The wind whistled around our tent last night and a hyena was whooping off and on close by so we didn't get much sleep. By 4am I was wide awake, ready to get up and delighted that my eyes had fully recovered. Hils and I got up early and ours was one of the first tents to be down and packed..woohoo! That's the end of our wilderness camping and I can't say we are sorry. We wouldn't have missed it for the world, though...it has been fantastic, truly a once in a lifetime experience and beyond our wildest dreams. We are super proud of ourselves too for having coped with the heat, dirt, early mornings, wild animals in camp, plus the physical aspects of putting up and pulling down our tents and loading, unloading the trucks. Hils and I tell each other we can now officially call ourselves "intrepid". Breakfast this morning is a really poor show...just half a slice of bread with peanut butter. We suspect that Ike and Mfana have either been disorganised about buying food or, as some rather darkly suggest, cutting corners to save money. We leave camp at about 7am and drive along the thick sand road towards Kasane. An approaching safari vehicle stays in the centre of the road forcing Ike to swerve into deep sand drifts and causing our truck to stop. He tries to get it out by accelerating so hard the engine is screaming with great clouds of black smoke coming out the back but it refuses to budge. Ike unhooks the trailer and puts a long tow rope on it then, with the help of most of us pushing, he is able to free the truck and get it going again. While we are waiting to free the truck another safari truck approaches and stops to give us space. I wander over to talk to the passengers who are immaculately dressed Japanese sitting neatly in rows and all wearing face masks. They look way out of their comfort zone.
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Finally we reach Kasane where we are meeting our new guide who will take us into Zambia. We have a half an hour to look around the shops but since we do not have any Botswana Pula cannot shop so instead take in the atmosphere of the town and enjoy the antics of the warthogs which are roaming freely around the car park. Mike, our new guide, arrives accompanied by our cook, a young woman with a name that we can't quite catch. They climb into our truck and we head for the Botswana-Zambia border a few kilometres away. On the way we pass the first golf course I have seen in Africa. Soon we come to a long line of huge haulage trucks banked up waiting for the ferry to cross into Zambia. Mfana tells us that sometimes the queue is up to 10kms long and that the drivers must live in their trucks, for up to two weeks in some cases, until there is available space on the ferry. Portable toilet and shower blocks are dotted along the side of the road for the truck drivers to use. Apparently there are three truck ferries for the short crossing but two of them have been broken down for a few years now and there is no sign of them being repaired and operating again. We are shocked by the plight of the drivers but Mfana says they are used to it and accept it as a way of life. We pass through Botswana immigration quickly and easily and then drive on towards the ferry, passing luxury lodges, banana, mango and citrus orchards and some scruffy villages.
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The ferry landing is chaotic, dusty, dirty and congested. People mill around amongst the trucks, luggage, piles of boxed goods, stacks of soft drinks, furniture, livestock, you name it, all waiting for the ferry. A couple of soldiers wielding AK47s lazily survey the scene. We unload the truck and carry our luggage some distance to a small aluminium ferry. It is hot sweaty work. Ike and Mfana are not coming with us so we say a quick farewell to them and they drive off without a backward glance. Ike was a very able and interesting guide who educated us and provided excellent insights into the animals, Mfana was a marvellous cook and a very fine young man but somehow our group did not bond with them the way we had with Ronney and Jonas in Namibia.
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The ferry landing is a fascinating spot because it is here that Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Zambia converge and we can see all four countries at once. The trip across the river takes three minutes and we land in Zambia at a chaotic border control. We complete our clearance forms and wait outside for approval to pass through the border gates. It is just the sort of scene I have read about in books and I find it fascinating - dusty, dirty, trucks, cars, people everywhere. Girls walk through the crowd with huge baskets of bananas on their heads to sell. People seem to be wandering backwards and forwards through the border gates at will. A sign over the shabby, run down immigration office says "He who plans to call on God at the eleventh hour will die at 10.30." Before long we are clear to go and climb into our new truck for the Zambian part of the trip. This truck is higher and much harder to get into and I crack my knee hard as I climb up - ouch! The road is tar sealed - what joy! and we sail along the 60kms to Livingstone enjoying the smooth ride. As we arrive in town there is a large funeral in progress and all the traffic is stopped to allow buses, cars and utility vehicles loaded with mourners to pass by. The women are all wearing white head
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scarves and singing. It is a moving sight. We are staying at Waterfront Lodge camp and it is absolute luxury, well, not really, but compared to wilderness camping it is. Hot showers, swimming pool, restaurant - bliss! We unpack the truck for the last time and pitch our tents. We have a huge camp site, however, everyone pitches their tents hard up against each others to get the only shade available, which is understandable but a bit annoying. We can't wait to shower and then go for a swim. I check my e-mails - 201 in my "in" box, oh dear, back to civilisation. Clean, tidy and refreshed we head up to the bar for pre dinner drinks. The bar and restaurant have a stunning view over the Zambezi River. Soft lanterns create a restful ambiance and a golden sunset glows on the water. We pinch ourselves again, not quite believing we are here on the Zambezi. Hils, Gary, Judy, Raewyn and I have dinner together. We share some crocodile, which tastes like a strong flavoured chicken and I order Zambezi beef stew, very tasty. Although we are in bed by 9pm we are the last of the group to turn in for the night.
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Photos: (1) Warthogs wander freely through the town of Kasane, (2) Waiting for the ferry to Zambia,
(3) Chaos rules at the border crossing, (4) The sole car/truck ferry. It is clear why trucks have to wake weeks to cross, (5) We say farewell to Botswana.......(6)....and board our new truck in Zambia,
(7) Mother and child in Livingstone, Zambia, (8) Night falls over the Zambezi from our camp site
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