Today we crossed the border from Malawi to Zambia. The cultural difference is really stark. Malawi is so poor and housing is incredibly humble. The merchants outside the campsite at Kande Beach were happy for us to trade with socks or t-shirts in place of money as we didn't have much of the local currency. Here in Zambia we can already see 'townships' as opposed to small dwellings along the roadside. The women here were western clothing, jeans, t-shirts, heels even. There are posters all around raising awareness about sexual abuse and women having the right to work without harrassement. There are more cars and homes have gardens, something we haven't seen so far.

I have been able to do a bit of running recently. Of the 8 left in the group, 4 of us are runners, we did have 7 runners but 3 have left. Yesterday I woke early because my sleeping bag was over-run with ants. So I went for a run up a sandy track to the nearby village. It was 6.30am. Along the way I was joined by two local boys about 5 years old, they jogged with me. I did a few little sprints to give them a laugh. As I got nearer the village I was joined by more and more children, all boys as the girls behave quite differently in Africa. They said they were on their way to school so that is where we ran too. I felt like the Pied Piper. There were 11 of them by the time we got to the school. I gave them all high 5's and some of them wanted a hug too.. quite different to the Tanzanian children who were quite rude. Unfortunately, because I was busy chatting to the children I hadn't taken much note of my route which I thought was straight forward.... on the way back there were several forks in the road. I had to literally trace my tracks to get back to the camp.

Before I got back to the campsite I was trapped by Roger one of the merchants who discovered my weakness of not being able to refuse a good game. He taught me how to play Malawi Bao which is like mancala (wooden trough with pods in it and glass beads). And, you guessed it, sold me a set. Only after we had spent nearly 2 hours playing with me trying to remember the rules.

Tomorrow we have another long day of travelling then on Sunday we arrive at Livingstone. We are all getting quite excited about Livingstone, looking forward to all the activities. Will probably not be able to blog for a couple of days. Love reading all your comments... Thank you xxxx