Chongwe River Lodge Lusaka

... that) $20 USD for 10 liters. The BMW seemed to run with the stuff. I think that is was blended with kerosene because it costs bugger all.
There is a fuel shortage here in Zambia. Not much petrol so hopefully we can sort out petrol tomorrow. We are off to South luangwa national park tomorrow. Will split the day and camp half way because the trip is about 600 ks
All good
Cheers miles

As promised - more photos from the first part of my trip.

Not much else to say really. Went on a microlight flight this morning over Victoria Falls and it was brilliant. Saw a herd of elephants from above as well as hippos and crocs. I even got to fly the microlight for a couple of mins, turning left and right while the pilot controlled the throttle.

So I finally get into Zambia's capital city Lusaka after a long all-night bus ride, just like the old days traversing Mexico when the buses were cheap and you could ride from TJ all the way to Guadalajara for the same price that you can now ride to Ensenada. It’s still early in the day, so I’m not TOO worried about finding a place to stay, not as much as if it were late, that is. After getting a recommendation from a nice lady on the bus ...

Today was a really long driving day.  We were in the truck for about 7 hours when we arrived in Lusaka. It seems that the further south we travel in Africa the more modernized the cities are becoming.  Lusaka is one of the nicest cities that we have been to.  There are huge shopping malls and condo complexes which is something that there hasn't been a lot of.


The money in Zambia is probably the hardest to figure out.  For $1USD the exchange is $4900 Zambia Quatra.  Every time we ...

... go down so out with hammer & screwdriver & eventually managed to lower it - new rule: always check & oil jack at each vehicle check. All of this is taking time while Kirsty is getting bored with keeping a lookout for lions but managed to get a waffle under the other back wheel and we were out & packed up for the off. We got through easily by staying out the ruts & driving on the firm ground between them - why didn't I do that in the first place & save an hour ...

... amp; cyclists carry large sacks of maize etc to and from the village from the farm which also had its own community. They must do it every day but the track was atrocious in places so I suppose that's just part of their daily life. We eventually reached the river at the village but didn't fancy having to wade across when we didn't have to - we watched in amusement at how the locals thought nothing of it but waded across with sacks on their heads and then return to carry ...

... from the nearby village, and Richard who helped to run the boat. Francis was a from the Tonga Tribe and together they tried to give me some history about the origins of the four main tribes in Zambia. There are a total of 72 tribes here, although in an attempt to unify them the official language is now English. We were to bed early as we were up early again the next day. Darryl kept us awake until around 12 with music and noise until his father, Ian ...

... above still apply), we are applying to the Elton John AIDS Foundation for funding to do HIV interventions with men who have sex with men (we don't call them homosexuals in the AIDS world, as many men who have sex with men do not identify as gay) and injecting drug users. So thats 8 proposals in 2 weeks, which officially qualifies as insane. And a good enough reason for not having left my desk in the ...

... trek than receive unreliable care on their doorstep. Whether they told us this because they were genuinely sceptical or simply to avoid embarrassment in front of us was unclear, but regardless of this, witchdoctors such as Dr. Mulonde and faith in their work thrive even in the poorest parts of Zambia, including Linda. When a local community worker told one lady that sexual contact may have been the reason for her becoming HIV positive, she was violently shown the door and accused of ...