Overlanding in Zambia
Trip Start
Aug 16, 2005
1
36
43
Trip End
May 02, 2006
Lake Kariba,
Zambia
Monday, February 27, 2006
Carly, our young and vivacious Australian tour guide, had come up from Cape Town with Scott (English guy) and K.J (a Tawainese guy currently living in Edmonton, Canada). The tour officially starts in Cape Town, South Africa and ends in Nairobi, Kenya. We joined the group in Vic Falls, Zimbabwe and eventually stayed on until Arusha, Tanzania.
We were 14 in all on the start of our tour including Carly's family who flew from Australia to Africa to see her and do her tour, a couple from Oz and New Zealand, another couple from England with their friend, a German guy and Bonnie and I. We had breakfast and were on our way by 6a.m
Kids
. that morning. Crossed the border into Zambia and drove to the town of Livingstone for a "shop stop." We did many of these in each country, stops to refill on fuel, food and usually find a bank and an exchange bureau so that we could have the local currency in each country. From Livingstone we drove about 5 hours to Lake Kariba.
The first two nights of our tour were spent living on a houseboat on Lake Kariba, an enormous manmade lake known for its sunsets, wildlife and one of the largest crocodile farms in Africa. We experienced all three and they were awesome.
The sunsets on the lake were spectacular. Our nights were spent playing scrabble, jenga, reading and talking to others on the tour. We were new at this point so we didn't really know any of them too well. Our first night on the boat Bonnie and I took our sleeping bags and pillows up to the top deck and slept under the stars listening to the loud croaks of frogs and deafening sound of locusts. It was a beautiful night, 3 shooting stars skimmed the sky above us, the breeze was a welcome respite as the humidity and heat were intense. I actually awoke around 5a.m. and was startled as my sleepy eyes focused and I realized where I was, outside, on top of a boat somewhere in Africa...
We visited the croc farm the following morning. Left the houseboat on a smaller boat that took us to the farm. This was a very educational day really. Learned more about crocs than I ever dreamed. They are bred on this farm for the sale of their skins in Europe and Asia
Lunch at the Croc Farm
. Obviously I found the place to be a bit of a moral dilemma with the breeding of crocs so someone far, far away can have a croc skin purse. However, the benefits the place had on the community were obvious. The farm employs over 300 Africans and that alone is invaluable in a place with staggering unemployment rates and extreme poverty. The breeding and care of the crocs is a very intricate and delicate process. There are over 60,000 crocs on this farm at any given time. The best part of the visit was the feeding when we hopped in the back of an open-air truck and drove to the swamps where one of the guys tossed out carcasses (strangely, small croc carcasses of the ones that don't make it is what they feed the larger crocs) as these absolutely MASSIVE crocs slowly crept up the banks to eat and thoroughly entertain us.
Later that afternoon as we were just relaxing on the boat a few people spotted some impalas on the mainland in the distance so we hopped in a small boat once again to go and get a closer look. It was late in the afternoon and I happened to come out of the shower when a few people were climbing on the small boat so I joined, not particularly enthused about impalas as they were sort of "old news" by now. On our way back from seeing them our skipper spotted some hippos so we headed in their direction. Hippos for some reason are one of the animals I wanted to see the most on this trip. We spotted dozens of them that afternoon. Mostly just their ears and noses that poke up out of the surface of the water and occasionally they move up out of the water enough so that we can see their giant round bodies. We were also treated to a toothy yawn or two. Hippos spend the day underwater. Their skin is extremely sensitive to sunlight and they cannot be exposed to it for long
Lunch somewhere in Zambia
. They come out of the water at night to feed. Hippos run underwater and are very fast. They travel up to 30 kilometers a day and are able to stay under water for 25 minutes at a time. Though they are strictly herbivores, they are some of the most dangerous animals in Africa and account for a large number of human fatalities each year. They are extremely territorial and aggressive. Funny thing that an hour after seeing them about 200 yards from our houseboat we were back on the houseboat in our swimsuits jumping off the top deck and into the croc and hippo infested waters! Well, that sounds more daring than it was...both species live on the banks and in shallow waters. We were well into the very deep part of the lake and there was virtually no danger. Our second night on the boat was a very stormy night and the lightening show was just as spectacular as the previous starry night had been but we opted for an "indoor" sleep obviously. We got up early, headed back to the truck and after a couple of hours of mechanical work since the starter wasn't working we were finally off.
Drove another fair distance, 600 kilometers, to our campsite just outside the town of Lusaka, set up our tents and went to bed early.
Each day on the tour started very, very early
Sunset over Lake Kariba
. Wake up time was anywhere between 4:30 and 6 in the morning. We'd take down our tents, eat breakfast, clean up, load the truck and began driving. Each one of us had a chore we were responsible for and we were split into groups and helped with cooking and washing dishes on a rotation as well. Things actually ran pretty smoothly and I think this helped us all become sort of a team and get to know each other.The truck was a big sort of converted half-semi capable of plunging through just about anything which it did. There was enough room for us to have two seats to ourselves and most of our days in Zambia were spent on that truck, reading, sleeping and looking out the window. One of the best things about this trip was the opportunity it allowed us to see small, rural villages we otherwise never would have. We really saw how the locals live and interacted with them daily, sometimes only briefly during a shop stop but at others we actually had conversations and made friends along the way, particularly with the children who I believe are the life of Africa. Throughout this entire trip, from Vic Falls to today and I am sure until I leave Africa, a vehicle with Mzungus (white people) driving in the countryside or through the rural villages will draw hordes of beautiful children to the road, hands waving wildly, usually both of them, smiles on their faces and invariably "Hello! Howareyou?" They say all of it real fast and before you can answer they quickly add, "I'm fine!" It is very funny because if you manage to beat them to the greeting and tell them that you yourself are fine before they ask, they are so confused. They ponder it for a minute and then just stick with what they know and again, "Hello! Howareyou? I'm fine!" The enthusiasm is relentless and their laughter and smiles infectious. You could spend hours gazing out the window of the truck waving your hand and smiling to the children you pass on the road. I've never seen anything like it.
Our last day in Zambia we stayed near a town called Chipata, a stone's throw away from the border with Malawi.
