Check-Ins

the site itself is fine enough, but is located in the middle of a ranch and the taps all seem to be broken, but convenient with the market/deli and burger joint in walking distance. No tmobile or att signal

Great spot to watch the sun rise & set. Also beside a 5km coastal trail.

Only a few campsites, no water or trash but it’s a label place to park and relatively quiet

Small parking lot adjacent to a walking path/bike trail. Pulled in around 10pm and it was really dark and quiet, I was the only one there with my dog. Folks started arriving at the lot by 7am to use the path. We ended up walking a good 3 miles up the path it was a great morning walk! There are also little trails throughout the woods leading to the water.

Good spot for one night!

We never found this place. May be closed.

Good and safe place to stay indeed. There we no showers in the station though, and the ones at the Corona station were in really bad conditions.

Parking lot!

……….. ……….. ……….. ……….. ……….. ………..

Overflow parking lot ……….. ……….. ……….. ………..

As described, only the showers were cold (which was really a shame given the brand new building and cold weather).

Stayed here for two nights, so quiet and peaceful! Walmart bathroom is also clean.

Señor Rafael is now renewing this place. In spite of the works he let us stay here. Thank you. Don 't forget to bring your socks to las Gachas or las Glorias cause it is very slippery and I broke my arm there.

Nice campsite on grass, awesome views. $10/pppn. Friendly staff. Cold shower. Very windy. When driving here from Arusha/Lake Manyara, be aware of the conservation fee ($35,4/pp in addition to the road usage fees)! So yes, very expensive to drive here but doing it once it is okeish. Road here okeish, too. Pretty rocky from time to time. We were on our way to Serengeti.

great spot!! We cooking and Washing the dishes here. we stay one night. it is very safe and quite.

excelente lugar. cocinamos y lavamos los trastes aquí. pasamos una noche. es seguro y tranquilo. Le preguntamos a una señora si nos podíamos quedar a dormir aquí, y nos dijo que sin ningún problema. de hecho ella también duerme aquí en una camper.

Great bushcamp directly at the Boteti River. Easy acces from the tarred road: take the cutline road (in Maps.me) to the Boteti River Road, go a bit north, then follow a sandy track 200 m down to the river. Accessible for big rigs. No Orange-signal.

This camping site is completely empty now. According to the expire date of the fire distinguishers, it's not really in use since at least 2020.
The site doesn't get cleaned and there is no warm water and electricity anymore. But there are some working toilets.
We paid 200 for one tent-site. We paid at the gas-station.

Small, safe, quiet and beutifull place with lights at night. Well protected from wind and storms.

It’s now gone abit upmarket, asking $45pn per room for two people. Large gated courtyard, didn’t stay.

Filled up my water jug and dumped trash.

Water spigot next to air fill at smiths gas station in Los Alamos

The washrooms were open, but everything else was closed in October. But still a very beautiful place to stop for the night.

We arrived about 6pm and all was O.K. but at 11pm some trucks and cars arrived and went into the far corner away from the river, that said no camping. Lights until 2:30 and shady happenings going on. we had one truck basically come alongside us and slowly crawl along. Checking us out, we put our headlights on and they floored it out of the campground.
I don't know what was happening, but it did not feel safe at all. We sadly do not recommend this place.

The park does it car out after us. It is splendid, but the only problem sounds the mouths that spit you, scratch and make huge buttons. In 30 mins we had 50 stitch. horrible. We wanted to sleep here but we move very fast. 30 mins in a Park and it was horrible.

le parc ce fais en voiture d'après nous. Il est splendide, mais le seul problème son les moucherons qui vous pique, gratte et vous font d'énormes boutons. en 30 mins nous avons eu 50 piqûre. horrible. on voulait dormir ici mais on est très vite repartis.. non vraiment .. le produit anti moustique ne fonctionne pas, le citron non plus, et le vinaigre non plus. Jamais de ma vie j'ai vu des trucs aussi coriaces et PIRE que des moustiques !

The park does it car out after us. It is splendid, but the only problem sounds the mouths that spit you, scratch and make huge buttons. In 30 mins we had 50 stitch. horrible. We wanted to sleep here but we are very quickly distributed ..

Good place and secure nearby the border. Owner is not specially friendly but let us use shower in a room of the hotel. Also gave us electricity for the night. Quite expensive (15 USD) for what they offer.

We didn't stop here beacause we didn't feel really secure. Parking is big but also open. We prefered staying at the parking of the hotel nearby, but quite expensive.

Land is marked BLM according to maps provided by Arizona. Access from route 89A, opposite the side of the road the cliffs are on. Initial pull-off lot is unmarked. Beyond the gate (usually closed so please close behind you) you’ll find a rock cobbled dirt road with offshoots leading to several campsites. I arrived at night and several sites were occupied. I estimate at least 8 sites total, well spread apart and down different branches of the road. Some sites have fire pits, but no wood to be scavenged. It had just rained all day, but most of the road is sturdy, although I did avoid a right turn early on that looked muddy. My heavy Transit 350 made it carefully over the rocky sections with no issues.

The view of the cliffs is unmatchable.

As many already said; Nicky and her team are fantastic. It’s worth a stopover, even if you just pop in at their farm shop for fresh produce, meat and a good meal or cake. Nicky is more than accommodating. The camping facilities are great with very hot showers, washing up facilities all set in a tranquil atmosphere (We heard wood owls calling at night). Potable water also available. Teggy baked us fresh bread and there are farm visits available, you can also walk/run the 1000 hectare farm (encouraged by Nicky). Camping cost us 10usd pppn.

*Tanzania to Malawi*
Opening hours 8am-6pm (due to 1hour time difference with Malawi).
1. Check in Tanzania side this side has a red and white picket fence with a guard hut to the left - although they are building a new building (not sure when construction will be complete), this will be on the road to the left, currently you should take the road to the right. Park on the left through this fence and the immigration building has a corrugated roof with face brick (proceed around the left side - as if facing the same way you drove through the picket fence)
2. Stamp out CdP and 2x South African passports.
3. If you have a PCR test within 72 hours stamp out in TZ as mentioned above, otherwise cross to Malawi (we drove/walked on two separate occasions, no issues). It’s a bit of a walk, several hundred metres through many trucks.
4. Suggested to cross in early morning to miss LONG line of trucks to Malawi side (note that there are two lanes - one for trucks and one for tourist vehicles) pass the trucks if you can and park before the Malawian building on your right.
5. For those without a PCR, they may make you retest (gene Xpert, 75-80,000 ZMK or $100 - you might be able to get out of this cost if you speak nicely to the testing agent) testing is done in a container currently painted blue, this takes about an hour depending on how many tests are running as they can only run several tests at a time. Side note: the gene Xpert and rapid tests, according to immigration agents are only for truck drivers, this is true for rapid but untrue for gene Xpert according to their documentation. If you’re prepared to argue or wait it out, you can get through on Gene Xpert but recommend a PCR and you’re in a hurry (you can book a slot at a hospital in TZ via https://pimacovid.moh.go.tz/#/booking)
6. Stamp covid test with MoH Malawi and fill out health declaration form.
7. Complete entry card, stamp passports in (for internationals outside of SADC/EAC, suggest applying/paying for (?) the evisa online to save yourself a world of hassle with corrupt officials!). Check covid tests here (immigration were sticky with our covid tests and wanted palm greasing but we’d done things by the book and were prepared to wait them out).
8. Stamp in CdP with Customs; get road tax instruction to pay $20 for road tax (Landcruiser 2017 4,200cc), this is done at NB bank (you can see the word ‘bank’ through the customs and excise window).
9. The bank can be reached through the door to the left of the customs and excise window (then turn right as you walk into an office of sorts). You can only pay this in USD (no MasterCard/visa/tsh/mkw accepted). Do this ASAP, line to pay can take extremely long.
10. Collect your CdP after presentation of the road tax receipt.
11. Customs authorities document your vehicle in their logbook, they may want to check your vehicle, then open the boom gate for you to proceed.

** Be aware that on the Malawian side of the border, almost everyone wants palm greasing or “something to drink”. This was extortion and something we fundamentally refuse to pay so our border crossing took longer than it should have. However, it gave us time to document it and hopefully this will be useful information for someone else who crosses here as the info about COVID-19 testing was scarce on the gov websites, people we spoke to, etc. so we winged it. 🤣

Also FYI: we heard Airtel SIM cards are the best. If you drive to Korongwa it’s 100mkw vs. substantially more at the border itself.

We did not have to pay any fees here. The barrier was open.

We got 2x SIM cards (100mkw each) here and topped up with data (1gb@7 days each for 2000mkw). Super quick and easy. One of our quickest purchases of sim cards on our travels to-date.