8th - 15th July
We are now in Zambia. Took us an hour an a quarter to get through immigration - things are done slowly here in Africa 🙂
Camping at the Waterfront campsite for two nights which is lovely but lots of mosquitos☹️ We were visited by a group of elephants each day who came to eat just the other side of the campsite fence.
9th July
Colin went off in the morning to swim in the Devils Pool at Victoria Falls which is right on edge of the falls 😱 apparently it wasnt scary at all!
In the afternoon we went on a rhino safari walk for which we had to have an armed ranger accompany us. Sam was our ranger and Chiinga was our incredibly knowledgeable guide. They have 10 rhinos in the park and we were very fortunate to see them all which included a baby one month old. The rhinos are endangered so they are guarded night and day.
We also came across a group of elephants which was nerve wracking given we were on foot and not in the safe confines of the car!
10th July
Ngonye Falls campsite
We have started our journey across Zambia and our first stop is Ngonye Falls. The roads in Zambia are either good or really bad! Part of this drive had 30km of potholes!
The falls are about 2.5km long and although not as impressive as Victoria Falls were still worth seeing.
We were the only people staying at the campsite and it had the most beautiful beach that went down to the Zambezi River.
11th July
Mayukuyuke River camp - Kafue National Park
Our next night stop was at Mayukuyuke camp which we just got to before dark as we had another days driving on awful potholed roads.
Again we were the only people camping but were rewarded by a fantastic pitch right by the edge of the Kafue River with hippos as neighbours. An amazing place to stay. The camp is run by a lady called Pippa who has been in Zambia since the 1980s and opened the camp in 2006.
We had our second monkey incident..... as we were leaving and settling up, we had left the car open and came out to find a monkey sitting in the front seat eating a bag of salt n vinegar crisps he had found!
12th July
Forest Lodge camp
A nights stopover as we are now over half way across Zambia. Again the only people camping.
The roads have got better so we are able to cover more miles.
13th July
Lake Chilia Lodge
We just about made it to Lake Tanganyika but ran out of daylight to get there today. The most bizzare place we have camped so far as it felt that we were given a pitch in their picnic area!
14th July
Isanga Bay Lodge - Lake Tanganyika
We were only 29km from the Lake but the sat nav was telling us that it was going to take 2hrs! We couldnt believe that the road would be that bad but yep it was! However it was more than worth it. White sand, palms trees and beautifully clear warm waters greeted us.
The lodge is run by a south african couple, Ulandi and Morcol who have been there for six years with their four daughters.
We were the only people that had come to stay for a while and they very generously upgraded us from camping to one of their bungalows which was such a treat.
15th July
Kalambo Falls
The falls are over 200m high so twice as high as Victoria Falls.
We had planned to stay the night at the campsite close to the falls but decided to make our way to the Malawian border so we coulde be in Malawi the next day.
When we arrived it was complete chaos and we didnt have a clue where we should go. We were approached by a fixer who offered to help guide us through and we definitely needed his help.
He told us that the road from the Zambian border into Malawi was not passable with the main bridge down and so we would need to go via Tanzania (which shares the same Zambian border crossing). Two and a half hours later we had all our paperwork but would now need to spend the night in Tanzania before setting off to Malawi the next morning.
Tanzania (briefly)
A hotel in Tunduma
Having run out of daylight to get to Malawi we were booked into a hotel in Tunduma for the evening. The staff were incredily friendly (Happy and Titi), the room a bit strange but we were able to get a fairly decent meal - Colin had octupus curry and I had fish stew. Unfortunately the same could not be said for the wine which came from a wine box that had never been opened and was probably about 10 years old 😂