Advertisement
Published: April 19th 2010
Edit Blog Post
Welcome to Zambia
According to our essential Lonely Planet Southern Africa guide if you go to Zambia and have 3 days go to Vic Falls; if you have 1 week go to Vic Falls and if you have 1 month go to Vic Falls! So, rather understandably, most of our Zambian time was spent enjoying Vic Falls.
There was a bit of a wierd day in Lusaka, Zambia's capital first though. The predominantly Irish overland tour group (oh and no offense to our quarter Spanish representation but clearly Stef has been truly adopted by now), decided to stay in the “new hotel with friendly staff” which actually opened six years ago with a less than pleasant receptionist, then tried to book the Lusaka to Livingstone first class sleeper train and were ever so slightly perturbed to discover that the train had stopped running ten years ago, and when there were no taxis to be seen, caught a delightful journey with a nice elderly man on his way home from work, until he turned around and requested 10 times the cash recompense of a normal taxi. We learned our lesson - never be fooled by friendly old men!!
So
it was fairly rapidly the next day that the four weary travellers headed out of Lusaka on another bus to Livingstone which is where people enjoy the Zambian delights Victoria Falls has to offer. Although there were many plans afoot for Niall and Dee to leave Stylo after a couple of days as they REALLY needed to start making their way to Cape Town to meet Niall’s parents, we ended up staying for a whole week and what a week it was.
Victoria Falls
How to describe this natural wonder of the world? A day walking around and enjoying the splendor of Vic Falls is probably our highlight of the trip so far. Everyone should see this at least once in their lifetime. David Livingstone, the first European to see the Mosi-oa-Tunya ("the smoke that thunders") waterfall (which he renamed Victoria Falls after Queen Victoria), summed it up best when he said:
Scenes so lovely must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight.
It was rainy season in Zambia so there was about 600,000 litres of water flowing over the falls, over 10 times the level in the dry season. To view the falls, you walk along the opposite side of the gorge which the waterfall
drops into. The sound is like half a dozen jumbo jets taking off and the spray from the waterfall landing 100 metres below is like the heaviest rain imaginable. Everyone was completely soaked, but exhilarated from the experience. It is truly amazing!
St. Patrick’s Day 2010
After many days of Vic Falls browsing/lounging around by the pool at Fawlty Towers (no I’m not joking that was the name of the hostel); it was agreed that one hell of a hooly would be enjoyed in Zambia to celebrate St Patrick’s Day and also to ensure maximum enjoyment before Stylo left to go home 😞 So in an effort to forget about that for a few hours, we lined up microlite flights over the roaring Victoria Falls for Niall, Dee & Stef (see I told you she was Irish) first thing on the 17th March; next Mylo demonstrated his bravery/madness with a zipline, gorge swing and bungee jump over Victoria Falls; by lunch time we had all crossed over the line into Zimbabwe without actually going in and paying a visa; and then off we went back to Fawlty Towers to meet our friends Mark and Andrea again who had
managed to catch-up just in time to partake in some partying Irish style. And party we did, with the gang even enjoying the local night club until about 5 am. A great day!!
And onto Namibia
And it was with heavy hearts and a two day old hangover that we finally bade farewell to our faithful travel companions Mylo and Stef. We have shared some laughs, some tears, some wine, and lots of beers. We had a hell of an adventure together and we are going to miss them very much as they head back to their restaurant in Altafulla on the Spanish coast.
And then we had a long, long, long journey ahead of us - roughly 3000 kilometres - to not only sample a little of Namibia but we had to get to Cape Town to meet Niall’s parents. And we had 1 week to do it!!! So off we went, the bus from Livingstone to the border started well with a bit of music to suit the lonely mood “Obla-di, Obla-da, Life goes on…. Whoa-oh, la, la, la, la, life goes on”.
Then we got on the only bus from the Namibian side
of the border to get us to Windhoek, which turned out to be a 12 seater mini bus that took 15. And true to it’s spookily coincidental name “Life goes on”, the bus got us there 15 hours after we set off. The bus took until 3pm to fill up (in case we haven’t specifically mentioned, buses leave when full in Africa, not to a timescale) and leave the border and so we got to Windhoek at 6am the next morning. As there were no lights on the bus, you couldn't read; having spent nearly 8 months together everyday, our travellers had very little to discuss, and no one else on the bus seemed interested in conversing.
So while some people spend hundreds of pounds on elaborate yoga and meditation therapies to empty their minds of all thoughts, our travellers just sat on a cramped bus watching endless desert landscape with zero stimulus for 15 hours, trying ever so hard to think of one interesting thing to talk about. If Africa has taught us anything, it has taught the art of patience.
Windhoek and Swakopmund
After a day enjoying all the western delights Windhoek had to offer
(which didn’t include the rather noisy couple in the tent next door), we made the trip down to the coast of Swakopmund and dipped our toes in the Atlantic once again - which was absolutely freezing in this part of the world, especially considering the desert surroundings - and Niall dazzled everyone with his snowboarding turned sandboarding skills. We also met the lovely Alex from Canada, and having been on the snow every winter since she could walk, she was actually able to dazzle people on the sand. All good fun, and interesting to be taught how to use a snowboard by people who had never actually seen snow!!
The Kalahari desert is vast and barren, and in parts breathtakingly beautiful. But very difficult to navigate without your own transport so Namibia is now up there as one of the countries our two wanderers need to come back to, with a solid 4x4 and a little more cash.
A few days later, we were back on another 20 hour bus journey to get from Windhoek to Cape Town in advance of the McCarthy’s arrival. Thankfully it came with lighting, so several games of scrabble kept everyone occupied. Also,
there are rumors abound that a two night stay in the Westin is in order to soothe Dee’s weary travelling nerves and remind her what the real world is made of. But more on that next time!
Hello to all and keep in touch,
Dee and Niall
Advertisement
Tot: 0.171s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 11; qc: 61; dbt: 0.0514s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
James Small
non-member comment
What happen to Botswana?
Skip right through it? Hope you drank plenty of the local brew in Windhoek - well worth a 15 hour bus journey for. Namiba is well worth a return visit. Enjoy Cape Town.