Team Tana Netting arrived in Cape Town
After a long day of driving and passing the Malawi border we, Liz and Laura of Team Tana Netting Against Malaria, we arrived in Chitimba. The Chitimba Beach resort is a beautiful and peaceful place, with a little bar and restaurant at the beach of Lake Malawi. We are so happy to have the next day some rest, to reload and drive in two weeks to South-Africa. The next coming days were everything but peaceful. Henk, team member of Team Massif, drowned the next day in Lake Malawi. Everyone was shocked, sad and overwhelmed by the situation. The occurrence hit us like a bomb. Thankfully the organization of the Trophy and Team Med. Adventures, the doctors, handled the situation very professionally. After a beautiful ceremony and some days of mourning, we drove off towards Zambia. In Livingstone we had one day of rest, to see the Vic Falls. So impressive! Laura flew with a microlight airplane over the falls, which was amazing seeing everything from above. The power of the water, the 
swimming elephants in the Zambesi River and other game in the national park in Zimbabwe were like flying over a movie scene. We all took a hike with the group through the Vic Falls park and get as wet as possible (not so difficult).
Some teams of the group decide to take an alternative route through Zimbabwe towards Botswana, others take the normal route. We passed the border on a boat on the Zambesi River, bringing us to Botswana. Several men on the boat ask for bribes, toll, taxes and other non official costs which we refused to pay. Driving through Botswana is like driving through a huge game reserve, the wild animals crossed the roads all the time. We slept in a deserted camp site, named Elephant Sands, which is named after the elephants drinking out of the water pool every day. So logically, during our preparing dinner ceremony (hours of 
cutting vegetables for 40 people, collecting cooking gear, fixing enough Coleman stoves, etc) we are `disturbed´ by 2 big elephants checking us out and drinking from the swimming pool which is 2 meters from the stove. 40 people freeze and stare with amazement to these beautiful creatures who want to know what these tourists do in their natural habitat. After having seen we are quite ok, they take off. We prepare ourselves for the crossing of the final border the next day, everyone is exited. This process takes only half an hour and we realize being back in the touristy world. We drive to Elisand Campsite, which is close half way between the border and Pretoria. That night we prepare our ceremony entering Pretoria and finally reaching the Orange Camping. For about 8 km before the city we drive in one big caravan decorated with flags. Everyone recognizes us from the newspaper and starts to flash lights and hooter! So fun
ny! Finally we see (and HEAR) the vuvuzela´s, the famous South African music instruments which make a sound like a scared elephant. After seeing all the media in the Orange Camping we drive to the Embassy where we watch the first opening match between RSA/Mexico. We realize having reached our destination and the official Orange Trophy part of the journey is over. The next two weeks we drove together with hundreds of Orange Camping campers to Durban and finally to Cape town.
It has been an amazing adventure, which was not possible without the help and support of our sponsors. Tana Netting, Crocs and Cor Millenaar, thank you all so much for everything you did for us! We are very thankful and loved being a part of this Trophy. It has brought us many beautiful things that would have been impossible to see without the organization of the Trophy. Again, thanks and who kno
ws what the next adventure might be?
Liz and Laura
