Day 19 - Lusaka

Point of departure : Livingstone

Point of arrival : Lusaka

Accommodation: the rooftop tent - Pioneer Lodge & Camp (www.pioneercampzambia.com)

Km travelled today: 507 km Cum: 4 781km (gravel 56 km cum 1 323km)

Countries so far: 3/16

Where to next? Chipata (formerly Fort Jameson)

Total number of photos taken: 10 (cum 880)

An early start today, as John needed to visit an insurance company in Livingstone for the COMESA cover for Africa and Marina had grocery shopping to do.We were a little disappointed with Maramba (having stayed there in August 2007) the camp sites were overgrown and there was a lot of chalet refurbishment going on - it felt like a building site rather than a camp site.However the ablutions were still good.

Whilst at the shopping centre today, Marina recognised "Guenevive", the landy, which belongs to overlanders Katie and Steve Hughes from the UK.Marina has been following their trip since they left the UK in March 2009.We tracked them down, they were in Spar, and exchanged information.We had hoped that our paths would cross, and were pleased they did.They are on their way to Chobe in Botswana and expect to arrive in South Africa around March 2010.They have a brilliant website www.insearchofafrica.co.uk.

We also met up again, with Atonie and Atoinette (the bikers from Eastern Cape) and their friends in Livingstone. We were all camping at Maramba. One of their bikes got damaged, entering Livingstone from Shesheke when it hit a dip in the road and the impact broke the battery. We had hit the same dip but fortunately sustained no damage.

We headed out for Lusaka at about 11h00.The potholed road (the first 70km out of Livingstone) is as we remembered it to be - crater holes rather than potholes - but there is also a lot of road building happening and 50km of deviation ranged from good gravel to terrible, so this was quite a slow section. Back onto the new road it is superb. We saw evidence of Japanese involvement in the upgrading of roads in and around Livingstone.

Some familiar sites today evoked memories of our last trip to Zambia- the sacks of charcoal and wood along the road waiting to be collected, cyclists loaded with everything from passengers to building materials to chickens.The familiar blue 44 gallon drums used by the police for their roadblocks. Children playing on the side of the roads and waving frantically as we drive past.In Africa there is always someone walking - you don't know where they are going to, nor where they are coming from, but they are walking, and in Zambia many of them are cycling.

As is the norm in this part of the world, there were regular police roadblocks, either checking documents or correcting any misdemeanours, such as our travelling with our lights on in semi overcast conditions.Again the rules - Road Ordinance No xx, Para No yy, Section No zz and it was all quoted at us.Let off with a warning and a friendly slap on the wrist.

Also just outside Kafue a short stretch of gravel, a truck travelling in the opposite direction, threw up a stone resulting in a large chip on the passenger side of the windscreen - hopefully the application of superglue to the chip will prevent it developing into a crack.

Arrival in Lusaka coincided with rush hour… you know the kind where you don't actively move at all in the traffic!We drove down Cairo Road and then right onto the Great East Road and it took us over one and a half hours.Great for the street/intersection vendors, who tried valiantly to interest the bwana (John) in their wares… everything from belts to caps to umbrellas and even airtime!

This was our first encounter with the fuel shortage, having heard that petrol was in short supply, but diesel ok.The first fuel station we drove to did not have diesel either!We quickly found another that did have diesel and decided "time to fill up the jerry cans".

Marina had a unique ATM experience - she withdrew 1 million kwacha (approximately R1 600) - never having withdrawn a million before.

Another first time experience was grocery shopping and listening to Christmas carols in the store, usually we are either in SA or Europe over this period. To hear it being played in other parts of Africa was reassuring.

Our camp site at Pioneer Camp (20km out of Lusaka on the Great East Road) was superb.A pretty treed site, lots of shade, pool and rustic public areas, but very comfortable.No electrical power points but Paul the manager was prepared to put down an extension cord for us if we wanted one.Internet connectivity has been a problem but at Pioneer it was fantastic (wi fi facility for our laptop) and it allowed us to catch up with two weeks of photographs and narrative.

Lusaka - well over 60% of its 2 million people are unemployed, but there is surprisingly very few beggars, unlike South Africa, where the rate of unemployment is around 35% and a high number of beggars.