Day 20: 4/5/2011 - Livingstone to Kafue National Park

I have loved Livingstone – possibly 5 days was a bit long, the originally planned 3 is ideal but we knew planning was  an impossibility and we would have to adjust accommodation and routes to the circumstances.

We left at about 9:00 and headed 120km up the main road to Kalomo, where we filled up with diesel. From here we left the main tarred road and took the road to the south entrance gate of Kafue, it was back to dirt and potholes. The first few km were particularly scary as we were sharing the road with donkey carts and bicycles coming from all directions. The speed limit on the road was 65km/h but we were averaging around 35km/h. Eventually, the traffic subsided and we were the only vehicle on the road. The area was sparsely populated with maize and sunflower crops. There are indigenous trees in the middle of the fields, the crops are planted around the trees, which are used for medicinal purposes. Every 10km we would encounter 2 speed bumps with a sign indicating “Basic School” and either a school close to the road or a road leading off to one. The term ‘basic school’ concerned me until we came to a sign indicating an “Upper Basic School” and I realised ‘basic’ was the equivalent of our ‘lower primary’ school. If it had been school term, I would have visited one of the schools but unfortunately it is school holidays in Zambia.

We have this kind of travelling deal, I will camp for max 5 nights and then I want a clean bed, a warm shower and a cooked meal (done by someone else). Gray worked out that of the 20 days on the road, we have slept in beds for 10, so I have 40 days in a row in the tent. At that point I was kind of looking forward to a being back in our tent home.

The road was a pleasant one to travel, with lots of mopane forests and for the first time in about 2 weeks the flat land gave way to a few mountains. At the entrance to the gate we were told by the guard that they had been fairly busy. We had to fill in a register giving entry details; we were the first car through since 22/4/2011and the 8^th car through this year – I would hate to know what the quiet period was like.

We were headed for the camp site at Nanzhila Plains, the gate guard warned us to keep off the ‘short cut’ road, as it was impassable. The long road added an extra 50km and 11/2 hours onto our journey. We saw very little along the way, most of the vegetation comprised of thick mopane. What was frustrating were the number of lion spoor along the track; it looked as if someone had lion spoor tyre tread but we never saw any lion.

Gray had spent 2 days researching camp sites in the area and boy did he bomb out on this one. We are the only people here, not surprising. It reminds me of a scene from the “Lion King”, the part of Africa where Shenzi, Ed and the other hyena dude live. It is full of thick grey dust, has a ghastly, smelly long drop (I will be digging holes here) and a shower bucket in a tree (with no tap). The worst thing about this area are the tsetse flies that keep nipping us and the good old house flies that think we are dog turds and won’t leave us alone.  Gray, wondering why I am somewhat miffed by my change in circumstances, informs me this is luxury compared to what we are heading into. He could have let me know this a little sooner.

The evening arrived and we managed a pretty decent meal; sosaties, butternut, baked potatoes and frozen salad. No Amarula on ice, with a river running by – actually, life in Africa can be kak.

The road to Kafue

Fafue's 'busy' entrance

                                                                                             The Thunder Box