Lusaka

Lusaka Wednesday 28th March 2007

We stayed in New Kalala Camp for two nights, and had a restful time catching up with the laundry and cleaning out the grass from the radiators. Anyone for hay-bales? Willy, Ingrid and I have reacted badly to the tsetse fly bites and have come out in maddingly itchy rashes, Willy all over his torso, Ingrid mainly on her arms and legs, and me in various patches. Last time Nev and I were in Zambia I got the same rash, on my legs and ankles, after going through Sumbu Game reserve and we all thought it was sand-fleas which had bitten me. This time it was not sand-fleas or any other bites, but definitely a reaction to the few tsetse fly bites. We three look like we have measles and the red lumps are so itchy it is wonderful to scratch them. Nev has to keep reminding me not to scratch, but it is difficult not to. I had a bit of a headache and didn’t feel too good that night, probably due to this reaction.
Beryl and Dave are teaching Nev and me to play the card game Bridge. Although challenging as a beginner, it is great fun and not as difficult as I had expected. We learned to play Hearts too and had great fun while bonding with the group.
New Kalala camp is 500m from Zambia’s main hydro-electric power station, but we had intermittent power in the camp, although we could hear the roar of the turbines, or the water going through, from the camp. We could watch the electric rain-storm lightning reflecting on the clouds in the distance, but only one storm hit us during the night before we left, with wind waking us up with the urgent flapping of the rain-sheet on the roof while we were snugly protected inside our cosy tent. That was the first rain we had encountered since we left Rosetta. On enquiring from the staff why there was no electricity, the reply was “I don’t know”. When asked why they don’t use their huge standby generator, they said “No diesel”. When we asked if there was any diesel at Tsezhi Teszhi village, they said “No power to pump the diesel, we have big problem”.

We spent the morning of Tuesday driving from Tsezhi Tsezhi along the road to Mumbwa, which used to be a tarred road
Cl early,because there are still remnants of the tar on the road in places. It had deteriorated to a long stretch of dirt road with now water-filled potholes which took concentration and judgment on the part of the driver to negotiate a smooth but windy passage between the holes. Nev and I separated from the others to get repairs done in Lusaka. Neville ‘Someone’ from Winterton in South Africa, who runs a lodge here recommended John Finn to us, so we made our way there. We are now in Lusaka. A bustling, vibrant city, full of businesses owned by ex-pats and Zambians, dependant on the competent Zambian employees. The quality of the cars has improved since we were last here 4 years ago, and although there are still ‘skidoonks’, previously the owners of the ‘larny’ cars were only Govt employees and ‘Do-Gooders’. Probably the improvement is due to the cheap import of second-hand cars from Japan through Durban. First repair we had to make was to the side-shaft axle which had been welded to the drive member. John Finn, of Livingstone 4x4 Hire (self-drive Landrover Hire) was very friendly and helpful, not only in supplying his mechanic, Reuben to do the repairs, and helping us with spares, but freely giving all sorts of info, hints and tips on Landys as well as directions to other recommended firms in Lusaka. My, can he talk. We abandoned our welded side-shafts and went off with good second-hand ones that were not welded to the drive members. We caught up to the rest of our group at Eureka Farm camp site 10 Km south of the Southern Circle.
A very nice camp site, luckily, because then it happened!: We had all been convinced that the Mazda was the only trouble-free vehicle and we were all ready to sell our Landys and Landcruisers and buy Mazdas. George and Ann-Rose’ Mazda had stopped at a robot in Lusaka in 4:30pm rush hour and couldn’t take off again…… the submersible petrol pump in the petrol tank had broken. Ann-Rose had jumped out amidst the hooting traffic while George freewheeled to the side of the road. Brian caught up to them and towed them along with Ann-Rose running behind trying to catch up, amidst calls from sympathetic locals advising her to “Run, Mama, run”. After she had jumped into the Mazda, George had a hair-raising 10Km being towed on a very short strap with very little brakes or power steering. Brian called instructions over the radio to George to put it in 5th and let the clutch out to turn the engine so that at least he had brakes. Something which 68 year-old George had to summon all his courage and faith in Brian to do. They made it to the campsite but George nearly crashed into Brian when they finally stopped. This story from Brian amused us no end when we got back after dark from John Finn. George’s eyes are still as big as saucers!!
Repairs to the Mazda had to take place in the camp site this morning while Nev and I have gone to find Peraz, and Air-con place run by a Swedish man. Uncle Jimmy does the specialised welding there and Obert is busy removing the damaged Aluminium pipe - damaged from being rubbed by a protruding piece of metal in the engine. We believe that most of Landrover break-downs are caused by friction from vibrations in the engine, so we had tied down as many wires and pipes and we could get to. We had clearly missed lots, so expect more trouble along the way.