Having learned our lesson from the last border crossing, we left in the early morning again to cross into Zambia. We were rewarded with the fastest immigration and customs on our trip to Africa. In Zambia, we headed straight to South Luangwa National Park and only stopped quickly to buy a Simcard. This as well, was a very straightforward process. Maybe because everything went so smoothly, we were a bit euphoric and agreed to exchange our leftover Malawi Kwachas for Zambian Kwachas with one of the fixers who came and offered his service. We should have known better, but when he even agreed to a not-too-bad exchange rate, we handed over our Kwachas, and he gave us the Zambian money. When we counted the bills, he told us that he needed more and that this wasn’t the amount he had agreed to (which was not true). However, we told him we would not agree to a lower exchange rate, so he asked for his money back and gave us our Malawi Kwachas. Only later, after he had left, we realized that he had kept 20'000 Kwachas (worth 20 US dollars) to himself. Of course, we were frustrated, but a lesson learned: never do business with these guys on the street; they are professionals in tricking their «customers» - looking at it that way, you could even say he had earned his money. Well, Hakuna Matata, it could have been worse. We went to fill up our Diesel tank and continued to South Luangwa.
Our first stop was at Wildlife Camp, which had been recommended to us by many Overlanders we met along the way, but they told us they were fully booked when we arrived. After seeing our disappointed faces, they offered us a spot for one night, and we were able to make a reservation at the neighboring campsite Croc Valley for another three nights. We set up our camp and quickly jumped into the pool overlooking the South Luangwa river, where many hippos and crocodiles were also taking a bath. Before dinner, we sat in the hideout they had built overlooking a waterhole to observe the animals who came to drink. When we arrived, a big group of elephants came by to drink. It was so lovely to see these majestic creatures from very close. The following day, we returned to the hideout with a self-made cup of cappuccino. We saw the same group of elephants come back to drink, but also another group joined, as well as some giraffes and lots of monkeys. It was like watching Discovery Channel live.
We weren’t rushing to leave since we only had to go next door, but most of our neighbors packed up early. When a Landcruiser passed our campsite, we only realized it had a Swiss License plate. We waved and the couple driving it stepped out of their car to come over for a chat. That’s how we met Urs and Barbara from Solothurn, who have traveled almost everywhere in their Landcruiser. They bought it ten years ago and have made trips to Asia, North and South America, and now they are traveling in Africa. They were leaving South Luangwa after staying here for a week and going to Lusaka, so we exchanged our contact details and made plans to catch up again in a few days when we would also drive to the capital city of Zambia. Our other neighbor was a young French lady traveling alone in her car named Rafiki. When we started talking, we realized that we had already been chatting about how to ship the car from Europe to Africa. We both were in Europe around the same time last year, wanting to go to Africa, and like for many other Overlanders, the options of getting to Africa by car were not many. It was lovely chatting with Charline and exchanging some of our travel experiences. She was on her way up north, and we were going south, so there was a lot to share. It was already early afternoon by the time we finally left the campsite.
We arrived at the Croc Valley Campsite next door, where they had saved a spot for us – luckily because it was jam-packed too. Our neighbor here was Erwin, a Dutch guy, who had also come almost the same route as us from Europe to Africa, but he was traveling on his motorbike! Tom also spotted an Intrepid Travel bus, the Company he made his Africa Trip with back in 2017. He went up to the two guys just preparing food in front of the truck for their tourists and asked if they knew Victor, who was the tour guide on his trip. The two guys started laughing, and Victor stepped out of the bus a few seconds later. What a coincidence! Tom, of course, was thrilled to run into the man who got him infected with the «African Travel Virus,» We enjoyed some Malawi Gin together and were even invited to join them for dinner.
The following day, we spent inside the National Park, driving around in our Defender. We went in at 6 am and stayed until 6 pm, and it was a great experience and a perfect self-drive safari. It has been a while since our last game drive, which we did back in Uganda, and we enjoyed spotting all the animals again. Most of them just had their babies; we saw baby hippos, baby elephants, baby giraffes, baby buffaloes, and even a baby crocodile. The park was lovely as well; it stretched along the Luangwa River. We dared to drive close to the riverbed, where - for the first time on this trip – we got stuck in the sand 😃 There was nothing else to do but get the shuffle and the max tracks from the roof, and we started digging ourselves out. Tom did the hard work while I was ensuring no animal was approaching us, lol. Luckily, we were out very quickly and got to continue the game drive. We spotted countless elephant families at the very far end of the park. Sometimes, it was tough to see them because of the trees and bushes on the side of the roads. It’s unbelievable how quickly they can hide in the bush, given their size. Even though we were driving super slow, we once got surprised by an Elephant-mom and her baby who suddenly stood in front of our car only a few meters away. The mother, of course, got scared for her baby and started running towards our car. We quickly reversed and backed off, and she slowed down again, making one final loud sound with her trunk to tell us to stay away. We didn’t need to speak elephant-language to understand her message, and our heart rate increased slightly.
It was time to drive back to the entrance gate again, and just a few kilometers before we were out of the park, we saw two cars that obviously had spotted something. We saw a beautiful leopard chilling in the shade next to a waterhole when we got closer. We couldn’t believe how lucky we were and enjoyed the last half an hour in the park observing the leopard – what a safari day!! We returned to our camp and cooked a nice dinner with our neighbor Erwin. The following day, we also made him some coffee which he enjoyed since he travels very basic due to the limited space he’s got on his motorbike. Tom and I spent one more night at Croc Valley, but all the other campers left that day, so for the last night, we had the camp to ourselves - almost… Maybe, the quiet campsite was why a group of elephants decided to visit us; they crossed the river during the day and stayed around the camp all night. When I wanted to go to take a shower, an elephant was blocking the entrance, and I had to change my plans. I was hoping I would not have to go to the toilet at night because it would not be a nice encounter to walk into an elephant in the dark. But the elephants were very friendly, and I slept like a baby that night.
The next day, we packed up and continued our trip toward Lusaka, the capital of Zambia. It’s a very long stretch, and there is not much in between except for one camp halfway, where most overlanders spend a night. We left early in the morning and arrived at this camp early in the afternoon. Since we were both still fit to drive some more, we decided to pull through to Lusaka, where we arrived just after dark, around 7 pm. We were more than happy to get out of the car after 12 hours. We were warmly welcomed by Harry, the owner of the «lodge,» which actually is his private house with a huge backyard, where he decided to make a campsite after some of his friends asked him if they could camp at his home for a few nights. And he had a great eye and many beautiful ideas; the campsite was heaven on earth for us and many other overlanders. Good ablutions with hot and strong showers, a lot of space to camp, and many nice spots to have a little barbecue. Even though it was already pitch dark, we started a fire to grill some meat we still had in the fridge. Urs and Barbara, already waiting for us, joined us for a bottle of wine, and we had a great evening together.
The next day, we had to clean our car. After driving around in the National Park and getting stuck in the sand, it was indispensable to clean it thoroughly. We emptied the whole vehicle and took out all the drawers and the bed. Tom drove the empty car to the closest car wash. While waiting for it to be cleaned, he went to the China Mall next door, where he wanted to shop (if you know Tom, you know he loves shopping, especially for all the gadgets that no one actually needs. He had high hopes of finding some Christmas Lights for the Defender (I told him that I’m a big fan of Christmas Lights, and yes, we know it’s way too early 😉 ), but he couldn’t find what he was looking for and returned empty-handed but with a spotless car. I stayed at the campsite and washed all our laundry. It was great, having a clean car and clean clothes again. Geke (Harry’s partner) was cooking for everyone at the campsite for dinner. There were 16 people at the table, six from Switzerland, some from South Africa, and some Dutch.
Barbara and Urs told us about their further travel plans; they had their flight back home to Switzerland from Windhoek just a few days before my parents would arrive in Windhoek. Tom and I hadn’t researched our ongoing route until Namibia, and we found that the plans from Urs and Barbara sounded great. We decided to leave the next day together and continue the trip with them for a bit.
We spent the next two nights at the Itezhi Tezhi Lake at another small Lodge offering Overlanders camps. The view over the lake is beautiful, and the sunsets from their terrace are just spectacular. While we were sitting together and enjoying our rest day at Itezhi Tezhi, a Danish Lady on her motorbike turned up. Henriette was traveling with another woman named Sonja from South Africa, who had an accident and couldn’t get her motorbike up to the lodge. Tom and Brad (the lodge owner) quickly went with her, and Brad brought Sonja up in his car while Tom was driving the motorbike up. It was a huge and very heavy BMW machine. Brad took Sonja to a doctor to check on her leg, which got in between the heavy bike and the ground when she fell. Henriette was pleased to have some company in the meantime. Luckily, Sonja felt better quickly. She went to bed early, and the rest of us cooked a nice dinner. The following day, Barbara, Urs, Tom, and I continued to Livingstone, where the famous Victoria Falls were waiting for us.
Tom and I heard of a great Defender mechanic in Livingstone and stopped there to ask if they would have time to do a check-up; it has already been a while since the last service in Rwanda. They offered to squeeze us in the next morning, which was perfect for us. The next day, we left early to grab a coffee and bring the Defender to the workshop. They checked everything, changed the engine oil and filters, and rotated the tires to be used more evenly. After four hours (our shortest mechanic stop so far), we were all set to go straight to Victoria Falls. Barbara and Urs had already visited them on their way up, so they didn’t join us. It was truly spectacular to see the falls; we loved walking up and down and exploring them from every angle on the Zambian side. On our way back to the campsite, we stopped at the Waterfront Lodge, where they have a nice restaurant and bar overlooking the river. We enjoyed a drink and took out the bao game from the car we bought in Malawi, but we couldn’t remember all the rules we had been taught. Soon, all the waiters from the Restaurant were around our table trying to help and explain, but we discovered that there were many different ways of playing this game, so it wasn’t very helpful but funny anyway. In the end, Tom and I agreed on a set of rules, which probably is a good mix of the Malawi and Zambia rules 😊
Back at the campsite, we cooked dinner with Barbara and Urs and got ready to leave the following day to cross the border into Botswana. It was a very short stay in Zambia, but we greatly enjoyed it. Zambia surprised us with its infrastructure and excellent roads (not all, but some!). When we reached the border to Botswana, we didn’t believe our eyes when we saw the border post. It was a massive site with very modern buildings, and it all went smoothly and straightforward. It was not the African vibe we had gotten very used to. We realized that Africa’s chaotic but very colorful part was now ending. The South of Africa is much more «westernized» and similar to what we are used to in Europe. A bit sad but also excited about what to expect next, we crossed into Botswana.