AN OVERLANDING DREAM TO A JOURNEY: SOUTHERN ZAMBIA

Our introduction to Zambia started with the usual border crossing bureaucracy! To be fair, it was nothing we were not expecting. However after 2 hours and being the only humans there other than the multitude of officials, my patience was slowly waning, along with the daylight hours left to make our way to Sioma. A sense of humour is, however, your best ally in response to this when doing most border crossings in Africa. If you change your mindset, they can actually become quite fun, finding yourself leaving with a host of new friends and a bunch of selfies!

All the administrative strain was quickly washed away when we entered Zambia and saw the mighty Zambezi for the first time. Taking the journey north skirting the river all the way to Sioma, as the sun was setting, whilst listening to Simon and Garfunkel is a memory I will always remember. We spent four days exploring and swimming at the Ngonye Falls, tanning on the sandy white beaches, albeit with no refreshing dips in the croc-infested waters, kicking back in our cliff-side ‘villa’ and just being, with no need for any type of agenda or ‘to do’ lists. Time went a little too quickly as we lapped up the relative luxury and it was with a sense of reluctance that we tracked back down south and not north as planned to Liuwa to have Camy (my Mitsubishi Pajero Sport) serviced in Livingstone. This route also meant we were to reach another milestone in our rite of passage as overlanders – the Sesheke Kazangula road. Anyone that knows this stretch of road knows exactly what I am talking about!

Our view of the Zambezi for our first few days.

You will soon see that Zambia seems to be all about breath-taking sunsets!

A view back to our cliff-side hideaway!

One never gets tired of sunsets on the Zambezi River!

Taking in the Ngonye Falls which we had all to ourselves!

With our less than enthusiastic mechanic telling us that we might not be leaving Livingstone in as much as 8 weeks due to engine and part issues, this little town was certainly on a fast track to usurping our border crossing process and becoming our least enjoyed overlanding experience to date. This, coupled with Zambian officials looking for some sleight of hand pocket deals to enter the Mosi-au-Tunya National Park and enjoy a ‘free’ rhino tracking experience as well as a (very) stinky dancing pet goat whose stench somehow got into our masks and haunted us for weeks to come made us start to feel a little jaded. Thankfully the path to redemption was paved with liberal sprinklings of 100s and 1000s on delicious Zambian soft-serve as well as being caught up with Zambians celebrating democracy and the power of the peoples’ vote. Hakainde Hichilema, more fondly known as HH or Bally (a very shrewd tactic by HH to appeal to the largely young population of Zambia) was voted into power. The energy and excitement was carnival-like, which we got swept up in, until we woke up the next morning to realise that 25% of our trip budget for Zambia was wiped out by the victory and ensuing appreciation of the Zambian Kwacha. When Four Cousins box wine costs around 500 Kwacha, to a South African this is a very big thing and has serious implications!

A double rainbow over the mighty Victoria Falls.

Quite literally soaking up the beauty of the falls.

Camy in 4×4 hospital!

Whiling away our time trying to capture the Bee-Eaters in flight!

Sunset over the Zambezi, this time at the Mosi-Au-Tunya National Park.

Miraculously within 5 days we managed to get our dear Camy back and head off to explore more of what Zambia had to offer, starting with 5 days of bliss on the shores of Lake Kariba. After a rather long and adventurous drive to Kariba, we were met with our own private campsite just a throw of gin-infused ice cube away from the lake shore! To try and summarize the next few days into one paragraph would be nigh impossible. Between the sunset boat cruises and mokoro trips, spending time with a just born zebra, swimming in the crocodile-proof pool, doing yoga under the welcome shade of campsite trees and a starlit sleep-out on the ridge-line watching the full moon rise over the lake whilst the sun set on the other side, each of these could easily have been a standalone highlight. However, the most cherished memory is that of the hospitality of the Zambian people. We had an army of incredible locals full of authentic smiles looking after us, we shared beers with our hosts who also provided us with freshly cooked bread and washed all our linen and also got invited to dinner and a party, hosted by some young local Lusakans, on a houseboat moored on the other side of the bay. I think if it were not for the fact that we needed to give the batteries a proper charge up, after having to get rid of our broken solar panel a few weeks prior, we would have found it very hard to leave!

Lake Kariba in all her beautiful sunset glory!

Locals out fishing during our lake cruise.

A ‘dazzling’ dazzle of zebra’s at sunset!

Hang on, I am sure there was two of them last time I looked!

Trekking up to the ridge line for a sleep-out overlooking Lake Kariba. (Stacey)

A view worthy of the sweltering hike up!

Camp for the night.

A sunrise just as dramatic!

Taking a little detour to revisit some childhood memories of the Kariba dam wall, we eventually made it to our campsite on the banks of the Zambezi River, doing some self-drive safaris whilst there and trying to keep the theme of keeping life light and easy! Three days slowly crept on by, with the highlight being having to push an uncooperative motorized raft through the water whilst crocodiles watched us with their beady-eyes on the left bank and 9 lions licked their lips on the right bank. Thinking we had seen the last of the Zambezi River for a while, we headed north to Lusaka, taking in the beautiful escarpment and marvelled at the rather acrobatic driving feats of the less than roadworthy vehicles and their drivers, who ply their trade along this route in order to spend a night with friends before departing early the next morning to take The Great North Road up towards the Copperbelt. What actually resulted was us taking a major u-turn and heading back down to the lower Zambezi to join our friends for a week of fishing. Although only two rather goldfish sized Tiger Fish were caught, the days were filled up with honest attempts at trying to catch the big one as well as trying our utmost to identify where the holes were in the bottom of our ice, brandy and coke filled glasses. When in Zambia do as the Zambians do… who were we to break this age-old adage?

If it was not for our sense of adventure finally kicking in once more, it would have been our bodies telling us enough was enough. After six glorious, sun-filled days and multiple attempts at telling our hosts we really did have to leave, we were on our way north and en-route to chimpanzees, wild camping in mostly undiscovered places and the source of the Zambezi!

If this is your first time reading our blog be sure to read our first blog and take the journey with us…