misteroverland

There is so much too choose from in Zambia and with the approaching rains it’s difficult to know which way to head first. We aimed for the south eastern corner and the South Luangwa NP before the roads get too bad as the plan is to head north out of the park and then over to Kasanka which is famed for a bat migration. South Luangwa is lovely and once again we find ourselves with a river side location and visits from elephant and puku antelopes in the campsite, forgoing the need to actually go into park as we sit and watch it across the river with the African soundtrack of the chuckling hippos in the background. Thankfully we don’t need to move was I have gastro and soon after installing ourselves in camp the wonderful owners install me into a chalet. First night in a bed other than the tent since Luderitz barely 2 weeks into the trip and I was hardly conscious to enjoy it. To top it off it was 43 degrees with about 110% humidity – the extra 10% contributed by Kevin and I. We did eventually visit the park and saw more leopards then we have seen anywhere including one who had just made a kill, we watched the baby zebra taking its last breathes which was rather humbling.  We knew the road north out of the park has many river crossings and black cotton soil both of which get worse with the rains. There was also mention of an escarpment though this was often coupled with – loose gravel and a bit scrabbly but fine in the rains. We collected varying opinions regarding the accessibly of the road, these ranged from ‘absolutely not at this time of year’ to ‘they should be passable’. The alternative would be a 2 day drive back via Lusaka which we didn’t really fancy as while it is tarred some of the way the local construction drivers are dangerous. We spoke to the locals who also kept giving us indicators of just how dry it was with several lagoons dry when normally they would be deep under water by now. The rains are late that is clear and last year they were late and sparse, though Zambia had seen a huge deluge in Oct the rains really haven’t yet started. 

We made good time across the park with only a small issue of having to rebuild a road in order to drop into the river bed and cross a dry stream.  

Next was the escarpment, we weren’t expecting a walk in the park but equally nothing prepared us for the hairpin bends and gradient of what was essentially a bolder garden, I mean it wasn’t a road more a landslide. We climbed 2500ft in about 2km, at times I could see the bonnet, trees and sky, the angle meant the road was invisible. We stalled (even though we were in low range) on an early steep slippery section which was a pretty terrifying feeling though got going again. We were then faced with a huge rocky step, we tried a number of attempts but had to roll back on the hair pin to try a totally different angle which was about 60 degree uphill with a severe right hand lean. As you can imagine the air in the car was tense and silent apart from the tetse flies hell bent on adding a different dimension to our difficulties. 45 minutes later we crested the top of the mountain – Kevin and MrO had done a sterling job! The conversation soon turned to ‘if we ever had to do THAT road again – would it be better going up or down’ jury is leaning towards down but by no means would it be by choice. Looking back on the experience a couple days later I still think about how if something had gone wrong we would have been on our own to get out of it. Anyway just thanking my lucky stars 🙂

 

 
We are now driving north after seeing the bat migration at Kasanka NP, 8 million 1 meter fruit bats leave their roost at sunset and arrive back at sunrise. What an absolutely spectacular sight, can’t recommend it enough. And at last last night the rains seem to have arrived which means the temperature has finally started to head towards the seasonal average, 27 degrees, which gives us the opportunity to close the windows and put some music on, (with the noise of MrO there is no possibility of hearing music when the windows are open :-). What else could be appropriate but 3 discs of Christmas songs including ‘All I want for Christmas’ and ‘White Christmas’. An early seasons greeting to everyone. 
Love from us both 

Xxx

Will try up load more images soon – Africa internet 😦