Southern Zambia

070323 Friday
Dave bought a new alternator instead of waiting for Brian’s spare. It was pretty boring waiting around till Brian and Maureen arrived, but luckily there was a pool to cool down the temps between 38 and 40 every day. We had a bit of a scare when when there was an ominous hissing from out our engine radiator area and we visited a couple of mechanics in Kasane. The last one said it wasn’t the radiator and so we waited to see what happened. When we tried to use the air-con it blew out really hot air so we realized it must have been the aircon pipe which was leaking. Brian and Maureen arrived on Monday and when we all went to fill up with diesel, Kasane had run out because the Zambians and Zimbos had come over with hundreds of 20l containers (spagpags) to take back over the border. Luckily there was fuel in Kazangulu otherwise we would have had to go 100Km south to Pandamatenga, which we have had to do on the previous trip.
Next morning up bright and early we crossed over the border at the confluence of the Chobe and the Zambezi by ferry. The river was 500m wide and really pumping its way to the sea. There were long lines of 30 tonners backed up right to Kazangula, but cars went 4 at a time with one truck, so we weren’t delayed much.
At the ferry we met Lewis Bingham and 2 black Zambians who were buying vehicles in Durban from Japan, for rediculoualy low prices, like a 2001 Cressida for R20000, and importing them into Zambia with no import tariffs and then re-selling them in Zambia.
To get into Zambia we paid ZK5000 for Council Tax, ZK80000 for ferry crossing, Insurance of ZK112500, and ZK200000 carbon tax. All this totaled R630. The Zambians were very friendly and pleasant.
We went over the new bridge over the Zambezi at Shesheke. It is 900m long and build on a gracious curve. It is now the 5th bridge to cross the Zambezi. It was donated by Germany for €50000.
We proceded to Brian’s “free” camp 100 Km up the Zambezi called Kabula Lodge where we have always thought it one of the nicest areas in Zambia, where the Zambians here live in heaven. Of course Nev went farming and soon he was picking mealie leaves to analyse why they appeared to be drying off before maturity. He discovered that they had “grey leaf spot” probably introduced through the sub-standard maize donated from America. The maize also had eye-spot and rust. The United Nations will be donating a lot more maize in the future as subsistence farming is not economical enough to withstand the necessity of continuous spraying for diseases. Later when Nev spoke to the locals, they thought that their maize was dying because of drought, and although the Zambezi is flooding, the rains haven’t fallen so well in this area, although the maize has dried off far sooner than it should have, because of the diseases and not due to drought.

Monday 070326
We went up the river in motor boats to the rapids, which weren’t there, the first time in memory that they had been inundated, even though the river had already receded 1m from its highest point and most of the dambos (vleis) were starting to dry out. We got bored waiting for Will and Ingrid so took a trip 70Km up north to Sioma to the Ngwenya falls. They were in full spate, and were quite spectacular with the water forming eddies and boiling along, doubling back in itself and forming giant whirlpools. A couple of guides took us across to a little island in a canoe where we saw a better view of the semicircle of shallow falls. There was a lovely squeaky beach where we could safely swim, away from the hungry jaws of crocs. Not that we saw any, the river was too angry. It is only when you see the water pounding over the falls that you realize the true volume of the river, as you cannot appreciate the volume when the river is 5 to 600m wide. Although at that place when you throw in a fishing lure, it doesn’t sink but gets pulled downstream immediately and stays on the surface and only attracts dragon flies, not fish.
Will and Ingrid arrived while we were gone and we were up to our full strength at last. We could not procede along our intended route north up to Mongu and therafter to North Kafue up the west side of the Zambezi, as none of the ferries were running because of the high volumes of water in the river. we had to backtrack to Katimo Mulilo and procede from there. We decided to go off the main route and see the abandoned rains at Molubezi. The petrol vehicles were running out of fuel so they filled up out of spagpags at Shesheke at double the price, R12/l. The road turned off the main road to Livingstone and was being widened and graded, so we travelled with plenty of dust. Gradually it got smaller and smaller until it was just a track with deep holes which we had to negotiate. We met Elvis Malumo there who is a young man with great ambitions to resurrect the sawmill and bring prosperity to his community. The sawmill owns 10000Ha and he intends to utilize the Teak trees. This is not sustainable because no replacement planting is envisioned. However his intentions are good. He already has a donation of US$50000 from the Zambian govt. Half the machinery and equipment or parts thereof has been removed by various ministers in the govt over the years, so it will need about US$1mil to kick-start it. Some of the antique railway locomotives have been shamefully cut up for scrap metal since we were here 2 years ago. There are 3 engines on display and were being restored by a Mr Christie who has died, so restoration has stopped – an ideal opportunity for an enthusiast to continue with this work. The railway line is still operational running twice a week between Livingstone and Molubezi taking 36hours to negotiate the 200Km. We proceded NE towards South Kafue and camped in the bush.
The mopane flies were troublesome, getting in our ears and eyes, and tickling our skin, so out came the mozzie netting over our head so we all looked like brides with white veils. Made a huge difference. That night we heard the little-heard “rrrrrrRRRRRrrrr” of a hyena who had inadvertently come across our camp and was wondering what all this metal was doing in his stamping ground.

We had our nightly meeting and having taken the lead that day, it was decided to rotate the leadership and Dave and Beryl took the lead to navigate the way to South Kafue. We traveled on a road which hadn’t been used for years through the hunting concession area and got a bit lost. Dave doing a fantastic job of navigating and leading through a veritable wall of 4m high thatch grass with just a GPS and plenty of imagination, trying to keep us on a track. We were just chilling at the back while Dave’s Landcruiser gathered all the grass seeds and kept overheating. Actually chilling is not the right word, we were sweltering in the closed-up Landy with no aircon , it was like a sauna 38-39oC. The Mazda of George and Ann-Rose got a puncture and the tsetse flies started to bite in earnest. We landed in a sink-hole and luckily there was a bank there else we would have turned over, and had to be pulled out by Dave with men hanging on the side to stop the Landy from tippling over. We all decided we were making no headway, and turned round. On our way back two Zambians, Alex Tumonwa, an apprentice hunting guide and his friend Preachart Mandia, a taxi driver on holiday from Livingstone, waved us down and offered to show us the way to Kafue. We gratefully accepted, at almost any price because we were “gatvol” by this time.
They took us to an abandoned hunting camp where we stayed the night and proceded the next morning with George and Ann-Rose leading with Alex as guide. The Mazda was also having heating problems because it was now in front collecting the grass seeds, even though we all had seed nets on. Dave and Beryl shared the transportation of Preachard with us. Tsetse flies were bothering all of us, and now we all look like we have measles with red whelts all over our bodies, and the itch is unbearable at times. We came to the main Kafue lodge/headquarters in a beautiful setting with huge shady trees and a park-like atmosphere. BUT: someone had forgotten the word maintenance. The roofs were being gradually blown off and not replaced, the flush toilets were not working any more and little wattle-&-daub and thatch long-drops to replace the toilets 2m away from the once magnificent dwellings. One advantage of the roofs blowing off was that they took the corrugated iron and beat it into the shape of window panes. These they used in place of the broken window panes. Ver effective, as even the youngsters couldn’t break the panes!!
At last we arrived at the gate out of Kafue, having seen virtually no animals, but evidence of elephant, lion, leopard, warthog, bushpig and some buck. Oh, yes we saw one very skittish black sable antilope a long way away. At the gate we had to pay US$45 for the priviledge of leaving!! And found a reasonable campsite on the banks of the Tsesti Testsi Dam where we have decided to rest for a day before going to Lusaka to do essential repairs and purchases. We paid the guides R200/car so they were rewarded handsomely for their assistance although it is going to take them 4 days to return by train and bus. Brian’s Landy’s water pump gave in and had to be replaced, and Dave’s Landcruiser has a major overheating problem. We have to get our aircon fixed and our sideshaft rewelded.
The Tsetsi Tsetsi Dam is a huge dam (bigger than the Vaal Dam) on the Kafue River. It is used to generate hydro-electricity and we can hear the roar of the turbines from the camp. Last night something went wrong and the whole area blacked out after 8.30pm it is now 11am Monday morning and power still hasn’t been restored – reminiscent of Cape Town?