April 1986 : Natural Wonder
Crack of dawn breakfast before we headed to the Zimbabwe border post.
Let me introduce myself so you're not embarking on this nostalgic journey with a total stranger.
I'm Melanie Ball, a university science degree drop-out, widely published travel writer (an accidental career borne of my African journey), author of three bushwalking guidebooks (Top Walks in Victoria, Top Walks in Tasmania & Top Walks in Australia), and hat decorator under the name Appliquez Moi. (That's me with the sun-bleached hair and west African fabric sarong. I don't know the baby chimp's name because we weren't formally introduced.)
From infancy my parents read to me and my sisters — C.S. Lewis’s Narnia series on long drives to Queensland for summer holidays, Paddington Bear in bed with Mum on Sunday mornings— and encouraged us to read to escape, to learn, to laugh. No book was off limits and all three of us are life-long voracious readers.
Two very different books profoundly influenced the teenaged me: Wilbur Smith’s When The Lion Feeds, the first of his multiple adventure novels set (mostly) in colonial southern Africa, and Jane Goodall’s In The Shadow of Man, detailing her ground-breaking study of wild chimpanzees in Tanzania. (Jane Goodall's recent death, in her sleep, aged 91, while on a talking tour, made me sad but also made me re-examine, remember and celebrate the extraordinary life and works of the woman who David Attenborough called "the conscience of conservation".) Together and separately, those two books ignited in me a romantic fascination for Africa and determination to go there, a dream that I finally realised at the age of 26, when I joined an Exodus Expeditions London to Johannesburg overland adventure. I had reached London by overlanding with Exodus from Kathmandu to London (11 weeks of ups - close encounters with rhinoceroses in Nepal, sunrise on the Taj Mahal, the wonders of Istanbul - and lows - five weeks of Delhi Belly that, surprisingly but thankfully, left me with an iron gut), and explored Egypt for several weeks, but my 17 months away from home were predominantly about finally experiencing the extraordinary continent that is Africa.
When my passport (containing multiple visas) was stolen from my daypack on the London Tube the day before the tour departed, my dream was all but dashed. But the passport was newly issued in London and, faced with my near-hysterics, the efficient and compassionate Australian Embassy staff issued me a new passport in one hour!
And so, the adventure of my life began.
P.S. I have edited excerpts for poor grammar and to protect the innocent and the guilty.
P.P.S. Most photos in this blog are scans of prints - and I didn't take many before reaching Morocco.
10th April 1986 : Neither African Nor Western
Into town after breakfast to buy stores with Nikki - I bought a delicious red apple (had almost forgotten what they taste like) - and search for fabrics, Kelvin explained that our new itinerary would take us straight to Victoria Falls and then give us more time in Chobe National Park in Botswana.
9th April 1986 : Pizza and Port
Into Lusaka early for four hours of discovering the city's highlights: 8 letters waiting for me at the post office for 8 letters! Jim and Kel’s attempt to get a black-market rate of 9.4 Zambian Kwacha for one US$1 nearly landed them in the drink, escaping more serious consequences than police questioning in a back room only through bluff and bluster.
8th April 1986 : Continuing Down the Hell Run
More of the same. Lots of reading and Scrabble. Changed money pre-lunch in a town with one line of shops, a Barclays Bank, and a huge selection of bread – looking good. Lunched in a narrow roadway between tall grasses. Enjoyed a late afternoon beer stop in a town sporting a huge, brand new insurance building.
7th April 1986 : All Zipped Up
Long breakfast, with Per trying to fry the potatoes in diesel rather than oil for added excitement and new flavours - the containers were dangerously similar! First light revealed we’d camped right beside the stream in which we’d had our group entertainment and educational wash days before.
6th April 1986 : Friendly Borders and Friendly Thieves
Long breakfast, with Per trying to fry the potatoes in diesel rather than oil for added excitement and new flavours - the containers were dangerously similar! First light revealed we’d camped right beside the stream in which we’d had our group entertainment and educational wash days before.
5th April 1986 : Backtracking
At 1.30am the heavens opened with a roar of water. I scrambled half-naked around the truck dropping the sides before crawling back under my net to listen to the deluge, which continued non-stop the rest of the night. We breakfasted under a broken sky, patches of blue finally stopping the rain at 10.30am.
4th April 1986 : Forgery at Another Border
Our day started in drizzle, so we were all gathered in the back of the truck ready to go when we discovered that most of our cholera certificates, required to enter Malawi, were out of date. Determined not to go through another border inoculation - this time on masse - we embarked on a mass forgery operation with Nikki made Dr McClare MD for the day, because Vicki was now safely back in England being a real doctor. Using rubbers (erasers), razor blades, various blue biros, Kel’s date stamp and a stamp fashioned from an Algerian coin we validated all our certificates.
3rd April 1986 : Sunset and Soccer
We all slept in, waking to a very cold morning.
2nd April 1986 : Starry, Starry Night
Twelve empty wine bottles under the kitchen table told the story of last night's party, as did the bleary eyes watching breakfast preparations.
1st April 1986 : Maasai Market
Early start, with Kel changing the tyres over again but still unable to pinpoint the leak in the tube.
31st March 1986 : Marching and Dancing On
Woke to a grey morning, the mist in a moist layer seemingly inches above the truck and threatening to dampen our breakfast. We ate to a wonderful dawn chorus that sounded like rain on the tarpaulin before we started to identify different bird calls.