We took the morning fairly slowly, chatting with Michael and Ines who are on their way back to Botswana and Namibia. Michael wanted to take some group photos with both the vehicles, as we were getting organised a couple of giraffe came through browsing on the trees. I went off to the ablution block and one of them seemed to be following me. Not keen on a run-in with such a large animal I took a route behind some bandas and all was well. By this time the zebras had congregated to graze between our vehicles, we spent quite a bit of time taking photos and enjoying being so close to them. Finally Michael and Ines really had to go - sorry to say goodbye to them but confident that we will see them again somewhere in the world.
B and I now have the job of deciding where to store the truck. We were able to contact the limo hire people by phone (actually we had bumped into them at Kisolanza – they were driving a couple of classic cars up to Nairobi and back over the Easter weekend) and will exchange emails with them. Then we went off to find the German butcher whom we had first heard of 5 years ago from Lothar, another Unimog owner. Bit by bit B had gathered information about how to find him and today we finally met Josef – an extremely nice man running a seriously large butchery in the outskirts of Lusaka – along with his daughter. We had a long interesting chat about the state of Zambia. He can store the truck, but only outside – and the rains recommence in November – we have some thinking to do.
Lunch at Mahak restaurant in Cosmopolitan Mall – a brand new and ugly modern affair – but the indian meal was good. Then through Lusaka to Pioneer camp – it only took an hour to get across the city – mainly we think because we had listened to the advice of the nice Dutch couple at Forest Inn (“don’t try driving between 6-9am, 12:30 to 13:30, 5-6pm). The last part of the dirt road to the camp is in a poor state, we could see why Michael would have had a problem with their low ground clearance. Less than a kilometre before the entrance the dashboard warning lights came on – the belt that drives the alternator and waterpump had gone. Rather than replace the belt there and then (you have to remove various other belts to do this job), we cooled the engine by leaving it off and spraying it with water, and managed to get into thr campsite without overheating. B has a job for tomorrow – and there are Schalow’s turacos on the campsite!
B and I now have the job of deciding where to store the truck. We were able to contact the limo hire people by phone (actually we had bumped into them at Kisolanza – they were driving a couple of classic cars up to Nairobi and back over the Easter weekend) and will exchange emails with them. Then we went off to find the German butcher whom we had first heard of 5 years ago from Lothar, another Unimog owner. Bit by bit B had gathered information about how to find him and today we finally met Josef – an extremely nice man running a seriously large butchery in the outskirts of Lusaka – along with his daughter. We had a long interesting chat about the state of Zambia. He can store the truck, but only outside – and the rains recommence in November – we have some thinking to do.
Lunch at Mahak restaurant in Cosmopolitan Mall – a brand new and ugly modern affair – but the indian meal was good. Then through Lusaka to Pioneer camp – it only took an hour to get across the city – mainly we think because we had listened to the advice of the nice Dutch couple at Forest Inn (“don’t try driving between 6-9am, 12:30 to 13:30, 5-6pm). The last part of the dirt road to the camp is in a poor state, we could see why Michael would have had a problem with their low ground clearance. Less than a kilometre before the entrance the dashboard warning lights came on – the belt that drives the alternator and waterpump had gone. Rather than replace the belt there and then (you have to remove various other belts to do this job), we cooled the engine by leaving it off and spraying it with water, and managed to get into thr campsite without overheating. B has a job for tomorrow – and there are Schalow’s turacos on the campsite!