Day 10: Sun 9th Feb: Livingstone Bush Front to Lusaka Pioneer Camp

This is a long haul but on a road that's very good for 80% of the way to Lusaka, with only one police check point outside Livingstone and none after that. Lusaka looks like it's booming as we drive through and is very busy even for a Sunday afternoon! There are all the RSA stores present (including Woolworths Food) and a couple of grand shopping malls (could be in any reasonably big town in RSA).

The Pioneer camp site is neat and clean and has a great bar - we'll take it to new heights later tonight!

I go for a ride for an hour on the local dirt roads, lots of people walking around but everyone has a pleasant greeting as long as I make the first move. I get a bit lost and find myself in a very upmarket development with some fancy schmancy houses being built for the local hoi poloi I guess - they still need some tar roads though. It's hot and the camp site pool is clean and refreshing, time for a well-deserved beer?

It's pretty wet in the afternoon and our tent gets wet!

The difference between Zimbabwe and Zambia is that Zimbabwe is still catching up with both regulatory control (Zambians but speed humps in and out of towns, Zimbabwe still has road-block-it is) and the way the local farming is done. In Zambia everyone is growing something and the small scale farming is massive - goes for up to 1km from the road. People seem more industrious in Zambia somehow.

We end up staying in Pioneer Camp for two nights.

Day 12: Tues 11th Feb: Lusaka; Pioneer Camp to Mama Rula's in Chipata, Zambia.

Once again a long day of travelling, but we arrive mid-afternoon (bear in mind we leave camp at 07h00 every morning!) and the camp is fairly well organised with ablutions which just pass the grade. They promise to light the 'donkey' so that we can have hot water. We want to get done before the Overlander's arrive. Unfortunately no such luck - although the 'donkey' is smoking like a wet pile, there is still no hot water and I settle for a cold shower. What fun (NOT)!! We have settled for a camping spot near the bar because the camp is so wet, and just hope that the noise will not be too bad. It turns out that the Overlander's were unusually well behaved and quiet but unfortunate there were two people in the camp who coughed like dead donkey's all night and then the Australians decided to pack up their camp at 04h00!! Who does that? Thump, crash, bang for the next two hours and then they were gone - Grrrrrr!

I have been making notes of some interesting signs along the road:

Sign with a picture of the police on it: "Going out tonight? So are we!!"

"Abstinence is the only safe sex!"

"Aids doesn't choose - don't discriminate."

"Eaten today? Thank the farmer. No farmer. No food. No future."

"Conservation farming pays".

Day 13: Wed 12th Feb: Mama Rula in Chipata, Zambia, to Steps Camp Site at Livingstonia Beach Hotel, Senga, Lake Malawi, Malawi.

Some of you may recall that we were going to skip Malawi, but we all had a change of heart and decided a jaunt up the edge of Lake Malawi would be fun.

Although todays travel is only 280km we take in the Zambia Malawi border post which although easy, takes forever as we're behind the same overland truck gang we met at Mama Rula camp site last night! Add to that the general open road speed limit is 80km/h and you can see we're just cruising. Anyway, once through the border post we stop directly for 3rd party insurance and have to endure money changers first hand, but come away (relatively) unscathed although with some argy bargy and harsh words from both sides - I quite enjoyed that actually.

The first road block we hit 2km later and the police go through all the papers very thouroughly - another case of Zimbabwe road-block-itis. The next three road blocks to the camp site see us being waved through without a look.

This camp site is awesome, right on the shore of the lake with a bar into the bargain. The hotel is in walking distance and we can buy wi-fi (and cold beer) there, so all good.

Now in Malawi there are more people on the road and many, many bicycles and the roads are narrower than in Zambia. Although there is still local farming going on at the side of the road it seems a little less organized somehow and again the number of people walking and cycling (now for the first time purposely in groups) increases substantially. Also, school uniforms are sometimes not used in the rural areas (whereas in Zim and Zam always) and the school markers (sort of headstones at the side of the road naming the school) are very dilapidated. Zimbabwe still rates the best for school pride, with Zambia a close second.

There are always many young women with young children on their hips / backs - this is essentially the problem.

The other very interesting thing is the proliferation of churches and missions everywhere, seemingly increasing in Malawi. There are many Jehovah's Witness churches and a host of Catholic, Baptist, Anglican etc (but, sorry Granny, no Methodist, you need to make a move and get up here, maybe there's a gap!)

There is also a mosque in most towns and it is usually the best kept building barring the fancy schmancies that you sometimes see.

As we pass through the town of Salema we end up behind a demonstration where people are marching in the road. It is thankfully all peaceful and their T-shirts say "Unity. Equity. Development." We're not sure what it all about, but can guess.

Day 13: Thurs 13th Feb: Steps Camp Site, Lake Malawi. No travel.

Our odometer sits on 4900km travelled to date.

Thank goodness for the wind which allowed a cooler sleep in the rooftop tent. Water is back on and there is hot water to shower so all is good. Up early and caught the last of the sunrise and then hopped on a boat for a trip out to Lizard Island and some snorkelling. Unfortunately the water is not very clear because of all the rain, but the fish are quite exceptional. Apparently over 50% of the world's aquarium fish (fresh water) originate in Lake Malawi and are now bred everywhere.

Across the lake we could see dark, spiralling clouds of something and they explained to us that these are clouds of flies which hover over the water and look a bit like a small tornado - perhaps some 100m high! They then crumble some bread onto the water and scoop up the flies when they arrive. The flies are then eaten with bread - yugh!! They must be in the gazillions in those "clouds" of them.

We came back via a little fishing village which gave a different perspective of where people live. Everyone seems to be centred around the Lake and there is no main road along the lake so you have to bump and grind along between the houses and taverns to find the camp grounds although the road to the hotel is tarred and well sign-posted. There were two extremes - the village of really poor-looking houses on the edge of the Lake where the people fish and then dry the local fish like Talapia and Chambo in the sun for protein and of course sold - right next the Technical College where the students study to become mechanics etc. A couple of fancy houses right on the beach were also pointed out to us - owned by British, American, Canadian and South African people who have bought the land from the local chief - such a contrast.

We arrive back in camp and our guide has had a little altercation with a security guard in the camp who was caught stealing our clothes off the washline. He waited for the guide to go into the loo and then helped himself, but another camper spotted him and stopped him. I got my shorts back and he was removed from his post immediately. We had four or five security guards posted around us in the camp last night so we guess that theft is pretty rife. Never a dull moment....