Cross Roads Lodge Lusaka

Zambezi Airways got us safely from Johannesburg, South Africa to Lusaka, Zambia. We were scheduled to meet our safari group on August 28th in Livingstone, Zambia. We decided to give ourselves a few extra travel days because we have not had good success with the flights thus far on the trip. Flights into Livingstone were about $100 more expensive so we decided to fly to Lusaka and then take a bus to Livingstone. Bad decision.

We took a taxi cab ...

... blue fish. Needless to say we didn’t stop and buy.

Just by the Engen garage in Lusaka we turned left and went up the Great East Road and after several kms we turned right into the Arcades Shopping Mall. This is a much better shopping mall than the one at Downtown. There were plenty of parking spaces and the SuperSpar was much better. So we did the supply shopping and checked the internet for emails. Then we drove back down towards Autoworld at ...

... the box of crayons we brought but all they had was broken pieces that they were all fighting over. Christina and I decided that we will buy small packs of crayons and a new compostition books for all of the them. To clarify, these are the kids that are not sponsored at the better school next door. That is the ultimate goal is to get all these kids sponsored. Need to post before I loose connection. Love to you all, Michelle

... was coming for us between 4 and 5 but didn't come until 6.  I had vision of being left there.
But we realized even help to one child would help.
In the afternoon we went with some other Americans to the House of Moses.  They are staying there and helping build the ngobelo  .  A one of a kind room for the older girls to learn a skill etc.
They were helping with the building so I helped them put together a window. I felt more ...

... said to Martin that as we hadn't seen leopard we would save that for when Kirsty arrived. Didn't see too much until darkness fell then Dan picked out a civet cat in the spotlight - brilliant as we had never seen one before. A little further on we saw a genet and then Dan saw something in the nearby grass and there was a beautiful male leopard - it then slinked off and we thought that was the end of the sighting but no! The leopard reappeared through the grass and walked ...

... said she didn't know the password & when asked who did she said 'tomorrow' - the joys of Africa! I ended up going on their computer. Judi joined me and afterwards we had lunch on the terrace bar - pizzas. We then adjourned to the pool to do some trip reading & planning although it seems as if some of the places we want to go to depend very much on how bad the roads are as the rains are not long finished. We plan to go to Lake Kariba (constructed when the Zambezi ...

... i was actually falling asleep in this chat but it was all good fun.......we arrived in Lusaka12.30 am after having left Lilongwe 6.30amish previous day!!! ....also forgot about our little Tire blowing up escapade...we were all just dosing off at one point when, in the middle of no-where, we heard a big bang, and smelt the smell of burning rubber. i was so scared i just froze pulling my knees up and hugging my pillow, a few screams were shouted around the ...

... still there and untouched we loaded up using our best human chain to date. Some poles fell in the river and Richard expertly dived for them. Waving goodbye we drove off and headed to Lusaka. We stopped for an hour in a shopping centre to use the internet and I bought a map of Southern Africa so I can mark out the route we are taking. Its a very modern town and seemed pretty safe apart from one guy we saw crossing the road on a flyover with a rosary ...

... They invited us several times to come up and spend a week with them, which sounds like great fun. They enticed us with an offer of a fishing trip on the Zambizi. But it will have to be for another trip We watched the kudu and three bushbuck being fed; I guess the hartebeest were on their own. About the time the mosquitoes started biting it was time to drive back to the Fringilla for dinner. I have some work to catch up on so I've retired early to get caught up.

... all of us who were curious to discover the contents of the plastic bottle she’d been drinking from, someone put it to her. Her answer confirmed what I had suspected in that it was chibuku, a cheap, opaque beer made readily available for poverty stricken locals to drink their troubles away. When asked why this was necessary for the practice, she simply replied that the spirit she was hosting had requested it. Never mind the absurd logic behind a spirit having physical needs- I was ...