29 January – 3 February 2023

Victoria Falls border post has to be one of the most picturesque in the world and even worth the ticking off for taking photo from the bridge. It is also one of the most tourist friendly with loads of tourists (many an alarming shade of pink!) passing through on foot, stopping for “bridge passes” to walk across to view the falls from the Zambian side.

Our border crossing is painless and the carnet works like a dream.

We had intended to stay at Maramba River Lodge – a favourite among overlanders passing through Livingstone, but we arrive to find their campsite closed for renovations. Some phoning around (many lodges and campsites are closed given the rainy season), stopping in at other spots (too many big overlanding busses for our liking) and then I finally dredge up Camp Nkwazi from the memory bank – we give them a call and yes they are open, and yes they can feed us ‘even if I have to go out and catch and kill a village chicken myself’ says a faintly South African accented voice at the end of the line. That sounds reassuring, so off we set.

Camp Nkwazi is some way (well about 30km to be precise) along the Kazangula road. It is a great spot with large grassed sites and a deck overlooking the Zambezi. Frik (not South African it turns out, but Zambian) and his partner have taken over management of the lodge since the previous manager walked out in December – we are well taken care of.

Day following is a bit of an admin day in town, a few groceries, dropping off laundry, buying a Zambian SIM and data, getting some kwacha, getting the cruiser washed (we are VERY muddy post the Hwange exertions). Washing the car is not just about aesthetics – we have learnt the hard way what mud and wet sand can do to brakes, esp. the rear set when mud, sand and grit gets up in between the pads and disc and grinds away.

We visit Phoenix Insurance to get our Zambian 3^rd party disc (we’d bought the cover online before leaving home, but for some reason this time they only sent the receipt not the disc and whilst the cops around Livingstone are letting us go with that (so far), am sure to need it further north. We also sort out our COMESA insurance for the rest of the trip. The agent at Phoenix is very efficient and making small talk I tell her that I grew up on the Copperbelt. This earns me instant cred: “Hey wow! You go girl! Just look at you, chatting about the Copperbelt and everything like a proper Zambian!”. For some reason this pleases me enormously.

Back at Camp Nkwazi we have few cold beer on the deck, enjoying the sun going down.

It is just us camping here and a couple in the chalets (from somewhere in eastern Europe, with very little English). Frik tells u they have simply been dumped here by their operator with no transport, no idea of itinerary or what to do – and all the activities etc. are based closer to town. To pass some time Frik has dispatched them on a sunset cruise.

But now there is a bit of a panic on. There is a small channel where the boat usually moors, but a very territorial hippo is now guarding it furiously – making a rush towards any craft that comes vaguely close to the channel entrance. She (the hippo) has apparently been AWOL for a few weeks. But now she is back. She has a rep and now she’s in a bad mood. So it’s frantic calls on the radio trying to get the bar manager cum boatman to use a different landing spot. The message gets through in the nick of time. Big sighs of relief all round.

Hippo shenanigans aside, Camp Nkwazi was a chilled and welcome intro to a very green and very buggy Zambia.

Zambia will form a longer part of this trip (and of many shorter trips closer to home in the years to come – it is probably my favourite African country with great people and some spectacular wilderness destinations). But for now we are just passing through – barreling up the Great North Road, a well-trodden route with many of the overlanding stopover staples.

Our destination for today is one such stop over: Fringilla farm, just north of Lusaka. Its location is perfect for those heading north: you can get a good stretch under your belt, including Lusaka and the surrounding traffic. We’ve been snarled up in this in the CBD before,  so not wanting a repeat of that we leave Nkwazi armed with instructions (admittedly vague) on how to bypass the worst of it, which we manage to do (surprisingly!).  

The driving is easy going but we miss the Harvey Tile ads (a house without Harvey tiles is like a country without law and order etc etc) that used to be so prolific. Now its dominated by SeedCo signage painted everywhere and the many signs on SeedCo test plots all along the road.  We cross over Kafue bridge past the stall where we bought a small jiko on our last sojourn up here (a jiko is a portable charcoal brazier / braai. That jiko was not quite big enough, so it didn’t make the packing list, we think of stopping to buy another but time is getting on so we pass, figuring we will pick one up somewhere else along the road. Well, we never see them again. If you want a jiko, buy it at Kafue Bridge.

The mushroom sellers are out in force – we stop and buy some of the orange ones. Not bad with garlic and butter. But then, what isn’t bad with garlic and butter?

Zambia strikes me as more prosperous than I remember, lots of building, more tin roofs rather than thatch, feeling of energy and purpose. Even Coffeeberry Farmstall has had a re-brand.

Fringilla farm is a working farm (crops, cattle, goats, a piggery) and the campsite is right there in the action. And it smells great -testament to good care and animal husbandry. There is a restaurant (brilliant burgers for supper), various venue halls and a whole range of different types of accommodation available. We have stayed in the chalets before, as well as the converted stables. And now we are in the campsite. The gardens are well maintained with tall trees home to flocks of trumpeter hornbills. Great big birds mewling away like infants. Great big birds doing what great big birds do. (Try not to park under a tree with roosting trumpeter hornbills)

We just overnight at Fringilla, but stop in at their butcher in the morning, leaving armed with pork chipolatas and smoked paprika sausage. A bit like a Russian but finer grained. They call them Hungarians here.

And on we head, up the Great North road. On through Kabwe and Kapiri Mposhi before heading east up the T2. Loads of trucks on the road but the drivers are chilled (not so much the busses, driving at speed, pushing the limits). The road is OK but with the odd badly pot-holed section.

A shorter drive today – we have another old overlanding stalwart in our sights: Forest Inn, about hallway between Kapiri Mposhi and Mkushi.  As we arrive we are greeted by a blond woman looking a bit wired and scatty. “It’s my last day! I’m done! I’ve leased it!” She declares with undisguised glee, directing us to the office. You can see it dawning on her face – the grin says it all : we are now someone-else’s problem.  You can’t help but grin back – we’ve all had that feeling.

So Forest Inn is under new management. Now called Fika Lodge. We are invoice #2.

If you ever manage to lay your hands on a copy of Christina Lamb’s book The Africa House, grab it. It is a fantastic read but as I understand it now sadly out of print (although Deb tells be you can get it as an eBook). It tells the extraordinary story of Stewart Gore-Brown, an English gentleman in the last decades of the British Empire building himself this feudal country estate in the middle of the bush and trying to share it with the love(s) of his life. It is a love story at heart but also an insight into post-colonial Africa and all that that means.

You can see the lake at Shiwa Ng’andu from the approach road:

We last visited Shiwa Ng’andu and Africa house in 2014, so almost 10 years ago and at that time did a tour of the house and estate. This time we only drive through but the grounds are just as impressive (now with zebra grazing in among the horses and cattle) although many of the old houses, previously occupied by farm workers, now appear boarded up and in some state of disrepair with plants and vines sprouting from the shingled rooves. Everything grows so rampantly here, and emboldened by the rainy season, with the algae and moss, the surrounding bush feels like it is closing in, on reclaiming its place.

Gore family matters were settled with one brother taking the manor house and the other, Mark Harvey, the hot springs side. That is where we are headed, Kapishya Hot springs – a real oasis with tall forest trees and surrounding hot springs that bubble up though a white sandy floor into a shallow pool, dammed for wallowing. It is also renowned for its birding, and my clearest recollection from our last visit was a throng of Ross’s Turaco with their red fez’s going mad for ripe guavas off a tree outside our chalet.

This time it’s raining and all the birds have taken cover. And we are in the campsite which is a bit soggy, and we choose a spot further away from the river which is flowing strongly and rising.

Checking in at reception sees things just as we left it, the original shingle-roofed building with low ceiling and open plan kitchen looking into the dining room with the grand long table. Loads of old (and more recent) family pics on the walls. And dogs underfoot. Not to mention the dog hall of fame with drawing and paintings of best friends past and present.   A troika of chunky Jack Russells rule the roost and come 4pm (walk time) a whole gang emerges, a couple of labs make up the numbers along with two bouncy dalmations, one of which, called Queen (of course), is resplendent in a diamanté collar.

We spend a rest day at the spring – it drizzles a bit and we spend some wallowing in the warm water,  steam rising all around. Come afternoon the rain sets in proper. We retreat to the closed in banda to spend the arvo reading, checking some work mails and swearing at WordPress.

The next morning we get up fairly early wanting to get going to the Tanzania border and it is, of course, the most glorious sunny morning and birdsong fills the campsite. We even have a pair of Ross’s Turaco pay us a visit. Making our way back to the main road we pass through the estate again, spotting lots of bushbuck in the forest and seeing Zebra and puku on the runway. The runway is a bit overgrown and the air sock raggedy, but looking at the zebra mixed in with cows and the old buildings around ….you can imagine a time. Debs wonders softly aloud: you can almost image Finch Hatton flying in for a drink or two’.

Once back on the main road (Kapishya is quite a detour – it is about 30km off the main road) we are back in the thick of it and the road gets worse and worse and worse. Far worse that I remember. In many places there is no tar or the potholes so deep that traffic is brought to a virtual standstill. Small villages of traders have grown up around these areas and ladies holding bowls of various goodies come to the window and ply their wares: ground nuts, braaied mielies, mushrooms, tomatoes, fish sometimes.   

And on and on we go. It takes forever until finally we reach the mayhem that is the Nakonde / Tunduma border.

Next stop Tanzania.

NOTES FOR TRAVELLERS

Am only including contact details / location for facilities that are less well known /not easily google-able

• Zambian border formalities
  • We used a carnet so can’t comment on TIP
  • Carbon emissions tax K726, Motor vehicle Levy K25. Payable to Zambia Revenue Authority (Customs). Kwacha only. Border staff changed dollars for me, but best to have your own.
  • I did ask about the road toll tax but was met by a blank look (customs guys, this is not their circus), I somehow missed the road tax counter. At the first toll road out of Livingstone I was asked for this and told I should have acquired at border. Was able to pay at the toll gate office ($20 -USD cash only) without being sent back. Be sure to get at border – we were just lucky that this first toll gate had an admin office. Note: this levy does not absolve you from paying tolls in the normal course along the way – we paid ZMK 20 at each (there were about 7 on the way from Livingstone to Nakonde). I don’t know of this is a new thing (in the past we just presented the certificate for the $20 fee. Anyway we got a receipt each time – system generated – showing our car reg, time, date, location and everything. They know where you are! (But the $20 certificate does clearly say that it grants you toll free passage…). Maybe they pocket the ZMK20 off the next car?
  • Zambian 3^rd party insurance. Buy online beforehand. We paid ZMK 137 for 30 days. We chose Phoenix put have also NICO successfully I the past.  
  • COMESA: ZMK 1265 for a years cover for the following countries: Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Burundi, Congo, Uganda, Rwanda. Once you are over 6 months duration, or 3 countries the cost is the same.
• Camp Nkwazi: Camping $20 ppn
• Fringilla: Camping ZMK 120 each
• Fika Lodge (was Forest Inn): Camping ZMK 240 each. Tel +260 96 9422 388. fikalodgezambia@gmail.com
• Kapishya Hot Springs: Camping $20 ppn