>>2706813Never gone hiking innawoods without a guide, I have gone hiking with a guide, and have driven through some cool places.
MY favourite bit of hiking was in Kasungu NP back in 2016 or so. I was thinking of doing my Silver International Award hike through the park, but ultimately decided it would be more fun and more sensible to just go for a couple of days hiking.
Now, Kasungu is particularly unpleasant for navigation because there are no accurate maps, GPS signal is spotty at best, and compasses get screwed up by the big iron ore deposits.
So I went hiking with a guide who clearly didn't know the area too well and couldn't speak english, a hand drawn map (incorrect and not to scale, and a couple of the local lads I took along with me.
It was a blast, we visited some ancient kilns, snuck across the Zambian border and back and chatted around the fire until late each evening.
We bumped into a few antelope (Bushbuck, Kudu, and impala) and some rock dassies, but nothing scary. Some bush pigs screaming at us and elephants in the campsite was the most excitement we got.
The biggest challenge was my poor planning with food. We had a bunch of tins with no opener, and had to use rocks and a tire iron to get into them, and I didn't quite ration properly. On the last day we only had rice, sugar, and honey to make breakfast, lunch and dinner. Rice and honey is surprisingly alright when you're hungry.
My dad made matters worse by having brought half a pantry and a cook for himself and our friend who organised the trip. They dined like kings and we could smell it the whole time.
Not that I haven't had some close calls with animals. I'll tell a few stories about that after work
