Day 21 – En-route to Tabora, Tanzania

At last I managed to persuade (cajoled with a few threats) Ernest to open up the top tent and we had a great night sleeping on top of the truck. By the way, we have now named the truck "The African Queen" as she is certainly stately enough, even though she does pull in a mountain of dust and she also wallows on the road, a little like Queen Elizabeth the first. Better than “the truck" I will now refer to her as "The Queen"

So I start again - we woke up with a couple of elephants just on the edge of the camp, what a great sight and even better when you are sitting up high. They wondered off and we had our breakfast and set off for a quick game drive before pushing up to Tabor. We had again been told the road was tar (and can you believe it we actually believed it) so we thought it wasn't going to take us too long, about 385 Ks till Tabor where incidentally Livingston lived and met up with Speke and Burton on their travels through Africa (some of the suites at Safari are named after these intrepid explorers).

We thought we would have a quick game drive for an hour or so and then shoot off and reach our destination before dark. There are absolutely no camp sites at Tabor so we knew we were in for another night of bush camping but this time we knew where to go as we had found a great site last time we were there, just 10 kilometers outside Tabor. In order to do the game drive we wanted to do we had to go out of the reserve, down the side for a short while and then into the reserve again on a different road. About 10 minutes down the road we found a truck that had driven into a culvert on the side of the road and landed with the cab about two meters down the drain and his bum in the air.

Well Stevie Wonder, ever the Good Samaritan, was out there to help these poor guys get the damn thing out. When we asked him how he got there, he just shrugged his shoulders and said he didn’t know. We think he must have fallen asleep at the wheel. They had obviously been there the whole night trying to jack the car up and put rocks and wood under the front wheels but had literally had no effect. Well the boys, ever so keen to try out the capabilities of  'The Queen' and it's super-duper 35 ton winch (this car was probably 3 tons) attached the car and started to winch...oooops the chain from their car "she broke". So they started again, attached the winch to the chassis and we were winching again.  This time Ken hung a ground sheet over the cable to prevent the cable doing too much damage if it snapped.

I was sitting in the front of The Queen talking to Tracy and Ernest was shouting at me to duck if I saw the chain break....  Hell!! I was out of there sitting behind the front seat as I have seen the whiplash when the cable comes lose or breaks. Slowly but surely the truck came out backward with everyone cheering and shaking hands which is all of our nightmares as who knows where those hands have been!! Stevie was the only happy one as he still had his gloves on so he was happy to shake their hands and nod heads with them. Now to rewind the winch and "sorry for you” the winch would not wind back! Oh dear no hydraulic oil in the hydraulic tank. It had been leaking before we left and Ernest had asked the guys in the workshop to fix it but duh! They had fixed the tank but never filled it with oil or told anyone that it needed oil, or it hadn't been properly primed or something like that!  We had to keep changing the angle of The Queen to get the last drop of oil sitting in the right position to eventually be able to wind back the winch. I had visions of us trailing a long tail all the way to Kwanza if we didn't get it right. Anyway, that was the end of our game drive as it was 11 o'clock by this time and we needed to head for Tabor without further delay.

Off we went to fill up with fuel at the first one horse town called Panda. The first step was to find a bank so that we could withdraw money. All you have to do in a place like this is drive around till you find one smart building and know for sure that is the bank. This one had an ATM, with a very long queue outside so yippee, it was working even though it took a while to get there... All the time the clock was ticking. Then to find the exchange rate to know how much to draw which is impossible so in the end I just drew the maximum the machine allowed.  Three times!! Then stopped as I thought it might swallow the card if I tried again and off I went with a pile of money, literally. Ernest asked if I had enough to fill the car, what a stupid question as how the hell would I know. Anyway we put in what we thought was the whole amount to find we didn't have a third of a tank... Then comes the “I told you to draw enough!!!”... Murder on the forecourt! Anyway as it turned out we had it all screwed up as the whole tank got filled and only one third of the money was used. Heaven knows how much I actually drew but it will last us a while now. Then we found that the cap on the hydraulic tank for the winch had somehow fallen off during our ride from Katavi giving us another problem. Steve managed to seal it all up with cloths and zip ties. It is amazing how you can "make a plan.”

So as I said time was now ticking, we had 289 Ks to do and it was one thirty. We left in a big cloud of dust thinking the road was good but oh boy we didn't know what we were in for. It was first, second, third, back to first, second, back to first for 100 Ks. By this time we were all practically crying. Ken also had a close call when some old boy (probably 20 years younger than him) passed him, then stopped then passed him again, then when Ken tried to pass him again the old boy swerved and nearly pushed him right off the road. You have to be fully alert at all times when driving around here. Ernest's knees from changing gear and pressing the accelerator was so sore he was in agony. So at 5pm we found a nice quarry, fairly far off the road and made camp. It had taken 4 hours to do 100 Ks and we still had 189 to get to Tabora which was our target for the day!

Oh boy we were finished and everyone was just a tad grumpy so we made camp and decided a good shower for all would put us in a better mood. Ernest and I got in our showers first but that brought a few bees and when the next guy tried to shower the whole hive had arrived. This is semi desert, no water for miles and just hundreds of bee hives all set up by the locals along the main road. So we put out bowls of water all away from the truck and sat and waited out the onslaught until the sun went down. By the time it was dark there was a whole bowl full to the top of dead bees, drowned in the water. At this point when the bees had left we could get out the supper, eat quick and go to bed. We had to get an early start almost before sunrise as we knew the bees would be back the next morning as the sun rose and this time they would bring all their brothers and sisters with them. Just to add insult to injury the biggest spider I have ever seen was sitting on the inside of the grocery cupboard door when I opened it. It promptly shuffled into the cupboard and it took Steve ages to find and kill the dam thing ... He had to, otherwise nobody would eat again as I was dammed if I was going to put my hand in the cupboard with that hairy thing still in there. Just could not figure out where it came from and how it got in the cupboard as the doors are always closed!

We were well hidden from the main road and no civilization for miles around so we were safe for the night. We did however have hyenas fairly close which is something I always love to hear.

Signing off for now! 

Day 20 – Katavi Reserve, Tanzania

We wanted to get off fairly early again as we hadn't asked anyone if we could camp on their lands and we thought we might get the whole village surrounding us while we ate breakfast. Anyway, there was one guy who arrived and just stood staring at our coffee making and cleaning up, obviously fascinated by these "mlungus."

Still on dirt but the road had improved slightly; we were now back on the old road and not on the temp road made by the Chinese who are doing the tarring. They make these detour roads that run next to the new ones but they have become so deteriorated it is almost impossible to drive over 30 Ks an hour on them.

We travelled the 40 or so kilometers till we got to the beginning of the Katavi reserve. (The only way you know you are there is because the GPS goes green and there is a sign that says “don’t litter in the reserve.”  Anyway we all stopped for a pit stop and stretched our legs, when coming from the other direction is another truck, same size as ours but this one is so slick and  "larney" and looks like it is German made. The driver stops next to us, hops out and greets us like long lost friends and we stand in the middle of the road for about half an hour looking at each other’s trucks and examining everything from the water systems to the crockery. Oh boy this was some truck, the cab was all in brown leather and looked like a Rolls Royce inside and the back was a completely sealed box but with tiny windows which you can't see out of. Inside was like a yacht without a speck of dust. Every cup had its place and every plate properly secured and in draws like my new kitchen at home, in fact probably even smarter. It even had a washing machine!  All the girls     "Oh"ed and "Ah"ed. They were a Polish couple that got out of the truck looking clean and neat not like us motley bunch of dirty South Africans. They looked at our truck, full of dust and full of stuff all over the place and I think they thought those poor people what a dreadful truck. Funny how different needs suit different people as Ernest said he would hate that truck, you can only live inside it and those tiny windows would drive him mad. No outside kitchen so all cooking had to be done inside, so he sat outside on his deck chair and she did the cooking inside! You might as well be in Sandton. Anyway even though he carried 600 liters as against our 450 liters they never had our water purification system ... So wheh!

Anyway we exchanged cards and moved on very envious of his clean dust free existence. As we progressed into the reserve the road just became worse and worse so we eventually found a turn into the reserve itself and off we went on a proper game drive. We travelled along the edge of the marsh for about 25 kilometers and saw an extraordinary amount of game. The Katavi river at this time of the year is just a smallish river widening out into big ponds but in the rainy season it bursts it's bank and becomes a huge marsh area which stretches for about 30 miles long and 10 miles  wide and even though the surrounding bush is very dry and desolate in the winter, this plain is still green and lush. The bird life was prolific, just hundreds of Storks, Marabou storks, Saddle billed storks, Goliath herons, Pelicans, Fish Eagles and Ground Hornbills. The game is just teaming on the plane, from Grevy's Zebras to reticulated Giraffe, Wildebeest, Buffalo, Warthogs and Waterbuck. The most incredible thing though is the amount of hippos in the pools and the river. At one stage there were so many hippos in one pool, it just looked like huge rocks, one piled on top of the other. All shining in the afternoon sun. There were also a lot of hippos out of the water grazing on the grass.

We stopped for lunch, took out our chairs and relaxed under the huge apple ring Acacia trees that line the edge of the marsh. This is what we had driven hundreds of kilometers to see and it would have been perfect except for the bloody Tsetse flies that are a real curse. Anyway we sprayed ourselves with as much insect spray as we could and it did seem to help a little. Then we headed off to the park headquarters to pay our entrance fees. I don't know what rubs me up so much about these guys in their little huts that demand so much money but do absolutely nothing about improving the park or the facilities.... This is Africa!

He asked me how big the truck was so I said 4 tons (with my fingers crossed) so he said okay $ 40 per person $ 40 per car and $ 200 for our truck. So I said no, then our truck was only 3 tons. So he said it was still $ 200. That is per day and does not include the camping which was another $ 210, so all in all it cost R 7000 for an afternoon game drive and one night camping with cold water, Tintswalo Lodges looks cheap.

By this time I am literally blowing blue smoke out of my ears, so I said I hope that included hot water at the campsite to which he replied of course it did... Bloody liar. Anyway Ernest kept telling me to keep my blood pressure down so I paid for the entrance and said we would camp down the road outside the reserve where the fees would be $70. We sent Steve and Kim off to look at the camp site and they came back and said it was a no no so I had to eat crow and go back to pay the $210 for the cold showers.

Anyway when we arrived at the campsite there were two giraffe eating from the tall trees in the camp plus there were clean ablutions with plenty of cold water. So they sat me down in a chair with a cold G&T and told me to calm down. I must admit it was a good campsite and we spent a wonderful night around the fire, great dinner and great company. We even had an elephant close by browsing away and taking no notice of our torches shining in his eyes.

Tomorrow is another day!

Day 19 – En-route to Katavi, Tanzania

We had a bad night killing mozzies that had somehow got into our net. Hell I just don't know how they get in as I have practically glued the net all around but the buggers still creep in. Well let's hope our Malaria tabs work as there is definitely malaria here and we got bitten good and proper.

Up early; quick coffee and cereal as we have far to go and the trip up the mountain was foremost in everyone's mind. We finally managed to get off at 7.30 and started our low range first and second gear trip up the rocky bicycle track. They always say going back always seems shorter than getting to your destination in the first place... I am sure that is true except for going up that damn mountain; there was nothing quick about it...two hours later!!! We let the cars go first as we thought they would be much quicker than us and they wanted to drive the extra 6 Ks to go and see Kalambo falls which are the second highest falls in Africa and very impressive to see. Well Ernest was thrilled when he found that the truck kept up with the two cars and they just couldn't shake us off. He says he has regained confidence in his truck and asked me to tell the guy he will be impressed with its performance when he uses it.

We all arrived at the cross roads together and they then left to The Kalambo falls. We turned right to the main road where we waited for them to have a quick look at the falls and then we would head to the border and Tanzania. We knew it was going to be touch and go as to whether we would reach Katavi by nightfall. Last time we did this run we landed up bush camping, creeping deep into the bush so nobody would see us from the road as it got dark and we just don't like to push on after dark on these bad roads.

The guys only eventually caught up with us well after 11am so our chances of reaching Katavi by nightfall were pretty slim. We had been told that the road all the way through was now tar so we were still hopeful that we might get there before dark. Well, there was a small section of tar and the rest was the most atrocious road that you can imagine, even though the lady on the GPS kept insisting that we were on tar.

First section was inside Zambia and we just went from one crater in the road to the next, oh my gosh that piece was so bad, we rarely got over 35 Ks and hour. It was bad last time but now it was 50 times worse. I just don't know how they can let their roads get so bad especially en-route to a border post. Anyway we reached the border post and we got through without too much hassle. It is literally a little hut with a sign outside that says "Immigrations.” Fortunately we had done the customs bit before going to Isanga. The Tanzanian border post is such a surprise compared to the little hut on the Zambian side. There they are much more ‘amptelik official like’’ and even searched our cars.... Not sure what they were looking for but whatever it was they never found it. I also think they were just get curious about the truck and want to have a look inside. He wanted to look inside all the cupboards and even wanted to see the bathroom and remarked “hai this is a house not a car"

We asked about the road and were told it was “tar". Unfortunately it is actually want-to-be-tar and hasn't quite got there except for a small section of about 40 kilometers. The trouble was the road used to be quite good but they have now dug it all up while attempting to build the new road.... Oh what a mess!

So it became obvious that we were not going to make it to Katavi and Ernest started looking for a campsite at about 5pm. I was keen to push on for a bit but he insisted as soon as we found a little side road that we go down it and find a place tucked away far enough away from the road so that the passing trucks could not see us. I must say we found a really great spot, away from the road and overlooking this beautiful countryside with some huts in the distance and a little village further on from where we had stopped, you could see for about forty Ks over the countryside and I suppose we must have been visible from that distance as well but these guys are pretty peaceful and I am sure we were quite safe. The altitude was 4000 feet so no mozzies accept the one that we had brought with us in the truck.

We set up camp and started cooking.... One problem and that was that earlier I had taken out two chickens for dinner which needed to be cooked on a fire and we were camped in nice brown dry grass and we didn't want to start a veld fire, even though most of the countryside has been burnt by fire anyway. So Stevie, the solver of all problems built a small fire with charcoal which we used to cook the chickens.

Oh what a disaster as we went from the fire to the pot, back to the fire and then decide that they must be cooked only to find that they were still raw inside, so back to Stevie's fire. So the dinner was not exactly what I call “up to standard" but we eventually ate and flopped into bed all exhausted after a very long days drive.

The one really great thing about the truck is that we can all happily shower and clean up every night even if we are bush camping. Being clean at the end of the day kind of gets important.

Signing out, till tomorrow!

Day 18 - Isanga Bay, Lake Tanganyika, Tanzania

Today was a glorious day of doing nothing. After that long torturous trip down to the bay it was great to know that we didn't have to go anywhere or do anything.

We had a late lazy morning and a late brunch. I spent at least half an hour scratching around in the snapper boxes trying to find the coffee that I had stored in the boxes. We had consumed  so much coffee in the first week of the trip that I had kept the rest hidden so that we could at least last until Nairobi where I could buy some more. I am personally not a coffee drinker so it wouldn't worry me but the rest of the gang are coffee addicts and I didn't want to hear the moans when there was no more coffee so I must admit I hid the rest of the supply, the only problem is that I hid it so well that I couldn't find it again when I wanted to. I did however really get to know exactly what was where and refreshed my memory on what I actually have stored up there. I think this will make Ronel and Fritz laugh!

So after brunch we had a real clean up time... It reminded me a little of boarding school when everyone had to clean and tidy up. Ernest of course took a little bit of encouraging (and threatening) but once all was done we headed for the beach and a bit of sun and reading time. Dirk the lodge manager put the kayaks out for us to potter around in the water with and he also had some goggles and snorkels to go see some tropical fish which are in great abundance along the rocks. Nicolene and Dirk have been managing the lodge for nearly 4 years now and they are very helpful and make our stay as comfortable and easy as they can.

  

Kim, Ernest and I paddled out and around the rocky promontory and we saw the most gorgeous fish and even a couple of otters. In the afternoon we went for a boat ride way up the lake as far as the Tanzanian border. Even in this area there has been a huge population explosion and as I have said before just tons of kids.

We had hours of debating on whether to stay here an extra day, as we were already running a day late and we know that getting out of here is  not going to be easy so it might take us a little longer to get into Katavi, the reserve in Tanzania where we are headed next.  We  eventually decided by mutual consensus  that because we took so long to get down here, it would be worth it to stay another day, who knows if we will ever come back here again or whether it will still be here to visit with all these people putting pressure on the land.

So we are spending day two here, just reading and swimming and trying to get blogs caught up with and I managed to get an internet connection so we managed to sent out a few pictures.

Just some interesting data which Ken was telling us around dinner last night about the flights that landed at Shiwa Ngandu. The planes that used to come out were old Vimmys bombers from the First World War. The pilots were in an open cockpit and there were 8 passengers in the fuselage all seated in wicker chairs with no air hostesses. The journey used to take up to two weeks and there were numerous stops at places like Khartoum, Nairobi, Shiwa Ngandu, Lusaka, Entebbe and Bulawayo - still beat the slow ship journey out to Africa. On the first experimental flight out, the aircraft actually crashed in Bulawayo but there were no passengers on board and nobody was killed.  Oh yes another bit of trivial information is that the aircraft had wooden propellers. The full story is available on the net at  www.orafs.co.za.  It’s a good read!

In the afternoon Ernest wanted to get the truck out of the campsite and turned around onto solid ground. He was panicking about the soft sand and getting stuck as there are certainly no tractors to pull us out if we get stuck. So Steve, Kim, Ernest and I spent some time digging out the soft sand, putting down rocks, wetting the sand and then Ernest got in and drove it out.

He was in such a hurry however and so nervous about getting stuck that he just went too fast and hit the side mirror on the passenger’s side and smashed the mirrors. The mirrors are still in the frame but in a hundred pieces I am afraid. Oh well, when he uses the mirror now he has to realize that there is only one car he is looking at and not twenty or thirty. He did say that he really underestimated the capability of this truck, it didn't miss a beat and although the trip was torturous down the mountain it was totally able to cope with it.

Singing off for now, until tomorrow!

Day 17 – En-route Isanga Bay, Lake Tanganyika, Tanzania

We set off very early today, I had boiled some eggs the night before and dished out two each  before we left just to make sure we had nobody complaining that they were hungry too early in the day. We had far to go and we knew the end part of the journey today was going to be slow.

There were a bunch of USA Peace Corp kids staying at the camp with us and they needed a lift to the main tar road, so Ernest chased them out of bed early and they were ready and waiting to go by 7.15. We had arranged for a Swiss guy who was also staying and traveling on his own to take three of them and we took two with us. It was hardly a problem to fit them into our truck and they just sat in the back two seats saying "far out man, you should have seen the truck that we had got here in!"

What a delightful bunch of kids, they volunteer for a two year contract and are sent into the remote villages to help the village to get some kind of industry going. Zak, one of the ones in our car was a fish specialist and was helping the local guys set up fish farms; the girl, Tessa was helping re- establish the forests. They live on their own in the villages sometimes 30 to 70 kilometers away from their nearest co-workers. Not easy and quite impressive to be that dedicated to helping others. Zak was saying they had to be very careful to get the local people to actually do the work and establish the activities themselves or they realize that as soon as they leave it will just fall apart and their work would all be for nothing. He felt if he could just make a difference and establish just 10 people to earn their own living then their two years will be worth it.

These kids are all over Zambia, working away to make a difference. After two years they either go back to the states or resign to work another year or two. I must say though, I think the country gets worse every time we visit it, I have never seen so many children in my life, even more than last time we visited three years ago. Zac was also telling us that the incidence of HIV Aids in Zambia is 14 % but in Mpeka which is the cross roads for the truckers coming from Tanzania and Congo the incidence is now 80 % shew! And now with Anti-retroviral they live longer but spread the disease further.

The pleads for lunch, despite the boiled eggs, came at about 12, so we stopped close to an open space which looked like a deserted school. We had no sooner stopped than we were surrounded by about 20 to 30 kids all watching us preparing our food, something I hate as they watch every mouthful you take. Anyway Ken and Steve had the ball all blown up and teams organized in no time and our kitchen activities became uninteresting. Then on top of it Ken gave 10 Kwacha to the team that got the first goal. They never gave us another glance!

 We got to the last town before Isanga Bay and needed to clear customs there as when we leave Isanga on Tuesday we go straight into Tanzania. There is no customs at the actual border post and last time we didn't know and they nearly turned us back to drive 100 extra kilometers. So this time Ernest was determined to visit the customs office before moving on. Well not surprising that they were closed.... Sorry for you.... Some local guy then phoned the custom office in a town 40 kilometers away and he said he was open, so off we went only to find when we got there.... Sorry for you....she was closed. Anyway Rouvierre got on the phone and ten minutes later he was there to clear us through customs. Then the drive back to Mbala (the highest altitude town in Zambia) where we start the 48 Ks down to Isanga Bay on Lake Tanganyika.

Nicolene from Isanga Bay lodge phoned us to say we must leave Mbala by 3.30 or we wouldn't make the 48 Ks by dark. Ernest laughed and said to me she obviously is mad and doesn't she know we are off road racing champions...ha ha ha. Well the first 30 Ks we covered in 30 minutes and Ernest said ...see she doesn't know what she is talking about, only 18 Ks to go ... Oh boy only the arrogant talk too soon and brag! The next 18 Ks made up the 2 1/2 hours she was talking about. That was the worst road we have ever been on, actually I will correct that, it wasn't sooooo bad for the cars but oh boy the truck was torturous. It was low range, first and second gear. I don't think we managed to get out of second gear once with Ernest getting very upset and saying that it was a bicycle track and not a road. In all fairness to Nicolene I hadn't told her that we had a truck, I had just said three vehicles. Anyway after two hours we got to the village at the bottom of the hill and I had remembered it from before. We had left our truck there last time as right at the end of the village there was a wooden bridge that Ernest would not take the truck over. (This time I had checked before we came and knew it had been rebuilt) So we had left the truck in the village and stayed in their little bungalows instead of camping. At the time the village consisted of a small school and possibly two hundred people at the most... 30-40 kids, cause Jessica made them line up and we gave them all sweets. Now the village stretches for miles and there are 3500 people there, 2000 of which are children. Oh my gosh I got the shock of my life, it was like driving through one of those horror movies where they portray the future, with just people and children everywhere, all with runny noses and filthy clothes. I think they have all moved down here for the fishing as there are just dozens and dozens of fishing boats on the lake and they are obviously catching fish but not for long, at this rate there will be no fish left in the lake - and then what?

We did fortunately make it just before sun down, fairly rattled, and bad tempered I might add. Filthy dirty from the dust and dirt of the road, the customs official, trying to find an ATM that worked and then on top of that  to our horror found that the back fridge had some-how  been switched off during  the day. Fortunately the ever vigilant Steve spotted the problem and had it fixed before you could say "it's off"! Fortunately the temperature hadn't gone above -1.

Thank goodness we had arranged for Nicolene to prepare dinner for us in the lodge so we ate a wonderful dinner and flopped into bed, looking forward to a nice restful day on the beach and not even thinking about our torturous trip back up the mountain.

Over and out, until tomorrow!

Day 16 – En route to Shiwa Ngandu (cont.)

We agreed that we shoot off early back to the Manor house and then come back for brunch but before we left I managed to persuade Ernest to come with me for a quick dip in the hot spring. I had quickly washed my hair and wanted to rinse it in the hot water so off we ducked and relaxed in the pool for a while. We had a hard time pulling ourselves out of the water. The whole spring is lined with these huge palm nuts palms which are the staple diet of the palm nut vultures that can be seen in this area.

It was a half hour drive back to the Manor House; we decided to all squash into the two cars and leave the truck at the campsite. I think Ernest just couldn't confront driving Ten ton Tess back down the farm road. I must say driving in Kim's car was a pleasure, I had forgotten how comfortable a car actually is compared to the jumping around in the truck. Our seats are on air cushions but that does not make up for the hard suspension and tires. This truck was built to be robust and not for comfort and after a full day in the truck I have as numb a bum as I did on that really bad game drive. We do however have the best selection of music ever, Lisa downloaded her whole collection onto an I-pod for us and we travel with music blaring out of the windows in competition to any local who might be playing any form of music. And when there is a particularly good cut we even blare it over the Radios between the three cars so they hear our music whether they want to or not!

Anyway I digress from the story of the day. We arrived back at the Manor House and walked up their very long avenue of the oldest gum trees that I have ever seen. We tried to take photos that would give some idea of the Sheer hugeness of them but the picture would only go to about half way up the tree. We entered one of those old metal gates and walked up the manicured pathway and flower beds. No longer very neat but you could just picture the magnificence of old and at the front door we were greeted by Charles Harvey, the present owner of the house and Grandson to Stewart Cor-Brown who built the place.

He told us a little of the history of the family and that he had farmed down near Lusaka for 18 years and then when his father and mother had been murdered 14 years ago, he had returned to the old house to restart the farming. They now have 1600 herd of cattle, a large amount of game, chickens and eggs, all free range and producing thousands of eggs a day. In fact he told us that apart from alcohol and soap they were totally self-sufficient on the farm and produced everything that they needed. They have two children but neither of them are on the farm but live in Lusaka.

He then introduced us to Wisdom, the guide for our tour, who is apparently also the house cook. His Zinglish was even worse than Kenneth so I think we missed a lot of the history. He started us off in the old Chappell which did have a few explanation plaques on the wall so we could follow the history. It appeared that Steward was quite a prominent figure in British history. He was a lieutenant colonel in the British army during WW2 and many important British dignitaries visited the farm during the years that he lived there. There were pictures of 12 British bishops plus the airstrip on the farm was used as a stopover for the first planes that flew out from England to South Africa ....BOAC. They used to have an overnight stop at the farm where everyone was wined and dined and then next morning took off again after a good night’s sleep in a comfortable bed and a hearty breakfast and a few lines of “God save the King”.

Stewart had apparently wanted to get married to the love of his life but his Aunt had forbade the marriage saying that he had not yet made anything of himself or built up anything to give his wife so he was sent to Africa, borrowed the money from his Aunt, started the farming activities and built the house. By the time he got back to England to claim his bride she had already married a doctor and settled in South Africa. On one of his many trips back to London he found himself at the funeral of the love of his life (the woman he had wanted to marry) and her husband. At this funeral was her 17 year old daughter who was apparently just like her mother. He fell in love again, married her and brought her out to the Manor house. They had two daughters but she was apparently not a happy woman, very lonely in this remote part of Zambia.

We were then taken on a tour of the house and the section which they have turned into a B&B. The condition of the house was appalling but then I think during his fathers’ time they had let it go a bit to ruin. The floors are stone and have become quite uneven and worn. The walls were at least a foot thick and few windows so it was very dark and dingy inside. The whole house was made out of local material, all bricks were made on the farm and all wood cut from the local forests and even the clay roof tiles were made on the farm.

 The dining room had the original dining room table, made from local wood with all the family silver still intact in the display Cabinets. There were 8 guest bedrooms and a master bedroom. The upstairs has a very large library of the most ancient books, things that are very valuable but simply not read in today's day and age. Like the memoirs and letters of Elizabeth Hague, volume one and two, whoever the hell she was!

 There were three magnificent gold and silver ornaments which were apparently presented to Stewart by King George. We were then shown all the family pictures and then into the lounge where there were some biscuits and tea but our guide, Wisdom said that we weren't allowed any. However Rouvierre, ever the rebel helped herself to a biscuit...Oh my god you can't take them anywhere, the shame of it!

I think poor old Wisdom tried to get us out of there before anymore of the prize biscuits disappeared; hell we paid 100 Kwacha each (R250) to see the house, and you would have thought they would just have given us a cup of tea and a biscuit. Anyway Wisdom frog marched us out and onto the path to see the old graves and then bade us a fond farewell. He knew how far it was and wasn't going to traipse up the hill with us. A good 30 minutes later of a steep uphill walk and we got to the grave yard!! Shew it was hot and we had no water, this was the second root march in two days.

Charles' parents were both buried there and of course they both died on the same day which now had our curiosity really peeked. We just had to find the reason why they were murdered. Ernest found a guy who was helping out on the farm and he told us that they were murdered in South Luangwa Reserve, something to do with rhino poaching. Same old story it seems, guys high up in the Government of the day somehow involved and the old couple knew too much and there was a lot of money passing hands. There seems to be some ANC connection there too as the money was possibly being used to fund the struggle. Anyway as I say they knew too much and got wiped out, pretty rough hey!

Then we went for a bit of a drive around, saw a lot of game, Wildebeest, Letchwe, Puku, and saw the airstrip where they landed the planes of old. After that we all had enough and high tailed it back to the hot springs for our slap up brunch, everyone was moaning about being hungry except Rouvierre of course who had a biscuit!!

The afternoon was spent sitting in the warm water until it got just too hot and we all retreated to the cool shade next to the river.

It was well worth the time spent and we will be leaving tomorrow.

I am going to send this off now as we will be out of signal range until we arrive at Isanga Bay.

Signing off!

Day 15 – En route to Shiwa Ngandu

I have decided to combine two days as one day was just traveling and there was not much to report.

A few things I forgot to mention when writing yesterdays blog while staying at Kasanka, so here goes...I never emphasized why the Sitatonga are such unique animals. They live for a great deal of their lives in water, it is their way of protecting themselves from predators and because of this adaptation they have web hooves so that they can move efficiently in water. In fact they are known as the underwater buck. Our young scout kept telling us that you can see the Sitatonga 0405. None of us could work out what the hell he was talking about till we realized he meant from 4am -5am in the morning. He was obviously trained in army language. Rouvierre was saying that she thought he meant that you could see them at 4 minutes past 5 in the morning and she thought wow this guy I is obviously very accurate with his daily sightings. She got the BB prize of the day!

We set off fairly early as the road out of the reserve is long and quite narrow and even though we were very careful about the missing the trees on the side, we did hit an overhanging branch and bent the protecting bars that run at the top of the roof. Thank goodness they were there or we could have done some serious damage to the body of the truck.

Again we made the mistake of thinking we only had about 220 Km to go. As it turned out it was 380  Km of great North road which is not the most pleasant experience. On the way up we must have passed at least 7 of the most terrible accidents mostly involving the trucks. Most of them are huge petrol tankers and are traveling at about 100/120 Km’s and hour which it is very fast for these narrow roads. We are so used to double highways in SA so the trucks don't seem quite so daunting. They certainly have improved the road since we were here last, the verges have been fixed and widened but it is still pretty harrowing to try and get past them.

We were trying to get to Shiwa Ngandu, which means the lake of the crocodile, before it got dark and wanted to see the old Manor House as we have twice before been at Shiwa Ngandu but never managed to actually get in and see the inside of the old homestead. It was built in the 1930s and is a real landmark in Zambia in fact there is a book that has been written on it which tells the story of the farm and the family that built it called "Africa House." Ernest is always so fascinated by these stories and so this time he was determined to learn more about it and the family. Last time we were here it was closed to the public but we had heard that it was re-opened for viewing as the grandson had returned and was allowing visitors, in fact we heard the house was now being run as a B&B.

Just to tell you something about the farm. It was bought in the early 1900s by a the Cor-Brown family and in 1914 Stewart Cor-Brown started building the house with money that he had borrowed from his Aunt Ethel and he finished it in 1934. The property was 12,000 hectares in size and was farmed as a cattle and game farm by Steward and his wife, a girl who was 27 years younger than him. They had two daughters who both were married. The one daughter had 4 children one of whom is Charles, the present owner who is now living on the farm and running the place as a beef and game farm.

When we arrived there was the usual notice on the gate to say “view by appointment only.” This time Ernest was so determined to see the house that he stopped at the farm manager’s office and managed to make an appointment to have a tour of the house the next day at 9am. This rather threw our plans into disarray as we were supposed to be leaving to go to Lake Tanganyika the next day. Oh well that is the beauty of being vagabonds and we decided to just stay another night.

We drove on to the hot springs which are 20 km further and got settled into the campsite. It is always such a surprise for anybody arriving for the first time at the hot springs, they are absolutely beautiful and you feel like you are sinking into a warm bath.

As soon as we had set up camp, fed the men which is always a priority, we went to have a dip in  the hot springs. I love seeing the faces of the guys when they first sink into the warm water, firstly the surprise and then a sigh of "oh my gosh, I can live with this" type look.

We had that same reaction when we visited here for the 1^st time many years ago. In fact Paul and Marguerite were with us before and now again we just soaked in the water for hours.

We were very fortunate that the campsite was nearly empty so we got the prize position right near the river which is about 20 meters wide and very fast flowing. It reminds me of the rivers in the midlands, the big difference being this one is full of crocs which can eat you!!  (as our friend Lovemore Sibanda explained it to us)

 Another lovely evening under the stars with the sound of the river, lots of stories on what we look like from the back when we are passing one of those huge trucks and how nervous I get, even the soles of my feet start to sweat never mind my hands.

Part two of our visit to Shiwa Ngandu will come in a few days.

Until then!