In Lusaka

Friday 5 september: On the move again

After a couple of very relaxing and beautiful days experiencing the wildlife of South-Luangwa, we decided to move on. Next destination: Lusaka. The capital of Zambia. This meant however that we had to go back on the 120 km dirt road on which we had such an adventurous and exhilarating experience coming up. Yes, we were very much looking forward to this bumpy bouncy road again. But this time we were prepared. Tinus tied the backdoors so tight, I was afraid if they would ever open again.

Did I mention bye the way Bertha has been giving us more problems again? Did I already mention that the indicators for the temperature of the engine and radiator stopped working? And that during our game drive in the park Tinus could not shift gears anymore? It turned out the gearbox oil needed refilling. How strange, but hey, it’s a landrover. So we got the oil out and did the job. I probably should not mention that we did this in the midst of a herd of buffaloes on one side and a herd of elephants on the other ;) No worries, I got my eye on them and they were really relaxed! That surprises me a lot, how relaxed all the animals are here compared to Majete! Especially those elephants!

It turned out the gearbox leaking oil was becoming a bigger problem, as well as the clutch oil. Yep, we really needed to get to Lusaka to have that looked at.

We refilled all our jerry cans with diesel in Mfuwe for our way back, so we did not have to stop at Chipata after the dirt road. This would save us time we thought. But how wrong! First at the turn off in Mfuwe to the dirt road, people were pointing to our car and we saw some fluid coming down on the windscreen. Yep, one jerry can had flung open after a big pothole in the road. Luckily we got it fixed easy enough, cleaned the car with some water and continued.
Bertha was shaking and shaking, but managed quite well. Although, after another big pothole…yep, diesel on the windscreen again. After checking all the jerry cans again, we continued, again. It’s not so much the diesel leaking that scared us, as well the fact that diesel is almost 3x more expensive then in Malawi! We just refilled 60 liters for $ 175!

The back doors stayed shut all the way up to Chipata, but we still had to stop. We checked the engine oil: fine. Checked the clutch oil: empty. It is leaking down on the pedal and Tinus had to wind a towel around it otherwise it was too slippery to even use it! Transmission oil: yep, needed refilling again.
All righty then. From this point onwards it should be a tar road. And after the worst sausage roll ever in history, we hit the road again!

Lusaka was another 600 km, so the goal for today was Luangwa Bridge, 350 km.
The road was bad in the beginning, but fine after a while. We still had to stop two times again to refill the transmission oil. Probably the seal in the gearbox between two parts is leaking. Something we haven’t checked yet, because it’s hidden. Since the car has been standing still for a while; all seals and stuff have driedout and now start leaking. Same problem with the seal we already replaced in Blantyre and the same for the oil seal in the wheelbase which Tinus has pumped grease in it now.
Because we have no radio anymore, we hear all the sounds of the car. After about 100 km we suddenly heard a rattle from the gearbox. It came and went. You can imagine we were not sitting very comfortable. Talking is also not really an option, because you have to shout and then still you have to say it twice, since the other person is responding with: WHAT?? At a certain point we were asking ourselves why we were putting ourselves through so much trouble. Wouldn’t it be better to bring the car back to Blantyre and just fly to Zanzibar for two weeks to really relax! But we’ve chosen this way and we’re gonna stick with it! Besides, whenever we see her standing somewhere, we always get the same feeling, it’s a beauty. It’s just the driving that’s still a little bit rough.

It did not get any better when we were almost there, just 10 km before our destination, and the engine stuttered and switched off, on a hill. It turned out because we were going up hill, the remaining diesel in the tank was not enough to keep her going. Luckily we had spare, but it was just another tense moment!

It was just dark when we finally arrived at Luangwa Bridge Camp. A beautiful spot near the Luangwa river. The beers were cold and we were happy again. And what a surprise, our Dutch neighbors from Flatdogs were there as well, and with food! They treated us on a warm pasta meal. Life was good again. We chatted until the bush babies came out and had a long evening with cold beers and whisky. Just for the record, a ‘long’ night for us means we went to bed at eleven instead of eight ;)

Saturday 6 September - at Luangwa Bridge
The next day was Bertha-day. Again. Tinus greased and refilled everything necessary and I did some laundry and stuff, but mostly watched and gave moral support. The rest of the day we relaxed at the little pool with a view over the river.
Unfortunately it turned out that the management of this place had stayed way too long. They treated the staff very poor and shouted at each other and the staff constantly. So we moved back to the tent for some peace and quit time.

Sunday 7 September – to Lusaka
Next morning, we spitted on the hood of our car for good luck and (Tinus) pissed on the back tire for good luck. We heard from a very reliable source that this could work and at this point in time we needed all the luck we could get. Another 250 km to Lusaka.

We took it easy. Figured out we could use the GPS to measure our distance and speed and that was a great help. We stopped 3 times to check everything and refilled diesel or oil, whatever Bertha needed at the moment. The rattle in the gearbox was still there unfortunately. I secretly hoped it would have disappeared overnight, but Tinus tells me she’s gonna be allright!

At a police block we were stopped. Tse-tse control. A nice old police man walked to us with a net to catch any tse-tse flies we would have in our car. No worries officer, we killed each and every one of them bastards! For our Dutch readers: tse-tse flies are like ‘horzels’ and they come in the dozen when you drive around in South-Luangwa. And they bite (or do they sting?) and it’s painful!
When he found out we came from Malawi he started speaking Chichewa. Zambia has 75 languages, of which 7 official ones. One of them is in a big way equal to Chichewa, so we could actually reply to him. He was getting really excited by that and called over another very old man. He said he was from Malawi and when I greeted him in the official way, he was besides himself with happiness and almost started crying! He thanked us a million times and we continued our journey. It was so sweet! One of those things that can really make your day!

When we arrived in Lusaka, we stopped at a shopping mall. A what? A shopping mall! The biggest and most luxurious we have seen in a long long time. This was something you would never find in Malawi. Sure, PEP (Zeeman) was there all right, together with a lot more! We needed to exchange some dollars and had a drink in a big beautiful and modern restaurant. We were very underdressed in our greasy filthy bush outfits and felt like strangers. Actually, we felt like we were in another universe! There was a video store with the newest movies on dvd which we never even heard of! If we would get bored, we could even go bowling here or…to the cinema! Shops with nice clothes, shoes, everything. You could actually go shopping here! Still confused we walked in to the supermarket. Not a normal one, but a Superspar. My God! Everything was available. And then we looked at the prices…oops. We already noticed in the last week that Zambia is much more expensive than Malawi! But almost $ 1,50 for an avocado? Get real! So we restrained ourselves and did only the necessary shopping.

Zambia for that matter is very different compared to Malawi. Okay, the sand is the same color, red, but there are a lot less people and bicycles on the road. Next to the road you don’t see a lot of villages. If you see some villages, they look nicer in a way. You still have the mud huts (round instead of square), but they are painted in a nice way with flowers or other African prints. And the people are better dressed. And taller.

Lusaka also looks nice and clean and more organized. We made our way to Chachacha Lodge. A small backpackers place in the centre of town. For the first time since we left we pitched our tents. Yep, 2. One for us and one for all our stuff which we don’t want to leave in our car when we take it to the workshop.

Monday 8 September
When we woke up we got another nice remark about the car. Somebody came up to us and asked: nice car. what are you gonna do? Take over the world? ;)
Today we brought Bertha to the workshop to get that leak repaired, as well as some other stuff. It was way out of town, but luckily we found it. Then we got the quotation and it will set us back another $ 400. EESH. And that was after Martin talked his way out of the initial $ 550. Yep. Zambia is definitely more expensive. The labor expenses for getting the car fixed are way higher than in Malawi.
But then somebody from the President’s office came up to us, and he was really enthusiastic about our tank ;) He said: never sell it! Yeah, well. Why? Wanna buy it haha. Or maybe the new president?

With the minibuses (still the best public transport system in the world) we made our way back to town to get some cash. Lusaka is really a nice town! Lots of little coffee shops and restaurants. And now we’re back in the mall again, because…we’re going to the movies!!!

When Bertha is fixed again, we will continue our trip to go to Kafue Park to hopefully find some wild dogs!

With love,
Amy and Tinus