Day 26, 24 February - Siavonga to Chipata VIA Lusaka
Back to Lusaka, but first we visited the Kariba dam wall. Fascinating, this feat of 1950's engineering. Chinese contractors are busy with construction of additional hydro-electric generators on the Zambian side. All wishing the wall a long and strong future (considering the other option), we departed again to Lusaka, which now started to have a homey feeling when we arrived in the hustle and bustle of Cairo and Addis Abeba roads lined with South African franchises. Petrol, a Steers burger and Debonairs pizza for lunch and we were ready for the 550 km trip to Chipata, but not without noticing some petrol dripping from Bigfoot's nether regions. I hoped that it was overfill. No such luck of course. I felt around for the source and discovered a tiny crack in the 2nd fuel tank. It seemed that we were destined to remain forever in Lusaka. We decide to push on regardless and fix the tank in Lilongwe.
This day also required night driving, which we rather avoid. A slow, tiring trip with rain, rain, villages, animals, darkness, people on the road, darkness and some rain made for interesting driving. At only one village did we see food, so had a Mosi and meatpie (dodgy) and carried on. We got to Chipata at 11pm and crashed at Dean's Hillview lodge.
Chipata is or last stop before Malawi.