Day 9: Tuesday 24 December 1996

It was 6h00 that morning that Annelise woke me up. Shower time and everything hurt.

At 8h00 o clock we were all sitting in the truck, really silent, all of us were broken, arms and legs hurt. We first drove to the Spar to shop. Buying our Christmas presents and a 10 beers and a bottle of wine and 7 litter of water for the next 3 days. Then we went to the photo shop to pick up our photos and videos. Fortunately I could buy there some more photo films. We were to early at that shop, but by making some stupid faces, we were allowed to enter. Once we were again in the bus, Sharyn, Chris and I reinstalled the refrigerator . 

That was necessary to get all the drank in it. We drove over the Livingstone bridge and saw a new crew of rafters floating under us. Poor guys …

At 9h45 we left Zimbabwe and entered Zambia. This was our second border control. . The border control only took us a 30 minutes, which was quit quick . So we arrived in the third country of our journey.

Annelise and my arms were covered with a lot of bites, sand flies Dylan told us. Annelise and I were together one beach . She took some pictures from her bites. ‘You never know’ she told me, ‘ if I later have some problems with my arms I can show those pictures to my doctor.’ Fortunately , it was a hole day in the bus … nobody was capable that day to say or to do something acceptable. It was raining, that was good because most of us were burnt, so a day without sun was welcome. Most of us were sleeping, I tried to observe , as usual , … it was the first time during that journey I had problems with this. Dylan told me that it was not planned to celebrate Christmas evening that evening. That was unusual for them, they celebrate Christmas on the day self, not a day before.

Annelise was so tiered that she was joking the whole time … ‘You know Linde, I must have a perfect watch ? … Why, well because it is working for two …Do you think it needs more batteries than a normal one ?’ It was obvious, that watch was consulted very much by me, just to note exact all the hours : when we woke up, when we arrived, when we passed something. …

Before we started at our big bus trip for that day, we stopped at the Victoria Falls itself. 

The Vic Falls

The Victoria Falls are also called the ‘Mosi - oa - Tunya’ or the smoke that thunders. A visit of a 45 minutes. It seemed not that impressive for me. I compared of course with the Iguacu Falls I saw in Brazil. Maybe it was due to the fact that there was not that much water and that we were so tiered that everything looks so normal. No one of us was really impressed. After all it must be said that it is quite impressive. I felt sorry I didn’t visit 2 days before the Victoria Falls at the Zimbabwe’s side. There you really stand next to the falls, were at the Zambia’s side we were much more further away from the water. .After the visit of the Victoria falls , we drove through Livingstone were we left the civilization. A first impression was that everything was much more dirty that in Zimbabwe. When the others were sleeping I tried to stay awake and note down my impressions. The landscape remained the same as Zimbabwe, but the small villages we drove through were much more dirty. Dylan warned us for the contaminated water. So we had to become careful in all the things we ate and drunk.

At 13h00: The condition of the roads became really bad, a lot of holes , so we only good drive with a maximum speed of 40 km, 50 km. Catherine and Sharyn tried to prepare the lunch in the truck, it took them a long while to finish …

Preparation of the lunch while driving

 After a while they succeeded in this, well regardless the tomatoes on the ground it was a successful operation. 13h15 we passed Choma, a small village, were a market took place, but to dangerous to stop, so we passed it. A very strange agricultural aspect was seen.

During the ploughing, they put all the stones on small hills, this gave an apart view to the landscape. From far it is difficult to make a distinction between those human created hills and the ant-hills. Next to those hills other hills are created manual , at the border of the fields , that are the hills, which containing especially stones, used partly to build new roads. We passed Pemba, everywhere people tried to sell oranges along the road.

The condition of the road itself became worse and worse. People are working on the field and small children were waving to us. 14h30 we passed Monze. 15h30 we passed Mazabuka, were a lot of sugar cane is cultivated and were we got an amazing rain shower for 2 minutes. 

The landscape is very green a lot of agricultural fields alternated with huge villages with a lot of huts . At 15h50 we passed the Kafue River. … The amount of hours in the bus resulted in an other sing hour. Queen is our favorite cassette. While Rob accompanied the music with his tam-tam, we were singing at the top of our voice. A perfect atmosphere on the bus … that could be said at least. At 16h00 we had to stop for a third road-block that day. Fortunately we could pass without huge problems. And nothing could stop us of singing, Robert Milles was our second favorite cassette, on which we even danced . It was difficult on those roads to dance and if we passed the villages and we just were busy to dance, than the people looked very strange when they saw the big green aquarium decorated with all kind of adorns and inside a hole group of blank young people singing and dancing. It must had been a strange view …At 16h00 we had to start with the celebration of Christmas for the Australian guys. So the first , … well the first, … the first Christmas beers were opened. … for them it was mid-night. At 16h45 we arrived at the Siavonga district. The roads had very dangerous bends and a lot of trucks were on the road. In the valleys we could detect a lot of trucks wrecks … At 17h15 another police control, so we had to stop again, it was the first time the police men entered in the truck. I was afraid , he had the gun up, and said it was Christmas . He wanted to get a present. From in front Dylan was shouting something to him. We couldn’t understand what it was. But fortunately the policemen left the truck. I had as first reaction to put my camera and money immediately under the seat. Once we drove through we asked Dylan what he had told to those men, he said he asked their police number … the policemen asked then why … Dylan said ‘to bring you in trouble’ . Then he left. The landscape changed abrupt, or it was more the roads we drive through which changed abrupt. The roads a red, terra cotta roads. At the left and right side of the roads small groups of huts were built, the inhabitants were waving to us, it was the first time I saw the were poor. The roads became smaller and smaller which made it difficult for the truck, but we just could pass.

It was dark and late in the evening when we arrived at the Gwobi Lodge. We immediately installed our tents as quick as possible. It became a game to put the tent as far as possible from the tent from Chris and Joe. Joe was snoring so hard, that if your tent was standing next to their tent you certainly couldn’t sleep at all. Annelise and I succeeded to find a place away from them. So we hurried , to walk as quick as possible to the perfect bar with an outside swimming pool. As soon as I saw the swimming pool, I run to the tent to switch from clothes. The view from out the bar was perfect, a nice view over the Kafue River plenty of crocodiles and hippopotamuses , far away some lightening and thunders took place and while a few tourists were swimming , the Christmas CD was playing. Dylan jumped as first into the water, we followed. With a Mozi (our new kind of beer: Zambians beer) on the border of the swimming pool I staid for an hour in the pool, laying lazy with my feet out of the water enjoying this perfect Christmas evening. 

I was happy, but at the same time I became silent. Christmas eve remained an evening were you belong to be with your parents. I didn’t heard him know for a 10 days. I knew they were very worried about this journey and the fact I couldn’t reached them, just to say ‘everything is kits, made me sad. While I was laying in the swimming pool I was looking to the stars and the moon. I had promised mama to look each evening to the moon … So far I almost did it every evening, if I had the possibility. I thought to the song I had created especially for them, before I left, Peter would bring it that evening to Merelbeke and they were allowed to listen to the music the moment the went at the table. Even I was laying there very relaxed in the warm water under the stars and the moon of Africa, my mind was for a while in Belgium. After this refreshing moment I helped Dylan with the food, the menu was some meat with capriconis. Again there was a good atmosphere around the camp -fire until Dylan started to prepare us mentally for the canoe trip of 3 days. It was really good he prepared us, and warned us for all the dangerous things which could happen and how we should react in all those cases. What to do if you float on a hippopotamus, what if the hippopotamus push your canoe down and you laying there in the middle of the water between your canoe and the hippopotamus. Try as quick as possible to leave the space between the canoe and the animal, because he want to attack the canoe, not you, so if you are still in this space, he see you as the enemy. Never float between a group of hippopotamus, because maybe his baby is at the other side if you split the group and the mother want to protect her baby, so she will see you as an enemy. The same if a hippopotamus is standing at the border of the river and you pass him really close, you never know that his baby is at the other side of your canoe , so again he shall attack. So the only thing you have to do if you detect 1 or more hippopotamuses is to make noises. So make noises with the peddle. They will come above and you see than were they are located. Once you know the position of all the hippopotamuses, you can decide how you shall float, to avoid to split them up. It became all too much for me that evening, I was scared, what was I doing here in the middle of Africa along all those dangerous things. Some tears were falling and I went to my bed.

Next day: Day 10: 25 December 1996
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