Trekking southern Africa: Zambia Trip

Well it was a rough trip. We drove 14 hours from South Africa to Chobe National Park in Botswana. From there we crossed the river by ferry into Zambia. Chaos would describe the border crossing. It took us almost 2 hours to clear immigration and customs.

That's us in the Toyota Land Cruiser towing the trailer. The guy in front needed some help. No problem, there was plenty of it around.

We did beat the smugglers over, probably because their boats were much harder to paddle laden down with products to avoid the heavy Zambia duty.

Then it was 14 hours to a small town just west of Chipata. We stayed at the luxurious ZULU KRAAL CAMP GROUNDS. Thank god we arrived after dark and couldn’t see anything. The photos are self-explanatory.

Chinese toilet with a touch of Africa. No extra charge!

Our hot water tank!

At least the wiring was done to code.

We arrived in South Luangua the next afternoon.

First stop, the market place. Friendly people. Nice selection of produce. Just like any modern supermarket you would find at the end of a dirt road in sub Sahara Africa.

After some haggling we found enough fruit and vegetables to keep us fed throughout our stay at the park.

We set up camp then headed for the park first thing in the morning.

It was less than we expected but interesting. Plenty of lions, birds, hippos and elephants plus a multitude of plains game.

We were charged by an elephant that didn’t like the fact that I couldn’t find reverse in my SUV fast enough.

Never wake a sleeping HIPPO!

They are very fast and not the most even tempered animals in the bush.

Then we learned we broke our trailer axle on the way to the camp.

Well no problem. We will just drive back to Jo’berg a short three days of 14 hours each day and buy a new one.

We took a short cut to save a few hours. NEVER TAKE A SHORT CUT IN AFRICA!