Cape Town to Jo'berg: Getting around southern Africa for a month

if you guys only have a month to do all of this and want to see so much why not try an overland truck?

After taking a close look, I think we will:
-skip our Jo'berg to Cape Town flight (booked Paris->London->JNB->CPT one way, so won't mess up itinerary later)

-rent an Avis car in JNB (will have to just pay 1000 ZAR fee to drive in Botswana/Namibia)
-make a B-line for decent hotel in Pretoria
-over to Kruger (or potentially skip this in lieu of Chobe, etc.)
-up to Vic Falls
-through Botswana w/ Okavanga Delta
-through Namibia
-down west coast to Cape Town
-garden route to end in Port Elizabeth
-fly out of Port Elizabeth to JNB, then up to our temp home in Paris

This will basically be the overland tour route from Table Rock to Johannesburg/Kruger:
http://www.overlandingafrica.com/table-mountain-to-kruger-CTJ26-13/

This is an approximation of our route, albeit backwards (took me a min to figure out that we could drop the JNB to CPT flight and end in Port Elizabeth instead).

Not sure if there are overlandingafrica fanboys nudging people in the direction of using organized tours, but it's just not for us. Can't deal with the same ppl for a month, combined with inflexible schedule. Don't want to spend the better part of 4 weeks looking out a big window in between naps. I figure we might spend about the same, since we'll be staying in backpacker-level accommodation and eating many meals in cheap restaurants. Thoughts?

Also, looks like cars are not allowed to enter Zimbabwe, so we'll have to sort out transport from nearby Kasane, Botswana to Victoria Falls.

Any feedback on our potential plans?

Updated Route

Would there be any significant challenges expected in driving this route?

Edited by: TripAddict

I just spent 2 months doing most of what you mentioned, seems like your really crammin in!
Firstly, 4x4 not necessary in SA or Bots, but would be desirable in Namibia.Anything off the main road up the middle of Namib is dirt ,and can sometimes get dodgy.
Otherwise the coach system is great and comfortable between cities (intercape were very good), and you can just hire a car when you get to main places (eg capetown/west cape, Windhoek for Namibia, Joburg for North SAKruger. I thought bazbus was overpriced. The earlier you book intercape the cheaper. greyhound also good.
Suggested itinery (or what i did):
5=6 days cape town and up to Karoo ( i thought the garden route was massively overrated, but the road from cape down to cape good hope and round to hermanus was amazingly beautiful. Also the road from Mossel Bay over the mountains into karoo, head back west and take another moutnain pass back to the N2 and back to Cape.) The climb up table mtn is great, and the Shark cage diving is a serious adrenaline buzz ( i did this in Mossel bay (great company, only one running the tour here rather than the 10 competing boats you have in Gansbai).
Bus from Cape to Windhoek bout 17 hrs, nothing there so pickup a vehicle for 8-9 days and head straight down to Sossusvlei in the Namib desert for a few days, up the skeleton coast through swakupmund and cape cross and inland to etosha NP for 3 days where you can self drive safari, then back to windhoek. From here you can Bus to the northeast to get through to the okavanga for 4 days, then across to Livingstone (Zambia) for vic falls (3 days both sides, try the Bungee and rapids or river canoe) then cross to zim side. Zim a great country, amazing people and totally safe. If you like trains, definately recommend train from vic falls to Bulawayo. From here you can do a day or overnight trip to Masvingu for the great zimbabwe ruins, or bus straight down to Pretoria. Not much here, maybe an overnight and bus straight to Nelspruit and pickup a hirecar for 4 days Kruger (great park, and cheap by african standards).
Felt safe everywhere except downtown Joburg which felt a bit dodgy, but easy to avoid. Overlanders are expesive anyway, you can do the parks cheaper in hirecars. Hostels everywhere, not always great value for money (or as cheap as Sth America or asia) but passable. Food not always cheap, but passable. Recommend the game restaurant in Windhoek (Joes bar i think) -zebra and Ostrich are the best!
Enjoy it, its an underrated and under-backpacked part of the world!

Advice taken, not going to attempt afore-mentioned route.

Instead, will be shooting for:
About a week driving garden route from CPT to Port Eizabeth
Either Mauritius or Vic Falls area for about a week
Fly into Dar es Salaam, then have two weeks to make it to Nairobi

Will probably spend a few days or up to a week around Zanzibar, then head to what looks like crossroads of Tanzania at Arusha for either a few days or up to 1.5 weeks on shorter trips before taking a bus up to Nairobi.

As a complete side note, and I'll remove this if it's seen as too off-topic:

American Airlines miles are really shining on this trip with deeply discounted number of miles needed between Europe/Africa and within Africa. Able to fly to our hostels in long-haul first class sleeper pods for a whopping $100 in per person (just taxes). There is a massive promo going on right now to get 100k or 75k american airlines miles for signing up for a credit card, might only be applicable to US citizens. (This was first time I've signed up for a cc to get miles) Whereas flights are really pricey in Africa, you can fly anywhere within Africa one-way with only 10k American Airlines miles. This is less than a one-way in the US. Europe to Africa one-way is 50k miles, in first freeking class. You could fly economy to Africa for, I think, 30k miles. So it's 30k AA miles for a $1k flight or 50k miles for a $7k flight..

One of my favorite travel writers wrote an article which is how I heard about the deals. He posted another write-up over a month ago, which is the one I actually used. Don't look at this as an endorsement for credit cards, as I think they can be awful, but over $20k worth of flights for $200 in total taxes.. I just wish someone accepted miles for safaris. :)

Edited by: TripAddict