Zamba, Zumba, Zambia!!!

[ by Stian ]

Zambia is a landlocked country, twice the size of Norway, located in the Southern part of Africa. The population of the country is 14,3 million as of 2012, which is concentrated mainly around the capital city of Lusaka in the south and the Copperbelt Province to the northwest. Zambia became independent from Great Britain in 1964. The name Zambia is derived from the Zambezi river, and Zambezi translates as «God's river». The country did though take the name of Zambia only after it gained its independence, before then it was known as Northern Rhodesia. Zambia was named one of the world's fastest economically reformed countries by the World Bank in 2010. The most famous attraction in Zambia is of course the Victoria Falls, which we would get to experience for ourselves as well:) We would be having 3 stops during our time in Zambia, spending a total of 6 nights in the country.

CHIPATA

The first day we of course had to cross the border from Malawi, but the drive was not a very long one. We arrived at our first destination, the Mama Rula's Campsite, which was located close to the city of Chipata, which was located pretty much just across the border from Malawi. After arriving to the campsite I spent most of the afternoon updating my little black book (meaning my daily diary). Then we had a very nice dinner which consisted of steak and some really tasty sausages again, along with a salad and a very tasty spicy bread as well. The best thing of all was that this campsite had hot showers as well:) Hooray:)

The manager of Mama Rula's Campsite turned out to be a devoted karaoke-enthusiast so of course the evening was spent on molesting the «classics». I have to admit I can't sing and I hate karaoke. They wanted me to sing of course, but I refused – why go through the pain really. It's no way it could have been fun, not for me nor for the rest of my group. I say, let the people who like to sound like a cat being killed slowly do their thing... I prefer to be a «happy» stand-byer.  

LUSAKA

The following day we had another one of those days where it felt like we were driving forever. Our next campsite was located on a private game farm, just outside of Lusaka, the capital of Zambia. We did have fun during the ride though, as I was mostly flirting with Natasha, who «everyone» seemed to think I was getting involved with during the trip. We really just became really good friends who were flirting with each other for fun only.

We finally did arrive to Lusaka, which really really was like coming back to the civilization again. It was obvious that people are way more wealthy here as they looked richer and didn't even pay much attention to us as white tourists. We also noticed that there were many other white people in the supermarket where we did our groceries as well. In a way people even seemed friendlier because of this – meaning, not pushy in any way, which was a great feeling. Lusaka seems to be undergoing a great deal of constructions as well, and the parts we did drive through looked very nice. As of 2010 the population of the city was 1,7 million, but it's a city growing rapidly.

Our campsite was the Eureka Camping, which was located within a private game farm. The campsite was ok, but we were supposed to be able to see zebras just outside our tents – and also many other animals, but we did unfortunately not see any animals at all, except for when we were about to leave the next morning. So we had some expectations that did not come true to be honest.

This evening Mun and Naomi wanted to do a prank on Natasha. They made me to go wait for her inside her tent, while she was getting ready for bed in the bathroom. It turned out that they sent me in to the wrong tent at first, before realizing it, for so to hurry me to switch again. They were about to crack up really so the prank didn't turn out well. I was supposed to be that «sexy» guy waiting for my lady in the bed you know... but I was almost laughing my ass off myself inside the tent, so it didn't turn out very attractively at all. Natasha just laughed of it though, thankfully. So I ended up sleeping by myself in the tent this night, as Kenneth was sick and slept in the truck, poor guy:( It even turned out to be a FREEZING cold night as well... I actually really could have used some external body heat this night, haha;)  

LIVINGSTONE

Our main destination in Zambia was of course Livingstone, the home of the Victoria Falls, and most other tourist attractions in Zambia. So the next day we had to depart very early as the guides wanted is to arrive as early as possible to Livingstone, and therefore be able to take part in as many activities as possible. So we woke up when it was still dark, and freezing cold, and we headed towards the small town of Livingstone, a town named after the famous explorer David Livingstone, and with a population of only 140 000 people. As everyone was pretty tired, this turned out to be one of the more boring drives as well.  

When we finally arrived at our destination, the Zambezi Waterfront, some of us was pretty much disappointed, thinking: Is this IT? The first impression of the campsite was not a good one, as we had to camp between the giraffe trees, which are trees covered with massive thorns, and it looked dirty....and there were lots of monkeys here. It turned out though, that we had been placed in the far end of the property. When we got to go through the whole campsite and to see the main building, the restaurant and the bar (which had a pool) and the really nice view of the Zambezi River and the roar (?) of the Victoria Falls in the horizon, we fell in love with the campsite. The only downsides about the place was the expensive menu in the restaurant, which did not even look that tempting – and the HORRIBLY SLOW and really expensive Wi-Fi. One hour of WiFi cost 5 US dollars, and when I tried to log on to my on-line bank it took way more than that one hour even to load the front page, so I did not get access at all. This made me very frustrated so I made a complaint, and told them it was unacceptable and that I wanted my money back, which I did get – thankfully. Every dollar counts when you travel the world !

The Optional Activities...

Just after arrival we got to see this introduction video of all the different optional activities we could take part in, and we also got to see the prices. I was shocked to see how expensive many of these activities were, and most of them I could not let myself afford. When the movie ended our guide Julian and a representative from the campsite wanted us to make a decision of which activities we wanted to take part in – like RIGHT AWAY, with no time to consider the different options. They were very very very pushy and it pissed me off. They explained it with the fact that we had to hurry, as some of the activities would fill up quickly, so to get a spot in the group we had to choose quickly. I did not accept this answer and told them that we should have been given these fliers and got to know the prices during our trip, and not right before we had to make a decision. Most of us wanted to chat with each other as well, as we didn't want to end up doing stuff all by ourselves. We rather choose the activities where we could go as a group and spend time together. Therefore we had to figure out what the others wanted to do as well. Among the activities we could choose from we had helicopter rides, white water rafting, game drives, game walks, encounters with lions or elephants, other types of tours and so on and so on. Anyways – most of us chose to do nothing this first day and rather waited till the next day for our first activity.

Café Zambezi

In the evening of the first day we all headed for dinner at Café Zambezi, which is a restaurant serving traditional African food. I really wanted to have zebra steak, but it turned out that they did not have zebra at all. They did have other options though. I decided to go for a starter of fried caterpillars, which I let everyone taste, as I got a huge plate. I have to say it was not my favorite thing to eat, haha. For my main I had a Nyama Choma w/nshami, which was a very nice steak with local vegetables...from Kenya. The whole evening turned out to be a really nice one. Everyone was still getting a long very well and having fun. We also noticed several other tour companies entering the restaurant while we were there so I do suspect this is the first restaurant all foreigners dine at after arriving Livingstone.

This evening and the night was fucking freezing cold and it literally felt I was about to freeze to death. My sleeping bag really could not handle this kind of temperatures, as it is a summer bag and works best around 10 degrees plus, and might work around 2 degrees plus, but thats the EXTREME condition. We must have had nights even colder than that. I was sleeping with four layers of clothes and still freezing... horrible feeling. Thankfully the next day I was able to go to the center of Livingstone and I got myself a nice huge blanket, which I could tuck myself into, before climbing into the sleeping bag – and it worked very well I would notice:)

The Rhino Walk

The next morning we got up very early. Several of us had signed up on joining the game walk, or the rhino walk as they rather call it. We did get to have breakfast at the resort before being picked up by the company though. The breakfast was amazing – so I was very pleased. Anyways, it was me, Silje, the Danish girls, and Sadie and grandpa Raymond who had signed up for the rhino walk. Eventually we were picked up, and then we had to go pick up a couple of more who were to join us as well. Our guide seemed like a nice guy as well – and we also had a «soldier» along with us, who was carrying a rifle as to be able to defend ourselves in case we would be met by hostile animals (or poachers that is).

The walk turned out to be very very very nice. First we got explained all the different types of poop, which sounds strange, but it is actually interesting. Then we came to a spot where we got to see 4 white rhinos up close. Considering that we were walking, and not protected inside a vehicle, the feeling of seeing these huge animals up close was amazing and exhilarating. I think this game reserves have only 8 rhinos in total, so that we got to see 4 at the same time was really really lucky for us we were told.  

After having been explained the life of the rhinos, and how they are protected in the area, we headed back to the shore of the Zambezi River where we were treated with a very nice brunch. before heading for a game drive, which would end up back at our resort. During this drive we got to see some new animals as well – as the waterbucks and bushbucks (at least I don't think we had seen them before)...at least not this up close anyways. We could also spot buffaloes, crocodiles, impalas, giraffes, a huge lizard and even the remains of a wild cat who had become the victim of a vulture or an eagle or what it was.

The Victoria Falls

A group of us had chosen to explore the famous Victoria Falls on our own. We had the option of doing a tour, but we thought it would be both cheaper and more fun to do it on our own, and we were correct:) Hooray. Victoria Falls (or Mosi-oa-Tunya (Tokaleya Tonga: «the Smoke that Thunders») is a massive waterfall on the Zambezi River at the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe. It is considered the largest waterfall in the world with a drop of 108 meters in the center. It is though not the tallest, nor the widest, but its total width of 1,708 meters and height of 108 meters, resulting in the world's largest sheet of falling water. It is said that the first European to see the waterfalls was Dr David Livingstone, and he named «his» discovery in the name of Queen Victoria, but the indigenous name is still commonly used as well. Mosi-oa-Tunya was also the name of the small national park where we did the rhino walk earlier in the day.

One of the main activities one can take part in is to do a helicopter ride over the falls or through the gorges of the fall, or to to a microflight above the falls. These activities were way to expensive for me to take part in, but both Mun, Natasha, Naomi, Lucas and Silje at least did one of them. I only chose to do a walk along with Ann Sofie, Katrine, Johan, Angelika, Silje, Sadie and Raymond. It was an amazing and soaking wet experience, but we had lots of fun. I got to take lots of great photos as well. If we would have chosen to take part in a tour we would have ended up with a guide and having had to dress in matching rain-outfits, which just looked silly really. We did get soaking wet, but as the temperature was pretty nice we dried up in no time anyways so it was all ok and really just wonderfully refreshing:) I would go as far and say that this day so far had turned out to be another one of the definite highlights of the year.

Pizza And Beers

In the evening we had dinner at Olga's Italian Restaurant, which was said to have the best pizza in town. So we all headed over there – and so had many other groups done as well – so we basically walked right into another tourist trap of a restaurant, haha. It took forever to get the food though, but as the pizza came it was at least a nice one. We rounded off the evening by having a few beers at the bar at our resort. Well some of us had a few, while others got totally wasted as usual...

Halfway through...

We had now come to day 20 of our Africa journey, which also meant that some of our lovely members in our group would be leaving us, and we would also be joined by a new group of people. This day marked the the end of the second leg of our trip, and the start of the third one. Our total tour is combined of four legs, but it was only in Livingstone that we would have new people joining us though. The one leaving us would be Matthew, Angelika and Johan... though our lovely Swedish couple I would get the pleasure of hanging with the following morning as well, so it was only Matthew we would not get to see again.

The Lion Encounter / Walk

The second activity I had signed up for was the lion encounter walk where we would get the chance to walk with lions that have been born in captivity, but are raised to become wild and independent species when they are old enough. So it was myself, the Danish girls, the Swedes, the Canadians and Silje who took part in this walk, as well as two other, who turned out to be from Luxembourg. Johan and Angelika would be leaving us right after the end of the walk so this was our last chance to hang with them unfortunately. I found meeting two tourists coming from Luxembourg so amazing as well, as that's a VERY rare thing to happen, so I had to take a photo of us all together as well. Haha.

The lion walk was AMAZING. The lions are raised by the ALERT, which stands for African Lion and Environmental Research Trust. We got to walk for quite a while and observe the lions play around, and we even got to pet them, both while they were walking and laying down. Of course we had to be extremely careful as they are powerful animals who might misinterpret our intentions and attack us. We all did pretty much very well, though there were a couple of incidents were they played around so roughly that some of us got caught in the middle of the crossfire to say. I can highly recommend this walk for anyone going to Livingstone. It is definitely worth the cost:)

Exploring the City Center

After the lion walk I met up with Natasha and Lucas at the resort. We headed to the center of Livingstone, where we first made a stop at the Livingstone Museum, which was nice enough – but not that exciting. We then explored the Curio Market, a place for souvenirs, which also was very nice – but as usual I don't buy anything. There are some souvenirs that were really nice though – but they would have been to large for me to carry around. The common saying we heard almost all the time is «come in come in, looking is for free», but they always want to push you to buy something anyways... We ended up hanging at the Kunu Coffee Café close at the Shoprite Mall for lunch and they also had amazing WiFi which worked perfectly and fast. As I did have my laptop with me I finally got the chance to do some stuff on-line again as well, as checking my on-line bank and so on:) Wiiiiiiii!!!!

Getting To Know the New Arrivals

Back at the resort we got to meet up with the new members of our group. As well as the new groups, Partha rejoined the group as well, which was very nice, as he was a fun guy. The newbies consisted of Kelly, from Chicago, Taylor and Jennifer from Canada, the buddies Matt and Sandipan from London, Chris and Nicola from Manchester and Amber who also is living in Manchester, but is originally from Northern Ireland. So we lost 2 Swedes and 1 Australian and gained 1 American, 2 Canadians and 5 Brits, as well as we got our Singaporean back. This definitely weakened the Scandinavian domination of the group, which some I know was very happy about as they didn't like that we Scandinavians could speak our native language with each other, haha.

This evening we all had dinner at the Waterfront Restaurant to get to know each other. The new guys seemed very nice, even though that they were way younger than most of, as they were all in their early 20s. The only exception of the new ones was Jen who suddenly became the oldest female member of the group. I did connect the best with Kelly and Taylor at first and later with Jen as well. Jen was probably the one who tried to get to know us in the old group right away, while most of the new members mostly focused on getting to know each other rather than getting to know us this first evening. I had a cheeseburger for dinner, which was just ok, not worth the price at all. The restaurant even tried to rip us off by overcharging our bill – which was not nice at all. After the meal everybody had a few beers, and especially the new members made a big party of their first day in Africa.

Last full day in Livingstone

The last day in Livingstone was another day of optional activities. I chose to do nothing though, as I wanted to relax and save some money. Kenneth, who had not taken part in any activities the other days, chose to finally do something, so he went for the lion encounter this day. I ended up hanging at the WiFi-café in the city center again for lunch and to chat on facebook:) I also got in touch with this really nice girl from Ghana, who seemed like a business woman. We had a nice chat and I got her business card and she told me to get in touch if I ever were to come to Ghana, which was very nice:) Back at the campsite later I finally managed to complete my itinerary for the rest of the year, and plan my budget accordingly – hooray.  

«Norwegians» Everywhere!

In the evening time we had dinner at the resort restaurant once again – though this time I had a chicken schnitzel with cheese sauce, fries and vegetables, and it was not too bad actually:) We also had some really drunk locals on the neighboring table who made loads of noise during the evening. They wanted to make up for their disturbance by treating all at our table with a drink. One of them, a pretty huge black man, almost scary guy as well, came around and greeted all of us. When he came over to our end of the table and he got to know that we were Norwegians he suddenly started speaking in Norwegian. It turned out that he had been working for 10 years in Norway, and also other places in Scandinavia, so he knew some of our languages – both Norwegian and Danish. It has to be said that I have been surprised during this year how many people around the world who actually know a little bit of Norwegian. You would think no one really cared about this language only spoken by 5 million, but there are many who have either been to Norway for work, or dream of coming to Norway for work as it seems.

So THAT was our time in Zambia:) I have to say that Livingstone is a really really nice place! Of course mainly because of the Victoria Falls. There are plenty of activities to do as well – so there is something for everyone. I would love to do another tour in Africa later, which then will go through South-Africa, Zimbabwe and ending up in Livingstone – but also to include the three M's Mozambique, Madagascar and Mauritius of course;) Life is really beautiful in Africa:)

Btw: I didn't notice any z(s)amba or zumba while in Zambia... ah well. Who had thought?