Day 21 - 24 - Livingstone

Day 21 (Acacia day 18) – Livingstone (Zambia border crossing)
T.I.A. Never before has this saying been more apropos. Crossing into Zambia from Botswana would seem like a simple enough task. So when Sammy told us that it could take 4 hours or longer to go the 20k including the Kazangula border station crossing, it seemed like he was pulling our leg… Well – he wasn’t joking. To fully understand it you have to appreciate several factors.

· There is no bridge in Botswana across. They could build a bridge but the area where the bridge would need to go, would touch on Zimbabwean land, and Mugabe sees no need to help Zambia and Botswana with a bridge across – he has one further down

· We don’t go through Zimbabwe and use the bridge because it is extremely expensive and requires a mountain of paperwork that must have been inspired by the US legal system and/or tax codes.

· We have to use a ferry that on a good day there are two ferries running. However they are little more than rusty old barges with a diesel engine that barely looks like it can traverse the engorged Chobe River. In fact they aim way up/down stream of their intended target and try to use the currents – usually to limited success.

· The large ferry can only take two trucks, the small ferry one truck.

· Between the two they probably made one complete trip an hour – with luck.

· The ferries start operating at 6 in the morning, however there is no taking a number or whatever. The ferry operators (aka imps of Kazangula) decide at their discretion (aka can be bribed – apparently they like to “read” Cosmo – or maybe just look at the pictures).

· There are literally hundreds of freight and cargo trucks waiting to cross. They stretch back for miles on both sides of the river. These guys have been known to been stuck at the gates of hell, I mean the Kazangula border crossing for weeks and weeks on end, slowly moving forward.

· Trucks, busses and cars are constantly cutting each other off to try and improve their spot in line. This caused several nears fights to breakout as truck drivers who have been waiting in line for 2 weeks don’t like to be cut off. Thankfully they do tend to let overlanders to the front, since we have passengers.

· The police do nothing but sit and watch.

· Once across we individually have to pay $50USD for a visa but Tony has to pay the truck taxes, carbon tax, highway tax, import tax, temporarily register the truck in Zambia, and do a bunch of other paperwork. And if at any stage the “official” is unhappy, they can stall or even block your entry. Kind of like the ladies at the DMV…

After finally clearing all of the bribes also known as taxes and other means of beaurocractic red tape and means of graft where we on our way. A scant 5.5 hours after arriving less than 1 kilometer back on the Botswanan side of the river…

So we happily set off down the road to Livingstone and one of the Seven Wonders of the World - Victoria Falls. Victoria Falls is awesome. Since it’s the rainy season the water was high and the Falls were impressive. You walk along paths on the cliffs and there are several scenic overlooks. Then you cross a bridge that is so close to the Falls that you get absolutely drenched by the mist/spray. If I remember correctly, right now there is approximately 10 million liters of water crossing the Falls every second, yes – EVERY SECOND. The local name for the Falls is Mosi –al-Tunya, meaning smoke that thunders. It is also where the local beer gets its name, Mosi. The Falls were awesome and one of the many highlights of the trip.

After we tried to dry off, off to the Waterfront camp (it’s really a resort) for the next 3 days.

Day 22 - 24 (Acacia day 19 - 21) – Livingstone
Our camp in Livingstone was right on the water (Zambezi River) and had awesome views of the river and tons of optional activities to do. You coul go white water rafting (wrong seaons though so it was closed), fly in an ultralite or helicopter, go bungy jumping 111 meters near the falls (not with my neck…), do various game walks (with lions or elephants) and a couple of other things. However almost, if not all, of these options cost over $100 USD and some were several hundred, so not really in my budget. But I hadn’t planned on going to any anyway.

Some of our group was leaving so we had a leaving party and said our goodbyes. Odd it’s only been about 3 weeks but when you spend 24hrs a day with them it seems a lot longer. While we lost 4 more members of our merry little band (leaving 3 of us) we did acquire another passenger. Another English girl – so if you have lost count, the truck now stands at 3 crew (2 Kenyan and 1 South African trainee), 2 English girls, an Aussie girl, me and a partridge in a pear tree.

A couple of things about Waterfront. It rained almost the entire time there. And it was huge rain, lightning and thunderstorms. Part of the site flooded and it was pretty hectic. Unfortunately it also meant that I didn’t get my clothes done (the laundry service here was really expensive).
One of the things that the rain also did was drive the ants out of the ground. And this camp had tons of ants everywhere. With the rain flooding their nests, the ants decided to take up residence in our tents flaps (you roll them up so that the windows can get some air flow and they stay dry…). Apparently the ants liked it there.

The last interesting thing about the Waterfront were the monkeys. Yup pesky loud, get into everything monkeys. They were tan/grey with red/yellow eyes and bright blue balls. Honestly. We were warned to make sure the windows on the truck were always closed so they didn’t get in (apparently it’s happened before) and don’t look the monkeys in the eyes, as that is an aggressive stance. The monkeys also apparently hate women and have attacked girls there before. Ours ran into some on the way to the showers and had to find an alternative route.

One day for dinner we went into town ($10 cab each way…) and went to a local restaurant. We had local food which is centered around a dish made from cornmeal (it’s similar to grits but a bit thicker) It’s called different things in different countries – nsema, nshima, pop and ugali but it’s all the same thing. You tend to eat it with your hands with some sort of meat and some vegetables. Its good and dinner there was fun.