Livingstone, Zambia 26-30 July 08

We were in Livingstone for three whole days and it was lovely to be in one place for a few days despite the campsite being crappy. It was called The Grotto but I referred to it as the grubby grotto. The original schedule had us going through Zimbabwe and Mozambique but with the trouble in Zim, the schedule was changed and we headed through Zambia instead. Livingstone is like a lot of African towns that we’d been through. A hotch potch of ramshackle buildings, a Barclays bank (incredibly prominent in this part of Africa), a market, wide dusty main street with loads of people everywhere and it was super hot (and its winter!).

The camp site was small in comparison to the others that we stayed in and there were three overland trucks on site when we arrived so really crowded but I think we’ve been a bit spoilt with having many of them to ourselves. The entire campsite was on a slight hill, was fenced and had two dogs (one a lovely Rhodesian Ridgeback x Rotweiler). The showers were incredibly dodgy and I had to shout for someone to bring the heavy gloves that we use for pots on the fire to me to protect me from the electric shocks so I could turn off the taps. After that, everyone took the gloves with them to the shower just in case.

If you’re an adrenaline junkie, there is plenty of stuff to get you going here. White water rafting, bungee jumping, gorge swinging, abseiling, sky diving, climbing etc. We went white water rafting in the Zambezi the day after we arrived and that was pretty cool. We were in what could well have been the lightest raft load possible (half were accountants, no relation to the weight comment!), with four girls (three lightweights and myself) and two guys, neither of whom were particularly heavy. The first rapid we hit was a grade five and the river surged as we hit it – bad luck for us. Before we knew it, we’d gone straight up in the air and the raft flipped over on its end. I was stuck under the raft for what seemed like way too long and when I bobbed up, was right next to Euan and the boat. We travelled that rapid hanging onto the upturned raft – our guide gave up trying to get everyone back in the boat, it was just too rough. I couldn’t believe it. Out very first rafting experience, very first rapid and one spectacular flip.

We saved the bungee jump (the highest in the world it coming up between Cape Town and Jo’burg) but sweated it out in sympathy with those we knew who were doing it. The gorge swing looked by far the most terrifying. You had to run and jump off the platform before free-falling for about 55m then the rope caught you and you swung. I only saw two girls do it and one was genuinely petrified and her legs didn’t want to run so the guy behind her pushed her off! This was what she saw when she jumped.



You could easily spend a day in the National Park at Vic Falls as the falls are fairly spread out and there are plenty of viewing points.




We took a helicopter over the falls and while it was a bit of a budget blow out, it was absolutely spectacular. We didn’t realise that there were a series of jagged clefts in the earth and that the falls were originally a long way from where they are now. The top of the photo is Zim and the bottom is Zambia.





One of the many great views of the falls. To the left you can just see the bridge between Livingston Island and the mainland and to the far left the bridge that joins Zambia with Zimbabwe (and where the bungee jumpers jump and gorge swingers swing).



At the top of the falls you can walk right to the edge if you want but we all thought that the water was still too high and flowing too fast. Where we were rafting, the river still has another 5-6m to drop before its at its lowest and most challenging for rafters.



This is called the Boiling Pot and is the point where the water from the falls is forced through a narrow gorge before swirling out into a larger pool then running off under the border bridge. Its amazing to be so close ot such a large volume of water and the rocks were superb for rock hopping. You can see they’re very large, black, with sheer angles – ideal!



The Boiling Pot was about 600m off the path down some steep steps then a scramble through the forest and over piles of boulders. On the way down there were heaps of baboons and I don’t like primates at all but this little guys was very endearing. He had the biggest ears and at certain angles the sun shone through them giving him a very comical look.



We opted out of the other adrenaline stuff partly because I’ve been ill for coming up a week and also we’ve a long way to go yet and NZ is full of that kind of stuff. I’m gunning for a sky dive in Namibia though and will try to throw myself off the highest bungee jump in the world. Not sure about Euan though, he is still undecided.

We’re off into Botswana tomorrow and we’ll have to come back to Africa to visit Zimbabwe although not sure when it will OK to head that way. Most of our raft guides were from Zim and judging from the comments made, they’re less than enthused about the state of the country although all said with a huge dose of humour. They were very funny and had so much energy and zest.


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Luangwa to Lake Kariba, Zambia 22-26 July 08

We knew we were bush camping on our first night away from Luangwa as the drive to the city of Lusaka was just too far to do in one day with the roads they way they were. Bush camping is literally as it sounds. We find a spot in the middle of nowhere and set up camp. Its not allowed so we don’t do it often and arrive at dusk and get up super early to avoid attention. Kind of fun but also kind of hard work as well as there isn’t the luxuries of the camp sites. Its amazing though, how you can brown a shepherds pie by putting a lid on the tray and putting hot coals on it. I can see some of you saying its obvious but I have to be honest and say I’ve never done it before! We were camping in a clearing surrounded by tall tall grass and scrub.

The grass in Africa is amazing. It can grow well over 10ft high and you cannot see through it and that’s in the dry season when its all dead. Would be even worse in the wet season and after seeing a lion in the Serengeti hide very successfully behind a small clump of dead grass that can’t have been more than a foot high, I was too scared to venture too far away from the truck, even to go to the loo. Stupidly enough, I pitched the tent (Euan was cooking) on the outskirts of the camp then realised the error and you can only imagine how freaked I was when Euan and I were going to our tent later that night and a voice in the darkness ahead called out something to us. We nearly flipped. It was just local folk who were clearly curious and had surrounded us but kept their distance in the darkness and we had no idea they were there. Euan and I figured that if they were talking to us they must be friendly and want us to know they were there so we smiled and called back to them. I didn’t really care, it still freaked me right out. I don’t know how they saw where they were going, what they were treading on or what as there was no moon and it really was pitch black. Plus there was killer grass around. I had run my fingers through some grass earlier and it had nicely sliced my fingers.

We had one night in a camp just outside Lusaka and we had a few hours in one of the shopping centres there. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) any time spent in towns or cities is used up food shopping if you’re cooking for the group or using the internet, calling home, doing admin, getting/changing money, buying the odd bits and pieces (blankets are the latest purchase as its getting colder). We rampaged the local bakery and supermarket but things are really expensive in Zambia, far more so than Malawi or Tanzania. Diesel, for eg, is twice the price so we’re going as far as we can on the diesel that we have (and very nearly ran out).

It was a long drive to Lake Kariba and the distance and quality of the road had been underestimated. So, after a full day of driving through scenery that was beautiful but unchanging and the promise of two nights in one place ahead, it was 1800 and we were still 120 km of rough, bumpy dirt road away from our destination and a bush camp was decided on. So, off the road we went and parked up on a small dirt road and set up camp (again!).

Its quite cool setting up camp in the dark not knowing what’s around you then getting up in the morning to an amazing setting. We were woken in the early hours by angry shouting that sounded far too close for comfort but when we woke we saw that we were surrounded by a series of small steep hills and the sound would have carried a long long way.

The campsite can’t have been more than 60km away from where we bush camped but it was down a dirt track and took us about 2 hours to get there. We passed a huge croc farm on the way in and got to visit it which was pretty cool. They had 1400 breeding crocs in a huge area of land with massive ponds. I have never seen crocs that big. The largest was 650kg and 5.2m long. This photo doesn’t really show the scale (and I wasn’t getting out of the jeep to give it any that’s for sure!) but these guys were just huge, and fast! For eg, those are small (skinned) crocs that they’re eating and they were about a metre long and were swallowed whole. If I’d known crocs could move that fast I probably wouldn’t have ventured that far down to the river at Luangwe.



The smaller crocs were kept in pens and there were about 800 to a pen and this is where they stayed until they were shipped off to the abattoir.



The pens looked crowded but I think they liked lying all over each other as there was huge patches of bare concrete that they didn’t bother with.



It was an interesting farm to visit and run in a similar fashion to any intensive farming unit. The incubator could hold 40,000 croc eggs but wasn’t anything more than a container set up as an incubator.

We had a bit of chill out time at Lake Kariba, playing volleyball, reading etc. Its getting colder at nights the further south we go but the days are clear and warm. Some days its absolutely cooking and I think it would be unbearably hot in the summer not to mention the mozzies. Some people don’t get bitten at all but I’m like a magnet. One thing is for sure though. I’m sleeping better on the ground in a tent now than I do in a bed.




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Flatdogs Camp, South Luangwa National Park, Zambia 20-22 July 08

Today we crossed the border into Zambia and the roads got worse and worse. It took us 2-3 hours to go 20km they’re that rutted and we had to crawl along, bouncing all over the show. The truck really gets a hammering and despite the slow speed, we still managed to break a spring. Going slow does have its advantages though as there is so much to see and we went through so many villages.



Most of the camps we’ve stayed in have been fairly similar in style in that they’re fenced and gated with guard dogs (everything unlocked or unattached seems to grow legs and walk), have running water (sometimes hot if we’re lucky) and toilet facilities of sorts. The camps are usually pretty open and spread out to cater for trucks and 4WDs etc and most have some sort of security either in the form of a thick hedge with a fence through it or high solid steel fence and locked gates and dogs are a given. Flatdogs Camp was different. Way way different. For starters its right on the edge of South Luangwa National Park, bordered by the Luangwa River and has no fences or dogs at all. The first sounds we heard as soon as we were off the truck came from the hippos in the river – what a noise, I never knew that hippos made such a noise! Its akin to a combination of a dogs bark and the noises pigs make when they are excited or running (almost like a dogs bark too in a way). Needless to say Euan and I were straight over to have a look and the view was simply breathtaking (the photos below do not do it justice).

The river was immense and stretched in one long straight, kilometres long, either side of the camp side and…. it was absolutely teeming with hippos and crocs but you didn’t realise it until they surfaced. The camp edge was only about 20m from the river banks and there was nothing stopping the animals from wandering through and, you know what? They did!!! The below was taken as the elephants were leaving the camp.



Its dry season and the river was nowhere near running at capacity so there was a wide strip of exposed river bed before you actually got to the water. The campsite ran for about 200m along the river before the bush took over the land and the hippos took over the riverbank. This is the view down the river.



We were told we had to pitch the tents at least a few meters apart to allow the elephants and hippos through and they weren’t joking as about an hour after we arrived elephants came through, like straight through, the campsite. I can’t describe what its like to stand, close but very still and silent, watching as they’re tearing apart trees and stripping the leaves off branches. They really do demolish things and leave a trail of destruction in their wake.

They passed by a couple who were sitting/lying at a picnic table and didn’t see the need to move as the elephants were passing by quietly.



Then they came a bit closer and the girl woke her partner and told him to stay very very still and quiet then climbed under the table leaving him on top!



Then one of the elephants started walking over with purpose and they really started to worry



The elephant came within a few meters of them feeling out with its trunk, flapping its ears and I really wasn’t sure what it was going to do. The camp manager had told us in the briefing to keep at least 30m distance with a tree or car/truck handy so we could climb up/get in



The couple were scared, really scared - the guy on the table lay still as and the girl wasn’t doing much either and even I, about 10m away, walked slowly backwards as I didn’t want to aggravate it further. When I turned around to make sure I wasn’t backing into something else, there was a damn monkey right there creeping up on me so I went “tskkk” at him and glared and he went “tskkkk” back at me, bared his teeth and came closer! Gave me a hell of a fright and I had to try and keep an eye on this monkey and see where the elephant was going.

Once the elephant had moved away, I turned around to see what the couple were doing. They’d disappeared but I spotted them up a nearby tree moments. Could have been quite serious but I got the giggles.

The elephants kept us entertained for hours but we took to hiding behind something so we could watch them at close range



The baby was very cute and his Mum so fat!



A couple of us ventured (perhaps stupidly) down onto the dry riverbed to have a look at a couple of big crocs that were lying in the shallow water. We weren’t sure how fast they could run so we didn’t go too close but we felt incredibly exposed nonetheless and wouldn’t have a show of running anywhere if something chose to come out of the bush or water at us. It was hot so we didn’t think anything would have bothered. When we came back out, a giraffe was visiting.



This photo shows who really owns the camp – the animals. Its brilliant. You’re sitting there eating your lunch and an elephant decides to walk on through. Everything edible gets packed up, very quickly, and you get the hell out of the way to somewhere safe as they get very annoyed if you get in the way – a lot of ear flapping goes on which is a sure sign to get out of the way and quickly.



The hippos didn’t venture out of the water much during the day but at night, they all came out to eat and Euan and I came across one wandering through the camp on our way back from the bar (yep, some of these places are very civilized for camping grounds!). I’ve never been close to a hippo, let alone a wild one and at ground level. They really are huge and you wouldn’t want to get in their way. About four of us were up until 0200 that morning ‘hunting’ wildlife and it was just the best fun. We got close to giraffe, hippo and elephant that night – probably too close to be safe at times but we’re still here and I’ve not had so much fun running round at night for years! Stalking giraffe and using tree trunks as cover was brilliant fun and pure comedy to watch if. Sometimes I had to hang back because I was laughing so much.

We did a couple of game drives the next day and got close to a lioness and her three cubs.



The cubs were just lazing around and making a half-hearted effort at playing.



There was a male and two other lionesses but they were fooling round in the bushes and we left them to their fun.

The buffalo looked as staunch as ever



and I never thought I’d describe a hippo as dainty (and he had such a cute hairy chin!)



This is my favourite animal – the greater kudu and man, can they jump! I didn’t realise it but they’re not the largest of the antelope species. The eland (that we saw dead in the Serengeti) is the largest by a long shot.



These impala were grooming each other in the middle of the road. They’re such dainty quaint animals and their markings are plain but stunning at the same time.



We drove along the river and saw so many crocodiles (we counted at least 50 in 500m stretch) in the river it wasn’t funny. There is no way anyone would last if they ventured in or too close to the water.

The night drive that we did was brilliant. A cross between off-roading and game watching as our driver was determined to find us a leopard (and he did). I’ve not been in a national park where you can drive off the tracks/roads and this guys made the most of it as we went bush bashing! I’m amazed that we saw anything at all but it was great fun.

I really really really wanted to stay another few nights at the camp and kind of hoped that the broken spring wouldn’t be fixed but our driver spend all day, ½ the night and the next day working to fix it. He dislocated his finger, took skin off his hands and cut his fingers but got the damn thing fixed. I was gutted. It was just so peaceful sitting in the sun by the river, listening to the hippos calling up and down the river, watching the birds, the giraffe if they chose to wander past, listening to the elephants trumpeting. It really was my sort of place (but I’m thinking this more and more throughout Africa although Euan prefers somewhere a bit more developed) and I wondered how on earth I managed to live in London for so long.


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