DELAYED, SCAMMED, STUCK AND BITTEN All good feelings we might have felt about Malawi quickly disappeared when we got the Zambian border. We had to negotiate our way through the local bureaucracy. We had organised free visa waivers saving us $180 but the visa official still tried to wangle a bribe for 'finding the paperwork'. When we spoke to the boss, he wanted even more! We have learnt that 'sitting it out patiently' really does work and, sure enough, two hours later we were driving into Zambia with our free visas. Changing our Malawian money into Zambian Kwacha was the next excitement. Throughout our trip we have changed money on the black market - although illegal it is often the only way as there are no banks on the borders and you usually get a better rate of exchange. We have now become experienced at running an 'auction' from inside the car, driving very slowly with our windows open a few inches - getting the money changers run after us bidding for the best rate. Our experience in Chipata was all together different. After agreeing a favourable rate and giving us the correct Zambian money, the money changer took our Malawian money, counted it and with a lot of commotion (we later realised this was an orchestrated flap) he said he didn't want to give us this rate anymore and gave us our money back. He then snatched his Zambian money and ran....leaving us short changed by about £20 from our Malawian money. Camilla purposely hadn't taken her eyes off our money and still can't believe the sleight of hand which made the scam - better than any 'Find the Lady' street magicians we've seen. Our plan was to get to the South Luangwa National Park for a few days, considered to be one of the best in the world to see wild dog and large predators. It was a three hour muddy, bumpy track to the park entrance where we camped at the beautiful Wildlife Camp, on the banks of the Luangwa River. We met up again with Cathy and John and after a 5am start, entered the park the following day in search of wild animals, especially wild dogs - an animal we haven't yet encountered. Unfortunately we didn't get to see the dogs but did see lots of other game: elephants, lions, zebras, giraffes, hippos and some magnificent birds. We also had a wonderful Full English breakfast in the bush! We were advised not to get off the main tracks due to the rainy season but as we both had off road vehicles with winches, the worse thing that could happen would be that we would get stuck. After a few hours of splashing through the puddles and sliding around in the mud, the inevitable happened. Rich managed to get stuck in probably the least likely and least exciting place. The back differential had been wedged on hard ground as the wheels sunk into the soft mud. It was undramatic stuff but enough for John, with his 1996 white GX Land Cruiser, to take great delight in recovering the Land Rover using his winch. It's that Toyota/Land Cruiser old rivalry again. Back in the camp, we had a bit of an insect infestation. Tsetse flies, mosquitoes, ants, spiders, cockroaches and grasshoppers seem to like the South Luangwa. Camilla managed to accumulate as many mosquito bites as there are Manchester United fans in Africa. She also managed to get bitten by a Solofuse spider on her big toe. These spiders follow the tremors of your footsteps as you walk - not great when you are trying to run away from them! The ants became a real problem, covering any morsel of food left out and getting into our cutlery and crockery bag. Every meal had a crunchy addition. Another annoyance was the voracious vervet monkeys who stole our bread and biscuits and stopped just short of hot wiring the car when our backs were turned. Rich tried to prevent the monkey siege using his catapult and it was funny to see that the monkeys didn't move when Camilla and Cathy tried to throw stones at them...they just sat there, confident that they wouldn't get hit by 'girly throws!'