Beautiful drive south from Kariba to Harare to stay with James and Wendy. When we arrived in Harare the rain started (unknown at this time of year) and we even had a hailstorm, which confused us all. We went to Doon Estate to see some of the best art and artefacts we have seen on the entire trip …with predictable results… We now have two sculptures in the loo and more carvings in our roof box as well as a collection of spears taped to the back door! We went to the central post office to buy stamps and came away with a wedge of inflation era notes.
We then went to Ruwa to see April and Ian who live in the most beautiful house with a “pet” Zebra instead of a lawn mower


and a Jack Russell. James and Wendy then took us north again to stay on their fantastic tobacco farm in Centenary



tobacco seed beds

where we had the most beautiful couple of days exploring the farm on foot and on motorbikes.


They gave us a fascinating insight into farming in Zimbabwe over the last few years and a spectacular evening eating fillet under a full moon. We then spent a wonderful weekend with April and Ian enjoying roaring log fires a hot bath a long walk and a delicious Sunday lunch.
* two of the farm workers names!

We spent a few days at Bridge camp on the Luangwa river where we had a fabulous trip down the river on a canoe looking at crocodiles and hippos and of course wonderful bird life


then on to Lusaka where we had the van serviced ( thank you Mercedes Lusaka who didn’t attach the fuel filter properly …..AWA ) not a lot of tourist stuff to do but we went to Kilimanjaro a restaurant selling interesting local curios and a wonderful batik and pottery workshop before heading south to Kariba. Just outside Lusaka we picked up a white Zimbabwean hitchhiker who had come to Lusaka for a job interview and was heading back to Harare sign of the times……We spent a couple of days at Eagles Rest Camp before crossing into Zimbabwe. Despite our GB plates and obvious “Englishness” we couldn’t have had an easier crossing. How nice and what a surprise!
We went to Warthogs Bush Camp again right on the lake shore, whilst we were relaxing a group of 8 elephant decided to walk through the camp and say hello.

They sampled the rubbish in the bins,

tested out the kitchens

and then had a drink from the swimming pool.

“Hey, this is Africa” as the man in the bar said!

We spent a wonderful 5 days in South Luangwa at Flatdogscamp The camp is on the banks of the Luangwa river and you can watch hippos and crocodiles in the water from the riverside tents. Elephants, and hippo wander through the camp night and day so campers, not in the purpose built and protected tents are advised to use the tree top platforms to camp….

We were very pleased to be in our van where we slept soundly but Lewis in his eyrie hearing elephants in the night looked out to see an elephant trunk pulling leaves off the tree at eye level….he had tied his guy ropes on to some branches so spent the rest of the night worrying what would happen if an elephant pulled the branch off… would the guy rope snap or would the tent come off…..
We did a night drive with Edward and then using the rest of our 24hr entrance pass drove around in the van we saw one other vehicle in the entire day, not helpful when we had our first puncture in the whole trip and had to change the wheel with Lucy on lion watch. Thank you Lewis!
We saw the most wonderful variety of wildlife, fish eagles, Pels fish owl (huge) leopard up a tree with a kill

and on the riverbank as well as elephant,zebra, giraffe countless deer, wharthog, crocs (flatdogs in local parlance) and of course the hippo and thousands of monkeys and baboons. Brilliant.


A bloat of hippos (yes thats the collective noun for the next pub quiz!)

After a lovely few days at Chitimba we decided to press on south keeping to the lake shore, but the first leg was up into the hills reaching Mzuzu before heading back to the coast. No sign of diesel ( which had been in short supply for several weeks) so we turned back to the coast passing through miles of rubber plantations.

The drive was spectacular but long…..and no fuel, so we were pleased to have 50 litres spare on the roof.
We spent the night in Senga bay and then headed for Lilongwe the capital… made the decision as there was still no fuel to go for the border after a couple of days at Mabuya camp with intermittent power caused by the fuel shortage. Tom and Jane who run the camp were wonderful as was the campsite.
The poverty statistics are quite simply horrific even by african measures 40% of the population live on less than US$1 a day and nearly 50% of the population are under 15. Life expectancy is 43.

I am told that cane mice(?) are delicious…
We met Lewis at the bar who was looking for a lift to South Luangwa National Park in Zambia, our next stop, so we gave him a ride to Flatdogs where Edward who had been to school with our sons was based. Bit of a drama just outside Chipata when the gear stick came off in me ‘and……