southern Africa

i will be heading to Johans on jan 9 and spending 3 months bkpaing or to be more truthful dragging my one bag around for 3 months.

i will be leaving SA for usa on apr 9th from Capetown.

i have a list of places i want to experience. i will be travelling alone but I usually find others to travel with along the way at whichever hostel I stay at, for the ease and safety for onward travel.

i have a vague itinerary

i thought i would be arriving thru capetwown-so the list is from south to north-actually i will have to tailor it for north to south.

Here goes. Is this too much for three mnths on a budget.
Capr twn
Stellenbosch
Garden Route
Grahamstown
Lesotho
Durban
St Lucia
Cape Vidal
Swaziland
Kruger Nat'l ark
Mozambique
inhanbane
Bazaruto archipelago
MALAWAI-BLANTRE
LAKE MALAWAI-research says this is safe, cheap and friendly but I'm trying to figure out how to get from here to VIC FALLS, in short hops 5-8 hrs each by bus or car and where to stop on way, i read my Lonely planet but cldn't figure it out.
FLY OVER VIC FALLS
BOTSWANA-CHOBE NAT'L PARK
OKAVANGO DELTA -POSSIBLY one week
NAMIMBIA-ETOSHA NAT'L PRK
KHORIXAS
SWAKOPMUND
SKELETON COAST
NAMIMBIA-NAUKLUFT NATIONAL PARK
FISH RIVER CANYON
LANGDEAN
FINAL DESTINATION CAPETOWN
(I WILL HAVE TO REVERSE THIS) I WILL TRAVEL BY
BUS TO MOST STOPS IF POSSIBLE AND BOOK TRIPS THRU HOSTELS WHERE I HOPE TO GET A SINGL ROOM.

WHEW!!! this is a long list but if someone out there can see one of those places they've been and it was great or interesting or whatever, let me know.
jan

Hi Jan, of the places on your itinerary that ive visited in the past (Cape towm throught to St Lucia - Lesotho then Etosha and Swakopmund) IMHO dont miss any of them out.

Would recommend 3 - 4 days for CT and the Peninsula and about the same again for the Garden route. Etosha could well warrant 3-4 days as could Kruger. St Lucia arrive early in the day, do the wetlands trip have a relaxing evening and move on the next day !

Hope this helps a little and hope you enjoy the trip !

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If somethongs hard to do - Its not worth doing (Homer Simpson)

what's on a budget? it helps if you give a more precise figure: botswana and namibia are pricey; it's almost impossible to do namibia by public transport (tours or rent a car)

You can bus from Vic falls to Malawi (blantyre).. You would have to go through Harare, then from there there is a bus that goes through mozambique (you need a visa before-hand but since you had listed mozambique already, I guess you will have that looked at) you can get a visa for mozambique at the border, but it's a hassle and they might not want to give you a multiple entry visa. I don't know if you can cut the trip in little lenghts of 5-8 hours - (exepct vic falls to harare )

oh, and I would add - Wild coast in South africa
3 months might be quick if you want to include malawi - SA, namibia, botswana, vic falls and mozambique are IMO doable in 3 months (I spent a month in SA and I felt a bit rushed - next trip would be namibia and I would spend at least 3 weeks there ; you can do botswana/vic falls in 2 weeks ; that would leave you with 3 weeks for Mozambique and malawi)
one thing to consider is that you never know how long it will really take you when you travel on public transport. (bus and train). So leave some room for suprises and delays

My budget is abt $15.00 day on accomoditions in hostels. Since it is low season, do I need a reservation? I spent hours after I received my LP book just listing places to stay in each city or area.

You say Namibia and Botswana is pricey, how so?

In Windhoek they say I can arrange a tour to Etosha National Park from The Cardboard Box Backpackers price 15.00$ for room.

Have you heard of Crazy Kudo Safaries in Windhoek?

15$ a day is just for accomodation or for everything?
In Botswana the entry fees for the park are more expensive because the governement wants to have less people in the parks (less people paying more rather than a lot of people paying less). Less impact on the animals and the environnement. Hence there is no hostel (except one in Gaborone, but that's not where you want to go!)
Will you have a tent? If yes that could be a way - In Chobe some lodges permits camping on their ground for about 10$ (try also thebe river lodge) and in Kasane too (try Audi camp). If you stay in a lodge then you can take game drive or cruise for about 20-30$ for 3 hours. That's for lodges outside the park itself, of course.
One week in the Delta will be very pricey. I went for a 2 days mokoro trip with Audi camp and it was about 800Pula (about 140$) and we had to bring our food and water. So for a week... shop around maybe a tour including both the delta, chobe and vic falls with an operator would be cheaper???

Living in Botswana is quite cheap. It's travelling in Botswana and doing touristy stuff that is expensive. Food will be very cheap, especially eating out. Transport is cheap - in Maun , where you will have to get to your camp, a kombi (mini-bus) will be 50cents. A taxi about 12$ (take a kombi, esp in Maun, taxis are expensive there. In gaborone the same ride would have been 5$!). Long haul buses are about 10-20$

I don't know Namibia from first hand experience, but I did a little research because I wanted to go there, and I ended with the conclusion that I had to 1)rent a car or 2)join a tour (I wanted to spend 3 weeks in Namib, doing not only the desert, but the dunes, etc) I didn't had the money to do either of those so I gave it up.

For vic falls - Zimbabwe visa is around 50$. Entry to the falls is around 20$. Try Zambia, might be cheaper

You don´t need to book hostels or almost any other accomodation at low season in advance. If you travel from Cape Town with BazBus you´ll find travel company immediately. Near St. Lucia Wetlands there´s a great nature reserve of Hluhluhwe-Imfolozi which is worth of checking out too if you like watching animals.

bazbus is expensive for your budget - it's a good way to meet people, but you will meet people too while staying at hostels

Catherine,
you have been a font of information and I am thrilled u took the time to give me some of your expertise(is that correct?) not doing a spell check.
The 15.00 daily would only be for accomodations, so Baz Bus sounds like the way to go. If I self-drive, I think it would be more expensive unless
another backpacker shared expences.

Vickie,
thanks for info on hostels, u are the first person who really got down to the nitty-gritty with whats happening.

I'm sure you'll be hearing from me again.

Jan

The biggest advantage of BazBus is by far the fact that they drop you off to your accomodation and pick you up there too. This is great in more deserted areas since public transport(which is way much cheaper like Catherine said) usually drops you at gas stations along the main highways and getting around from there ain´t always easy. In Wild Coast getting to Coffee Bay for example would be as expensive as BazBus eventually I figure because you need to fix a local transport(no yellow cabs there) anyways for the last 100 km from N7 drop-off. I also liked the fact about the BazBus that you meet people every day who are doing the same stuff as you are and you can always ask them and gossip about the places instead of just trusting the LP 100%.