So we hit the road and said "our see you again"s to Senga Bay and headed east to Lilongwe. We stopped in the very dull confusing city for a bite to eat and a little internetting then back on the road heading North West to Zambia. Once we hit the Zambian boarder we stamped our passports and paid our dues then made our way to Chipata (the first city right after the boarder). Chipata is a very nice clean little town; we camped there at Dean’s campsite for the night. It was very cold and Jarrod was very uncomfortable in the tent so as you read earlier he moved to the car. Once I woke we asked Steven at the office how to get to Lusaka and he gave us the directions. So off we went….
After 4 hours of driving both Jarrod and I were getting a little tired so we stopped on the side of the road for a bit to stretch then off again… another hour passed and I started to feel unsure of our trip, it just seemed too long of a drive and the map made it only look like a couple hours. We stopped and asked and everyone told us it was the road to Lusaka. So we moved onward up the mountain. We hit this crazy pot hole and bent the rim of our tire but the rubber did not split. Very worn out and upset Jarrod changed to the donut and we figured when we hit Lusaka we could get it repaired. Driving on, we then crossed the Luangwa River on this very impressive bridge. It was just amazing (sorry we did take any photos, we were a little exhausted). We then entered the small road side town of Luangwa where to our surprise there were a couple of guys with hammers who called themselves tyre repair men. So Jarrod thought it was worth a try. To our amazement we watched these 2 men hammer our rim back in place to near perfection; they then checked the tire for leaks or damage. No problems so the tire was put back on we paid our 50,000 Zam Kwacha ($10) and we were on our way again. Before we left we asked the gentlemen how much farther to Lusaka and they replied “230km” so Jarrod shrugged and we continued on. Once we were back on the road I just had a bad feeling and thought that all these Kms didn’t make sense. So I whipped out my Malawi book to see if any of the maps happened to have Zambian towns marked since we were so close to the boarder. One map did and Lusaka was not on it because it is way to west...the town we really wanted to go to was Lundazi. I goofed up big time, but Jarrod being so sweet was not upset he just wanted a sandwich and a Coke.
So we turned around and started to head back to the bridge where we could ask the army men there if they knew a road from where we were to Lundazi. Well like Malawi, Zambia only has a couple major roads so no road from there; the only road to Lundazi was in Chipata. So back to Chipata we went.
We finished up our 700Km round trip a little after 6pm so we decided to camp back at Dean’s. Not having much money we were going to cook the rice we had but Jarrod asked me if we could eat at Dean’s little restaurant because they were serving chicken. I looked at him and just knew how exhausted he was and knew that rice was not going to cut it tonight so I said yes.
The next morning we took off for Lundazi. Dean and Sam had told us it was a little ruff but we had no clue what we were in for…
(To be continued)
After 4 hours of driving both Jarrod and I were getting a little tired so we stopped on the side of the road for a bit to stretch then off again… another hour passed and I started to feel unsure of our trip, it just seemed too long of a drive and the map made it only look like a couple hours. We stopped and asked and everyone told us it was the road to Lusaka. So we moved onward up the mountain. We hit this crazy pot hole and bent the rim of our tire but the rubber did not split. Very worn out and upset Jarrod changed to the donut and we figured when we hit Lusaka we could get it repaired. Driving on, we then crossed the Luangwa River on this very impressive bridge. It was just amazing (sorry we did take any photos, we were a little exhausted). We then entered the small road side town of Luangwa where to our surprise there were a couple of guys with hammers who called themselves tyre repair men. So Jarrod thought it was worth a try. To our amazement we watched these 2 men hammer our rim back in place to near perfection; they then checked the tire for leaks or damage. No problems so the tire was put back on we paid our 50,000 Zam Kwacha ($10) and we were on our way again. Before we left we asked the gentlemen how much farther to Lusaka and they replied “230km” so Jarrod shrugged and we continued on. Once we were back on the road I just had a bad feeling and thought that all these Kms didn’t make sense. So I whipped out my Malawi book to see if any of the maps happened to have Zambian towns marked since we were so close to the boarder. One map did and Lusaka was not on it because it is way to west...the town we really wanted to go to was Lundazi. I goofed up big time, but Jarrod being so sweet was not upset he just wanted a sandwich and a Coke.
So we turned around and started to head back to the bridge where we could ask the army men there if they knew a road from where we were to Lundazi. Well like Malawi, Zambia only has a couple major roads so no road from there; the only road to Lundazi was in Chipata. So back to Chipata we went.
We finished up our 700Km round trip a little after 6pm so we decided to camp back at Dean’s. Not having much money we were going to cook the rice we had but Jarrod asked me if we could eat at Dean’s little restaurant because they were serving chicken. I looked at him and just knew how exhausted he was and knew that rice was not going to cut it tonight so I said yes.
The next morning we took off for Lundazi. Dean and Sam had told us it was a little ruff but we had no clue what we were in for…
(To be continued)
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