The benefit of staying in a house is that you can leave early in the morning so we were able to be on the road at 7 am comfortably for what we expected would be a long drive to Chipatta, Zambia's gateway town to Malawi. It was also a blessing to be on the Great East Road side of town that we missed the traffic and were easily out into the bush. The trip is almost divided into two sections, roughly split at the Luangwa River. The first runs from Lusaka past the Lower Zambezi National Park and is almost entirely uninhabited but for a scattering of small settlements that break up the dense bush of rolling hills to the horizon. There are apparently a number of ultra-elite private hunting lodges but no signs from the road as they cater for fly-in guests to private airstrips. We thoroughly enjoyed the scenic drive although we didn't stop for anything save a hot spring on the roadside just out of Lusaka.

At the Luangwa River Bridge there is a small outpost town of Luangwa catering as a bit of a stop for busses and perhaps a gateway to Mozambique but offers very little. There is one campsite, Bridge Camp, where we had an expensive coke, run by an ex-South African and is probably the best accommodation in the area, although very rustic and camping would be preferred to their "chalets"! A highlight was a 4x4 track we took up to a cell-phone tower. Because the towers are always on the highest points they offer the best views and have access routes for their maintenance. It was a breath-taking sweep of the Luangwa valley we enjoyed after a rough, steep road to the top!

The second half is more arid and dry with many more little towns leading up to Chipatta. The road, up till now empty and generally very good is not too much busier but has degraded not to potholes but a very uneven surface that forces you to keep to 70kmph for the most part.

Chipatta has is not only a gateway to Malawi but also the South Luangwa National Park ($35pppd) which many believe offers the best game viewing on the continent. We arrived at 4pm in Chipatta and it is still a rough 2-3 hour drive to the reserve and we wouldn't have enough days to give justice to visiting the park so we stayed in Mama Rula's campsite, widely acclaimed on the internet. Unfortunately 40 Malaysians in 15 rented Hiluxes were also staying there and the facilities can't really cope making the toilets and showers very grotty. However, the garden setting was very nice and we were able to relax and stock up at the Spar and fill up our diesel tank as the supply in Malawi is questionable and expensive. No matter what the currency is, filling your tank with 1,700,000 of it is a hard pill to swallow!

Talking to the Malaysians though was quite interesting and Ant was inspired by one of the guy's stories of an overland trip from India through to Malaysia! They also found us very interesting, taking paparazzi shots of us through the bushes in amongst the ipad pictures of the sprinkler in the garden!