Lufupa, Northern Kafue & Lusaka Zambia

With the fuel tank bracket fixed and the GPS co-ordinates for Busanga from Edjan we headed back to the M9 and the turn off to the Northern half of the Kafue National Park. Our next destination was    Lufupa, a lodge midway in the park which has the only public campsite.

You reach the national park gate to the Northern Kafue almost as soon as you turn off the M9, here you pay the entrance fee for you and your car to the rangers. It cost US$ 15 each per day entrance fee and $15 per day for Rupert, they also charged $5 per day each to camp, on top of this we would pay Lufupa another $7 each per day for use of their campsite, a total of US$ 69 per day, we were certainly feeling the difference in park fees now we were out of Southern Africa.  

We reached Lufupa around 3pm, although situated in a beautiful spot overlooking the confluence of the Lufupa and Kafue Rivers the lodge itself was in dire need of a makeover. The rooms were aged thatched rondavals which strangely were grouped away from the river amidst the offices and workshops so our first impressions were not that favourable.   

However, we were very pleasantly surprised to find that the campsite itself was really nice situated right along the riverbank with decent loos and showers conveniently spread out amongst the sites. The fact the campsite was better situated than the lodge accommodation is almost unheard of, although as both are now owned by Wilderness Safari's it remains to be seen how much longer this arrangement will survive as Wilderness has plans to make the lodge more upmarket.

There was just one other group camping on a site nearest to the lodge so we went down the other end well away where we could be on our own. Apart from the views most sites had their own thatched Lapa's with benches and tables which are very handy for cooking under especially if it rains. Another neat thing was the lodge provided guys who brought us firewood and lit our fire each night (and morning if we wanted it) and made sure the boiler to heat the water in the showers was always hot, all things you have to do yourself further South.

On arrival we booked a night drive with the lodge, its not every place in the bush that you can legally do this so we usually take the opportunity whenever it presents itself. The others on the drive were all staying at the Lodge, so the plan was to collect them first then drive to the campsite to pick us up at 8pm. However, by 8.15 no one had showed up, had they forgotten us or could they not find us?  The fact we were camped on the furthest site in the darkest reaches of the camp probably did not help. To top it all we could hear Lions calling so we were really impatient to be off, finally we saw lights approaching and the lodge vehicle arrived with tourists in tow, to say they looked shocked to see where we were camping isolated and without guards is an understatement!

Unfortunately we didn't see any Lions on the drive but we did see nocturnal animals such as the African Wildcat, Spotted Genet, Civet Cat, Bushbabys, White Tailed Mongoose and a very nervous group of Elephants. Returning to camp at 10.30pm, the guides dropped us off then raced off into the darkness, once again we were all alone; as if to taunt us the Lions started calling again in the darkness, quickly we stoked up the fire, not a situation for the faint hearted.

Next day we allowed ourselves the luxury of sleeping in till 9am, Rupert had developed a slight knocking noise on the way to Lufupa so we decided to stay in camp, check him out and do a few other jobs. Crawling under Rupert the first blow was to find a rear shock had sprung its mounting and lost all the fixings and as we have twin shocks at the rear we only carry spare front shocks and mounting so we would need to improvise something.

The problem is here you cannot just pop round to a store or garage so this is where all the assorted old bolts, washers and sundry bits you need to carry on these trips come into their own. The biggest problem was replacing the rubber bushes but luckily we had thick rubber spacers that originally came as packing material from a washing machine which had been kept for such a rainy day. The holes were way too small but eventually I managed to make them fit and the shock absorber was functional again.

Checking the other three rear shocks I found they also needed tightening as did the running board on Sue's side, hopefully this would cure the knocking sound. However, worse was to come, checking the roof rack we found the struts that were fractured had got worse, two had virtually snapped and another was on its way, it was now unavoidable that we would have to divert to Lusaka.

First we needed to patch up the rack as best we could to avoid it collapsing completely. This meant emptying everything in the zip bag and removing it off the rack, a real pain as it takes ages to pack properly but there was no way round it. To top it all a bag of charcoal had burst inside the bag and had covered everything with black dust. 

We were in the middle of cleaning and re-packing when one of the rangers came round to see if we wanted to go out on an afternoon game drive but one look at all the stuff spread out around the camp told him it was a non starter.  It was 5.30pm by the time we had made temporary repairs to the rack and got everything back in the zip bag, just time for a shower before it got dark, some days are like this.

As we sat by the fire enjoying our sundowners we could hear the Hippo in the water below us and could see a big croc who had been hanging around all afternoon slowly swimming up and down probably in the hope we would take a midnight dip! Later just before heading for bed we heard Lion calling again but this time quite a way off so we went to bed early at about 11pm.

The lions continued calling on and off as we dropped off to sleep, then just after 2am we were suddenly awoken by extremely loud lion roars. We knew the Lion was close but we didn't realise how close until we opened the window in the roof tent shone a torch and there not 20 feet away was a big male Lion sitting under a nearby tree roaring his lungs out.  As we watched him he got up, sprayed the bush to mark his territory then slowly stalked off into the darkness to continue his patrol, a great end to what till then had been a trying day, typical Africa!

Next morning we left early for a game drive hoping to catch up with the big male Lion but we didn't see him or any others for that matter. Game in total in this part of the Kafue was again generally thin on the ground and as it was too risky trying to reach Busanga over the rough roads with the roof rack the way it was we decided to head off to Lusaka the next day.  

Next morning again we could hear Lions from about 5.30am onwards but as they were some way off it was not worth venturing out but at least we were up and packed by 7am. We paid our bill for the three nights camping which came to about $130, quite steep but the good news was they overlooked the $65 for the night drive so it ended up almost a mates rate!

Kafue had been good, but not great, the game was a bit thin on the ground and there were too many man made bush fires which created lots of ash and dust for our liking. By midday we were back on the M9 tar road to Lusaka, just stopping at Mukambi for a quick lunch. By 4pm we had reached the turnoff to Mumbwa, scene of the epic visa episode less than a week before which left us 150km to Lusaka.

The bad news was the knocking noise which we had hoped had been the loose shocks was still there albeit intermittently. I now suspected the suspension was the problem as I had noticed the radial arm bushes looked quite worn, just one more job to add to the list.

We had never been to Lusaka before but we had heard that a good place to stay was a campsite on the outskirts of town called Eureka. Lusaka being the capital there are plenty of hotels both good and not so good but we needed a place where we could easily unpack the roof rack and store its contents so a normal high rise hotel would not do.

We reached Lusaka just as it was getting dark and what struck us was the amount of traffic, it was by far and away the biggest place we had been to since we had left Gaborone in Botswana some four months earlier so it seemed very strange to be driving in the rush hour traffic.

Reaching Eureka we found it packed with at least three overland trucks loaded with young backpackers. Space was at a premium especially anywhere with access to power which we needed. Eventually after doing the rounds a few times we were invited by a nice old couple to camp next to them and share their power feed.

They were Afrikaners from the old school who interestingly had sold up their farm in RSA and put everything into going on the road, unusual for them. By now they had been travelling for nearly two years and where on their way back to South Africa but they proved to be a mine of information on the countries further North.

Next morning nearly everyone, including our nice couple moved on, so we were able to take our pick of the spots and chose one which had a rondavel to cook and eat in and power close by, ideal. Whilst here we would be sleeping in the roof tent and using the ground tent to store all the stuff from the roof rack while that was removed to be re-wielded. Eureka was nowhere near as nice visually as Lufupa but it was convenient and would do till we finished all our jobs and could get on the road again.

Our first task was to find the Landrover garage in Lusaka and get the shocks and suspension looked at. We were also hoping they might be able to handle the wielding of the roof rack. The Landy dealer here is called Pilatus which unusually we found out was situated quite a way out of town so it took us a while to find it.

As I feared they could not do the roof rack as they did not have an aluminium wielder but they would look at the shocks and suspension straight away. The great thing about Africa is the garages will often go out of their way to help you when they realise your travelling overland. 

We waited and watched while the mechanics worked fitting new fixings to replace my temporary ones on the rear shock and replacing the bushes on the radial arms. Both sets of rubber bushes were badly worn showing just how much punishment poor old Rupert is taking on the rough roads out here.

It was gone 3pm by the time they were finished, far too late to do anything about the roof rack but at least Pilatus were able to tell us where we could go to get it sorted for tomorrow. In the meantime we needed to check out the shopping for supplies as it had been many months since we had been in a place with shopping malls or even big supermarkets so we wanted to make the most of it.

After checking out the the Arcades Mall at Manda Hill and doing the internet as usual we ended up driving back to Eureka in the dark, not a good idea in Lusaka where apart from the risk of car jackings the streets are very poorly lit or not lit at all however as the Sun sets before 6pm here it is sometimes unavoidable.

Next morning we were out early in search of the place Pilatus told us could re-wield the roof rack. It was called Alro Engineering  situated on the colourful Lumumba road amongst a plethora of workshops and businesses of all shapes and sizes, so it took a bit of finding. When we pulled up from the outside it didn't look too promising as everything was very down at heel but inside it was a hubbub of action with massive steel structures and various huge metal tanks under construction - our little roof rack would seem very insignificant amongst all this.  

The man we were told to see was Dennis, so we expected a white guy to pitch up and were a bit surprised when Dennis turned out to be a Zambian from somewhere up country, it seems he just likes the name. Dennis had a good look at the rack and to our great relief announced that they could fix it, so gathering a small army of labourers they immediately set to removing the rack from Rupert.

We had already removed everything except the awning back at camp, but as this is attached all the way down one side it was too long to fit into the ground tent so we would just have to take it off here and hope for the best.

By now it was 11am and Dennis said he could not guarantee the rack would be finished today but would give us a call when ready, no problem as we had plenty to catch up with. First stop was the government map office which Chris recommends in his guide as having the best selection of maps for Zambia's hinterland, we also wanted a map of Malawi if we could as we had none at all and that would be our next country.

Sadly the map office seems to have deteriorated since Chris's time, as all the maps we wanted were out of stock. They were not cheap either so in the end we just bought a map of South Luangwa which we planned to visit on our way through to Malawi. Next it was back to Manda Hill to do Internet and some dry food shopping, I was pleased to also pick up a can of compressed air to clean the cameras, something you hardly see out here. Sue had noticed a Woolworths which she hoped would sell food like the one in Gabs in Botswana, which usually had a really good selection, a bit like M&S in UK but sadly the one here only did clothes 

We were enjoying a coffee and Danish in a nice little cafe when we bumped into Edjan from Mukambi lodge. He was in town to   do their weekly food shop. It is a hell of way to come each week to do your shopping but as there is virtually nothing at Mumbwa they have little choice. The back of his pickup was almost full to the gunnels and we laughed when he told us the weekly food bill is about 5,000,000 Kwacha!  

We picked up some cooked chickens for dinner then just as we were mooching around a bookshop looking at a Malawi map we got a call from Dennis - the rack was finished, now its a rush to get over to Alro refit the rack and awning then get back to camp for sundowners and chicken and chips - still a great result!

In the morning we start repacking the roof bag all over again and I decide to give Rupert a makeover, changing the oils and filters before heading back into the bush.

Eureka has a small amount of game which loiter about the fringes of the camp, mostly Zebra and warthog but when it's quiet every now and again a couple of male Eland, Africa's largest antelope wander in to graze on the lush grass around the chalets. In the wild Eland are not normally seen as often as other antelopes, for instance we never ever saw one when we lived in Botswana and due to years of hunting they are usually quite nervous so it was great to be able to see some up close, mind you as they dwarf domestic cattle you don't want to get too close!   

Next day we did our last big shop getting all our frozen meat, drinks and other perishables, we also took the opportunity to refill our cooking gas bottle (which was proving harder and harder to do as we went further North) then it was a last look at emails and internet before filling the fuel tanks - tomorrow we would head Southwards towards Zimbabwe to visit the Lower Zambezi National Park, at last we could get going again!