SURVIVING THE FLOODS The only road out of the park to the nearest town of Chipata has now completely flooded; in parts a 15km stretch has a depth of over 1 metre of water on the road. We are hearing news of sections of the road being swept away leaving gaping holes of several metres below the torrents of water. It could be days, even weeks before the water subsides and work can be done to the mend the road. So our two day visit to the South Luangwa National Park now looks as if it could be for two weeks or more. As depressing for us as this is since we are keen to stock up on supplies and continue our trip down to Cape Town, it is the surrounding villages if Mafue and beyond (the area has a population of approx 250,000) who are getting desperate. And the bad news is, it is still raining...hard. Three days of continuous rain later... All the surrounding villages are completely flooded - with reports of some families sitting on their thatched roofs for safety. Several hundred kilometres away in Lusaka, the Zambian Vice President had mobilised his Natural Disasters unit. Reports are saying that this is the worst flooding in the region since 1987. A normal 'wet season's' rainfall in the South Luangwa Valley is 800 mm. This year over 1500mm has fallen and there are still six weeks left to go. Zambian military planes have been flying over the area to assess the situation and to bring supplies to the needy villagers. The shops have sold out of milliemiel (the maize used to make the staple porridge eaten by villagers) and all provisions left on the shelves are being sold at hiked up prices. The maize fields are completely flooded so it is likely the crop will rot and fail for this year, leaving the locals malnourished. The electricity supply to the area has been hit by lightening and is now cut off. Added to this the animals have wondered from the park into the camps, including ours, to find shelter. We heard a gun shot last night and have just heard that the village killed an angry bull elephant that was causing mischief. The night watchmen at our camp have spotted three hungry male lions prowling around and we found their footprints a few feet from our car. At night we are hearing loud bangs and splashes which are huge clumps of the river bank falling into the water. And the thunder and lightning and heavy rain is relentless. We have been checking the levels of the river bank every three hours to record the rising rate and we estimate another two days of rain before the whole camp will be under water. There are several expensive lodges in the park, all of which have evacuated their guests by plane. Herman, the owner of Wildlife Camp has explained that if we do get flooded out, we will have to tie Biggles to a large tree and leave by boat...not a prospect we are looking forward to. That said our spirits are still up. We feel safe in the roof tent, camping well above the water, mud and hungry animals. All the preparation we did before we left is paying off. Camilla set aside a '7 day emergency food supply' for eventualities such as this and thank goodness we bought those last crates of beer when we did! Our survival instincts have come out...Rich and John resorted to hunting and gathering when they found two live chickens to slaughter, pluck, gut and barbeque - delicious! Camilla and Cathy baked bread, banana cake and a yummy chocolate cake made with Coca Cola! Our challenge now, over the next however long we'll be stuck here, is coping with the feeling of being stranded at a sodden campsite with two other couples. We've been here for seven days and it may be a lot longer before we can get out. A certain sense of 'cabin fever' has already crept in. We all wait eagerly for Davina McCall to enter the camp tomorrow and evict one of us! So we remain stranded. It could be days, even weeks. When the river bursts its banks, our food provisions run out, the beer bottles empty, the monkeys rip our tent, the lions start to attack, and Tom turns his buggy engine on at 6am one more time....that's when we know we've got trouble! We might not be celebrities....but Get us out of Here!!