Blogs from Zambia, Africa - page 2

I guess not every day can be an exciting one. We just spent 10 hours in the car driving on relative good tarmac (occasional massive pothole) through endless forests and scrubland and mainly in the rain through Zambia. I could talk about getting slightly dodgy sausages for lunch and the time it took to arrange road tax as well as the slightly dodgy man who wanted us to pay something called “council tax” (amounting to £4) but it is probably better you understand we mostly drove a long way. The good news is we are on track and Nelly is holding up well although we think the rear shock absorbers might have had it after yesterday’s brutal drive so we hope to pick up some new ones tomorrow on our way through Lusaka. It’s raining so ... read more

2019 December 2nd times in Zambia! Joy’s Wedding party and staying Gwen’s house. Weather was very hot!! I could not handle it. Just lazy and relaxing in Gwen’s house. ... read more

Today, we flew from Cape Town to Johannesburg and then on to Livingstone, Zambia, a new country. We were immediately driven to our lodge, Toka Leya, just outside of Livingstone. Livingstone and surrounding areas are very rural and impoverished with over 50% unemployment. But our lodge was lovely. Our guide, Godfrey, had us quickly unpack and then took us on a personal Zambezi River Cruise where we saw many, many hippos, water bucks, birds and a huge male Cape Buffalo. The other guests at our lodge consisted of 14 people on a tour with OATS, Overseas Adventure Travel Services, an educational tour. After a nice dinner, we went immediately to bed. Mornings on safari start early so early bedtime is a good thing.... read more

It is getting close to dusk when we see the leopard in the tree. Half asleep, it ignores us completely. We drive off to watch the sun set across the river and then quietly return. With the aid of our lights we find the young leopard again. He is slowly walking in dense vegetation, carefully approaching a group of impala. Closer and closer but an impala suddenly barks, it has sensed his presence. Now they are all alert, looking and listening in the dark. The leopard moves away, these will not be his dinner tonight. We drove in to South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, from Malawi. It was a warm drive along a good road, with a chaotic but friendly border post at halfway. We passed many clusters of brick huts, basic villages where families live ... read more

20 July 19 - We arived in Livingstone after a short flight from Johannesburg, to stay two nights at the Avani Hotel located close to the Falls. We were able to quickly get our visa for both Zimbabwe and Zambia on arrival and were out of the airport and at our hotel by midday. We decided to take a tour on the river in the afternoon, another couple joined us in a small boat to explore the narrow channels and islands above the falls. We sped over the rapids before stopping at a small island on the zambezi to have a picnic. One of the crew checked there were no elephants, crocodiles or hippos on the island before we were able to go ashore. The two man crew set up a little table for drinks and ... read more