December 2007... Week 1

Week 1

Lusaka, Livingstone - Zambia & The Caprivi - Namibia

Woken again by the Monkeys at 5am we got up and immediately started to pack up camp. Sam the Spaniel came round and stayed until we had finished and as we left we could have sworn he looked kinda sad or maybe that was just his normal look! Still he was a lovely little dog and we couldn't help but worry about him wandering around in the bush on his own. 

Once packed we had showers then headed over to reception to pay the bill. Time had flown and we had been here nine nights, far longer than originally planned, the combination of the unusually great weather and the fact we had the whole place to ourselves had been too good to resist and probably a never to be repeated experience as these days the camps are nearly always busy.

Our bill came to just US$193, $90 for nine nights camping, $70 for the night drive and $33 for dinner with drinks after the night drive, a bargain, although you have to add on the South Luangwa park entry fees of $75 on those days we went into the park if you want to budget fully.

Today we would be driving back to Chipata to overnight there, it is possible to drive all the way from Mfuwe to Lusaka in a day but you must leave before dawn and then expect to arrive in  the dark, which is dangerous so after nine nights in the bush we preferred a night in a room at Mama Rulas.

Run by Andrea and Wynyard plus assorted family, Mama's is a great little stopover and the place to stay in Chipata. Popular with the overland trucks there is a campsite plus basic rooms next to a bar where you can get meals as well.

For the business traveller and those who don't want to rough it there are more salubrious en suite rooms near a nice pool. If you want DSTV then you have to pay an extra $20 per night, which is a bit steep so we opted for room number one (with no TV) as it meant we could long line the power to Rupert and freeze down our fridges, always a boon when you are on the road and mainly in the bush as we are. 

We arrived there around 3pm plenty of time to settle in which was just as well as just after we got the fridges connected the heavens opened and it bucketed down, one hell of a storm which went on all night - we were very glad we were in a room and not the tent tonight! Also the dirt road from Mfuwe to Chipata is bad at the best of times so if we had left it just one more day then the journey from Luangwa would have been a nightmare.  

We half expected the morning to be cloudy so we were pleasantly surprised to wake to a lovely sunny morning, ideal for travelling which was just as well as we had a seven plus hour drive to Lusaka.

Chipata to Lusaka is about 600 kms and while all on tar the road in places is very badly potholed plus you pass through lots of villages so you hardly get the chance to put your foot down which in Rupert's case only amounts to about 100kph anyway!

The latter part of the journey wends through mountains where the drop is very steep on one side and as usual all the crash barriers to stop you going over the edge had been flattened by the succession of trucks which hit them either through going too fast or due to brake failure, like the mountain roads in Tanzania we are always relieved to get through these unscathed!

We reached Lusaka around 5pm, previously we had stayed at a camp called Eureka on the Livingstone side of town but today as it was getting late we decided to try Pioneer Camp which lies on the Chipata side. Alfred the local manager greeted us and showed us around, the campsite looked nice, much nicer than Eureka's and quiet but after the long drive Sue was lobbying for another room so after a bit of haggling we agreed on chalet which normally cost $120 but Alfred let us have it for $80 including breakfast.

Next morning we enjoyed a cup of tea while sitting on the verandha outside our room listening to Africa's fantastic birdlife. Lusaka is really the first place going southwards after Nairobi where you can enjoy decent, dare I say first world, shopping. Tanzania and Malawi are both very poor in this regard so as we needed to re-stock after Luangwa we decided to stay today and stock up on a few things. Luckily Pioneer is also fairly close to two good shopping malls, Arcades and Manda Hill, which is another advantage it has over Eureka. 

However our first task was to find an Internet cafe and check  email which we hadn't been able to do since the 9th November. Leaving it so long is always a worry as you never quite know what surprises may lie in store and sure enough there was a message from our letting agent in the UK informing us our tenants wanted to extend their lease until at least mid February, roughly another six weeks.

This really didn't suit us as we were planning to fly back to the UK in January but after some thought we thought why pass up the extra income so we decided to first check with Taffy in Malawi to see if they wanted us to look after their lodge around then and if so we might as well do that and let the tenants stay on. Now we had a flurry of emails to send which kept us in the Internet Cafe for nearly three hours.

Next stop was the Spar supermarket, bliss after the hardships of getting stuff up North. Being early December the whole store was decked floor to ceiling in Xmas decorations and played constant Christmas songs which made us feel it would have been nice to be home for Xmas for a change - however with the  tenants in situ this was totally impossible, one of the drawbacks to renting out!

After spending most of the day going round both Arcades and Manda Hill we had pretty well stocked up again but feeling knackered we didn't feel like eating out so we bought some lovely crusty bread, coleslaw, salad and two cooked chickens to enjoy back to the chalet!

However before we could relax we had to check email again to see if anyone had answered our mails from this morning but no one had so we still couldn't confirm the extension to the lease with our agent. Back at Pioneer Sue packed away the shopping while I fixed drinks. Sue is our quartermaster who knows where everything is in the vehicle and can usually put her hand on anything quickly whereas I'm just the driver and general dogsbody - but what a team!

After the meal and a lovely hot bath in our sunken tub we were in bed by 10pm, the next day we had yet another long drive to Livingstone so we needed to be up early again and leave Pioneer as early as possible.

On the road just after 8am we made our way across town through the morning rush hour traffic to the Great West Road and onto Livingstone. By 10am we were passing through the town of Kafue where you pass woodcarvers who specialise in giant wooden Giraffes, why only Giraffes and why only here has always remained a mystery to us?

By 10.20am we still had 415 km to go, this was the first time we had driven this road as on the way up to Lusaka in 2006 we had taken a more circuitous route via the Lower Zambezi and Chirundu. Up to now the road from Lusaka had been straight so we were more or less on auto pilot and didn't realise that after Kafue you have to turn right to Livingstone, which was hardly surprising given there was no sign! We continued on blissfully unaware until the GPS started to bleep we were going off route.

Turning round we headed back and then saw a sign saying Livingstone to the left, typical Africa only one sign on one side, and you wonder what they do with the £25 carbon road tax they charge every time you enter the country! This lost us some time but we still reached Livingstone just before 3pm and checked into Jollyboys a backpackers place in the town.

Basically it is for the younger overland crowd who don't mid camping cheek by jowl in the small garden or sleeping 6 in a dorm but we are getting a bit long in the tooth for either so we had pre-booked one of their few very basic en suite rooms (they only have about 2 or 3) which are always in heavy demand. In 2006 the room cost $25 but clearly demand was outstripping supply so now they were charging $40 per night, quite an increase in just over a year, still it is safe and convenient and the alternative was one of the expensive tourist lodges so it would do for the night!

Once again we had just settled into the room when the heavens opened and we had one helluva a thunder storm, that's the problem in East Africa at this time of year you have frequent downpours. Once the rain eased we went into town to check email again, still no reply from Taffy but Fee and Jeff our good friends who keep an eye on the house and do our post had sent us news that all was well so that was something.

Next day we were off again, Livingstone is the Zambian side of Vic Falls so they get loads of tourists passing through but we had seen the Falls many times so today we would leave Zambia for a while and head onto Namibia crossing the border at Katima Mulilo. 

Before leaving we checked email again and the good news was Taffy had replied saying they needed us to look after the lodge when we got back so armed with that we quickly emailed our letting agent to agree to our tenants extending their lease until mid February then we headed to the Namibian border.

The borders for Botswana and Namibia are both fairly close to Livingstone so we reached the Namibia border in good time and started going through the formalities. The Zambians like the Tanzanians try to screw every last penny out of you but even so it came as a nasty surprise when after completing immigration and customs and about to drive across the bridge into Namibia that a guy grabbed us saying we still needed to pay the Livingstone council tax before we could leave!

Why we have to pay this is a joke as it is supposed to cover local services none of which we use but as it was only 50,000 Zambian Kwacha (about £7-8) we didn't bother to argue.  Note the council tax when you leave Zambia at the Botswana border is only 20,000 ZMK but they more than make up for this by charging you $20 to use the pontoon across the Zambezi, so you can't win!    

By contrast Namibian immigration formalities were straightforward and it was nice not to have to pay for a visa for a change.  As we drove into Katima once again it started to bucket down, Katima lies at the eastern end of what they call the Caprivi strip, a strange finger of land which through a quirk of colonial history ended up as Namibian territory instead of in Botswana.  Also known as the Golden Highway it was for many years almost off limits due to it's proximity with Angola.

The distances between places along the strip are great so we decided to stay overnight at one of the lodges in Katima and head on early the next day. First we topped up with fuel then got some cash from an ATM, it was a pleasure to find we could pay for the fuel by credit card as that is impossible in Tanzania, Malawi and most of Zambia. By now it was mid afternoon (everything in Africa takes twice as long to do!) and still the rain bucketed down so we decided to check out the Zambezi lodge which is a short distance away on the road to Ngoma.

When we arrived we found the place deserted except for the odd workman. The lodge seemed to be undergoing major re-furbishment which with the rain didn't make it at all welcoming. When we finally found someone from reception and asked to see their rooms she acted as if we were giving her some impossible task to do which would greatly inconvenience her!

Namibians and Botswanians are in general a surly lot totally opposite to the warm friendly attitude of the Kenyan's and the Malawians. Their close proximity to South Africa and all the issues from the apartheid period no doubt play a part in this and having lived in Botswana during the 80s when the South African army would raid Botswana in search of ANC activists I can understand why but now two decades later I also think it is just in their make up to be rude, especially so with the younger generation. Both countries, especially Botswana are experiencing an economic boom so the young seem to think work is beneath them, they remind us of the Saudi's and Gulf Arabs in this regard.

As it was the rooms at 628 N$ (~ £60) per night were not worth it so we decided to leave and try somewhere else. As we drove out we passed their campsite which we definitely would not consider in this rain, the place was totally deserted except for a lone rental Toyota Landcruiser and we recognised a German couple whom we saw at the border. They had ignored us then and now as they sat hunched in the front seats looking miserable they just stared as we drove past, little did we know we would be seeing a lot more of them as the trip progressed. 

We got back on the Caprivi highway and soon saw a sign for the Caprivi River Lodge, formerly known as Caprivi cabins. They had eight chalets and four cabins which on first sight looked like big garden sheds, all were taken except for one cabin called Kudu which when we checked it out was actually quite corky and perfect for our needs. It had a double bed, en suite bathroom, small kitchen with all utensils, sofa, TV and we could park Rupert right outside and at 439 N$ we decided to look no further.

The rain continued to pour down with dark heavy cloud so we were relieved to have found shelter for the night, normally we would have G&T's to settle in but today it was a cup of tea to warm us up! Borrowing a DVD from the bar we stayed cosy throughout the storm which raged most of the night.

The next morning was fresh and bright so we were up early to  have breakfast in the restaurant overlooking the river, before leaving we checked email in the lodge office and found Taffy had sent another email giving us the dates they would be away so we could now book our own flights back to London in February, happy days! 

Our intention from here was to head across the Caprivi Strip and along the Kunene River to the remote and inhospitable North Western area of Namibia called Kaokoland. It promised to be an exacting and arduous journey with few places of any note so  we decided we should book our flights online now then we could carry on without any worries, we thought it would be a 30 minute job tops but we hadn't allowed for the vagaries of the airline websites!

To fly to the UK from Lilongwe in Malawi, which is what we would be doing, we had two choices, one was via Joburg on SAA, the other via Nairobi on Kenyan Airways, there was a third option of Ethiopian Airways via Addis but that took days rather than hours so we didn't even consider it!

Our preferred choice was SAA as Joburg airport is far nicer than Nairobi's and the layover was much shorter. Using Expedia we found a flight on SAA connecting to Virgin Airways in Joburg which looked perfect so we started to book only to find after jumping through all the hoops including entering our credit card details that they could not issue e-tickets for this flight!

No explanation on Expedia of why this was the case but as we are unable to have tickets posted to us or pick them up we were totally reliant on finding a route which issued e-tickets which  unfortunately meant going via KA and BA with a seven hour wait in Nairobi's lovely airport!  This also presented a new problem because we discovered BA had recently reduced their baggage allowance on this route to one piece of 20kg only and we hoped to take back a load of stuff with us!

Still we had little choice so we went ahead an booked our flight for the 14th Feb then paid our bill and left but all this had taken time so now it was almost midday, luckily our next stop was Divundu just over 310Kms away so we could afford the delay. Before leaving we checked the rear roof rack, we had noticed yesterday that a couple of support struts had started to fracture again after having them re-welded in Blantyre last year. Being Aluminium we knew it is very difficult to find someone who could weld them again so all we could do was support them as best we could and hope they would hold until we reached Windhoek however we had some really bad roads to face before then!

We entered the section of the highway which passes through the Caprivi Game Park where there is the chance of seeing Elephant on the side of the road, although sadly not today. What we did come across though was a vibrant green Chameleon in the middle of the road, if we left him he was sure to be run over so I got out and picked him up to put him in the bush for safety. He was not best pleased, hissing and although small he had sharp claws so you didn't want to hold him too long, we have saved a number of Chameleons over the years and strangely they all seem very ungrateful for our assistance!  

A short while later we saw a beautiful Angulate Tortoise on the road but sadly when we stopped to help him we found it was to late as some ignorant bastard had run him over. There is really no excuse for this as the roads are virtually empty and Tortoises move so slowly they can easily be avoided but a lot of the bastards out here don't give a toss about conservation!

After crossing the Okavango River we reached Divundu just after 3pm, turn left here and you reach the Mohembo border post with Botswana and on this road is where most of the camps and lodges are. First we checked out the community run Popa Falls campsite, the falls are supposedly a tourist attraction so when we asked to just see the campsite the guy on the gate didn't want both of us to go in case we got a free butchers at the falls! In the end he agreed we could both go but only for 5 mins! As it was the campsite was the pits but even if it hadn't been his attitude put us right off and yes we did get a glimpse of the falls which to us looked farty!

Even so as we were leaving the gate guy still tried to charge us N$20  'for viewing the falls' needless to say we quickly told him where to stick the falls!  

Next stop was the Marangu Safari Lodge run by a stern German called Ralf, he had three Meru tents with ensuite for N$520 per person including dinner and breakfast available but these were soulless with no views of the river however, the campsite with nine sites of which seven faced the river was very nice, needless to say all the river view ones were taken so we had to camp a little ways back but at Ns 50 per person and at almost 5pm this was going to be home for the night.       

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