On Wednesday we spent the
morning at Pioneer Camp, doing some more detailed planning for the next few
weeks. This was enlivened by the nearby convention of 7th-Day Adventists, with their wonderful singing and loud amplified
sermons. At the supermarket in the afternoon, we were very excited to find
hummus!
The idea had been to set off
again to Luangwa Bridge on Thursday morning, but both the fridge and the
domestic batteries were misbehaving, so we decided to stay and see what was
going on. The campsite also needed fridge “engineers”, so that was handy. They
decided that all we needed to do was defrost and all would be well. We tried
this, but there seems to be more to it and the fridge is definitely making the
batteries work too hard, which is not good when we seem to have had a run of
campsites without power points. On the upside – this is one of our best camps
ever for morning birdsong, and last night I saw two white-faced owls sitting
together in a tree and peering back at me.
Later in the day I noticed a beautiful
shiny clean truck-home arrive. It was Vincent and Ellen from Namibia. We saw
inside their truck the next day and it really is lovely – bigger than ours and
very well designed by them and made by Herr Fleiss in Swakopmund. It was
probably their truck that he was busy with last year when we hoped he could help
us with our axles.
Having decided to manage the problems
with the fridge, rather than hang about trying to find an expert, we set off
again for Bridge Camp, and so did Vincent and Ellen, so it was nice to feel that
we were with friends, travelling in convoy for a change. Instead of forking out
for a chalet and a meal, we camped. It was cool enough to sleep, but the
campsite isn’t up to much.
Yesterday the convoy continued and we
kept an eye out for each other on the long drag from Luangwa Bridge to Chipata,
which is almost on the Malawi border. Ellen and Vincent had forgotten to fill up
with fuel at Lusaka, so we waited for them after travelling for an hour so that
they could get ahead. We also followed them into the fuel station at .........
to check that diesel was available.
On the way we decided to buy tomatoes from one of the little roadside
stalls. We had been warned that this might be stressful, so we chose a small
one. No hassle, although the women were disappointed that we only bought one
basket of tomatoes, and it was about half the price of the supermarket. We still
made a quick call at the Spar in Chipata, though, for a top-up, before heading
to Mama Rula’s. Ellen and Vincent were already installed on the level, grassy,
shady campsite, and after choosing our spot we joined them for a beer and a
chat.
We had been planning to get the spare
tyre seen to this morning and then head to South Luangwa National Park, but the
tyre place looked very closed for the weekend yesterday, so we will wait until
tomorrow. Meanwhile Barney is having a go at fixing the diesel water-heater
while I get the computer charged at the bar. The internet won’t work for me as
usual!