Part two of our Southern Africa Tour with Charley Boorman takes us into 'third world' Africa. Starting from "The Smoke that Thunders" (Victoria Falls) in Zambia, Central Africa, we travel through Malawi and the old Portuguese East Africa stronghold of Mozambique before crossing into South Africa and on to our destination.

Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique are in no way comparable to the more developed countries of Namibia and South Africa. This becomes apparent immediately you enter their respective border control areas. For those of you who have done one of our previous SA tours.... remember the border crossing into Zambia?

REAL 'third world' Africa means very few, if any, places to stop for lunch and great difficulties with fuel availability. During the recce trip we found Malawi had no fuel at all... nothing anywhere! We were forced to drive back to the Mozambique border to buy diesel at 200 Euros for 40 ltrs. Jovial policemen with speed cameras are everywhere and as the continuation of our Southern Africa Tour is predominantly on road, keeping an eye on your speed will become a major issue.

Sections of deeply potholed asphalt are strangely few and far between (thanks to the Chinese road builders), but are there never the less. Killer speed humps in the most unexpected places will require that you pay attention at all times.

From the organisational point of view, decent accommodation has been a major issue. The lack of accommodation has, on occasion, forced us to do longer days in the saddle and, once or twice, we will be stopping and spending the night in very local lodgings. Whilst 2 of the hotels during the tour are lacking our normal standards (just nothing else available!) the rest of the lodges are very good to excellent.

Having said all that, it's a great tour continuing in the spirit of adventure that CB demands and, as always, he will be there to guide and assist you all.

The heavy on-road bias means that less experienced riders or riders with pillions will be able to have a more enjoyable and relaxed tour.

It is possible never to go offroad for the duration of the tour... Victoria Falls to Johannesburg on road.

What offroad there is (about 30%) has to be classified as easy going. As in all our tours with Charley, we have included a 2 day off-road school with Si Pavey (8 times Dakar legend) at the "BMW Off Road Skills" school in Wales where Si and his staff will be giving you the best tuition and advice possible, to maximise your adventure with us.

Our route takes us through some very varied terrain from the endless plains and bush of Zambia to the beautiful coconut fringed roads & beaches of Mozambique and everything in between.

The steep decent down the escarpment to Lake Malawi from Lilongwe is a truly amazing ride, almost but not quite as good as the 79 km ride down 'Long Tom Pass' in South Africa (also included on this tour). As an African born and brought up in Tanzania, I am reluctant to use the word 'jungle' - preferring instead to use the word 'bush'. But jungle is the only word that can describe the beautiful scenery that we get to drive through one afternoon in Moz.

Our track takes us up steep climbs and down even steeper descents, all overhung by ancient trees draped in strangler fig lianas. All of this great beauty combined with the chance of elephant sightings too! Sadly, on our recce, we encountered a South African surveyor on this section of track....within 2 years it will be all asphalted.

Everyone you meet whether white, black or coloured are amazingly friendly and welcoming. The border officials on both sides of the Moz/Malawi crossing are the nicest officials we have ever had the pleasure of meeting. On some of the offroad sections in Moz not only the kids but the adults were unsure what to make of us - is it possible they have never seen whites before?

In summary folks, it's a great tour with lots of fantastic riding both on and off road, set in a part of Africa that has a totally different feel to the Africa of SA and Namibia.

We hope to see you there.

John - MOTOAVENTURES

• The Mighty Victoria Falls
• Lake Kariba - volumetrically the largest artificial lake in the world
• Wildlife Safari in the South Luangwa National Park
• Lake Malawi also known as Lake Nyasa - 8th largest lake in the world
• Sundowner cruise on Lake Malawi
• Bazaruti Archipelago and its islands
• Indian Ocean
• Hopefully a very rare Dugong
• Wildlife Safari - "Big 5" hopefully - in Mthethomusga Game Reserve & Kruger National Park
• Amazing War remnants scattered across Mozambique