Northern Kafue - Zambia

We were awoken again at daybreak by a Lion calling in the distance, probably the same one we had heard yesterday. It was frustrating that we would be leaving Kaingu without seeing him or her but that's the way it goes sometimes.

Before setting off we had one last coffee with Hugh & Denise, it was a shame we had only had a short time together as we had got on really well but we promised to visit them the next time we were down in South Africa

Our plan today was to drive North from Kaingu until we hit the  M9 highway from Lusaka to Mongu in the the west of Zambia and from there turn towards a town called Mumbwa. This was where the nearest immigration office was and where we hoped to get our visa's extended. Our existing visa's only had two days left to run so it was essential this went smoothly otherwise we faced hefty fines or even worse.

The track North from Kaingu is very badly potholed plus we had to stop at a vetinary checkpoint, where they wanted to search the back box, so progress was slow. Three hours after leaving the Kaingu we finally hit the M9 tar road to Lusaka, at least now we could make good time to Mumbwa.

We arrived at Mumbwa at 2pm to be told the immigration office was next to the Police station (figures!). At Kaingu, one of the local guides, Michael, had given us a letter of introduction to 'his friend' the Inspector of Police whom he said could clear the way for us with the immigration people or that was the plan.

At the police station we asked to see the Inspector and off they went to get him. Michael had been unable to forewarn the Inspector we would be coming so we girded our loins on how he would react to two strange ferengi's (foreigners) expecting him to help with the immigration officers.

We needn't have worried because the Inspector wasn't in so we were on our own after all. Grasping the bull by the horns I left Sue in the Landy and went across the compound to the immigration office to face the music.

The immigration office was a small dingy room amongst a complex of dingy rooms. It was empty except for an officer on the phone to one of his mates. Studiously ignoring my presence he continued for about five minutes then finishing his call imperiously waved me to sit down. 

Explaining we needed to extend our visa's I handed over our passports, after a long look he asked where the receipt was for our existing visa's which he said should be written in the passport with the visa.

I told him about the Jollyboys waiver package but he had never heard of this before! He asked to see something from Jollyboys proving we had paid for the visa, but Jollyboys don't provide one,  I guess most people leave Zambia before the 14 day waiver expires and we had assumed that having the entry stamp in our passport was proof enough we had entered the country legitimately. 

As we had no proof of payment he started on about the need to pay for a new visa and it became clear he saw this as an opportunity to get some money out of us. In desperation I called Jollyboys on my mobile hoping they would sort this out over the phone but sods law instead of getting Kim or Sue or one of the others in charge the only one there was a poor local girl who struggled to understand what was going on.  

Eventually the penny dropped and I asked her to speak to the immigration officer to confirm the waiver package was genuine and our visa had been paid for. Handing the officer the phone I sat back, confident that at last we would now get this sorted, he listened to her for less than a minute then to my dismay started to lecture her over the phone!

Within another minute he was shouting down the phone, to say this wasn't going quite as I hoped is an understatement. Clearly she was trying her best to explain how the waiver worked but he wasn't listening and she in turn was getting stroppy which in turn was making him even more angry. Africa is still very much a bastion of male chauvinism, especially in the rural areas and Mumbwa is a very small rural town,  he didn't like being told how to do his job by a woman, especially by a city dweller even if she was a fellow Zambian! 

Without anymore ado he summarily handed me back my phone and began ranting about how the girl at Jollyboys was trying to tell him how to do his job and if they used a waiver they should provide us with a letter or something to prove we had paid for our visa  - amen to that I thought.

The only course of action was to agree with all he said and put the blame squarely on the stupid women at Jollyboys, this seemed to hit a nerve and he started to calm down.

By now one of his mates had wandered in for a chat and I suddenly became in the way so picking up our passports he started to write in our new visa's, great we were home free, well almost!

He held out our passports for me to take then suddenly asked if I liked beer, here we go I thought. I said yes when I can get it and he replied they liked beer too! Oh well, "would he like a nice cold beer from my fridge as a small gift, yes he would and so would his mate"! What the hell, two beers and just one hour to get out of there with new visa's was cheap at the price.

Mumbwa has no supermarkets just a few shops owned by Indians and a few little Dukkas or street stalls owned by Zambians. We had hoped to get some fresh milk and bread but nothing doing so after filling up with fuel we headed out of town back the way we had come, it was 3.30pm.

It was too late to head into the Northern Kafue today, we would just have to find somewhere to camp on the way. Chris's book mentioned a place called Mukambi Safari Lodge which was situated just past where we had joined the M9 from Kaingu, as this is close to the turning into the Northern Kafue then this looked our best bet.

The drive from Mumbwa down the M9 to Mukambi is about an hour and a half's drive. It was that lovely time of day when the late afternoon Sun casts shadows across the bush and everything is bright green and yellows. After our recent journeys on rough roads it was a welcome change to just be able to switch to auto pilot and chill out on a empty decent tar road. 

We were doing about 80km per hour and chatting away feeling rather pleased with ourselves for getting off so lightly at the immigration office when without any warning we hit it, a bloody big speed hump. We hadn't seen a warning sign and the light was fading so it caught me completely by surprise.  All of a sudden Rupert lifted off the ground and came down with huge thud, which with all the weight that we carry wasn't good.

We stopped and checked the vehicle out, everything looked ok so as time was getting on we pushed on. Mukambi is a nice lodge but hardly what you would call bush being just a short distance from the M9. Our first act on arrival was to have a cold beer on the veranda overlooking the river. As we sat there enjoying the surroundings a small warthog piglet came mooching along followed by two full grown adults, without a second thought all three ambled into the bar and settled down  like Labradors in an English country pub - it certainly gave a whole new meaning to Pork Scratchings with your pint!

The lodge campsite was set in a nice spot on the banks of the Kafue river but was rather spoilt by having a workman's trailer camp a short distance away. However, we would just overnight here before heading further North so it didn't really matter. We were the only people there and the views across the river were beautiful. As we were setting up for dinner a large Elephant suddenly wandered onto the site, we kept an eye on him in case he got too close but eventually he wandered off down the river, we found out later that like the warthogs he is almost a permanent resident.

As Sue was cooking dinner I decided to check out Rupert more closely for damage from the speed hump. At first all looked well but then I got underneath with a torch and my heart sank, one end of the bracket holding up the reserve fuel tank under the rear wheel arch had snapped, the only thing stopping the tank from collapsing completely was the other end of the bracket which was taking all the strain.

Now this tank is piggy backed onto the main tank and stands between it and the filler cap so when you fill up with fuel this tank receives the fuel first then gravity feeds it onto the main tank. Only when the main is full does the reserve start to fill up, ergo if we lost this tank in the middle of nowhere it would be serious. It was clear we could not risk going on without getting this re-welded but apart from Mumbwa, which hadn't looked like it had any workshops, there was nowhere around for miles.

As if this wasn't bad enough when I checked the roof racks more closely I also found hairline fractures in two of the struts on the rear rack which carries a lot of heavy stuff such as the spare tyre and ground tent - this was bad!  

In the morning we packed up then went to the lodge to pay our bill. The camping cost US$ 10 each which was a bit pricey given the facilities compared with Kaingu's for just US$2 more. As it was when we went to the lodge Tom & Viv from Kaingu were already there having breakfast with Robyn and Edjan who own Mukambi. Robyn and Edjan used to manage various camps for others but have now bought Mukambi. The lodge apparently has been through hard times so they plan to go into partnership with Kaingu to offer tourists a two centre experience, we hope it goes well as they are all nice people.

We showed Edjan our broken bracket and he confirmed my fear that there was nowhere in Mukambi or anywhere in the area who could fix it but as luck would have it he had a guy who could weld it for us (in this part of the world the lodges have to be pretty much self sufficient) and he set about getting him on the case.

However, the roof rack was another matter, that is made out of Aluminium and the only possibility to get that done was in Lusaka, a good half days drive in the opposite direction to the way we wanted to go. In addition the rack would need to be removed which meant completely offloading all our bulky stuff and this would need to be stored securely somewhere, so we were looking at at a least a 4 day stopover over in Lusaka, this was turning into a logistical nightmare.

If we went to Lusaka now then this would bugger up all our plans to see the Northern Kafue and Liuwa Plains as it was hardly worth trekking all the way back. After some thought we decided as the rack struts were fractured but not yet broken we would risk going into the Northern Kafue region then see how it survived that before deciding whether to head West to Liuwa as Liuwa was a major expedition in its own right. 

We had been to the Northern Kafue just once before in 2000 on a fly in holiday from the UK. Then we had stayed at Lunga River Lodge an exclusive remote spot on the banks of the Lunga River and at Busanga Bushcamp their very small camp on the Busanga Plains.

Both camps had been great for different reasons, canoeing on the River with the Hippo and Ele's at Lunga was unforgettable followed by a days drive to the vast plains of Busanga which hosted a pride of tree climbing Lions. At the time both camps were owned and run by a South African called Ed Smythe who lived full time at Lunga. We told Ed then that we dreamt of eventually getting our own vehicle and coming back out to Africa to do our own thing but we never thought we would ever see him again.

Then in 2004 as we were planning this trip and looking for a vehicle we were very surprised to run into him at the Destinations travel show in London. We told him we hoped to head off in 2005 and asked when we reached Zambia could we swing by the lodge or more likely the Bushcamp for a stay? He said yes no problem but we got the distinct impression he was not that keen on the idea of a couple of dirty vagabonds just pitching up while he had high paying guests in residence! 

Anyway deep down we knew we would probably never make it as the trip in 2000 had had cost quite a bit and even without the flights we probably couldn't afford to pay his prices, besides which both camps are so remote we had no idea how to find them by road.

Imagine our surprise then when chatting to Edjan and Robyn to discover that they now ran the Busanga Bushcamp and if we wanted to stay there then we were very welcome to drive there! Apparently only this year Ed Smythe had sold Lunga to a big safari company called Wilderness Safari's and Edjan and Robyn had somehow managed to get the lease on Busanga, albeit for just two years. Long term they felt eventually Wilderness would take them over and then sadly would change Busanga from its rustic state and start charging astronomical prices to stay there. 

Therefore this might be our one and only chance to do this under our own steam but the proviso was once there we would have to park up and use their vehicles and guides to get around, which was fair enough given its a private concession with overseas visitors. Even doing it this way though would cost us US$ 325 per person per night, which was a decent reduction of US$ 50 each on their normal rate, for that we would get all meals, drinks and activities but we would still have to pay the park entry fees of US$ 40 each per day as well!

They were not exactly giving it away but we knew once Wilderness got their hands on it we would probably be paying at least twice that amount, sadly African safari's don't come cheap anywhere anymore!