Each day in Africa is so different. This morning I found myself fully dressed standing in a shower cubicle (the one and only for ladies), holding a plastic basin under the nozzle in order to get some hot water to do the dishes. I was thinking about my friends and family who would making school lunches or giving their husbands breakfast round about now (only to discover later in the day it was Saturday). In order to get to the shower, I had to climb about 200m up a hill with the dirty dishes and plastic basins. With hot water in basin, I found a ledge and while I washed the dishes, a troop of baboons sat and watched me, with a look of ‘this is one strange human’. Eventually, they got bored and went off, to be replaced by two rock rabbits; they were only interested in sunning themselves and not in me. I no longer miss the dishwasher and find the daily chores oddly fulfilling, it is easy when you have a beautiful view and the plaintive cries of the fish eagles all around. I’m also a lot luckier than a lot of women in the world who have no water with which to wash their dishes, let alone hot water.
We were on the road by 8:15. We crossed over the dam wall, where lots of construction was taking place – supervised by Chinese (obviously they have the contract for the implementation of the hydro electric scheme here), this must be a total culture shock for them.
We passed through the town and their funny little stores and taverns, with names like “Gods Will Shop” and “Risen from Ashes General Dealer”.
Take it as given, that the roads we travel on are sandy and potholed but today was a total shocker – I’d hate to know what’s happening to our shocks (I hope my girl friends are impressed). We were chatting to one of the guys who works at the resort yesterday and he said, “South Africans don’t moan about our roads here but everyone else gets stuck”, this says something about some of our roads in S.A.
We arrived at Mukambi in one piece and the whole journey was well worth it – this place is amazing. It is on the banks of the Kafue River, we never realised this river was so large, this section is certainly on a par, size wise, with the Zambezi. On the other side of the camp site is the bushveld, so we have the best of both worlds. Gray has also got a bit nervous about the camp site facilities (after my little episode at Nanzilha) but we have a proper toilet and hot and cold running water so I am very happy.
It seems standard, that if you are campers or lodgers, you have full use of all facilities at the resort or lodge. The facilities here are stunning; there are 3 decks, on varying levelsand a pool, all overlooking the river. At the moment I am in heaven; watching the river flow past with an elephant drinking on the opposite bank.
Camp view on right
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