After we had spent an extra day looking for
'diamonds,' and we had done our walk to the falls, we decided to drive straight
from Ngonye Falls to Kafue. We knew it
was going to be a long drive, but we
thought it was better to push through and not stop in Mongu, which is very un-interesting,
dirty and probably full of malaria. So we planned to leave early with just
cereal for breakfast and push through till lunch time. As usual our intended
departure was 8 and we pulled out of the campsite at 9am, not too bad, a
definite improvement.
We got to Mongu quite quickly, the road was good
and not too much traffic but the clouds were gathering and we could see big
rains were coming but we had plenty of time, so we thought! I must say, I
always love approaching these African towns and reading all the names above the
shops. They dream up, ‘Be free restaurant and bottlestore,’ ‘The reality pub
and grill’ and ‘The Lord’s peaceful restaurant,’ with two tables and six
chairs.
We arrived fairly early so we thought we should
just try and show the kids the Barotse Museum. What we didn't know was that it
was 30 kilometers in the opposite direction and when we got there it was so bad
that the kids basically learnt nothing. By now the heavens had opened up and it
was absolutely pouring with rain, they had no lights in the museum so they
couldn't see anything. The "Losi” people have such an interesting culture
and history and we thought that the kids might learn some of it at the museum
but unfortunately the old colonial days have long since gone and history is
unimportant to these guys now so nothing of the old culture and records remain.
Anyway they did see the old Admirals uniform which the queen of England had
given to the Barotse King since Cecil John Rhode's time. So every time there was
a new king, he gets a new Admirals uniform, epaulets, hat with all the tassels,
braid and all. Then this king wears this uniform when he brings his people in
from the flood plains in a boat paddled by 100 paddlers. Now that is a ceremony
that I would have loved to have witnessed.
Now after driving for at least an hour on the
most appalling road, and saw nothing, we had some fairly grumpy adults, never
mind the children, we turned our sights towards Kafue. The most difficult thing
on this trip is to get Tracy out of the town. She is a very inquisitive person
and likes to get involved with everyone. I really love her attitude as it is
one of involvement. She shy's away from nothing and just loves talking to the local
people, finding out about their lives, their history and culture. A little like
Ernest, but on steroids. It is wonderful except when you are in a hurry, it's
pouring with rain and we still have 5 hours left to travel. She still wanted to
see the inside of some little shop that 'looks' interesting. We all left town
and headed down the worst road we have ever traveled in Africa, in the pouring
rain and left poor Guy to try and pull her away out of the shops. She did buy
some delicious locally baked bread I must admit.
When a road in Africa becomes more pothole than a
sand road, it is horrific to travel on. Everyone is weaving all over the road
and every now and then the whole road is a pothole with bits of jagged tar
sticking out that makes you bounce all over the place. Every now and then there
is a hand written sign that says "slow down.” Well the first one we came across Ernest said
'wonder why they say slow down’ not taking his foot off the accelerator, which
he finds very hard to do. I swear he has
lead in his shoes so he just can't lift his foot of the pedal.
Anyway, when he hit the first bump, things
started falling out the cupboard which had popped open, hit the second one and
we bounced higher and we got showered with more goodies and the third bump put
the final touch on the fiasco. By this time, the cupboards were bare and the
floor was piled high with the contents. It was then left to me, bouncing and
weaving in the back to try and put everything back again. I managed to stuff
back the goods back into the cupboards so now, God knows, ‘what is where’
because I don't have a clue anymore trying to stay
organized. Mark described it as a little like
being on a pogo stick. Needless to say the next sign was dually heeded and I
was madly phoning Tracy to warn her as that big hippo would not have stayed on
the road if they didn't slow down.
The road to Kafue seemed endless with Mark way
ahead of us and needless to say Tracy and Guy way behind us. We reached our
Kafue camp site at about 5.30pm, just in time to set up camp and get dinner
started before the Hippos came out the water to visit. We were camped right on the edge of the river
so the first things that came out even before the chairs were the fishing rods.
Mark put a table on its side about three meters
from the water’s edge and made the kids stand behind that and cast in from
there. Quite an ingenious way of keeping them safe from the crocs.
The one thing that I always find interesting
about these trips is what hard work it is. The driving is exceptionally
stressful, the skill needed to keep that vehicle moving forward safely and
covering the huge distances that needs to be covered, with a small margin for
error because of other bad driving and shocking conditions of the other
vehicles on the road. The roads are so narrow and the trucks are so huge that I
often feel like those comic book characters that go flat and then pop
themselves out again.
Then there is the cooking, washing dishes,
washing clothes and keeping the children entertained and fed is what we girls
are constantly busy with, just writing about it is exhausting. You wake up in
the morning and think about what to wear and then realize that if you wear
something clean then you have to wash the one item you wore yesterday. Enie,
meanie, miny, mo, I think I will just wear the dirty one again! Then next long
camp site stay over, will have long
washing lines full of clothes.
Trips like this are exceptionally tough but they
do create lasting memories. It sure forces you to confront and overcome
barriers that you have never had to confronted before and it broadens your view
of life.
In the morning we found out one of the reasons
why Guy and Tracy were so long on the road the day before. When the heavens opened
they found that the hippo had one huge leak between the cab and the body. It
was so bad that Tracy had to sit with a Tupperware bucket over her head as the
rain was just pouring and right over her- and just to add insult to injury it
was all black water, obviously from the perished rubber between the cab and the
body. These things you only find out when you get caught in a heavy downpour.
So between storms that would rush up onto the roof of the cab, try and dry it,
then seal with silicone and then the next storm would hit and in would come the
rain again. Then they cut up a rain sheet and stuck it on with duck tape for
the next storms. No wonder they took so long and all the while we were blanking
Tracy's shopping spree's.
 |
| Kafue Camp Site
Our rest day at Kafue was very needed, just to
give your internal organs a chance to settle down after all the jarring and
jumping from pothole to pothole. Most of the day was taken up with the
Christmas present activity. Guy and Tracy and the boys set up camp in the next
door campsite and started their creations. Mark and Jacqui set up their little workshop and
I started with mine. Ernest read his book as he can’t think what to make for
his secret Santa and I guess he was looking for some inspiration or for one of
the woman to give him a bright idea. So it was a very productive day with chopping
and chipping and drilling and screwing and sanding and a little fishing in
between. Luke and Garrick were fishing (behind the table) supervised by Ernest.
Garrick said to Ernest ‘Gampie’ look at that croc, which was sitting quietly
about six meters away (thank god for the table). Ernest said ‘don't be
ridiculous Garrick, that is a log.” "No Gamps, it's a croc, watch,’ and with
that, Garrick picked up a huge clay clod and threw it and hit the croc right on
the head. It flew up in the air, tail slashing around and swam off very fast
now that his cover was blown. There was one very surprised Gampie, never too
old to learn from the grand kids. That night we were visited by an Elephant who
broke branches all around us, a very disgruntled hippo who didn't like the
elephant in his territory so went running off very noisily into the water in
protest and a band the lions roaring very close. This always makes life
interesting. Day 13, and time for our next big loooong haul
right across Zambia. We left Kafue early as we knew we had a drive of about 700
kilometer. As we drove onto the main road there were 11 wild dogs lying by the
side of the road, so unexpected and a great farewell to Kafue. I thought there
was no game left in that place, how wrong I was. We covered the first 300km’s with ease and then
hit Lusaka! Oh my gosh, how anybody lives there is a miracle. You just go
crunch in that traffic. It took us over an hour just to drive through the place,
we didn't even try to stop and buy anything, just tried to navigate through
some of the pot holes, missing the big trucks, who are all intent on driving
you off the road, the pedestrians who just walk, or the peddlers all over the
road trying to sell you anything from earphones to fruit to suitcases. Once out of town we were on ‘the great North
road.” The road of the big trucks where Mark remarked that it is the only
corrugated tar road with a middle monochy that he has driven on,literally!
This is what happens to a country with a non-functioning rail system.
Huge overloaded trucks that just chow up the road. This is what we have to look
forward to in SA in the near future now that our newly bought locomotives by
the ANC government don't fit under the bridges. We found our much talked about coffee shop
outside Kabwe but it was very disappointing, no beautiful carrot cake or cream
scones! We still had a long way to go so we made Ernest swallow his cap
pachinko and move on. Guy and Tracy had tracked down an old friend of Guy’s,
who had a farm just the other side of Forest Inn where we were scheduled to
stay. So we had a quick change in plan and we were heading to their farm to
spend the evening with them. His Farm Manager was away and we could use their
house as a base, nice to have a good clean bathroom and we would have dinner
with them. This saved us girls a bit of work.
Poor Jaqs, could take a break from those endless dirty dishes.
 What a wonderful evening we spent with Mark and Fiona. They have four kids ages from 12 to 19, who were all home for the holidays and had a great time entertaining our lot. Mark and Fiona have had a very tough and demanding life. They started off as farmers in Zim - that just about says it all. After their third generation farm was stolen by our Uncle Bob (Mugabe) and his friends, they moved to Mozambique and worked as farm managers. A pretty tough time, then they heard that there were farming opportunities available in Zambia so they moved up to Mkushi, where he has a farm of about 250 hectares plus another three somewhere else. These farms are leased from some colored folks who are too lazy to farm so are only too pleased to sign long leases with farmers who pay them for the land. They really struggled at first, living in a very basic home with no glass in the Windows but have plowed all their capital back into the farm which is now turning around and paying off. Fiona is an artist so her home has paintings and clever bits of art making it really quaint. Mark grows seed maize that is non GMO (all GMO foods are banned in Zambia, at least they have got that right). But it still seems to be a constant battle to stay on the land as the president here likes to take advice, or should I say used to take advice from our friend Bob and is constantly hassling the farmers. So we had an evening with lots of chatting, lots of exchanging of ideas and laughter. There is lots of Malaria here, in fact Fiona actually had malaria and was busy treating herself. They really take it in their stride and all of them including the kids have had it many, many times. We of course were so sprayed up and buttoned up to our necks and thick socks and boots in the heat, they certainly were casual about it all. After a lovely evening, we all retired pretty clean and exhausted! Until next time, good night!  |
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