Zambia World Wide

The towns along the way from the border to Lusaka were neat and there was evidence of more money being available for maintenance and the people looked happy and better dressed than when I left Zambia in 1975.  All along the roadsides were large bags of charcoal for sale, as well as many, many tomatoes, bananas and fresh produce like sweet potatoes, pumpkins and cassava.  As we crossed the Kafue River before Lusaka, people were selling fresh Kafue Bream, so we stopped and bought a large fish for dinner.

Realising that we would not make Luangwa by evening, we agreed to drive until 17h30 and look for somewhere to camp for the night.  Our friends went ahead as we had to shop for some groceries in Lusaka, having changed our plans at the last minute to have the security of another vehicle to assist in the trial ahead.  You can get everything you need – including Klipdrift and Peter Stuyvesant cigarettes (essentials) – and soon we were on our way up the Great East Road towards Chipata where we would turn off to Mfuwe and South Luangwa National Park.

We never caught up with the other vehicle, and, as the light faded we found a campsite and turned in, only to discover (written in small letters under the sign) it was “Opening Soon”.  Not having time to look further, we decided to camp here anyway.  There was a small luke-warm spring and space to raise our little tent, so we lit a fire and cooked our fresh bream in foil over the coals.  We ate this with roasted pumpkin and potatoes bought along the way – delicious!  The night was icy cold and we left very early after washing in the spring and were again on our way.

The sides of the narrow road were swathed with really long elephant grass – I had forgotten how tall the grass grows in Zambia.  There was lots of people on the roads because it was Sunday.  Bicycles wobbled all over – making progress at speed rather dangerous!  Every young woman we saw had a baby swaddled on her back and everywhere there were charcoal sellers and men riding bikes with huge bags of charcoal on both sides, balanced with long sticks of sugar cane and the odd charcoal brazier hanging off the handlebars!  Very few domestic animals were seen, apart from pigs that closely resembled wild boars – and village dogs which, by and large, were in surprisingly good condition.  Some looked very much like Basenjis, the bark-less hunting dogs of Central Africa.  We own two Basenjis and are very interested in these lovely indigenous African dogs.

We crossed the Luangwa River over an impressive bridge. opened by Kenneth Kaunda in the 70’s, and continued – still not having caught up with our “companions”. Unfortunately the tar now deteriorated into potholes, some of which were being repaired, and this went on for about 100 kilometres to Chipata.  No signs telling us which way to go, so we filled up with diesel which is double the price in South Africa and asked for directions.