LIVING(STONE) IT UP

Livingstone, Zambia: 17 December 2001

Here we are in what is supposedly the adventure capital of Africa and we've already had our fair share of adventure - without forking out a cent.
Getting here was the first adventure - we, listening for once to other people's advice, decided not to take the road from Katima Mulilo straight into Zambia via Sesheko to Livingstone. It is apparently one of Africa's worst roads with some locals having taken up to 24 hours to negotiate the 190 km.
Instead, we hid the bully beef and long life milk, stashed the extra cigarettes (yup, we're both still smoking!) and headed south into Botswana. Before we did we filled up with gas - it's been a long search for somewhere that fills Cadac bottles. The last place we found that could do it was closed, said the security guard, and would only reopen in January. And we were worried about long lunch hours!
The formalities at the Botswana boredom post were minor - I think we caught them at lunchtime - and we began a leisurely saunter through the Chobe game park, or so we thought. Halfway through we stopped to help a group of Swedish tourists whose rented VW Microbus had broken down. The expansion bottle for the cooling system had perished so badly the plastic was rubbing off like dust. We tried patching it with duct tape, hoping the quick fix might last until Kasane, about 35 km away.
It last a fine 5 km and we had to dig out the towrope and haul the group into town, stopping at a garage only to find it was a Saturday afternoon - we'd lost a day somewhere as I was convinced the man was lying and it was only Friday! Being good, but selfish, Samaritans we left them there and raced - as fast as we could - to the next border post at Kazangula, reaching it just in time to be one of the last vehicles allowed through before it closed.
Again, formalities were minor (close to closing time!?!?) and we had a 45 minute wait for the ferry across the Zambezi. It is quite scary watching 8 cars and a fully loaded horse and trailer rolling onto the ferry - the level of the pontoon in the water drops and tilts alarmingly as the weight moves onto it.
The ferry takes about 10 minutes to cross and unload, costing R110, Pula 70 or US$10 or so. But take the correct money cos the shysters "don't have change". That also applies to the third party insurance for Zambia, which costs Kwatcha (K) 26 000.
Hot tip
We learned the hard way. Lisa suggested we buy a newspaper in Botswana and I went "Nah!!!!" but realised as we crossed the border that it had been a brilliant suggestion. You need to check the latest exchange rates before you start crossing borders as, otherwise, you have no idea what you should be paying.
We reached the Zambian side 3 minutes before they closed so everyone was in a rush to get rid of us and go home. The customs official we were dealing with refused point blank to give a customs declaration form, saying that as soon as he had finished working out what to do with the Carnet he was going home. In all this confusion we forgot to mention the dog and when we got outside and remembered, the same official was there. He looked at the papers, called a colleague and we were waved through.
It seems the best time to hit difficult border posts is about 45 minutes before closing time.
The road from Kazangula to Livingstone is best not tackled at night. Fortunately we got through the worst section - the first 7 km or so - before the light went, passing a big pantechnikon truck that hadn't been so lucky. It had hit a large pothole at what must have been quite a speed and the torsion in chassis had been enough to split open the cargo area much the same way a tin can would open if you put a panga through it.
The potholes on that section are so big, deep, numerous or all three that you have to drive on the gravel shoulders for several hundred metres at some points. But that isn't much better because these "detours" are also in shocking (literally!) condition. In some places the unfixed potholes are already developing their own potholes in the bottom of the first pit!
After the first section, the road improves slightly but here the danger is of landing in one of the unexpected and infrequent potholes, which are still scarily deep and can do significant damage.
We followed a local truck's taillights for much of the journey, following its line along the road and slowing down whenever we saw its brakelights but they were travelling too fast for us and we eventually had to give up the chase and just rely on the spotlamps on the roof. These are still set for the good tar roads of Seffrica and Namibia but need to be adjusted to shine closer to the vehicle for the crappy roads up here.
Halfway to Livingstone we discovered the handbrake wasn't releasing properly on one side and the brakes were binding, pulling the brakes to one side whenever we braked hard. We fixed this properly once in Livingstone - the dust and grime of the trip had just clogged everything and it was case of cleaning things out and regreasing the linkages under the truck.
Finding our way around Livingstone, and somewhere to stay, in the dark was a mission in itself as the sign boards - those that there are - are set quite high and are non-reflective. Our first choice, the Mainstay camp ground, was hidden down a rutted and muddy side road, wasn't marked at all, and looked as though it was in an abandoned refugee camp - so we gave it a miss and found the Jollyboys Backpackers an hour after arriving in this town.
We've been here two days now, fixing the truck and - finally - managing to reduce our junk by a whole crate, giving us a lot more space and access to what we have left. We also fixed a leak in the canopy which had been dripping - really, DRIPPING - into the back in wet times.
We've booked to go whitewater rafting (Lisa) and bodyboarding (Robb) tomorrow (Tuesday) and today is an "officialdom" day, sorting out Tigger's papers, getting insurance for the truck for the rest of the trip and changing some money. This afternoon we'll take a drive out to the falls and gawk.