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| The Luangwa river at sunset |
Five months after our last trip to South Luangwa and we were back at it again. In contrast to our unexpected trip in April (a story for another time) this would be in the dry. We'd actually have preferred to do it about a month later when the dry season was at its peak, but sometimes work gets in the way and we decided to do it in September while we could get away and then hope we could cram another trip in before the seasonal rains come.
And so up at 4.30 am and on the road by 5.30 am, we made good time to Lilongwe. With the fuel crisis in Malawi, we knew we probably not be able to fill up in the capital city, which turned out to be the case, so after a quick toilet stop it was straight to the Mchinji border, eating our precooked lunch on the way.
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| How much can you carry in your car? |
And as usual the border was a stuff up. It seems that you can't have smooth sailing across both Malawi and Zambia. If it's not the printer that's not working, it's the network down, or the officials can't be found - the usual issues with an African border. The biggest problem is the importing of the car into Zambia - it's just a slow process no matter what you do. So when we can get through the borders within 2 hours, we're happy and this time it took about 90 minutes - so a win, I guess?
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| Set up for the evening at our campsite |
The first Zambian town, Chipata, is about 20 minutes away so there we fueled up (yay, diesel was available) had another quick toilet break (I don't even know if there are toilets at the border - I'm too scared to look!) and then were off to South Luangwa. The drive takes about 2 or so hours but the road is potholed and getting worse - some places you really need to take your time.
But we made good time and arrived at Wildlife Camp at about 5pm, early enough that we could set ourselves up before chilling out at our awesome camp spot in time for a sunset beer. South Luangwa, here we come!
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