ZAMBIA

Below is a map of the country with our intended route in red.  Our diary can be found below the map.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

31st May

Journey to Livingstone was pretty straight forward and no sand in sight.  Found a great little B&B called Zig Zag and we decided to treat ourselves and take a room.  The place is great and really child friendly - the resident dogs, cat and guinea pigs have all been given the Oliver Glyn torture treatment of continously being followed and pestered!!  It also has free internet access which has been worth its weight in cold beer.

The owners have a 3 year old daughter and other expats often pop in for coffee with their children.  Toby got chatting to a lady whose son Oscar attends the local small International school along with the owner's daughter and she suggested that Oli might be able to go there for a morning.  We have been feeling a bit guilty about the lack of other children for Oli to play with so thought it would be a great chance for him to play with people of his own age. 

1st June

After a reluctant start Oli went to the school this morning and had a great time - he seems really happy here so we are staying for a few more days.

We had always planned for the first service to be carried out in Livingstone and although we had not done quite as many miles as originally planned, it made sense to get it done whilst trying to sort the diff seal. The Bradt guide recommended Bennet Engineering as the best place to get any vehicle work done and the helpful lady who told us about the school had given me directions. Within minutes of arriving at the workshop the truck was over a pit having the prop removed, oil drained, filters changed, everything greased and checked. The prop seal had gone hard after 18 years, and the thinner hot oil caused by hard driving in Chobe etc had started to get past it. It was a relatively easy part to find and the work was all done in a couple of hours, happy days. One bonus was the space created in the spares box in the back.

We also managed to get a Zambian sim card for about 75p, texts are welcome on 00260 978 172 678

Had a great evening sitting on sofas in an open sided rondavel watching French Open followed by England vs Brazil.


2nd June

Have decided not to go to Kafue National Park as, after further reading, it suggests that you have at least 2 vehicles to enter and it is a bit of a trek to get to the bit that is any good.  We have also decided to spend a bit of time in Malawi as so many people have told us how beautiful it is and we have been given details of a place run by an English couple with 2 boys aged 4 and 6.  Having seen how happy Oli was to play with kids his own age we will use the time we would have spent in Kafue for some fun in Malawi.  We are off to Victoria Falls tomorrow and the crocodile farm and will leave on Monday to head to Lusaka (not staying in the city thought) to sort out visas for Tanzania.

3rd June

As we were in Livingstone we thought it would be foolish not to go to the Falls.  We have both seen it from the Zimbabwean side (Toby about 4 times) but never from the Zambian side.  So, we jumped on ‘the bus that thunders’, which is the local tourist bus and it delivered us right to the door. Being foreign we, of course, had to pay in US$ and got charged almost 5 times more than everyone else but we are getting used to it now!!   

Unfortunately, because there is currently so much water in the river there was loads and loads of ‘smoke’ and not much of the falls were that visible.  Nonetheless we hired some delightful waterproof capes and set off along the paths.  Needless to say the capes didn’t really protect us that much and we all got soaked.  Oli thought this was just fab and had a thoroughly enjoyable time wading in the puddles and splashing us – and anyone else who happened to walk past.  Thankfully we dried out pretty quickly in the sun and made our way to our next tourist destination – the crocodile park.   The croc farm had 2 man eaters, the biggest one – which they had named Munguni – had got quite a taste for the local villagers and their cattle so the owners of the farm were asked to remove it from the river.  It was 4.9 metres long and it took more than 9 men to lift it when it was captured.  Because the crocs are so accustomed to life in captivity they have become extremely lazy and don’t really do much.   As we were the only visitors there they kindly said they would feed the crocs for us so we could see.  Our guide – George – climbed down into the enclosure with a stick, poked the croc a few times with his stick and the croc, who funnily enough didn’t like being poked with a stick, turned and opened its huge jaws.  George then threw in the meat and we watched as the croc manoeuvred the meat in its mouth, crunched it a bit and then swallowed it literally whole.  Oli thought poking the crocs with a stick was just the best thing he had seen and suddenly George was his best friend and he followed him everywhere saying “Go on George, give the croc a poke with the stick again”.    

4th June

A really tiring day today – spent 7hrs in the car and when we arrive at Pioneer camp we think we have made a mistake by coming here!!  In the guide book it says that there is a children’s play area, trampoline and also a shuttle service into Lusaka – sounds ideal.  It turns out the new owners got rid of the play area and trampoline and stopped the shuttle service – oh great!!  To top it all we sit down at the bar for a needy drink and I am told they don’t stock Jack Daniels.   However, they do have satellite TV and Oli gets to watch Scooby Doo which makes him happy so it is OK.

5th June

A good day in Africa.  Having expected a whole load of hassle getting our visas for Tanzania we are pleasantly surprised.  We arrive at the Embassy, fill in the forms, hand over our dollars and, regardless of the fact that we forgot to bring spare passport photos, were told to come back at 2pm to collect them.  Turned up at 1.47pm and there they were.  Went back to Pioneer camp very happy indeed and had a huge steak for supper to celebrate,  unfortunately still no JD!!

6th June

Yesterday was a good day in Africa, today we see the other side of the coin!  Our drive from Lusaka to Lower Zambezi National Park started out reasonably well – nice drive through the mountains and good tarmac most of the way to Chirundu.  Arrive at the pontoon where the ferry will take us across the Kafue river at about 2.30.  Watch as the men crank the ferry across, the vehicles depart and the next set of vehicles line up to get on to be cranked back to our side.   Sit in the truck watching thinking we will be across in about half an hour – oh how wrong we were.   A large lorry started to board the ferry on the other side and got wedged and stayed wedged for about an hour.  Finally they managed to get it on and back came the ferry.   Great, it was our turn next, or so we thought but the little Hitler of a ferryman had different plans for us.  Having been told we could pay in Kwacha we handed over our money only to be told “all foreign registered vehicles have to pay 20 US$” – here we go again!!!  After a few minutes of arguing it became clear he wasn’t going to let us on unless we handed over dollars and as we didn’t really want to open the safe in the cruiser with 50 Africans watching we had to watch as the 5 other vehicles behind us merrily made their way onto the ferry.  Toby, who as you all know is such a patient chap, managed to refrain from calling the ferryman some bad names and off we drove to find a quieter spot to open the safe.  Anyway, to cut a long story short we managed to get to the other side at 5.40pm – 3 hours after arriving at the pontoon.  We still had another 30 miles to drive to our lodge and, as it gets dark around 6.00pm over here we spent most of the journey driving on really awful roads in the dark.  We finally arrived at Mvuu lodge tired, a bit p**sed off and not really in the mood to set up camp in pitch black so we opted for a tented camp and a proper bed instead. 

7th June

Woke up to see Mvuu Lodge in daylight and was a spectacular sight.  It is set on the Zambezi river and extremely peaceful.  We spent the day lazing around, reading, building more train tracks and talking to Jason who runs the lodge on a day to day basis while his boss sits in his house playing computer games!!  It turns out the lodge is actually on the market for around US$ 1M so it is kind of being run down.  Having read about the wonderful game drives they offer we are told they can’t do boat trips or game drives because they are almost out of diesel, they only have about 6 soft drinks in the bar and no beer.  We think we may have found the Zambian equivalent of Fawlty Towers and when the manager does finally put in an appearance he does actually resemble Basil Fawlty.  Still, it is a great place to stay and we have the whole place to ourselves.  Having spoken to Jason we find that the entrance gate to the Lower Zambezi National Park is still an additional 20kms of really bad roads from the lodge and there are no signs in the park.  We ask Jason if there is a guide we can hire for the day and he says we can take Adwell who is their guide at no cost and he will only be charged 40,000 K (about £6.50) to get in as he is a registered guide and a Zambian National  – sounds like a good plan.     

8th June

An early start this morning to clear everything out of our tented camp – our 2 nights of luxury are over and we are back to rough camping tonight – and also to meet our guide – Adwell.  We arrive at the park gate to pay our fees and are pretty annoyed to be told that we will have to pay US$ 30 for Adwell because he is going into the park in our cruiser which is foreign registered.  They try flipping anything over here just to make you pay more in US$.  Anyway, we pay them the money and they don’t have the right change so say we can get it on the way out along with our receipt.  Having a guide with us was great as he knew the park like the back of his hand and although we didn’t see that much game we got to see a lot of the park and stopped at some fairly beautiful sites on the river for breakfast and lunch.  Having waited so long to go to LZNP we were really glad we went even though it wasn’t the most rewarding.  On the way out we stopped to pick up our change and receipt.  Funnily enough they still didn’t have a 5$ note so, (in true Ian Brown style), Toby came up with a solution for them and told them they would give us the relevant amount in local currency. 

9th June

We psyched ourselves up for the journey back to Lusaka, paid the bill and off we went.  Little did we know that parts of the drive we were about to undertake would possibly be one of the most spectacular, awe inspiring and physically taxing drives (for both driver and vehicle).  Having spoken to the guys at Mvuu Lodge we were told of a new road which went to Lusaka and cut out approx 60kms and avoided the pontoon.  Sounded good to us so we decided to use it.  Following their instructions we got onto the new road in relatively good time and as we signed out of the game management area we noticed that the truck which had left just before us was the English couple in the blue LR 110 who we had seen in quite a few places and last seen in Livingstone.  Anyway after about 3 hours the road started to follow the escarpment and we started to ascend at quite an amazing rate.  According to the GPS we climbed 300m in under 2 miles and the temperature gauge followed to the point where we had to stop, get the heater matrix open and put the heating on full blast to get rid of some heat from the engine (which was nice in the mid-day heat!!).  We couldn’t believe how steep and twisty the gravel track was and just watched in awe as, after each turn it just kept going up and up and up.  We had basically driven up the Zambezi escarpment and we hope the pictures show how incredible the view was from the top.  Oli was also as impressed as we were – oh no, my mistake he slept through the whole thing!!

After that the rest of the journey seemed quite tame apart from the bit where fine red dust started pouring into the vehicle from somewhere in the back and covered everything included us.

We arrived back at Pioneer camp feeling a little tired, and very grubby and opened up the back of the cruiser to find a cms worth of dust  Everything we touched was just covered.  Now, doing a 4 month overland trip I was expecting to get a bit dirty and grimey here and there but this was just unbearable so, like a crazed cleaning lady (and with the help of the garden boy) I set about the truck with a cloth and bucket of water.  3 hours later she was clean (well almost) and we had a really nice supper with 3 very interesting and very amusing Germans.

10 & 11th June

After the awful journey we spent a couple of days just chilling out at Pioneer, building train tracks, watching cartoons and of course the cricket!!  We have decided that we will go to Kafue after all but only to a small part of it. 

12th June

After a couple of lovely days at Pioneer camp we packed up and headed for Kafue on beautiful newly tarred roads with no dust in sight – what a joy.

Checked into Mukambi Lodge and decided to camp when we found out the chalets were US$ 160........per person!!  We were told at reception that there is a resident Hippo called Basil who tends to hang around and 2 eles – Fred and Half Tail – who frequently visit the main camp and campsite.

The lodge is just on the outskirts of the Kafue National Park and, as we couldn’t be bothered to keep breaking down the roof tent and drive ourselves into the park we decided that, as the lodge offered morning and night game drives we would do an evening game drive that night.  We were taken across the river by boat where 2 open sided game vehicles were waiting for us.  Victor and Jonah were our guides/spotters and they didn’t disappoint.  Within about 10 minutes we had found a herd of eles with young calves.  About 10 minutes later we were lucky to find 3 lions – a male and 2 females.  Victor told us that one of the lionesses had a very young cub hidden away nearby but unfortunately he/she didn’t make an appearance while we were there.

Just as it was dusking we drove round a bend to find another herd of eles who were a bit surprised by the vehicle.  One of the mothers, who wasn’t too happy at being surprised and obviously wanted us to go away, was shaking her head, flapping her ears and trumpeting quite loadly which basically translates as “leave now or you will be sorry”!!  We obviously didn’t move fast enough for her and she started to run towards us flapping and trumpeting.   Victor put his foot down and she kept chasing at a distance of about 30 feet.  Being sat right at the back of the vehicle we got a very good view of her chasing us but luckily it was just a warning and she soon gave up the chase.  Unfortunately we had put the video camera away so didn’t get any of it on video. 

Out came the spotlight and just as we thought it was all over we went back to where the lions had been and they were still there in almost the same positions as we had left them.  However, this time the cub was out under the proud watchful eye of his mother.   Seeing the cub, who was only 10 – 12 weeks old was amazing and is definitely one of the highlights of the trip so far. 

We headed back to camp, very happy indeed.

13th June

Woke up this morning to the sound of lion calling from across the river and hyenas ‘whooping’.  Spent a really chilled out day in the campsite which we had entirely to ourselves – apart from Joseph who was our camp attendant (not in the gay sense!).  Joseph very quickly became Oli’s new friend and Joseph taught Oli all the different animal sounds and even joined in throwing stones at the monkeys.  Just as we were about to cook some lunch we heard some crashing about and saw one of the eles eating branches from the trees about 200 metres away from the campsite.  He spent a couple of hours there just eating and standing about before he decided to come into the campsite.  What is it about us and elephants?!  The campsite was quite big and he stuck to the outskirts of it until he decided he wanted to investigate our truck.  Joseph made me and Oli go and hide in the shower block just to be sure – the elephant was extremely used to people but nevertheless he is still a wild animal.  Toby and Joseph moved round to the other side of the cruiser while Fred (the ele) walked p to the cruiser, gave it a good sniff and the carried on his way. 

The boat arrived to pick us up for our game drive which compared to last night’s was a little uneventful apart from the fan belt in the LandRover 110 we were in broke about 20 minutes into the drive!!  Thankfully, it was still light so they radioed the camp and another game vehicle appeared not long after.  The drive was pretty dull but we did see some ele, buffalo and a very large hippo.  During the night Fred the ele came back for some more branches and we watched from the safety of our roof tent as he strided past our tent and into the bush.   

15th June

Another nightly visit from Fred the ele and up at 5.30am for a morning game drive – Oli isn’t impressed!!

It turns out the lucky fairy must have paid us another visit as we have a great time and get to see the lioness and her cub again – they look even more stunning in the early morning light.  Oli seems to have got is sussed – he watches the lioness and cub, falls asleep minutes later and wakes us 5 minutes before we see a male lion.  Maybe I will try that next time.

Pack up our camp and head back to Pioneer camp for a couple of nights and for more cartoons and cricket!!

16th June

Pop into the shops to use the internet and pack up as we are setting off early tomorrow for Chipata – the gateway to the South Luangwa National Park.

17th June

After a very long drive we finally reach Mama Rulas in Chipata and treat ourselves to a room as we will be camping for the next 5 nights and need a bit of pampering!  More dust has been getting into the truck and we work out where it is coming from - a huge hole in the bodywork just under the back wheel so basically, as the wheel turns it spews dust into the hole.  We manage to find a panel beaters in the hope they will have some bodywork filler but I think we were being little hopeful.  Instead, they had some foam from an old headrest which they stuffed into the hole and we gaffer taped over it!!  Let’s hope it will hold together on the 120km journey on dirt roads!
 

19th June

South Luangwa National Park here we come.  Journey isn’t too bad and the gaffer tape on the left hand side has worked a treat – it is just coming in the right hand side now instead!!  Make good time to Flatdogs which is where we will stay for the next 3 nights and set up camp overlooking the riverfront.   Book ourselves onto an evening game drive and have a little look around.   Having heard so much about South Luangwa National Park we are excited at the thought of what we will find in the park that night.  The answer......4 elephants, lots of impala and pretty much nothing else.  Being in the park after dark is always exciting as you never know what’s round the corner and you aren’t allowed in the park in private vehicles after 6.00pm.  However, seeing basically bugger all in 4 hours isn’t very enjoyable- especially when you have to pay US$120!!  We get back to camp very disappointed and decide that was the worst US$120 we have spent so far.

20th June

Turns out the other game viewing truck saw 3 Leopards last night – we’re not jealous at all!!!!!!  Based on this information and seeing everyone else’s photos of lions and leopards in South Luangwa we reluctantly book ourselves on another evening game drive and wonder if we could be wasting another 120 US$.  We had obviously been good boys and girls as we saw pretty much everything you would want to see: lions with 3 cubs, elephants, hyenas, honey badger and a leopard drinking from the river – the perfect game drive.  Unfortunately, the camera battery ran out just as we saw the lions but we managed to get one or two photos, unfortunately, none of the Leopard!  Went to bed pretty happy and were treated to the sound of lions roaring from across the river.  The lions kept going pretty much most of the night and were joined by a third lion that seemed to be on our side of the river and not very far away!.  Toby got up about 6.30am to make a cup of coffee and once his eyes had focussed saw 2 huge male lions sitting on the bank across the river directly opposite our tent.  We later found out that there were also 6 lions that walked through Flatdogs camp after an injured buffalo that was in the area.  Unfortunately we didn’t see those ones but it was amazing to wake up and see 2 lions opposite the river.  Half an hour later a large herd of ele’s came down to the river and we watched as they went for a quick swim and crossed to the other side.  All before 8.30am!!       

22nd June

Move to another camp today – Wildlife Camp - which is just downstream from Flatdogs but is a little more ‘wild’.   They have really good rates for their bush tents so we take one of those instead of camping and will just cook our own food instead!!  The view from our tent is one of the best we have had on the whole trip (see photos) and Wildlife Camp seems more relaxed than Flatdogs.    Can’t be bothered to cook so have supper in the restaurant and promise to cook a good bacon and eggs brunch after the morning game drive tomorrow!!

23rd June

Up early for the game drive – don’t see an awful lot of game but don’t really mind due to the great one we had the other night.  It was nice to see the park in daylight as well.   Get back to camp, can’t be bothered to cook brunch so order lunch from the restaurant and promise to cook that night!! Spend the rest of the day by the pool and Oli plays with the 3 kids who live there which is great for him.   Get the braai (barbecue) going that night and go to cook our lovely steak  and eggs.  Unfortunately, it appears that I have actually bought pork and not steak - pork is Toby’s least favourite meat – and it tastes like an old tyre!!   Another great culinary achievement from Mrs Glyn!!!!  Spot some crocodiles in the river so throw them the meat which even they ignore!!!  

Just as it is dusking we have 3 ele’s come through the camp and watch as another herd cross the river just below us.  A great end to our stay in Zambia.   Tomorrow we are off to Malawi.