Today we’re having our very own Gumball 3000 across Zambia. We’re making good progress though, but we have at least 900 km’s to kill to get to Lusaka.
The day starts quite early, 07:15. Only, it’s NOT 07:15! I wake up, peek outside and see that the moon (which was full, and glorious) was still quite high in the sky. From the murmurings coming from Mattie’s tent I gather that Fanie got it totally wrong, the time zone is NOT an hour later, but an hour earlier. So it was a crisp, bright and early 05:15. I go take a leak and snuggle back into my nest. Annelie didn’t even stir.
At 09:00 (so 07:00) I wake up again and get some coffee going; treat Annelie to coffee and the last crumbs of our rusk supply. Pack up and get loaded up, set all the clocks in the car, cell phone and watch back by 2 hours and officially we’re on our way at 07:52. Very good going for a while before the road degrades into something resembling a quarry. So much so that entire 20 meter bits of it has a bypass road next to it. I muse how trucks manage to cross these insane potholes.
Just before noon we get pulled over by a overzealous traffic official. Unfortunately Marietta wasn’t wearing her seatbelt and we’re ordered to park. They make a call to play hardball with the traffic wardens, bad move. They basically want to through her in jail, they ask me to produce our triangles and all sorts of rubbish. Long long story short, and about an hour later, Mattie relaxes the very tense wardens and greases a palm with 20 000 Kwachas (about R40, or £2.50). He is reprimanded and advised that “you should be humble” when pulled over. Gritted teeth thanks. Man... telling you.
Park off a few km’s further for lunch, make jokes about jailbirds.
The roads improve exponentially with ice smooth asphalt and we race on at a very good pace. Also, being Saturday, there are almost no cars or trucks on the road. The first “inn” we check out is a roach and lice motel, so we head to another place called Loza guesthouse. Very nice place, over priced for what you get. But we negotiate a better price with the Dutch owner. There is a very nice bar area which we go sit in to watch the last 20 minutes of the Tri-nations game between South Africa and Australia, SA wins. Good times.
More info from the stragglers, the car started and ran for a bit but made a weird noisy. Another SMS later noted that they’re back to towing the Colt. They did manage to secure a proper tow bar from a truck driver at the border. I recommended that they check and recheck what the traffic laws of Zambia have to say about towing a vehicle. I can only imagine those very same traffic officials that stopped us with a huge grin on his face as the Toyota and Colt approach. Pay day has arrived...
How the heck are they going to cope with the quarries we had to duck and dive?? Time will tell, stay tuned.
Have a very pleasant dinner, steak for a change. Loza has their very own butchery on site and the meat is fantastic. Not the best I’ve had, but compared to the tired old Maasai cattle meat we’ve been eating, it’s heaven. Good wine to wash it down. Also my mother in law’s birthday today, so baie geluk Ma! Xx
Sleeping in a bit tomorrow since we’re quite ahead of schedule.
Highlights: Good steak
The Bokke beating Oz
[G & A], out
Hooray for promises
No comments:
Post a Comment