We left Chipata as the heat built and once out of town we found an empty maize field with a tree to park under to have lunch. As we ate a woman heavily pregnant young woman came walking barefoot along the hot tar road. We invited her to eat with us and she readily accepted tho she didn't speak. We gave her a good feed of chicken and salad in a wrap and sent her off with all our left overs. This was something that Zandré did every night. He would take our left over food from dinner and give it to the night staff. The pot would come back cleaned in the morning.
The day we travelled from South Luangwa through Chipata and onwards was hot and humid but we needed to get the 550 kms under our belt as we had the same again the next day and the next. We stopped at a camp near the Luangwa river having dropped a lot of altitude. It was the most humid camp yet. It had a very nice bar and restaurant and was owned by an alcoholic Dutchman. His staff were his very English daughter who had been there a couple of months and his young African girlfriend. He was quite drunk and creepy but it was a nice restaurant setting for our final night as a group.
Next morning we were up at our usual 5am and off to Lusaka to drop our German friends at the airport for their flights home. We had really bonded and it was sad to say goodbye.
Back to the three of us and Zandré. We camped our last night in Lusaka and weee up before 5am for our final 550 kms. The road out of Lusaka was slow and crowded and in shocking repair. Terrible pot holes for hours. Rows of copper laden trucks heading for the border.
Zandré dropped us at our b&b early afternoon and headed off to drive another 500 kms on his way back to South Africa. At 23 years old he is an exceptional young man. He knows just where he wants to go in life, pays lots of attention to detail and admits that he is a bit OCD which means he is best working alone. Hopefully he will be able to travel outside Africa and broaden his mind a bit before he settles down.
Our air BnB is peaceful and clean and comfortable with a great pool and very kind service. It is owned by an oldish Englishman and his young African girlfriend and they seem to have a 7 year old and a 2 year old. He seems to spend his time watching tele but Gloria is very helpful and attentive to us.
Livingstone is very civilised and westernised. Nice wide roads with jacarandas and orange flowered acacias flowering profusely. Lots of white skinned people and real cafes.
Today we headed in to the falls and as we had been warned being the dry season they are not that spectacular from the Zambian side. We can see the spray rising up on the Zimbabwean side but it will cost us visas and exits and all sorts to get there. There is heaps to do here but it all costs around US$100 each per activity so we need to be discerning. Even a swim in the devils pool is $90.
We are off to Chobe National Park in Botswana tomorrow for US$230 each.
Tough for low budget travellers like ourselves.
We got "done" today for $50 when someone kind of showed us the way to a small pool on the edge of the falls. We didn't negotiate a price because we didn't know we had engaged a guide. We thought we might give him $5 but turned out he wanted US$80!! We were horrified and managed to get him to halve it but we were still severely conned.
After we had found the war memorial we made our way to the Royal Livingstone Hotel and had some lunch overlooking the Zambezi river. The most luxurious hotel grounds I have ever been in and I am sure we were surrounded by the rich and famous but we wouldn't recognise them.
An evening in tonight trying to survive on leftovers from lunch.
Big day tomorrow so I will post this tonight.