Onwards from here..

In my last blog I wrote we had a lot of decisions to make in the upcoming days.. Our plans have changed so many times already, countries we want to visit, time and the order we visit them due to costs and route restraints. Money is sadly also becoming a factor! 

We want to visit another 8 countries; Uganda, Tanazania, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique and of course South Africa. The problem with some of them is visa costs.. Here is where is gets complicated!! Charles has duel nationalisty.. British and South African, at the moment he is travelling on his British passport because throughout Western Africa it is the easiest to do. However.. Now we are down south, Charles' South African passport allows free entry to all the above countries apart from Uganda. The catch is that on the land borders countries are reluctant to let him enter on a different passport to the one he left the previous country on due to the paper trail (yes all of a sudden Africa cares about the paper trail). This means that currently if we go to these countries Charles will pay British (double to include me) prices which are expensive and as follows..

Uganda - $100 per person (including South African citizens)

Tanzania - $100 per person (free for South Africa citizens) 

Malawi - $75 per person but this keeps changing (free for South Africa citizens) 

Mozambique - $50 per person ($100 for multiple) (free for South Africa citizens) 

Zimbabwe - $55 per person (free for South Africa citizens) 

Botswana - free

Namibia - free

South Africa - free 

As you can see if we could change Charles' passport we would spend a whole lot less on visas, and we think this maybe possible if we go to South Africa and then back out on his South African passport. However as we are currently in Zambia we are in the middle, but nearer Uganda which is where we want to visit! Chatting to each other we came up with some options..

1. Travel on the British passports up to Uganda and just deal with the costs..

2. Travel Namibia, Botswana, dip into South Africa to change the passport, then Mozambique (multiple entry), Tanzania (multiple entry), Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique Zimbabwe and then South Africa. 

3. Do all the southern countries, then fly to Kampala from Jo'burg once we get to South Africa. 

4. Speak to Zambian immigration and see whether we can extend and upgrade my visa to a multiple entry. Drive down to SA quickly through Botswana. Back up to Zambia to do the northern parts, through Tanzania to Uganda, back through Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswna , Namibia and South Africa. 

Just too many decisions...  Moved from the waterfront hotel in Livingstone to the Jolly Boys with a plan to have made a decision by Monday evening..!

Monday!

Having checked back into Jolly boys in Livingstone, we met two guys travelling from Mozambique who told us northern Mozambique is a no go at the moment due to civil war. We sat down with a beer, or two, and decided due to visa costs using the British passport we could not do everything. After lots of deliberation, and different ideas we came up with a plan.. 

Zambia

Malawi 

Mozambique 

Swaziland 

SA - Kruger park for 1.5 weeks (please let us know charles friends and family if you would like to join us!)

Zimbabwe 

Botswna 

Namibia

South Africa 

Fingers crossed this works...  We are putting some money away for when we get to South Africa to possibly fly to Uganda and see it then. Sadly a limited budget means making sacrifices. 

We are going to stay in Livingstone till Thursday and start making our way up through Zambia - Kariba dam and some of the national parks! Looking forward to seeing the northern part!