Day 25, 23 February: Lusaka to Siavonga, Lake Kariba

Margaret's (GPS) malice took a new turn today. From an earlier GPS estimate, it seemed that we would be able to visit Siavonga en-route to Chipata on the Great Eastern Road to Malawi. This was true from Livingstone, but not really from Lusaka. Anyway, without consulting the Africa Atlas (a kind, useful and much used gift from the Twycross family), we left Lusaka for Chipata via Siavonga, with Margaret leading the way. It seems the GPS's sole intent was to take us via Siavonga to drown us in Lake Kariba. She plotted which involved a 10km water crossing through the lake. Fortunately we realized this in good time and did not venture into Kariba, rather following our own intuition and a few well signposts to Siavonga village and our overnght stop at Eagle's rest. Eagles' rest has a most beautiful position on Kariba, with views across to the hills and mountains in Zimbabwe. Having heard much about Kariba from Zimbabweans at Rhodes and elsewhere, it was good to see the lake, and to experience the beautiful surroundings and feeling of the bush here.

Enjoying a cold Mosi in the evening, I thought to check our route to Chipata the next day, fully expecting a 400km trip. Much to my surprise, Margaret led us to Chipata via Lusaka! Tired of fumbling around her tiny touch screen, zooming in and out to try and see the bigger picture, I reached for the trusted atlas. It's depressing confirmation was that the shortest route to Chipata was indeed BACK via Lusaka (another 180km, or a total detour of 360km). This meant a 750 km trip to Chipata. I don't like or trust Margaret at all, and call her names unsuited to this forum, even if she was not really to blame.