On a sombre Garden Route morning Frank Carlisle and I climbed aboard his Land Cruiser for the long haul to southwestern Zambia.
The expedition began in my driveway next to the Western Cape’s somewhat tame Wilderness National Park. But we were heading for the deep wilderness of the Barotseland’s Liuwa Plain National Park. Along the way we would pass through Botswana’s endless woodlands, the Caprivi strip and Zambia’s boggy floodplains.
We would cross the mighty Zambezi several times, traverse uncharted roads, witness Africa’s second-largest wildebeest migration (after the Serengeti) and then return home, hopefully in time for tea.
And with Frank, owner of Bhejane 4x4 Adventures, as our experienced nature conservationist and adventure guide, we were primed for our 10-day Zambia adventure.
“It should be about two weeks and 6 000 km all in,” said Frank “and some of it will be hard driving. But that’s half the fun, right?”

There are enough stories going around about the vast grasslands of Zambia’s Liuwa Plain National Park on the upper Zambezi – stories of huge skies, brooding storms, and wildebeest herds stretching from one horizon to the other. But very few people have actually been there.
And that’s because the roads leading into the park traverse the 10 750 km² Barotse Floodplain, a difficult place to cross when it’s dry and an impossible place to cross when it’s wet.
One of the oldest conservation areas in Africa, the Liuwa Plain was declared a royal game reserve in the 19th century by King Lubosi Lewanika. Legend has it that he was an omnipotent ruler who appointed his Lozi people to be gamekeepers and custodians of the land.
Sadly though, during the 1980s and 1990s, the king’s legacy was whittled away by illegal trophy hunters and poachers until the park stood almost empty.
But then, in 2003, the Africa Parks Network (a conservation organisation), the Barotse Royal Establishment and the Zambian Government joined forces to put things back in order.
Now there are more than 46 000 wildebeest, 6 000 zebra, 2 000 tsessebe and 1 000 lechwe in the park, as well as a growing population of lion, cheetah, buffalo, eland and wild dog.

Chilling on the Chobe
PRETORIA TO KASANE – 1 150 KM

Did you know that a group of crocodiles is known as a “float”?
This morning our river guide enlightened us to the fact when we found one tearing apart a big bloated buffalo.
The smell quite put us off our breakfast, but the rest of our tour down the Chobe River from Kasane in Botswana was like a dream.
We saw large assemblages of hippopotamuses (called “bloats”) as well as buffalo (“obstinacies”) and waterbuck (just plane old “herds”), all of which were grazing upon floodplain grasses on the borders of no less than four countries.
Within half an hour you can visit Namibia, Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe by boat, and you won’t even need a passport.
Yesterday Frank and I left Pretoria’s purple pavements behind and headed up the N1 to the Martin’s Drift border crossing into Botswana and then continued northwards to the little town of Kasane on the fringes of Chobe National Park.
After more than 1 100 km we witnessed elephants stripping branches off trees in the high street and warthogs lazing around a golf course.
After sunset, we settled down to the sounds of grunting hippos and squeaking fruit bats, with thunder rumbling in the distance.
Later, the peace in our little campground on the banks of the Chobe River was disturbed by 11 large 4x4s and 22 very excited people, all of whom had booked onto Frank’s self-drive safari to Liuwa Plain.
The real fun had started.

Yes sir, no sir, three bags full, sir
KASANE TO SIOMA LODGE − 256 KM

In a circle eating our porridge the next morning, Frank explained that we were navigating four border checks during the day.
“But don’t worry,” he said, “I have a foolproof system when it comes to border officials that consists of three simple phrases: “Yes sir!”, “No sir!”, “Three bags full sir!”
On the first leg along the Chobe National Park road we dodged elephants and potholes until we reached the Ngoma border post at Namibia’s Caprivi strip.
Here we commenced to smiling and saying “Yes sir, no sir, three bags full, sir” and within no time at all, we were on our way again.
The 77 km tar road journey across the tip of the Caprivi to Katima Mulilo near the Zambian border is a quiet and pretty affair, with quaint villages and ghostly pale terminalia woodlands along the way.
The Wenela border crossing into Zambia was chaotic and confusing, but Frank’s mantra worked wonders yet again.
Within a few minutes we were back on the road and finally on our way to Liuwa.

In places, the M10 track was soft and sandy and in places rocky and bumpy. It had more potholes than a back road in Mpumalanga, and enough dust to make the Free State envious.
So we progressed like an elderly snail, but I’m not complaining, since most of the 100 km road to our destination, Sioma Lodge, ran on the banks of the magnificent Zambezi. We were slowly gliding in and out of woodlands with countless shades of green and pretty groves of mango trees.
Smiling people waved at us out of thatched rondavels and dogs snapped at our wheels.
That evening, I made my excuses from a jolly fireside and went to sit alone beside the Zambezi surrounded by the hoots of owls and the whistles of nightjars.
A full moon rose from the river, lightning flickered on the horizon, and I wanted to stay forever.
Eventually, a gentle warm rain forced me back to my tent, where I slept soundly to the distant rumble of thunder and the croaking of thousands of frogs.