ZAMBIA - Part 6 of "From Cape Town to Nairobi in a Land Rover"
We didn't do much in Zambia, this was more of a stopover on our way to Malawi. We had heard that Malawi was badly flooded so we needed to connect with Claudio's friend in Blantyre to work out whether we can actually get in there and meet her. We decided to park ourselves in Lusaka for a day or two to think of our next move.
First we looked for a backpacker hotel (Lusaka backpackers) that had a camping site when Claudio was here the last time. We found the place but they now only run a hostel, no campsite anymore. They were however able to point us to a place called "Wanderers", a small hostel that has a campsite. Wanderers turned out to be a very nice place. They had enough space for a few campers (rather small sites but there were not other campers when we were there), dorm rooms, double and family rooms. They also had a lounge with free wifi and a relatively well equipped kitchen. Bathrooms and toilets were clean (showers were actually under renovation but the alternative shower room was also clean and tidy).
In the evening Claudio spotted our first misfortune. When we had been driving down the road after the border crossing into Zambia, the car back door opened suddenly. We forgot to lock the doors and the door shutters on Land Rovers are not very good - doors can open on bumpy roads. Not a great quality in an offroad car. However, as the opening of the door happened at full speed on a good tarmac road, the door had smashed against the gas bottle we had attached on the back. Enough of an impact to crash the back window into a million pieces.
We still went out for a nice Indian dinner and slept well at the campsite. The next day Claudio went out to find spare parts and a new back window for the car (whilst I stayed back and updated my blog and photos. That was when I managed to finish the blog post for the Botswana leg of our journey).
Claudio came back and changed the window. When he was inspecting the car he also noticed that the brake pads on the Landy were gone. Completely. There was nothing left of the rubber - and the new brake discs were scratched. This was rather odd as the Land Rover dealer in South Africa who put the new brake discs in the car had also charged Claudio for new brake pads. Claudio was certain he had forgotten to the brake pads - but had the cheek to charge for them. CA was not a happy man. In addition he realised that the same Landy dealer had installed the incorrect Ironman springs on the car. They had agreed on the heavy load springs (300kg+) but the dealer had instead installed the ones meant for lighter weight (0-300kg). The springs were now getting soft due to the heavy load that we had in the car.
We went looking for springs and did some groceries. We found a dealer but they also only had stock of the 0-300kg springs. We still had the car washed and finished the rest of the errands. In the end it was almost 4pm when we were back at the backpackers. We decided to stay one more night and leave for Malawi the next day. Claudio still did some more work on the car, and then we drove off to look for a seafood place to have dinner at.
On the way to the restaurant we were passed by a car that was driven by a local lady who shouted something to us in a very angry tone. We couldn't hear what it was, so when we stopped next to her at the traffic lights Claudio inquired what the problem was. the lady said that we nearly made her drive off the road since we threw something out of the car. Huh? Threw something out? I'm sorry, we didn't throw anything out. She claimed we threw something out, or something fell off the car. Fell off the car? We didn't think that sounded good. We asked her what could it have been but she said she didn't see it, it was perhaps about the size of a coke can. Claudio asked if I had put anything on the hood and I said definitely not! I couldn't think of what could have fallen off.
We did a u-turn at the next lights and went back looking for what we might have dropped. Soon we spotted a little black object laying on the road side. Claudio pulled over and went to have a look at it. He came back showing his Victorinox knife case. It was empty. So - Claudio had used the knife to open a cardboard box when he was fixing the car earlier. He had put the tools back but forgot about the knife as it was used only for a short time. Neither of us had noted it when we left as it was already dark. We went looking for the knife along the roadside. We actually got out of the car, took our torches out and looked on both sides of the road for a good stretch of around 500m. No sign of it. Claudio was even less happy. Anoter USD 150 our of the window. I felt so bad for him.
So, after an unlucky stop at Lusaka with broken windows, lost brake pads, lose springs, unable to find spare parts and a lost Victorinox knife, we started off for Malawi the next day. First we needed to stop at the shopping mall to get some money from the ATM.
I waited in the car while Claudio was drawing money. All of a sudden the guard who had been talking to me started running towards a backpacker truck nearby on the parking lot. I could see the overland truck was on an angle and they were unable to open the back door to let the passengers out. I observed some of them climbing out of the window. I assumed they had a flat tyre, and pointed it out to Claudio when he came back. He took one look at it and said "That' can't be just a flat tyre, they are too much on an angle." CA went over to have a look. The truck had gone through the concrete floor of the parking lot. There obviously had been a bad fill of concrete and the weight of the truck was too much - the concrete gave in. Claudio spent a while helping the driver and the security guards to lift the truck up so they could drive it forward and out of the hole.
We didn't do much in Zambia, this was more of a stopover on our way to Malawi. We had heard that Malawi was badly flooded so we needed to connect with Claudio's friend in Blantyre to work out whether we can actually get in there and meet her. We decided to park ourselves in Lusaka for a day or two to think of our next move.
First we looked for a backpacker hotel (Lusaka backpackers) that had a camping site when Claudio was here the last time. We found the place but they now only run a hostel, no campsite anymore. They were however able to point us to a place called "Wanderers", a small hostel that has a campsite. Wanderers turned out to be a very nice place. They had enough space for a few campers (rather small sites but there were not other campers when we were there), dorm rooms, double and family rooms. They also had a lounge with free wifi and a relatively well equipped kitchen. Bathrooms and toilets were clean (showers were actually under renovation but the alternative shower room was also clean and tidy).
In the evening Claudio spotted our first misfortune. When we had been driving down the road after the border crossing into Zambia, the car back door opened suddenly. We forgot to lock the doors and the door shutters on Land Rovers are not very good - doors can open on bumpy roads. Not a great quality in an offroad car. However, as the opening of the door happened at full speed on a good tarmac road, the door had smashed against the gas bottle we had attached on the back. Enough of an impact to crash the back window into a million pieces.
We still went out for a nice Indian dinner and slept well at the campsite. The next day Claudio went out to find spare parts and a new back window for the car (whilst I stayed back and updated my blog and photos. That was when I managed to finish the blog post for the Botswana leg of our journey).
Claudio came back and changed the window. When he was inspecting the car he also noticed that the brake pads on the Landy were gone. Completely. There was nothing left of the rubber - and the new brake discs were scratched. This was rather odd as the Land Rover dealer in South Africa who put the new brake discs in the car had also charged Claudio for new brake pads. Claudio was certain he had forgotten to the brake pads - but had the cheek to charge for them. CA was not a happy man. In addition he realised that the same Landy dealer had installed the incorrect Ironman springs on the car. They had agreed on the heavy load springs (300kg+) but the dealer had instead installed the ones meant for lighter weight (0-300kg). The springs were now getting soft due to the heavy load that we had in the car.
We went looking for springs and did some groceries. We found a dealer but they also only had stock of the 0-300kg springs. We still had the car washed and finished the rest of the errands. In the end it was almost 4pm when we were back at the backpackers. We decided to stay one more night and leave for Malawi the next day. Claudio still did some more work on the car, and then we drove off to look for a seafood place to have dinner at.
On the way to the restaurant we were passed by a car that was driven by a local lady who shouted something to us in a very angry tone. We couldn't hear what it was, so when we stopped next to her at the traffic lights Claudio inquired what the problem was. the lady said that we nearly made her drive off the road since we threw something out of the car. Huh? Threw something out? I'm sorry, we didn't throw anything out. She claimed we threw something out, or something fell off the car. Fell off the car? We didn't think that sounded good. We asked her what could it have been but she said she didn't see it, it was perhaps about the size of a coke can. Claudio asked if I had put anything on the hood and I said definitely not! I couldn't think of what could have fallen off.
We did a u-turn at the next lights and went back looking for what we might have dropped. Soon we spotted a little black object laying on the road side. Claudio pulled over and went to have a look at it. He came back showing his Victorinox knife case. It was empty. So - Claudio had used the knife to open a cardboard box when he was fixing the car earlier. He had put the tools back but forgot about the knife as it was used only for a short time. Neither of us had noted it when we left as it was already dark. We went looking for the knife along the roadside. We actually got out of the car, took our torches out and looked on both sides of the road for a good stretch of around 500m. No sign of it. Claudio was even less happy. Anoter USD 150 our of the window. I felt so bad for him.
So, after an unlucky stop at Lusaka with broken windows, lost brake pads, lose springs, unable to find spare parts and a lost Victorinox knife, we started off for Malawi the next day. First we needed to stop at the shopping mall to get some money from the ATM.
I waited in the car while Claudio was drawing money. All of a sudden the guard who had been talking to me started running towards a backpacker truck nearby on the parking lot. I could see the overland truck was on an angle and they were unable to open the back door to let the passengers out. I observed some of them climbing out of the window. I assumed they had a flat tyre, and pointed it out to Claudio when he came back. He took one look at it and said "That' can't be just a flat tyre, they are too much on an angle." CA went over to have a look. The truck had gone through the concrete floor of the parking lot. There obviously had been a bad fill of concrete and the weight of the truck was too much - the concrete gave in. Claudio spent a while helping the driver and the security guards to lift the truck up so they could drive it forward and out of the hole.
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| Backpacker bus that went through the concrete at the shopping mall. CA was there immediately taking a look at if he could help. |
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| Yup, it went through the concrete! |
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| Lifting the truck up in order to be able to drive it forward. |
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| Lwanga bridge crossing. |
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| Crossing the bridge. After this the roads got a lot worse. The EU funded road improvement project seems to be going on and on without reaching an end. |
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| Roadside lunch break. |
The next day we crossed the border and started our drive down towards Blantyre where Claudio's friends Ruth and Thomas lived.
So - all in all a quick visit to Zambia. We had some bad luck this time but still I'm hoping to come back to Zambia one day and maybe spend some more time taking a look at the national parks here.
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