He Asked to Experience Africa - We obliged.
Trip Start
Jan 20, 2005
1
48
58
Trip End
Dec 27, 2005
Lusaka,
Zambia
Friday, September 2, 2005
My father wanted to meet V and I somewhere exciting on our trip for his vacation. Due to logistics and my own facination with the continent, I suggested he come see us in Africa. He was pretty hesitant at first, but after talking to my younger brother Andy about his trips there, and my encouragement that after so much of his travels in Asia, he should give it a try, he agreed to meet us in Zambia for some trips to National Parks to see the wild AFrica. Virginie and I had done some (ok, very, very little) planning before his arrival and we had set up a truck rental so we could drive ourselves. Other than that, we had bought a map, a guidebook, and asked some (again, very very little) advice from other travelers on where to go, what to see, how to get there etc.
In true preperation for Africa, my dad was subjected to a 36 hour marathon to get here. He flew from Seattle to D.C., then to Frankfurt, (where he spent 12 hours wandering the city stuffing himself with his favorite german sausage and bread), then to Johanesburg, South Africa, then to Lusaka, Zambia. When he arrived at our hostle, he looked dazed, but was in good spirits. His second welcome to Africa, was that his airline had lost one of his bags and no one could tell him when, where and if it would show up. Welcome, there would be more mishap to follow in the next 15 days. Luckily, I knew my dad was up for it. He's a pretty easy traveler as he likes to keep moving rather than sitting on a beach. We promised him he wouldn't be bored, though he coudldn't expect to be comfortable...
In the morning, we were planning to head to the National Park with our rented Toyota Landcruiser (a nice big diesel rig with 4WD and plenty of ground clearance to ensure we could get offroad where we wanted to go), but we had to go get some supplies for my dad as we couldn't count on his luggage arriving any time soon. We went and bought him some clothes, a tent and sleeping bag, then decided to try to go to the Lower Zambezi National Park.
We read in our Lonely Planet how to get there and headed out of Lusaka. About 50KM from town we turned right onto a dirt road that we were sure was going to take us to the park. We enjoyed the drive along the dirt road through rurual villages and golden scrubby landscapes. We were nervous about goign the wrong way as there were no signs and asked people every 10 km or so if this was the right road. People were very friendly and seemed to encourage us that we were going the right direction. Up and down hills, through villages, past parched, harvested farmland and past and endless stream of waving, smilling villagers walking along the road. I tried to slow down to keep the red dust at a minimum, but these roads are dry.
At one point, we came to an intersection and were very unsure of where we were having driven for a couple hours. We asked some people hanging out at a local bar and they seemed too inebriated to be of any true help, then later found a driver and he pointed us in a direction. We picked up a hitchhiker who said he coudl direct us and lucky for us he came along as the bridge ahead was wiped out and he had to direct us through a maze of rutty side paths that no 2wd vehicle could have hoped to clear. We drove on, endlessly. After stopping for lunch and enjoying the quiet countryside, we were off again. It was getting late in the day and the sun was getting lower. The road was also beginning to disappear as grass squeezed in from the sides and bushes began to scrape the sides of our vehicle. Pretty soon, we were on a path that didn't look like it saw much traffic at all and Virginie was starting to fret a bit that we were going to be out here at night. Pretty soon the road got so bad and we were sick of getting out to clear the branches aside, we decided that though our guide and map seemed right, this road was not the best way to reach the National Park. We turned around and drove backwards. We picked up more hitchhikers to navigate the bridge then found a road that led back to Lusaka. We reached a campsite at 7:30pm that night, exhausted and a bit humbled by the experience. We camped that night and learned from someone there that we should have used a different road, though that one goes to the park, it isn't used much. Oh well...
