Zambia - Round The World Tour 2003 Day 60

Somewhere near Lusaka

Sunday 11th May

Up relatively early again this morning to catch our northbound Wildlife truck to Arusha. It was due to pick us up at seven thirty in the morning and I was starting to get very worried when they hadn’t arrived by eight thirty. It would be just our luck to get stranded in Harare. Pretty much every other plan we’ve made to transit up North has fallen through so it should be fitting that this one does to. Just when I was starting to think about how I was going to pay for a flight out of town (using the credit card in Zimbabwe is ill advised), Craig from Wildlife called to let us know that their driver was a little delayed and that we should not worry; we would be picked up after all. The truck arrived not too long after that and the two smiling drivers seemed like nice guys. We said goodbye to Harare and headed out of town.

As anticipated, the long drive was boring and tiresome but it was interrupted after several hours of plugging along by the Zimbabwe/Zambia border crossing. A stinging surprise awaited us there. As a British citizen, I had to pay a whopping $60 for my single entry visa. Sandy, being a Dutch citizen, had to pay $15. I wouldn’t mind but we will only be in the country for a day or two until we pass through it into Tanzania. Just as well that I was able to buy some US dollars from Bertie the other day otherwise we would have been in a real predicament.

We just arrived at some nondescript camp-site just outside of Lusaka. It’s now eight o’clock in the evening and we have been motoring since nine thirty this morning. To make matters worse, we will have an early start in the morning. Having spent the past few weeks getting up early in the morning, I was not too concerned when Kenny, the driver, told us about the early start but then he said that we would be on the road (having already eaten and packed away our tent) by four o’clock!