Short: Finally find fuel, Find out the Zambia President has passed away, Pickup a hitchhiker, Niki gets serenaded by a drunk villager, Dodge trucks and people at night, Arrive at the Kapisha Hot Springs and meet Mark Harvey
Long: This morning we readied ourselves for a long drive by heading to the Arcade for breakfast. I picked up some medical supplies (I’m coming down with a cold), while Niki used the internet. After a few errands we went to get petrol and found this somewhat difficult as some of the stations were out of petrol, and none took credit cards. After getting more cash, we filled up, and headed north.
Our destination is the Kapisha Hot Springs at Shiwa Ngandu in northern Zambia. We have been told before that northern Zambia is “the road less traveled” and considered to be the “real Africa,” and we prepared ourselves for some interesting times. While we found the roads bad at times the trip to Shiwa Ngandu was fairly uneventful with only a few exceptions. Firstly, upon reaching one of the first intersections we had to ask directions, but before we could a man came running up to the car and asked us if we had heard the news. We told him we had not, and he informed us that the Zambian president has passed away, from a stroke, that morning in France. This is interesting because the night before the possibility of this had been discussed at Guy’s place, and most there agreed that unlike other African countries, the death of their President would “probably” result in a peaceful transition of power. We will see. (We must note that we are writing this later and have been told the President of Zambia did not pass away. We still don’t know the real story.)
A few kilometers down the road we were stopped at a police checkpoint. We have, thus far, found Police checkpoints across Africa and we have never had any issues with them. We must note though that the number of checkpoints has increased dramatically since entering Zambia. The responsibilities of the checkpoints vary from checking the transport of agriculture to checking for vehicle registration and insurance. We typically drive through these fairly quickly, wave, and smile, leaving the officers little time to determine whether they should stop us, and leaving us with a smaller chance of being asked for money. We had to stop at this checkpoint though, as the officer waved us down early. Fully expecting to be asked for some document, we were surprised when the officer simply demanded that we drive his friend to the next town. Hitchhiking is commonplace in Africa, and although we have not picked people up, we have passed hundreds asking for rides. We obliged and a few minutes later were headed to Mkushi with Sladden, a Zambian engineer, working on a local water project. Sladden had the next few days off, was in no hurry, and therefore we stopped an hour later and had lunch with him. We learned more about Shiwa Ngandu and about the roads in Zambia (Apparently the best roads are built by the Danish). Another thirty minutes later we had dropped Sladden off in Mkushi, and were again headed north.
The only other stop that afternoon was in a very small town north of Mkushi. While I picked up some water, an extremely drunk, old man, grabbed Nikolai by the hand and began bringing him to his house. After walking with him for a few minutes Nikolai told him he had to get back to the car. The man wanted us to buy something and at one point began to beg, but was offended when I mentioned that he was begging. He settled for a cigarette and we quickly drove off. We managed to remain respectful to the man, but, in general, we are both finding it increasing difficult to remain nice, while simultaneously managing to escape those looking for us to give or buy.
We told ourselves from day one we would avoid driving at night, but have somehow managed to do this on more than one occasion. Once again this evening we found ourselves with three hours to drive and the sun setting. The chances of hitting something, or someone, are fairly high during the day, and are almost certainly higher at night. Despite the lack of vehicles, drivers, particularly the truckers, are not immune to accidents. We passed at least six overturned trucks on the road from Lusaka to Shiwa Ngandu. At night, drivers have adopted some interesting practices. When passing another motorist it is standard to put on your inside blinker well in advance of passing. This allows each driver to see the corner of each vehicle. We have found this helpful because you have little room for error on the very narrow roads. When a trucker passes you must remain close to him to avoid the continuous string of people and animals that walk along the side of the road. At times potholes can push truckers into your lane requiring you to move to the unpaved shoulder, and you must hope that people are aware enough to get out of the way. Almost no one we saw on the road has lights or reflectors. People will walk and bike in the dark with absolutely no light. In short, it is exhausting and fairly dangerous to drive at night in Africa.
Around 8 pm we turned off the main road north and headed down a gravel road towards Shiwa Ngandu. Approximately thirty kilometers away we hit a gate and the gate attendant told us he would inform the estate owners that we were coming in. We arrived less than an hour later and were greeted by Mark Harvey, the estate owner. Mark is the grandson of Stewart Gore-Brown, a wealthy Brit who created the estate over a hundred years ago. His grandfather was one of the only non-Zambians to ever receive a state funeral in Zambia. He and his wife (We think!), Mel, now live at, and manage, the estate that includes the Hot Springs, a museum, crops, and a few villages. This is truly an oasis in the middle of nowhere. We were exhausted that night and after talking with Mark for a while over a beer, he allowed us to stay in one of his chalets for the price of a campground. This was simply awesome considering the price of a chalet was six times more expensive than the campground. The discussions we had that night around Africa and development were eye opening. Mark, as a native Zambian working closely with the villagers on his property, offered us a very interesting perspective unlike any we have heard on the trip thus far. We will summarize some of these discussions in the blog tomorrow. Before heading to bed we headed to the Hot Springs, which were amazing. The generators were shut off while we soaked and we ended the night staring at an unbelievable number of stars, as there was no light for at least fifty kilometers.
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