Well we have arrived in Ndola, Zambia, safely, but with a
few interesting things we have had to deal with on the way.
After a few days staying with Andrew in Wiltshire and Karen
joining us for the last couple of them we went for a really nice family meal
with some cool fizz in the sun on our final
evening at the Foxham Inn, Foxham, nr Calne (A Gastropub to look out
for), we left on the Friday lunchtime to meet Jan’s sister, Carole, who was looking
after 2 of our 4 bags we were taking away with us. We made Heathrow via a stop
for a late lunch with Karen and Carole and went to check in with Ethiopian
Airlines, our carrier. All was fine until they realised that we only had a one
way ticket and they were worried that they would be liable if the Zambian
immigration authorities would not let us in. Although we had letters from “Beyond
Ourselves” and receipts from the Zambian authorities to say work permits were
in the system. We solved this quite easily by going to South African Airways desk
and getting a one way flight from Ndola to Johannesburg on July 14th.
We were always going to do this so not a problem. Once we had this then we had
a ticket out of Zambia so we were allowed on the flight. We don’t now have a
ticket out of South Africa as we are buying a vehicle there and driving out and
back to Zambia. Lets see how that goes, may be fun ahead but that is “Africa”.
The flight was good and normal apart from me leaving my
phone on the plane from UK at Adis Ababa and not getting it back. On arrival in
Ndola we were met by Emily, who also works in Zambia for “Beyond Ourselves”,
and lives there with her husband Malcolm and two children, Lucy and Albert. We
are now staying at their home just outside Ndola.
Our time here so far has been getting to know others in the
area, checking out the town of Ndola and we have even been house hunting to see
a house that may be suitable. We have specific requirements for certain things
and these are the house must have a garden, it must be safe, we would like 2
bedrooms and we don’t want it in the town. We would also like it fully
furnished and if possible a pool. Not a lot to ask really but an agent has
found us one. Still not 100% sure it is available but we will know in next
couple of weeks if available in August when we return from some travelling. The
house is a thatched lodge that was once 2 guest apartments on an old tourist
lodge that has ceased operating. The lodges were back to back and this has now
been “knocked through” to form one property with verandahs front and back. The
gardens are communal and are really well maintained with a pool for the use of
all of us. There are about 6 rented lodges there. We are now hoping one will be
free in August as it is ideal.
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| The pool at our new home (we hope) |
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| Thatched lodge |
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| Verandah at both ends |
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| Lodge Gardens |
Jobs today are to try to fix the water supply here at Emily
and Malcolm’s home. The supply pipe has been damaged where it comes from an
underground spring and keeps interrupting the flow. Lets see how that goes.
One thing that we feel may get tiresome here is the night after night sundowner by the braai (BBQ) but we are sure we can suffer many more yet
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| Another Sundowner at the Braai |
Now we have internet we hope to keep up to date with things
on here so keep checking back.
1 comment:
Hi, sounds idyllic, hope you can secure if this is your wish. Such a shame about your phone but hey I believe you have a spare? keep enjoying. Xx
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