Birthdays on the Road in Zambia

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Blocked by Bill

Back in possession of the Beast in the afternoon (after we had had the good people at Toyota Lilongwe replace anything and everything that looked worn or tired) we decided to make our dash deep into Zambia in an attempt to get to South Luangwa National Park before dark. We knew that this would be ambitious, but we’d already spent a day more than we had wanted in Lilongwe and (despite finding a very agreeable Italian restaurant and some good shops) were desperate to get back to the bush.

Frustratingly Bill Clinton conspired against our escape from Lilongwe as we were caught up in a large traffic jam caused by the temporary closure of the main (only) airport/city road so as to better provide his travelcade with smooth transit. Grrr. No doubt all the aid agencies were just frothing at the thought of his arrival.

The border itself was a relatively stress free affair, but took almost two hours to get across due to officials moving in a caught-in-molasses-like slow motion. Despite the delays caused by Bill and the border we thought “sod it”, we’ll still try and get to South Luangwa rather than spending a night in a nowhere town short of our destination. So, with the sun setting on us we still had well over 100km of the worst dirt road yet encountered to navigate.

Off-Roading by Moonlight

Surprisingly, 4x4’ing in the dark is not too bad. What other traffic there was on the road had stopped for the night (usually in the middle of the road), but their positions were well marked by the cooking fires lit by drivers or the still smouldering remains of their engines. From time to time extra light was provided by the little roadside wild fires that seem to burn everywhere in Africa in dry season. Our headlights (even though obscured by bull bars and a generous crust of mashed bugs) showed up all the potholes, crevasses and rocks in much more dramatic relief than sunlight. Hippos were the only problem, because they are very active at night and find roads a good way from getting to A to B and pay about as much attention to the road rules as your average Zambian driver.

Despite the novelty of the night drive we got to South Luangwa with no real drama (and were quite buzzed out about seeing hippos on the road as we pulled into the camp). We stayed at a fantastic camp ground called Flatdogs (the slang word for crocodiles) which is right across the river from the national park. As it is heading into dry season elephants and hippos have no worries about crossing the river and ambling around the campsite, especially once the lights are out.

South Luangwa is just stuffed with wild life. We spent a fantastic day driving ourselves around and taking turns up on the roof of the Beast. Sometimes there were so many animals in sight at the same time all you could do was gaze on while humming “the circle of life”. On our second night we were woken early in the morning by a hippo grazing only three meters from the ladder to our tent (noisy critter)! Apparently overseas doctors are regularly funded to stay at Flatdogs and support the dozen plus camps around the national park and also the local clinics, so it maybe somewhere we visit again in the future.

After South Luangwa we blasted into the west of Zambia stopping only for the night in the capital, Lusaka, to grab a bit of food and some local information to aid our planning (we had discovered that half the roads in our atlas don’t exist anymore - god knows where they have gone, I suspect they were never built in the first place). Staying in the inner city backpackers we stumbled upon an important difference between backpackers and those with independent transport - we tweaked that the first question we were always being asked was not, as on previous trips, “where have you come from” but “where are you going next…”!

We had hoped to head into the large National Park of Kafue and drive down through it towards Livingstone and the Victoria Falls. Despite a lovely first night in the park, it became clear that it was exceedingly underdeveloped and that driving through to the southern end of it was not possible (those missing roads again…). The park staff were pretty much scratching their heads as to what to do with visitors because so few come through these days, but they were very friendly and took us on a night drive (sadly our torch conked out half way through) and make sure we had a roaring fire on our return. The night sky was the best we’d ever seen due to crystal clear weather and a late rising moon. Never seen so much of the Milky Way before - in the past it’s always been a smudge behind the stars but in Kafue we could see real depth and detail in it, all smoky swirls and fringes.

To the Falls

Late in the afternoon, perhaps a bit hastily, we decided not to persevere with Kafue and head on to Livingstone, because (i) the staff at the second camp we went to were visibly hostile to the fact that visitors had arrived (have to say that it was not run by actual national park staff but rather a resort on the edge of it) and (ii) rumour had it that there had been no petrol at any stations in a 200km radius for the last two weeks, so we couldn’t spare any for more game drives, which kinda defeated the purpose of being in the park. A very back route was plotted to get us to Livingstone and we quickly found ourselves driving along sandy trails where the only tire tracks were from ox drawn carts and the odd bicycle. It was a good adventure as all the people we came across were super friendly and happy to help out with directions. To help us navigate we started picking up locals hitching from one village to the next - they seemed about as surprised at us being there as we were. There was one heart stopping moment when the track ended at a large river. With no bridge and not enough petrol to backtrack we thought we were up shit creek and no mistake. Our worried quizzing of the locals had them all just cracking up with laughter - there was a pontoon ferry we had missed about 500 meters back down the track. All mocking of African infrastructure humbly taken back.

Birthday Celebrations

In Livingstone on K’s birthday we went to see the falls - always found waterfalls impressive, but only in a five minute sort of a way (“Lots of water eh?….Now, what’s for lunch?”). The Vic Falls are an exceptional exception. An almost two kilometer wide stretch of thundering water, the bottom of which is obscured by the constant churn of spray that the million litres per second of (very green) water send pluming into the air - giving the falls their local name of “smoke that thunders”. The spray make standing anywhere within 500 meters of the falls like being caught in a summer downpour and also mean that the falls are viewed through an ever present rainbow.

A bit guiltily we did slink across the border into Zimbabwe to see the falls from that side as well…really need to see the falls from both sides of the river to truly appreciate the scope of them blah blah blah (true actually).

The day after K’s birthday we went white water rafting. K had decided that she didn’t want to do this on her birthday, arguing that falling out of a raft would not be a very happy way to spend the day. To prove the wisdom of her words she then proceeded to fall out of the raft more than any of the other 35 people on the expedition. On the mighty Zambezi River the daring raft, the thrill seekers kayak and the adrenaline junkies boogie board, K rubbed our collective noses in it and got the most bang for her buck by hurling herself off the raft at the start of the only two class five rapids and bobbing down on her own steam. She repeated the exercise again on one of the other rapids as well, just to sample all the various rescue methods on offer.

My birthday, two days later, was a much more relaxed affair as we had de-camped to Jungle Junction, an island retreat on tiny Bovu Island, 40km up the river. It is a beautiful and rustic place with spaced out wood and thatched buildings and sandy, windy linking them which are lit by candle and lantern at night. Here we pretty much had the island to ourselves, lounging on the deck of our bungalow, raiding their impressive library, drinking with Brett the owner at the self-service bar and wandering around the nearby villages (where we went to church (on my birthday no less), school and the local clinic).

Across the boarder in Botswana now, catching our breath before we head on a four day trip into Chobe and Moremi to see lions!

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Photos

Elephants Crossing
We saw these elephants while on an evening safari - they are crossing out of the park right into Flatdogs camp - should have just stayed put!

Pontoon Crossing
I have no idea what a heavy vehicle pontoon was doing at the end of 60km of tracks that see next to no traffic...but no complaints!

Birthday at Vic Falls
We spent about 5 hours scurrying around the Zambia side of the falls and another couple on the Zim side - Here's K looking at lot like she did after rafting.

Local at Bovu Islands
Don't see many old fellas in Africa these days. They make their own fun here too - he'd grown his owh tabacco for the ciggie and brewed his own beer from maize, soya and brown sugar.

School at Bovu
The kids are great fun - they love having their picture taken, especially with digital so they can see the results. Tough education system though - 340 kids, 3 teachers and a principal that has been on "leave" for 3 months.

Comments

[Jenny Wigley]

Great adventure!
Happy birthdays to you both - very belatedly I'm sorry. You are having the most fantastic adventure seeing all these places and animals etc. Great photo of the Falls. It certainly beats hanging around at school all day!! Love Jen