In Lusaka we stayed at a camp ground that had giraffes and zebra walking around! We had to stay there while Daddy took the car to a mechanic. I made some friends and learnt how to play a Swedish game called Kubb. It was really fun. We had two teams and had to knock 5 wooden blocks down, by throwing sticks. Then you had to knock the king stick down in the centre.

Then we went back to Wanderers Campsite in the centre of town. There were two others staying there that we had met overlanding before! (A Kiwi in Namibia and a Swiss family in Lesotho). Because Daddy was doing more car stuff I made a 4 wheel drive campervan for my toys. It had plastic bottle lids for wheels (thank you Michael!) It had a toilet, a sofa bed and I made cushions out of felt and a kitchen. I even had sand mats. We made a 4 wheel drive trail with mud, sand, a rocky pass and a bridge.

After Wanderers we went to the Lower Zambezi National Park. We stayed at a really pretty lodge right on the river. On the other side we could see Zimbabwe! Daddy tried to catch a tiger fish.

One day we went into the park. On the way in Mummy spotted a civet, a type of cat. The first thing we saw in the park where two big lions. They were fast asleep by the road and had really big tummies. Then we saw two more lions, and these ones were awake!

In the park we saw a jackal, impala, water buck, buffalo, monkeys, hippos, crocodiles,  mongoose and lots of different birds.

And we saw lots and lots of elephants. Often the elephants were on the road and we had to wait for them to move to get past. One young boy elephant flapped his ears at us and started to chase us.  We drove away quickly, and went round the corner to find more elephants! A mother with a baby elephant was also a bit agressive and flapped her ears. It was a bit scary.

Then when we were leaving the park, there was a tree that had fallen over the road and there were 4 elephants eating the bark. It was getting dark so Daddy had to find another way back to our campsite. And at our campsite there were more elephants!

Then, when we left the campsite to go to Livingstone, there were more elephants on the road out!  One elephant ran across the road in front of us really fast.

We have had enough of elephants.

M: Where did we go next?

E: We went up a windy road to a place called Livingstonia. It was settled by Scottish missionaries. We went to a church with a stained glass window of Dr. Livingstone. Then we went up the bell tower, but it was a bit scary as Daddy said he nearly fell through because of the dry rot. We bought a globe made of ebony and in the middle is a secret compartment!

E: Then we went to Lukwe farm campsite. It was an eco camp, so when you went to the toilet you had to cover it with ash and leaves. We also saw a really big moth, and it’s wings looked exactly like leaves! We went to Manchewe Falls, but we could only stand at the top of them and lots of people tried to follow us.

E: Then we went to Vwasa National Park. There were lots of flies in the car – horseflies, which bite. We saw lots of elephants though. We stayed in a little house with a mosquito net over our bed. We saw a crocodile and there were lots and lots of hippos. We could hear them grunting! Vivi had her favourite dinner – pesto pasta!

M: Why did Genevieve have pesto pasta?

E: Because Genevieve turned 6!! I made her a card with a unicorn on it, and I gave her a heart shaped bag with sequins that change colour. She got a new barbie doll, and some colouring books and some reading books. She also got a fish mouth game where you press a button and try and get some rings on a hook.

E: Then we went to Nkhata Bay.  They made Vivi a birthday cake with real candles on it. Daddy went diving, and we went swimming in the pool. When Daddy finished diving we ate all the popcorn!

M: After that we stayed at Cool Runnings for a night, then went to Majete National Park. What was that like?

E: I loved Majete. It reminded us of Burnham Beeches. It was next to the Shire River.  We saw a waterfall and a dam. We saw more hippos and crocodiles. We saw, zebra, giraffe and a hyena. We saw lots of impala and water buck. We went and sat at a hide for an hour and we saw elephants come and drink. I took lots of photos.

E: Then we went to the Zomba Plateau. It was a good view and we stayed on a trout farm, through Daddy wasn’t allowed to go fishing. We had a big campfire.

M: Then we went to another national park, called Liwonde.

E: Yes – we were hoping to see some black rhino, but we didn’t see any. We saw lots of antelope, but everything was near the river and hard to see. We did learn to play Bau, a game with a board with 32 holes and 64 seeds. And there was a good pool.

M: After that we went back to Lake Malawi, to Monkey Bay.

E: Yes – we went swimming and found lots of snail shells! There where cool mosaics in the toilets. I cut my finger though.

E: Then we went back to Nkhata Bay. Daddy did an advanced diving course, and he took my barbie doll with him! It was really fun, we went kayaking on the lake and we went swimming and saw lots of fish.

M: Why did Daddy take photos of your doll?

E: I am writing a book called ‘The Adventures of Overlanding Barbie’. It is really good, I have taken photos of her all around Nkhata Bay!

M: After that we went to Cool Runnings Campsite. Can you remember one of the good things they were doing there?

E: Ohh. They do a swap shop. Kids bring in plastic rubbish, and it gets weighed, then they swap it for clothes, footballs, and toys. It is a good idea, there is a lot of rubbish. Especially little blue plastic bags – they call them the rose of Malawi.

M: Then we went back to Floja, what was that like?

E: We went back to Floja when the preschool was running. I helped you make lots of finger puppets to give to the children to play with. The preschool was like a real school. The children did lessons and learnt numbers, and letters and shapes. They wrote on a blackboard with chalk and I had a go too. They had a really cool playground, with swings, seesaw and merry go round. And the best was a zip wire!

M: What happened when we were leaving Malawi?

E: We went back to Shoprite in Mzuzu and there was a protest. Lots of people were on the street and we got locked in the carpark. Some of the guards had guns. There was loud music, but we realised we could sneak out the back way, then we went back to Zambia.

M: Did you like Malawi?

E: Yes, I liked swimming in the lake, but it isn’t my favourite country.

M: When is ‘The Adventures of Overlanding Barbie’ coming out?

Eleanor has gone, jumped back in the pool….

We also could try some basket weaving. It was fun, you had to wrap some plastic, (or specially dyed sisal) around a special grass. After a while the needle hurt my fingers. We bought a bowl, but we aren’t sure if we can take it back to New Zealand.

The next day we drove to Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. We went to a supermarket there. The cars were crazy on the road. And there were lots of bicycles. We went to the Genocide Memorial Museum. Mummy and Daddy took turns to go in. 25 years ago the Hutu tribe tried to kill all of the Tutsi tribe. A lot of people were killed.

After Kigali we went to Lake Kivu. It was really pretty, but I nearly fell in the lake. We had dinner there, and I had pizza!

Then we drove through the Nyungwe Forest Park. There were lots of soldiers standing at the side. We saw a few monkeys. Then we stayed at an ecocentre. I liked the hammock with the view over the tea plantation and the valley.

Then we drove to Tanzania.

Then we headed to the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. On the way we stopped at a place where they make sculptures out of bronze. We had a drink, but it was very ‘pole pole’. That means slowly, slowly in Swahili. The guy explained how they made the sculptures. First they carve the shape out of wood or clay. Then they  cover it with wax. Then the cover the wax with ceramics and fire it. That melts the wax leaving a hollow which they pour the bronze in. My favourite sculpture was a squirrel. It was part of a set of clan totems. He told us that there were about 57 different clans. When you were in a clan you had to protect its totem, and you weren’t allowed to eat it. If you got married then you had to protect your wife or husbands’ totem too.

After that we drove to the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. Mummy really wanted to see the gorillas, but they didn’t have any spaces. Genevieve and I were too little.  Mummy said we would have to come back to Uganda one day!  We learnt about Gorilla’s at the information centre. Did you know:

• They are the strongest mammal.
• The senior males are called silverbacks.
• They live in a group called a troop.
• They eat mainly leaves, but sometimes ants,
• They don’t have tails, like monkeys.
• They build nests to sleep in.

Daddy did some more work on the car. Mummy, Genevieve and I went to meet some kids at an afterschool club. They sang some songs, did some drumming and some dancing. Then they showed us their art work. Some were really good. We bought a little picture of a gorilla.

The next day we drove through the Impenetrable Forest. It was very beautiful. We saw lots of colobus monkeys at the side of the road. It was a real jungle. But all around the park is farm land, even on really steep hills. We also saw a dusty gypsum mine and children were working, chipping away rocks. They didn’t have any masks to wear.

The last place we stayed was at Lake Mutanda. A man let us pull up his fishing net, and throw it back in the lake. Then he made us some fishing rods out of sticks and string. He put a little worm on the end for me. I didn’t catch anything though.  In the morning, the car had sunk into the soft ground, but it was no problem to get out.

The next day we went to Rwanda.

I did some research on the Nile River. It is the longest river in the world, (6,695 km) and goes through 10 countries. It ends up in Egypt, in the Mediterranean Sea. It comes from the White Nile, which is made up of the Victoria Nile, the Albert Nile and the Mountain Nile. Also the Blue Nile, which starts in Ethiopia. The Blue Nile and the White Nile meet in Sudan. Even though the White Nile is bigger, it loses more water and is only 15% of the water that gets to Egypt. The Nile is important to Egypt because it carries minerals from the mountains and makes the soil good for the Egyptians to grow their crops.

The next day we got up and went on a game drive. We had to take a ferry, that only held 8 cars. We crossed the Nile River and drove to the delta where the Victoria Nile goes into Lake Albert and the Albert Nile starts. We saw lots of animals, especially giraffes. Some of the giraffes were very dark in colour. We also saw lots of elephants and buffalo. And lots and lots of different antelope. We also saw some lions but some naughty tourists went off the road, close to the lions and scared them away. They got fined for being naughty.  This park is different to other parks as we didn’t see any zebra or wildebeest.