Day 9, 13 July 2012 (Friday), En route from Chipata to South Luangwa National Park, Zambia - "Well it was down in Louisiana, just about a mile from Texarcana in them old, cotton fields back home... " As you can see life passes in a stream of images and songs and over the last couple of days we've seen many fields of "White Gold". Cotton is a cash crop here and the locals love it - they are paid for the bales of cotton and also the cottonseed oil and, at the en...

Day 8, 12 July 2012 - Arriving Chipata (from Lusaka) - 756 km. Roughly. And I mean roughly. At the risk of stating the obvious, Africa is big. Distances by road are long and yesterday was 9-10 hours on the road. A little like driving from Sydney to Queensland without so much as a Big Banana to amuse you. We stopped at a the colourful market at Luangwa Bridge - the colourful fruits are used to distill a local spirit. Apparently people who drink it, don't weave...

Day 8, 12 July 2012, Leaving (Lusaka to Chipata) - On the road again, just can't wait to get on the road again... Willy Nelson was all over it. 550 kms (roughly) yesterday on excellent roads. 600 km promised today. Roads optional. We made "camp" last night in utter luxury at Zambia Pioneer Camp and despite the dire predictions of our guide about the standards of East African accommodations we were blown away, pix of the gorgeous chalet in the album and the A...

Day 7, 11 July 2012, Livingstone to Lusaka with Nomad Tours - For anyone who has ever doubted it, we are now, officially, "On the Bus". Specifically a large truck with 15 other travellers on the road to Lusaka. Simultaneously touch typing and looking out the window to avoid motion sickness. We left Livingstone in Zambia an hour or so ago when our tour group picked us up this morning for a 21 day tour up to Nairobi. We are on the truck at the moment zooming p...

Day 6, 10 July 2012, Victoria Falls, Zambia - Wow. Small word - but a huge reaction. We cabbed to Victoria Falls this morning - a snappy 40,000 Kwachas. (Qua-char) - or roughly $8. Zambia has decided in the last month or so that there is no point having a currency if everyone uses USD - so now many things have to be paid for in local Kwachas - which meant some snappy and possibly shady foreign exchange dealing when we had to come up with 200,000 kwachas at th...