Zambia

*Victoria Falls from the Zambian side - a much more intimate view than that from the Zimbabwe side.*

In between Zimbabwe and Zambia, we dipped our toe into Botswana, re-living a visit 8 years previously when we had done a fantastic safari on the Chobe River. Botswana was our first experience driving around Africa and will always hold a special place in our hearts. Our experience back then in a truck with a roof top tent was a big inspiration for what we are doing now. But since we had already spent three weeks driving the best national parks there, we just visited Kasane for a couple of days and then went on our way.

Luckily, the fix for the tilted camper we referenced in our last blog was easily fixed in a day at a Kasane, Botswana auto shop. One of the three passenger side brackets attaching the truck frame to the flatbed had broken apart because the top bolt had come loose allowing it to act as a hammer. Now we know that it is a weak point, Andy stays on top of checking it periodically. The two front brackets are only accessable after removing one of the boxes under the flatbed. However Andy has found a workaround by squeezing his hand in and taking photos with his phone of these attachment points on both sides of the camper to make sure nothing has moved.

*Here’s the broken bracket. This bracket had also broken its welds onto the frame six months earlier in Gabon.*

*Andy, always huge relief when we make it into a shop where there is the equipment and expertise to fix what could have been a more serious problem*

*Welder at Mario’s Auto Shop in Kasane, making it all better*

Once we took care of business in Botswana and squeezed in a Chobe River sunset cruise, we crossed the border into Zambia. Another slow border, but all went well.

Zambia was not a country that grabbed our hearts or minds. As we have said before, we never know if we are left feeling uninspired by our experiences in a country because of our own energy levels, a lack of taking the time for engagement, or other random factors. We were still feeling the pinch that started in Zimbabwe of high fees for tourists, so started off feeling a little grumpy. Plus we had just come off of another fix on the truck due to it’s weight and driving bad roads and we were still seeing consequences from inept work done by the Cape Town 4x4 shop. This meant that we were slightly nervous and jumping at every strange noise we heard driving rough roads.

We struggled a little to find those “wow” moments in Zambia. For us, those moments of excitement and connection usually come with pulling out our phones and wanting to take a lot of pictures. Unfortunately, our Zambia photo album is slim. Similarly to Cameroun on the west side of Africa, we are completely willing to admit that our lackluster experience was totally on us, and that there is a lot that we could have missed or left unexplored that would have turned things around.

*Happy and relieved that the truck is solid again*

*Our two week route through Zambia - close to 1500 km*

Our first stop in Zambia was Livingstone. Previously British controlled Northern Rhodesia, Zambia obtained independence in 1964. Much of Livingstone felt like crumbling remnants of a it’s namesake and a colonial past. But it still had classic African charm in the newer design elements and, of course, in the people.

*Stocking up on vegetables from the sidewalk market*

*Modern coffee shop where Dawn happily sipped a latte while Andy went off searching for auto maintenance supplies.*

We had visited Victoria Falls from the Zimbabwe side when we came to Botswana 8 years ago, but decided we had to visit it from the Zambian side too.

*Looking down on the great Zambezi River - Zambia’s namesake*

*Andy doing a ZimZam - one foot in Zimbabwe, one foot in Zambia on the bridge over the river*

*Baboons in the park were the most habituated to people that we had ever seen. A solo woman making her way down the trail to the Boiling Pots asked to walk with us to ward off any aggression.*

*Andy wanted to capture Dawn with the halo of light*

We visited at the end of the day and the park was serene and beautiful. Very different from the chaos typical of the Zimbabwe side.

When we were in Livingstone we were approached by Joe, the manager of a Christian mission organization with a facility at rapid 14. He invited us out to camp at their campground and we gladly accepted. It was a beautiful site and a lovely evening. Joe invited us to eat dinner with the students (tacos!!) and we enjoyed hearing all their stories. As a bonus Andy was even able to use the facility’s auto shop to change the oil.

A Side Note on Truck Stickers

We have been gradually accumulating stickers and reflective tape along the way, trying to keep ahead of different country’s regulations. At all costs we want to avoid giving the police an excuse to fine us. Below is a pictoral representation of everything we have to date.

*Country of origin sticker - required for some parts of Europe and Africa*

*Left Hand Drive sticker - required on the east side of Africa, where everyone drives on the left side but have Right Hand Drive vehicles*

Yellow reflective tape on sides and back required for “trucks and vans” in Mozambique. We are still not sure if we had to, but the auto shop in Eswatini that sold us the tape thought we would be smart to tape up.

*Red reflective tape required in the back for Zambia*

*The whole rear side, stickered up, no tickets for us!*

*And then, finally, the white reflective tape required on the front bumper for Zambia.*

We left Livingstone for a relaxing drive to Kafue National Park, stopping to camp at Itezhi tezhi lake along the way.

Since we had splurged in Zimbabwe with some expensive national park and wildlife sites, we decided to take it easy in Zambia and sleep on the edges, saving ourselves $55 a day. Having had several wildlife rich weeks, we were not anxious to commit to early morning game drives. Roy’s Camp was a beautiful, relaxing site on the Kafue River, complete with hippos grunting all night long.

*Roy’s Camp - a spot on the river all to ourselves with kind hosts*

*The classic African “donkey burner” a steel drum in which you light a fire to provide hot water*

*Classic African shower - the donkey burner brings lots of hot water - usually so piping hot you have to mix a lot of cold in*

*Toilet with a view of the river (there is a hippo out there that was eyeing Dawn)*

Our next stop was the capital of Lusaka. On our way in, we camped at Eureka Camping Park. We went for our normal late afternoon walk and discovered the camp was also home to zebras and giraffes.

*How can you not love zebras on your afternoon walk?*

Needing to re-supply and spend some time on wifi, we spent a couple of nights at a hotel in Lusaka (our first hotel in two months). We spent an informative few hours on a walking tour with Darius who shared his favorite spots and stories fo the city. We learned more about the difficulties with the economy, easy to get an eduation, hard to then find a job. The cost of maize, the staple food, had recently quadrupled as the currency was devaluing. Everyone was feeling the pinch. It is also one of the youngest countrys in the world based on median age which puts even more pressure on creating jobs. Lusaka feels busy and thriving but poverty in rural areas persists with over 60% of rural residents living below the poverty line.

*Freedom statue in Lusaka - depicting breaking free of the chains of colonialism*

Our final major stop in Zambia was South Luangwe National Park. We did drive into the park one day, but mostly we chose to spend four days at Wildlife Camp, a beautiful camp on the Luangwe River. Just outside the park, the wildlife were still present but we did not have to pay the park fees.

*Hippo on the river - not the one that scared us as we were too nervous to stop and take a picture of that one*

Hippo Fright

Another side note - our scariest wildlife moment in Africa. Camping on the Luangwe river at a private site outside of Mfuwe before we went to the park, we decided to go for a morning walk. We had been on many walks in camping areas with wildlife now and were likely over confident. We set off on the dirt road toward the village. We had seen elephants on the drive in so were on alert. We walked a few kilometers, visited the village artisans then turned around to walk back to camp. On the way a safari truck stopped by and asked us where we were going, we explained that we were walking back to our camp. The driver looked at us and said “please don’t walk here, it is very dangerous and you could lose your life.” Well. Highly nervous now, we set off on the final kilometer, senses now really on high alert. All of a sudden, on a straight stretch of road in between a marshy area and the main river, Dawn saw a big nose edge out from behind a tree (about 75’ away) and all of a sudden a huge hippo was staring at us. It seemed to be saying “really? this is my territory and you think you are walking through??” We started a slow but steady backing up, found a climbable tree and waited. The hippo seemed to decide we had shown enough respect and ambled on its way towards the river. So we began a hilarious dance of edging our way from climbable tree to climbable tree unsure how far it had gone into the bush. We made it into site of the camp and then, elephants. So another detour, although they seemed pretty relaxed about us. Phew. Definitely got our adreneline going.

*Visiting artisans in Mfuwe - painting textiles.*

*Rhoda at the women’s art collective in Mfuwe. They received a micro loan to get started, now are able to send their children to good schools with the proceeds earned.*

*Elephant in the campground water hole at Wildlife Camp*

*This mom with her baby felt just fine wandering by our campsite*

*Making use of our own shady palapa. After two years of not using it, remembered we had a table cloth for our outside table!*

*Local paddling by unconcerned by hippos in the river. We were concerned for him.*

The first monkeys and baboons in camp six months ago were cute. Now Andy makes it his personal mission to chase them away. They are quick as lightening and will steal food right out from under your nose. Some of them can also open our camper door . . .

*Giraffe awkwardly drinking at the camp waterhole*

*Stopping off at Mulberry Mongoose in Mfuwe - artists making jewelry out of recovered poaching snares. Proceeds to to wildlife conservation.*

Well, if you made it this far, thank you for reading. We apologize for a very lackluster blog this time. Zambia was an easy place to travel, but did not stand out from other surrounding countrys for us. We are undaunted and moving on, who knows what the next few weeks will bring!

Malawi

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