Zambia

The drive into Zambia was uneventful but the border crossing did take a bit of time. We are getting used to the system where you fill in a card at one end (Note: it is good to take your own pen), get stamped out, walk to the next building which could be anywhere from 100m to 1km away and fill in another card. Then you hand over your money and passport and hope for the best. Our driver (Blessed) is from Zimbabwe and had told us that Victoria Falls was better to see from the 'Zim' side. The Victoria Falls and the town of Livingstone is the main reason we are going to Zambia so we decided to get a double entry visa just in case we wanted to go across.

While waiting for the return of our passports one opportunistic person was trying to find a wife. Apparently Claire is worth 10 000 houses, if only she would divorce Steve first! What he didn't elaborate on was the type of house, so we gave it a miss as we have seen some very simple 'shacks' and some beautiful mansions during our driving so far.

With passports back and Claire feeling quite relieved that she still had enough spare pages to get back to Australia we headed to our next camp. This camp was called 'Mama Rula's' located just outside of Chipata and was one of the better sites that we stayed at. A small incident when Craig managed to drop the wind guard for the gas stove on his toes, luckily we have a selection of medical personal on the truck so he was treated and hobbled off to luxury of the thatched bar and TV. Reception was limited although sport seems to be the universal channel. The rest of us relaxed in the shade playing cards, reading and using the bars electricity to go through the hundreds of photos we had taken. For dinner that night we decided to share with the leader and driver of the Tucan truck that had arrived just after us. We were getting to know the tour leader of this truck fairly well as they had followed us from Karen Camp in Nairobi.

Like us, the Tucan group subcontracted to local operators for the safari components. During their trip to the Masai Mara, the van that they were travelling in was involved in a major accident that required some airlifting to hospitals. During the 3hour wait for medical assistance the local Masai built them a shelter for shade and provided water. Those that weren't injured had elected not to continue their tour past Zanzibar so the truck was essentially in transit through the Zambia when they picked up the next group of passengers. It made us realise why Fiona and Blessed were always talking to us about wearing seat belts and asking about the local drivers and were we comfortable with the driving.

After the short drive to Chipata we had quite a long one of around 600km to Lusaka and our eventual camp site of Eureka. It was the first time that we were long periods without service stations or facilities so the roadside 'bush bathroom' was in use. One unlucky person received a bite/sting during the process but apart from being embarrassed she was fine. On the way through Lusaka we made a quick stop at small shopping centre. It was difficult to choose between getting some more snacks at 'Super Spar' or the internet cafe that actually had a working connection at reasonable speed. In the end Steve went for technology and Claire went for food. Fruit is a bit sparse in East Africa so it is good to stock up when you get to the western-style supermarkets, but just be prepared to pay a lot for it.

The campsite at Lusaka was quite large and has its own game reserve attached to it which can be explored on foot. We headed out as a group but only found a disused quarry so went back disappointed. The 2 of us made a late decision to try the other direction on our own and were rewarded by finding a small herd of Zebra including a young foal. We were crouching behind some trees watching and they came to within about 20m of us. We are pretty sure they knew we were there as the front couple kept looking our way but they were still content to graze and let the young foal walk around. In the end Claire realised that she was on cooking duty and we had to return to the camp. We also saw a few Gazelle but they were quite skittish and we didn't get very close.

This was the last night of our tour before reaching Livingstone where we would be changing trucks. When we arrive in Livingstone tomorrow all our meals are up to ourselves but we still use the Acacia Africa tents and truck to store our stuff. For dinner we tried to use everything fresh that we had left so it was an interesting mix of pasta and salad.