Zambia, Africa

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Chobe was our last stop in Botswana before crossing into Zambia. The border here is actually the intersection of four countries - Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Namibia. The ferry that took us across the Chobe River looked like it might sink at any time. This was the first proper chaotic border crossing we'd been to in Africa. Zambia hasn't been quite as fortunate as Botswana and suffers from widespread corruption.

Our first stop in Zambia was Livingstone - gateway to the Victoria Falls. Our campsite here was upstream of the falls on the Zambezi River with Zimbabwe on the opposite bank.

We spent a day at the falls on the Zambian side. It's over 100m high and over a mile long. The amount of spray created by the falls ensured that everyone got soaked. Right next to the falls is a bridge that joins Zambia to Zimbabwe. The huge bridge crossed a gorge downstream of the falls and this is where they do bungee jumping. Because of this you can get a temporary pass to leave Zambia and go out onto the bridge. We walked across and into Zimbabwe, but turned back before the border control. So, technically I have been to Zimbabwe, but I didn't see much of the country!

At the moment Zimbabwe is still a mess. The rate of inflation is 65 followed by 108 zeros percent (6.5 x 10 to the 109), so they use other countries' currencies. For about 60p I managed to buy myself a 20 trillion and a 10 trillion Zimbabwe dollar note. There is also very little to buy in Zimbabwe so people come across to Zambia to do their shopping. The supermarket in central Livingstone looked like it was in the process of being looted. Half the shelves were empty and people were fighting over the bread. One of the effects for us as tourists is that everything tourism related in Livingstone has doubled in price in the last year. All potential tourists for the Zimbabwean side of the falls are all now coming to Livingstone instead.

Because Vic Falls basically drops into a canyon, the best way to see it is from the air. We took a microlight over the falls which was amazing. Microlights are great fun as there are no sides to the aircraft so you can see right underneath. We also spotted a few hippos and a giraffe.

One activity that had been highly recommended by many of our friends was a "lion walk". The company that runs the activity is a non-profit organisation that is trying to increase the population of lions which had dropped by 90% in the last 40 years.

They hand rear lion cubs and allow tourists to interact with them up to about a year old. They are then released into increasingly more realistic environments. The next generation that are born are wild enough to then be released into the wild proper.

We were assured, though, that the three 8 and 9 month old lions that we had were not tame. They were wild and, although under a year old, were bigger than me.

We walked with the lions through the bush and were able to (carefully) stroke them when they decided to sit down and take a rest. It was an absolutely incredible experience and something you can't really do anywhere else in the world.

From Livingstone we headed east to Lake Kariba. Unlike previous campsites they didn't even bother with an electric fence to keep the hippos out and so the hippos just wandered around the edge of the campsite at night.

The lake is man-made, created when the Kariba Dam was built in the 50's/60's. It provides hydroelectric power for both Zambia and Zimbabwe. The French built the dam originally and were recently asked whether more turbines could be fitted to produce more electricity. When they responded by saying the dam was too weak for any alterations, the Zambians and Zimbabweans just got the Chinese to put the turbines in instead.

From Lake Kariba we stopped at Lusaka, capital of Zambia. It bizarrely had an Irish pub that sold a dish called "O'Toole's chicken schnitzel". O'Toole is my mother's maiden name. North of Lusaka we stopped at Chipata on our way to the border with Malawi.

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