Zambezi River

We  left Livingstone early on Saturday morning to fill up the twin fuel tanks on the Toyota (approx. 150 litres in total) for the journey following the mighty Zambezi River. We aimed to make Kabula but knowing African roads anything could happen. To start the roads were good, tarmac with very few potholes but this changed quite quickly to tarmac (sometimes) and huge potholes, yes Buckinghamshire roads are better. When I say huge some seem to cover all of the road and are up to 18 inches deep so care is needed.

Kabula is a small lodge and camp beside the Zambezi and is mainly used by fishermen after the large Tiger Fish that are found here. Besides 4 Zambians fishing we were the only other people at the camp site. It is very quiet as it is out of the main season but also very few tourists venture to this part of Zambia.

Dinner was cooked on an open fire listening to the bird and animal life around.

The next day we took the shortish drive (approx. 100kms) further on to Sioma and the 1^st set of falls that David Livingstone came across on his journey through Africa. He called them the most magnificent spectacle on earth. Some months later downstream he came across the ones the locals call “Mosi-oa-Tunya or “The Smoke that Thunders” He named them Victoria Falls. Sioma Falls, now renamed Ngonya Falls, are much smaller but just as awe inspiring especially now when the river is high

After seeing the western side we camped in the local campsite and we hired a guide to go looking for snakes as they are common in this area. We were told that Black Mamba, Green Mamba, Spitting Black Cobra and Puff Adder are all found here along with some big Pythons and many others. We searched for almost 2 hours but not a single one was seen. The only other people on the camp site was a South African couple of which he was a herpetologist and showed us pictures of various ones he had seen here in the last few weeks. Very annoying not to find any but that is snakes for you, very hard to find.

This morning was an early start, packing down the tent so we could get the pontoon ferry across the Zambezi and take our guide to see the other side of the Ngonye Falls. This involved walking for 20 mins or so along the edge of the rocks on smaller waterfalls to get to the main falls and rapids. Many local fishermen were in the water checking the fish traps and emptying them and this was the only snake we saw. A young python had swam into a trap last night and drowned as they need air to breath. Pity it was a dead one.

We are now in the west of Zambia at a community run campsite on the side of the Zambezi Flood Plain at a town called Mongu. This is the largest town this side of Lusaka, but is very poor and is way of the tourist road but for us a place to get to on our trip. We have just had the most almighty thunderstorm with torrential rain and constant lightening but it has now passed.

Tomorrow we hope to get to Kafue National Park for a few days and we are hoping for plenty of animals. They may be hard to find though as it is the rainy season and the grass is as tall as the car.

Sorry about the lack of photos but the internet is very slow here and it won't let me upload so as soon as we can then we will add photos.