Early start in the morning from Livingstone, off the tarmac and onto gravel road. The direction we are heading is deserted no vehicles heading our way or opposite direction just the locals hitching lifts and walking between villages. After several hours driving we reach the Kafue National Park gates, we park up to hand over the high park costs for all 5 of us ($100 US per day). Onwards we go and stop in Itezhi tezhi to top up with diesel as it's the last place we can get fuel for the next 6 days, we spot a small local mini mart and do some last minute shopping to buy bread since we couldn't get any in Livingston due to the early start.

Arriving at Hippo Bay the campsite is deserted we find a note to go to the lodge down the track, we proceed to be greeted in the carpark, pay the accommodation and are ushered on our way - felt like "no riff raff" allowed at the lodge as clients pay $650 a night per person and I must admit we don't look too well kept.

The lodge send a couple of workers to fire up the donkie so that we can all have hot showers. Before setting up camp we decide to go on a sunset drive and spot Hippos, buffalo, monkey, Puku, impala, warthog. Kafue isn't the national park to come to if you want to tick off spotting animals quickly, you need patience, you come to Kafue for its remoteness and wild bush experience, so far its living up to expectation having seen nobody all day, not even a 4x4 on the road.

Whilst bush camping and with wild animals roaming close or through camp it's been agreed that girls sleep in camper and boys in ground tent. Luca is not happy about this at all but Dad strikes a deal that I know nothing about, the boys do 6 night's in Kafue in the ground tent and girls have to do 8 nights on the Skeleton Coast swapping between each other (ground tent only sleeps 2) - guess who's got the worse deal mum, but this could change!

That evening the hippos we can see in the distant move onshore and closer to camp, Luca is the most panicky and wants to go into the safety of his tent as soon as he can. Dad makes him wait until dinner (steaks), where he promptly eats and proceeds quickly into the tent. Maz puts up the trail cam hoping to capture any wildlife that wanders into camp, but unfortunately nothing does.

We are on safari in Zambia and that means early starts to catch the cats, where the best chance of spotting them are at sunrise and sunset. We wake the kids up at 5.45am, as we are trying to get Arabella to wake up she replies with "it's cold I really hate camping I just want to go home", "it's my holiday too" I reply "It's only another 5 weeks to go", she was not amused.

It's the second day of no people, cars or phone service (i.e. no datainternet). Maz and I have been learning a great deal about the importance of 'streaks' and how they impact a child's life so predominately it's totally insane the addiction people have to be in contact with one another, the lack of internet is meaning their streaks are being lost. We told the kids "That back in our day we had to write a letter if we wanted to communicate". Maz and I feel this is doing them the world of good no with Wi-Fi.

There is an amazing sunrise over the lake amazing warm orange glow with view of Hippos still on land grazing it is a gorgeous site to take in. We set off to our next campsite Kasabushi our home for 2 nights and take the opportunity to do drives looking for game on the way up, but unfortunately, we don't see any major animals outside of different types of deer and a few monkeys. At one point we usher the kids out of the car to climb a 75m black rock sticking out of the ground called to the Kafue River viewpoint, we stop briefly to admire the amazing views before heading back down to proceed with our drive.

We near Kasabushi campsite before lunch and decide to go of the main road down a 4x4 track to try a spot some wildlife, I decide to put my window down in preparation and explain to all how I like the fresh air coming in instead of constant air conditioning, the car immediately starts filling with flies, the kids start complaining, I remark "it's just some flies", Maz tells me "it's my holiday too" in reference to a comment Arabella made earlier when she was having a gripe about waking early! What I didn't know was these were Tsetse flies, they are bigger than the house fly and bite worse than a bee sting. The car was now full of tsetse, we collectively work to get all of the tsetse out of the car and close the windows, from now on we would do all our safari in Kafue with windows shut whilst the day hot certainly when the Tsetse are out.

For your information on research into the Tsetse fly we discovered the following.What do tsetse flies do to humans?

A bite by the tsetse fly is often painful and can develop into a red sore, also called a chancre. Fever, severe headaches, irritability, extreme fatigue, swollen lymph nodes, and aching muscles and joints are common symptoms of sleeping sickness. Some people develop a skin rash.

We arrive Kasabushi campsite, 100mtrs from entrance we are told to spray the vehicle with DOOM to remove the Tsetse flies which like to attach themselves to the car, luckily for us the campsite is tsetse fly free. Andy greets us and escorts us to our campsite, it's a little slice of heaven on the Kafue river he shows us the ablutions which he constricted in a Gaudi style containing a waterfall shower, he goes on to tell us we will have the campsite to ourselves tonight. Our pitch is perfect with a large open space close to the rivers edge with a trees and canopy of vines overhanging for shade, with tables made from split logs and stumps as seats. A concrete circle with logs and kindling ready to be lit.

Kasabushi has both luxury lodges and campsite, since no one is staying in the luxury lodge Andy invites the kids to enjoy the rock pool normally only for lodge guests which we take up, but we are warned that on the 500mtr walk we may encounter an elephant or lion, in fact a lion had come down that path just last night and scared the night guard who was out doing odd jobs. The kids enjoy a dip in the rock pool, on way back we met Libby, Andy's wife preparing for guests at the lodge the following day. Libby is British and originally from Arundel, she is excited about her son coming to visit that see hasn't seen in 3 years.

When we get back to the campsite Luca attempts to start the fire with flint and steel and nails it first time, now I have a fire starter trained, I have one less thing to do prepping the fire to cook on, it can take a good hour to raise enough embers off the wood.

We forego a sunset game drive for an early tea of beef and butternut squash stew and yarns round fire with Andy including several red wines discussing what it was like to grow up in Rhodesia, as the night progressed discussion turned to politics and ends up turning into a very late night.

Another 6am start, most of us having a restless night due to the constant grunting of Hippos close to camp. Maddalena said it was dad that kept her awake more than the Hippos and it didn't help me rocking up to sleep next to her after a few wines being all cuddly and loud.

Within 15 mins Arabella spots a leopard which is amazing and so it's rare to see - we stop the engine. The leopard is only 2 metres away eyeing up a large group of Puku for breakfast, I have my window down and got my Camera on the leopard she's looking straight at me. Maz says "she's going to come for you" I flip in a panic and ask Maz to turn ignition on so I can put window up which he does at the same time the fans flair up and startle the leopard, it quickly retreats into the treeline and it's gone! If only Maz didn't say anything we may have got to witness a kill, oddly enough everyone blames me for our misfortune!

Back to camp for the afternoon to wash clothes, make a meal to freeze and all have a snooze. After I prepare the dough for pot pizza before embarking on a river cruise with Andy on the Kafue river. Over the next 3 hours we learn about the geology of the landscape, spot Hippos, see a multitude of bird species and see an impressive 4mtr crocodile laying on shore. Andy's skill on the water is impressive as the river is littered with massive boulders creating mini rapids, Andy manages to dodge hippos, manoeuvre around the boulders and navigate the narrow channels up the rapids. At one point we have no option but to get very close to a hippo, Andy asks us to hold and not be afraid if the hippo charges the boat, we pass the hippo without incident.

Back at the campsite and our campfire is already lit much to the annoyance of my fire starter Luca, who was looking forward to starting the fire once more. We put the pizza pot on the fire and after 50 minutes we take the potjie lid off to see the potjie filled with perfectly cooked stuffed pizza roll, it was a huge success and enjoyed by all.

Once again we all fall asleep to the now familiar sound of the hippos grunting with a few elephant blasts thrown in.