On the road early morning with 3 hrs to Zambia border.
All goes smoothly apart from the bird killing 1 ran over at high speed and 10min later a bird flying into the window screen. Kids all traumatised that 1 Yellow Billed Hornbill taken out but not too bothered about the black bird, Maz trying to soften the blow saying he saw them both fly off - not. It's a fantastic drive up to the border on a the main road and a chance to spot wildlife including numerous elephant groups.

Reaching the border crossing there are massive changes from 2016. Last time we crossed the Zambezi River on a small barge with vehicles blocking the road, people everywhere and total mayhem. Now a new bridge has been built and a one-stop border crossing building with Botswana one half and Zambia on the other.

Fact for the day - the confluence of the Chobe River and Zambezi Rivers is where the four countries of Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe meet.

We are met by 'a fixer' known to Bushlore and greeted with "Hello Mr Elvis" - Maz trying to be funny I guess (that's what he told him his name was when communicating on WhatsApp the night before). Well at least Maz and Luca found it amusing. Told it would take an hour to sort passport, road taxes, COVID passes, police clearance, our expectation was 2 hours so rather pleased it would take less. All goes to plan until Maz heads off with fixer for the final requirement.
Police explained to Maz that he needed a police clearance certificate of vehicle to prove that it wasn't stolen so no way we are getting into Zambia without it.

So the Mexican standoff begins - Maz in silence for a good 5 minutes till the fixture tells Maz to come outside it is agreed (well Maz is not going to barter with the police) the police request of £25 which was then given to the fixer, who then re-entered building, speaking to the policeman in their dialect, the policeman shuts the door and the dodgy deed is done we have the paperwork.....shake hands and we are off....Maz never told the fixer his real name.

We arrive in Livingston and head to the supermarket ShopRite. We have planned all of our meals breakfast, lunch and dinner and make have to make sure we get all the supplies needed; it's our last chance to get everything as we are going bush for 6 days, it's a big shop and costly!

Last thing on the list is getting mobile data, we are advised that MTN will work in Kafue National Park and it just helps to keep the peace with for the kids.

Maramba Campsite closed when we arrived as no electricity but opened for us, we are the only campers. Great to get the camper set up and all settled, we head off to the pool Luca desperate for it, we sit enjoy views over the river spotting crocodiles sipping Malawian Rock Shandy which consists of ginger ale, lemonade and bitters. I have the night off cooking as we had plans to revisit a special place, we get the lodge to order us a Taxi to Olga's Italian - always get a price before u agree to taxi which we did but still managed to get ripped off 250 but told 150 this really annoyed us as it's bad for the reputation of the lodge. Olga's food was just as delicious as I remembered. The only downer was that they had run out of crocodile meat that a few were wanting to have on pizza. Back at the lodge we informed them of the taxi rate was inflated and they managed to get the 100 refunded for us.