Hello to those who are still following our progress (which seems to be less going on the message board’s parental and canine dominance)!

We are safely through Zambia (almost) after a marathon drive yesterday (1010km) all the way from Kasanka National Park to Livingstone. The drive was not bad at all taking about 12hours on some of the best roads we have had yet.

We have now taken up residence in Waterfront Chalets and Camping right on the Zambezi, enjoying hot showers and good food. This evening we are going micro lighting over the falls (Cranfields eat your heart out!) before preparing ourselves for an adrenaline rush tomorrow in rafting Africas rapids. We are told they are the best in Africa, but I am skeptical that they can be better than the ones we did in Uganda four years ago, but we will have to wait and see.

From here the plan is to head into Botswana via Chobe national park in the Okavanga Delta and then we are heading to another Tusk project in the shape of a game reserve before heading into our second large African desert, namely the Kalahari to do some serious bush camping and stop living in too much luxury.

Before I go I must back track to tell you about the wonders of Zambia away from the Zambezi. We had a wonderful 24hours in South Luangwa National Park viewing game (see photos) in abundance as well as being swarmed with yet more Tsetse flies. The park is wild and only accessible in the dry season and even then the tracks are rough, meaning we hardly saw another vehicle. We headed North through the vast park and climbed the 1000m high escarpment with stunning views (apologies for the lack of photos, the road was so hardcore that we couldn’t stop for fear of rolling back down…see signpost photo!) Once up on top of the escarpment we bush camped in the wild before we headed to Kasanka National Park, which we had never heard of, but were recommended by a man in South Luangwa as at the moment the bat migration is taking place. Having got there and relaxed during the afternoon, just before 6pm we walked out onto a plain and watches as over 5 million fruit bats (with about 1m wing spans) flew over our heads while the sun set. It was trully spectacular, but not good for anyone with a bat phobia.

Anyway we are off shortly for our flight over the falls so for now we will say adios and do keep checking up on our progress and passing comment on what we have to show and say as it is good to not feel too alone in Africa,

All the best

Alastair and Henry

ps Forgot to mention we got properly stuck having crossed a river up the wrong bit (see photos), it resulted in a team of Zambian workmen coming to the rescue and literally digging a road underneath us with bits of wood and rock. That was before we started climbing the escarpment, so the workers must have wondered how we were ever going to get up having got stuck in their building site first!!