Below you will find some practical information regarding our experiences in travelling through parts of Southern and East Africa. The information relates to some of the day to day challenges you face while overlanding such as obtaining cellphone cards for each country, border crossing complexities, insurances required, etc.
Of course circumstances could have changed since our travel through this region in 2019/20.
Practical Information: Africa
Mapping and routing:
- Tracks 4 Africa. In theory better than main stream map applications as it is user input driven and should reflect actual driving times. Our experience in Mozambique was that times we often out, both under and over. However would still recommend using it
- As we progressed further North and in particular for bigger cities we used a combination of Tracks4Africa and either Google maps or Maps.me
- Google maps seems better for live information on traffic but has a tendency to take some “interesting” routes.
- Maps.me allows offline usage which is great if you have just crossed into a country and don’t have local SIM yet or don’t have cellphone coverage.
- iOverlander links to either google or maps.me which is nice for routing to campsites or other attractions which may not be on Tracks4Africa
Country information:
Kenya: a short list of useful information for Kenya
Malawi: a short list of useful information for Malawi
Mozambique: some useful information for Mozambique
Tanzania: a short list of useful information for Tanzania (including our COMESA struggles)
Uganda: a short list of useful information for Uganda, including our booking experience for the mountain gorillas
Rwanda: Some useful information for Rwanda
Zambia: Useful information for Zambia