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Post by OnlyMark on Apr 27, 2017 16:36:19 GMT 2
The plan was good and well ...... errr.... planned. The preparations were comprehensive and thorough. The initial execution was disciplined and orderly. The weather was favourable and the unexpected was expected. Until the wheel came off. Not literally, but nearly. A circular thing anyway. I'll come to that in a bit though. South Luangwa National Park in the north east of Zambia is lauded as one of the best parks in Africa, nay, the World. In fact, the Universe. I can't put my finger on any outside the solar system for now mind, but I think you get the idea. Unfortunately door to door, or more accurately, door to gate, is 700km from me. I could fly there in just over an hour (about $320 return) and be then just half an hour from the gate, but what is the fun in that? Plus then I'd be without transport and have to rely on game drives from a lodge, at some exorbitant rate. Remind me to give you some examples. I like to be flexible and beholding to no man, so as I can spend ten hours driving yet only half an hour sitting on a plane until my arse gets fidgety, also me plus a 4wd is symbiotic, so there was no contest. Me pack car. Me go. All very Neanderthal in a way. A few hours after setting off I crossed the Luangwa River. It is one of the major rivers in Zambia but not really so in Africa as a whole. It is about 750km long and this crossing is about 90km from its end where it joins the mighty Zambezi. I'll cross over it again but many, many hundreds of kilometres later as I go into the park. Also it runs at the side of the camp I was at. You'll see in a minute. The photo is from some distance away because, as expected, photos of the bridge are frowned upon by the police at the checkpoints – One thing about driving rather than flying is I get to see things I've never seen before. Or at least not in this context. One is a speed limit sign denoting 120km/h. It is the first I've ever seen in the country and it is there because the road has been upgraded due to money from the EU – In the background you can see one of these. A solar powered street light. Damn good idea. Not seen these either – I show you all the thrilling, exciting things, huh!
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Post by OnlyMark on Apr 27, 2017 16:37:40 GMT 2
Next on the agenda was an early lunch. Street food is not a strength in Zambia as I may have pointed out before. Nor are service stations with a nice cafe cum bakery, or roadside cafes and eateries with a fresh and varied menu. To get a half decent hot lunch I had to stop at a small hotel/lodge. There are often small shacks selling cooked food but even I, after thinking nothing of eating street food in many other countries, don't risk it here. Three and a half Euros bought me chicken, rice and green stuff. The tomato sauce is not spicy, in case you were wondering. Food here isn't spicy. The green stuff I identified as either being collard greens, called rape here, or maybe spinach. I'm not sure at all. It had a bit of garlic and onion in it, but not enough to give it much taste. The chicken though was juicy and just right. The meal was filling but Zambian food isn't particularly to my taste. I think you have to be brought up on it. I would though put the cuisine in the top 196 countries of the world. Seeing as that is all of them (if you consider Taiwan as one), then it isn't really saying much – The countryside was pleasant to pass through –
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Post by OnlyMark on Apr 27, 2017 16:38:45 GMT 2
I spent the first night at a town called Chipata. This is just a couple of hours away from the park along a relatively new tarmac road. Many years ago when I used to enter Zambia from Malawi, not far from Chipata, the road to the park took hours and hours and I never looked forward to it. Rough, corrugated and muddy more often than not. It would take half a day at least to get from the town to the gate and I invariably arrived in a bad mood as it was unnecessary. The park is and was a major tourist attraction, hence the authorities should have been foresighted enough to at least make the bloody road there reasonable enough to promote the place. But no. It is now at last though. However, before I got there I needed to stop off for a bite to eat and get some money. The hotel I stayed at (Crossroads Lodge) was by far better value than the posh Protea (Euro 140 ish a night and worth Euro 80 at the most). I paid Euro 45 for a Euro 30 room and had a Zambian version of an English breakfast as well (Zambian in that it looks the same, but always seems to taste different. Even the eggs and Heinz beans seem to just have a slightly different taste). To continue before I waffle on too much – a question often asked in forums, is can you pay for your lodge with a credit card? That is if you've not been suckered into handing over the full amount beforehand by a bank transfer. Some will ask and many will pay that way. Fifty percent is often ok for all inclusive, but that can still leave a big amount to pay at the end. So a credit card payment is handy. However, the lodges will often charge you an extra 5% for the privilege of doing so. This can work out at quite a lot. More in a second. The place I was to stay at was a toss up. There were three places I was thinking of, but didn't have a three sided coin handy, so I decided on alphabetical order – Croc Valley, Flatdogs or Marula Lodge. Croc Valley was first so I decided to give it a go (I admit I had seen Flatdogs before. Overlanders used to stay there but they brought the tone down, so they said, so campers ended up being banned and they shifted the camp as well just to rub it in). As a resident I can get a slightly better rate, but not by much, and I wanted and could pay in local cash money, Kwacha. But I needed to call at an ATM to stock up. That is where the cute little International Airport at Mfuwe came in. There is nothing much to it but it does have a couple of hole in the walls (holes in the wall?) and a bit of a cafe outside where I could get a toasted sandwich –
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Post by OnlyMark on Apr 27, 2017 16:40:03 GMT 2
Half an hour later I was back at the Luangwa River. If I crossed it I'd be at the park gate. Where the three mentioned places are, is just on the river but across the other side, not quite in the park but overlooking it. Just down a rather unloved access track before the bridge and to the right are Croc Valley and Marula Lodge. There is also another place close by called Track and Trail. To the left off the tarmac road is Flatdogs. The track I was on serves the three mentioned places and was in an appalling state and though just half a km or so is a first gear crawl over bumps and holes. Why on earth the three lodges that are so close to each other can't club together and put a grader through escapes me. I wouldn't want to go down it in a normal saloon car and for the sake of a few hundred metres would be quite annoying for someone who has driven all the way from Lusaka. In short, Croc Valley is a good budget alternative and is in a prime position on the Luangwa River. The bar overlooks the river and many a happy hour can be spent counting the hippos. As soon as I got there and parked the car up I had a quick view whilst signing in (the colour of the river in the first photo is actually more accurate that the other two) – At the side of the bar is the pool –
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Post by OnlyMark on Apr 27, 2017 16:41:48 GMT 2
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Post by OnlyMark on Apr 27, 2017 16:42:57 GMT 2
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Post by OnlyMark on Apr 27, 2017 16:44:22 GMT 2
My tent, a tent for two, was $60 per night as advertised on their website. No food or anything and I'd brought cooking kit and food with me if I needed it. But, this is the cost per person, per night, sharing. Add another $16 per night as a single supplement, hence $76 for me per night, according to their costs – plus 10% service charge and 16% tax. They also don't mention that the Zambian government has recently added on now another 1.5% to the total as a tourist tax. The cost to get into the park is $25 per day (6am – 6pm), so if you get a lodge in the park, you'd have to pay that per day as well anyway. I pay $20 as a resident. So for me alone, this is how they work it out - $76 x 10% x 16% x 1.5% = $98 per night plus 5% payment with a credit card, makes $103.35 (Euro 95 per night), and that is for information, one of the cheapest you can get unless you want to either camp or go in one of their cheaper basic rooms, when booking through their website. But, Croc Valley is one of the few places that advertises on Booking.com and as such the full cost for me per night was $60 which included all the taxes apart from the credit card payment which, as mentioned, I wasn't going to do by paying cash anyway. Prices are now higher on Booking as the season has changed. I needed though to sort out my own meals. Not a difficult thing to do. If you go full board, which includes also two game drives per day the cost is obviously more. I had my own car so game driving is easy, plus usually there is a minimum amount of people (in this case, two) for them to do it otherwise you pay for two even if there is just one person. Full board would cost me $180 plus single supplement of $30 = $210 per day. This would though include $80 per day worth of game drives (if there was always enough people, i.e. two of us each time and you still have to pay park entry fees). With taxes, fees etc this would thus be as near as dammit, $285 per day. Minus the minimum cost of the game drives and that leaves them budgeting over $100 for me per day for food. Buying it 'a la carte' for breakfast and dinner, lunch is out of my supplies, is no more that $15 - $20. Bored yet? Anyway, imagine two of you in a decent riverside tent for three nights, full board with game drives after flying in to do it (transfers $25 per person one way), at one of the cheapest places in South Luangwa National Park, with taxes and cc payments etc etc, would cost you about, and if I've not forgotten anything, $1754. That doesn't include any flights from Lusaka and you'd have to get there anyway in the first place. That is, if you consider for the two of you, close on $600 per night. To compare this with Mfuwe Lodge in the park (so add on $50 for the two of you per day park fee) a mid-range lodge (bush camps are higher costs) at a mid-range time of year (June or October), full board with game drives, would cost the two of you close to $900 per night (including taxes though). Peak season (July – September) in one of their associated bush camps will cost $1440 for the two of you sharing per night. And this is still a mid-range price. No wonder South Africans drive up and camp. A walk along the path in front of the tents showed many more hippos in the river and the access they made getting up to the bank and the site –
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Post by OnlyMark on Apr 27, 2017 16:45:37 GMT 2
All around were notices telling people not to leave food in their tents, or cars for that matter. Apparently not only the primates were a problem but they had had elephants breaking car windows to get at food. These little shitbags were a major pest and would steal anything. Even your soap out of the shower – Eventually I got to the park the next day after a relaxing afternoon and evening contemplating my navel – Often at game parks they have a sightings book at the reception whereby those just arriving can have a clue where some game had been recently. It can give you somewhere to aim for. South Luangwa hasn't a book but on paying the entry fee a quick, "Where should I head for?" to anyone looking like they work their (not the office cleaner though), usually elicits a reasonable answer. One thing is they don't have maps to give you or sell, so for this park, trying to get some info beforehand as to tracks is the best option. There are signposts on the main tracks like "Zebra Loop" etc though which give a bit of a clue. I was told where early that morning a pride of lions had been spotted, but it was quite a way in the park at a fairly remote area. I thought I'd head there anyway and I had a rough idea where they meant. Just a little through the gate is the aforementioned Mfuwe Lodge. This is all you can see from the track, it doesn't border the river –
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Post by OnlyMark on Apr 27, 2017 16:47:12 GMT 2
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Post by OnlyMark on Apr 27, 2017 16:48:59 GMT 2
I'd just pulled up at yet another family of elephants in the middle of nowhere, down a probably little used track, and fairly close to where the lions had been sighted, when there was an almighty metallic screeching noise from my engine. And it stopped. All the dash lights came on and I let out a swear word casting doubts on the car's parentage. The efalumps elephants turned to look at me, not with alarm, more with a "So what are you going to do now?" type of expression. I glanced at my phone to summon help. No signal. Not surprising really. One elephant asked if I wanted to make a trunk call (the old jokes are still old) and I held my breath and tried to start the engine again. It fired up with a groan and though no more metallic noises, it was making a rattle and wobble noise. And smelt badly. There was no way I was getting out the car to check, so whilst it was running I gingerly, with everything crossed, reversed, turned round and made my way the distance back to a main track. The elephants receded into my mirrors with hardly a second glance at me, but I could hear chuckling noises from them. No friends of mine, they're not now. Certainly off my Christmas card list. At the main track I scanned around, left the engine running, jumped out and opened the bonnet. Just as an aside, many years ago I had to do the same thing in Kafue National Park (also in Zambia) and as I was walking around to the front of the vehicle, my passenger loudly whispered my name. We'd been following lion prints in the sandy track for half an hour or so but they'd disappeared about a kilometre back. I looked at my passenger as she turned her head slowly to her side, then slowly back to me. I'm not stupid, I knew something was up. So I eased my way back inside and closed the doors properly. I looked across her, to her side, and saw literally not three metres away, hidden in the grass, the aforementioned pair of lions. Gazing at us. It turns out they were a mating couple so I think he had other things on his mind. He'd mount her from the back and bite her neck to hold her. Not long after he'd withdraw, promoting a roar of pain from her (lions, as with cats, have a barbed pleasure sausage, ow!). This would be repeated a large number of times over the next hour we waited there. I was a bit jealous actually. Not for the pain part but the frequency. What had shrivelled up and clenched when I first saw them was even more so now. So I had a damn good look round, whipped up the bonnet and saw to my horror, one of the pulley things on the front of the engine, driven by a fan belt, doing its best to keep turning but in reality wanting to fly off, exiting through the radiator, front grill and anything else it could destroy on the way. It was the aircon pump if anyone is interested. The internal clutch had self-destructed causing the bad smell and damaged bearing. I had little choice. Sit and wait it out, or try and slowly drive back to civilisation. As I had eaten my last packet of salt and vinegar crisps, I knew I couldn't last long. The decision was a foregone one. Besides, it started raining as well to add insult to injury. I found funnily enough that at a certain engine revs, the whole thing went quiet. A sweet spot. I grabbed the last photo on the way back to the camp. At last, hippos out of the water -
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Post by OnlyMark on Apr 27, 2017 16:50:40 GMT 2
That was the end of my safari I'm afraid. I had a contact two hours away in Chipata who knew of a garage that maybe could help. I also knew that it would no doubt take several days for parts and repair, whereas in Lusaka, I could probably get it done in a day or so. I didn't want to be stuck in Chipata for who knows how long and more than likely over a weekend, and with confidence borne from the found sweet spot, the next day I held my breath for many hours and drove the 700km back home with just one stop, for fuel. I didn't know I could hold my breath that long. Nor hold the engine revs at one point for so long either. Fortunately this equated to 90km/h in top gear.
The news from the garage near home is grim. Six hundred Euros to fix it. Parts and labour. Or 450 euros for a second hand pump. I think I'll go for the new one. I don't want to risk it again if at all possible. Looks like I'll be taking my own tent, camping and eating packaged ramen noodle soups next time to save the money I'll have to shell out for this repair. Bugger.
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Post by Baz Faz on Apr 27, 2017 23:18:43 GMT 2
I had a similar car experience when I was a lad. We were in Kruger park in South Africa, my mother driving, when there was a bang and smoke came out from the engine. My mother slammed on the brake. Never mind the lions we were told were down this road, we hastily got out and retreated. No lions approached. The smoke stopped billowing out from the engine so we got back in the car. Before we fled the car my mother had switched off the engine. Now when she turned the key the horn blared but the engine didn't start. So, being a smart woman, she pressed on the horn and the engine started.
As they say, TAB - That's Africa, Baby.
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Post by sophie on Apr 28, 2017 1:47:19 GMT 2
Love the pictures, Mark. You had good luck with animal sightings. The adventure as well, was well worth it to a certain point. Now that you have used up your bad car luck, hopefully this will not happen again!
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Post by OnlyMark on Apr 28, 2017 7:58:50 GMT 2
TIA is used now Baz, This Is Africa. I hate car problems, always makes me feel depressed. God only knows what will happen when I'm too old and feeble to drive. Sophie, it's annoying I didn't see lions. I'd specifically gone there to meet up with some. Maybe next time.
The car is still in the garage being done. It was promised to be done in a day but as usual, reality is something different and I'm told it'll be finished today now. We'll see.
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Post by auntieannie on Apr 28, 2017 10:44:50 GMT 2
the equivalent of manana. I see.
The trip started so well, but glad you were safe in the park. Which country(ies) in Africa cook spicy food? I (obviously wrongly) expected the food would tend to be doused in chilli. I forget it might well have bypassed most of Africa on its route between south america and asia.
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Post by OnlyMark on Apr 28, 2017 11:19:10 GMT 2
You need influences in the countries I've been to from other cultures to get particularly spicy food. Indian, Arabic, European, Asian all bring stuff to the food that is not traditional. If you have a minute, have a look at the recipes in this link. They are simple traditional Zambian dishes. Out of all of them I think just a couple have a bit of garlic in them and one has a teaspoon of curry powder - iycn.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/files/IYCN-Recipe-Book-011211.pdf
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Post by Voy on Apr 28, 2017 14:08:27 GMT 2
Mark - thanks for another wonderful report - and while I am very sorry for the car troubles, it makes me hopeful that you will soon again go searching for lions ! fwiw - I remember eating chili crabs on the beach in the Ivory Coast... seriously spicy !
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Post by sophie on Apr 28, 2017 15:52:45 GMT 2
I just looked over that recipe book.. Seriously bland. It would be easy to sneak some spicy peppers into any of the recipes using peanuts (groundnuts) like in other parts of Africa.
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Post by OnlyMark on Apr 28, 2017 16:53:12 GMT 2
It would be easy to spice up the food without a doubt. But most Zambians wouldn't then like it as it isn't something they've been brought up with. When I go for an Indian it is spiced down for the local taste. Same with any Asian food. Shame really. They don't know what they're missing.
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Post by kuskiwi on Apr 29, 2017 1:34:51 GMT 2
Fabulous report as always and pleased that Mr Big Foot didn't step on your tent at any stage. Lions next time perhaps? I love your reports. Thanks Thanks Thanks.
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Post by OnlyMark on Apr 29, 2017 9:32:53 GMT 2
You're welcome. It's a pleasure.
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Post by Baz Faz on Apr 29, 2017 10:10:47 GMT 2
So it is TIA now. The equivalent for the Land of Smiles is This Is Thailand. Proboards probably wouldn't allow me to write the acronym.
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Post by slowcoach on Apr 29, 2017 15:50:55 GMT 2
What else would you have lost if you could get the belt off?
Elephants very close, nice elephants, calm, I supposed the are pretty used to vehicles and such, but still ...
I used to carry a cheapo 500mm lens for my 35mm SLR and if an elephant was too big for the frame I was too close.
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Post by OnlyMark on Apr 29, 2017 18:24:10 GMT 2
Power steering, alternator and I think a pump for the brakes. Not sure on the last though. Far too complicated are these modern engines. The worst would be the alternator because then the engine would just be running using the battery power for the spark. I have no idea how long that would last.
I've been mock charged by an elephant, which was ok because he had space to do so, but being so close to them is a concern for the expected thing that if surprised they are unpredictable. Nice and gentle slow drive up to them, as they often were just at the side of the track anyway, snap a few photos and then leave them to get a bit of space and watch from an unthreatening distance.
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Post by wikki on Apr 30, 2017 9:11:22 GMT 2
I love your reports.
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Post by OnlyMark on Apr 30, 2017 12:52:57 GMT 2
Thanks Wikki.
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Post by Netsuke on May 1, 2017 14:54:48 GMT 2
Thank you Mark, I like your stories. The animal pictures are amazing, just fabulous. You either have a very good camera or are an excellent photographer.
Reading your comments about camping, they irreverently brought this to mind -
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Post by OnlyMark on May 1, 2017 15:04:04 GMT 2
Yes, that's very similar to my camping. The camera was bought in India and is reasonable. I'm not really that good with it. I might get one good one out of ten.
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Post by Voy on May 2, 2017 2:51:48 GMT 2
I'm with Wikki - but you already knew that I LOVE your trip reports! thanks !
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Post by OnlyMark on May 2, 2017 7:54:28 GMT 2
You're welcome. You know I only risk life and limb for you Voy.
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