Entering Zambia meant the arrival of better roads, more frequent shops and, of course, a change in the local language and customs. It also meant saying goodbye to Eastern Africa and some of the eastern niceties such as spiced masala tea and ginger flavoured coffee (tangaweezi). Roadside snacks changed from chapattis (fried flatbread) to scones. After living in “Eastern Africa” for the last 3 months I had started to get used to the people and food influenced by the Arabic culture but Zambia falls into the “Southern Africa” region and things started to look far more like home as soon as we crossed the border. The shops here are stocked full of South African products, the people are more similar to those in South Africa and even the road works are controlled by stop-go/ry signs.
Our first stop in Zambia was in Mpulungu, the land-locked county’s only port town on the southern reaches of Lake Tanganyika. We stayed at a little placed called Tanganyika Lodge, 5km out of town on a terrible road but situated in a beautiful setting on the water’s edge. The camp was almost full of swiss biologists who were doing research on a certain species of chiliad fish endemic to Lake Tanganyika. They would spend 4 to 5 hours a day underwater studying the behaviour patterns of these bottom dwellers. We considered staying on at this spot for a little longer but it was extremely isolated, with no electricity or shops around and after the wild west road we needed to try find internet and get in touch with the world again.
From Mpulungu, Julia caught the coach and I cruised solo for 440km down to a small junction town called Mpika. The newly surfaced road passed by effortlessly and we managed to arrive at more or less the same time, just as the sun was setting. Mpika would serve only as an overnight stop and in all honestly, I don’t think it has much more to offer the traveller. The next day was another long one and the infrequent bus schedule meant that we would tackle the 440km to Kipiri Moshi riding two up once again. This road offered little in the way of spectacular scenery and was more of a chore than anything else. To visit anywhere of interest along the great north road through central Zambia meant navigating away from the tarred surface for some distance and the failing rear shock had begun to rule out such options.
Kipiri Moshi was another brief stop before a quick morning’s ride down to Lusaka. We stopped just outside Kabwe for breakfast at the Fig Tree, a nice little coffee shop serving all the tastiest western delights and very good coffee! We arrived in Lusaka before lunch and made our way to Chachacha, the well known backpacker hangout in the capitol city. Lusaka gave us the chance to get what we needed from Game and Shoprite, two South African stores that are spreading like wildfire through Africa. We then retreated to the backpackers and into the welcoming pool to escape the scorching heat!Oops Julia missed her flight. Julia had planned to fly out of Lusaka on the 15th of October but her commitments back home changed and so she decided to just keep going on the epic journey south. The last leg of the whirlwind tour of Zambia would be from Lusaka to Livingston. Julia boarded the luxury coach and I headed out on what would be the second longest day of my trip so far. To make things a little more interesting, southern Zambia was suffering from a fuel crisis and most petrol pumps in Lusaka had run dry . The few stations that had some fuel left had massive queues but with rumours of things getting worse down south, I had no option but to wait it out with the rest of Lusaka in order to get my hands on a few litres of the precious commodity. It was almost 500kms to Livingston and I didn’t quite think things through when I set out with no extra fuel and a range of about 450kms. After passing through town after town with lifeless petrol stations I realised I could have a slight problem on my hands. I have covered in excess of 14000kms already, though some of the most remote parts of South Eastern Africa and never really had to worry about the availability of fuel. Now, in one of the far more advanced African countries, I was in a spot of bother. Luckily there will always be an African with a cunning plan to make a quick buck and eventually I managed to find a guy who had been making trips down to Botswana to get fuel and was now selling it at more than double the normal price out of containers in the boot of his car behind the market in Choma. I bought enough fuel to get me to Livingston. At R20 a litre I was not about to fill up the tanks but at least I would not be stranded in the middle of nowhere.
I arrived in Livingston 20 minutes after Julia’s bus and met her at the ever popular Jollyboys Backpackers. It had been a mammoth day’s ride and the road
works over the last 70kms leading into town had been cause for a slight sense of humour failure but Livingston meant that it was time for a bit of a holiday. The next few days would no doubt involve some extreme kayaking on the Zambezi, the obligatory sight-seeing at Victoria falls, a few nice rest days by the pool and good company with the hundreds of young backpackers passing through and kayakers hanging around. 
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