Monthly Archives: August 2012

I don’t have long so a quick explanation of the photos on the previous post.

- the veicle is the bakkie we were using to do a three day game count, by the end of 10 hours bouncing around on that wooden slat my rear end was actually a different shape. Seriously painful, but also lots of fun – it was me and four bembe (local people) in the back with Frank the dutch ecologist driving and htting every hole possible.

- The waterfall is just one of the beautiful natural features of the park. The game is a bit bleak with all the poaching, bt the scenery is stunning.

- Simon fishing and me looking down the Lukula river. We crossed this river on foot the other day and I forgot that there are crocodiles in it, but no-one seemed to concerned. THe water’s pretty clear

- The campfire is where we camped on day two of the game count. I opted for no tent and just slept by the fire, thought I would save the residents lion time by not havng to pull me out of a pesky tent. Luckily they must have been chowing down on something else that night in another area of the park.

Apart from the photos we have all been having a great time. Poor Simon went from being alone and peaceful in his camp to being inundated by myself, the kasanka ecologist and the kasanka general manager. I decided that this was a good cause for a party and so we cracked out the gin, I taught them my card game and it went downhill from there. Last night cards down time was 03:15. Hectic.

The other day I got to visit the local chief, which was a pretty amazing experience, great to see the cultural aspects at work as we were going there to do some introductions (me included) and also to sort out some conflict issues.

I have to run now, but will hopefully post again next week when I get to visit kasanka national park. 

I’m having a brilliant time and can’t see me getting sick of this anytime soon! xx 

So I was keeping the details of my journey to the park on a need to know basis. However now that I’ve completed it successfully I ca share some of the details.

The plan for getting to the park, which is in the north of Zambia, was for me to collect SImon’s car (the manager at LM) in Lusaka and drive it up, effectively killing two birds. Sounds easy but when you are tasked with collecting a strangers car, in a country you don’t know and driving it 9 hours north on african roads, factoring in that it is an old 4WD with a top speed of 95kmph and liable to break down and then having to find the national prk and drive in the camp on 4wd tracks, I’m big enough to say that I was more than a little daunted.

But I did it and I don’t even have any crazy exciting stories from it. I did get ordered by the police to take her daughter to school, which was pretty funny. There are police road blocks the whole way up and I was expecting them to be pretty cheeky so I was prepared for most things, but when the police officer looked in the car and saw I had an empty seat (a rarity out here) she said ‘ you must take my daughter to school’ so I did.

The raods are actually pretty good, bar some crazy drivers but trundling along at 90kmph you get to see lots and I was making many people laugh watching me with my headphones on bopping along to my music while driving an landcruiser.

I made it into camp and was met by Simon and the ecologist here Frank. They showed me around the camp and to my little three bed tent. It’s a great setup and we have Patrick to do some odd jobs for us, one of whch includes getting us our warm bucket shower every afternoon. It’s bliss standing outside taking a warm shower and listening to the sounds of Africa.

I spent the first day in the bakkie checking out the park, on my list of too do’s is writing the Fire Management Plan for the park. I’m then getting dropped off for about 5 days hiking to design a walking trail through the parks escarpement. There is likely a game count thrown in and right now Simon is waiting for me to finish up typing and come help in mechanics shed.

Safe to say I’m loving it

I am currently at another office about two hours away where they have good internt setups so I’m not sure what it’s like back in camp, but I’m suspecting pretty slow. Will keep trying to post things whenever I can. 

xxx

I find myself with a sense of de ja vu. In this de ja vu I know I’ve said ‘what the hell am I doing here’ before. It was about 5 minutes after being dropped at Heathrow airport by my dear mum that I started to have some serious concerns with what I was about to undertake.

 These concerns abated only slightly when I got to the boarding counter and I was handed an ugrade ticket. Always welcome on a long haul overnight flight! It also helped that I sat next to a lady who lives in Zambia and she assured me the place is great.

 At immigration, the line moved exceptionally slow but I was heartened and relieved of my concerns about how difficult obtaining a visa would be, when I saw people much more guileless than I having no troubles. My turn came and the hardest part proved to be figuring out how to place my hand on the fingerprint reader, and handing over a rather large of sum to be allowed to enter the country.

 Right, next challenges were to obtain currency, buy a SIM card and then get a lift into town. My attempts to share a cab with a pommie guy failed, in fact judging by his reaction I’m surprised he didn’t look around for security and start calling for help.

 Obtaining currency proved to be fun – for the first time in my life I’m a millionaire! I handed over 200 pounds and received over 1 million zambian kwacha in return. Problem is I need to buy a much larger wallet. It is fun though puchasing airtime for your new simcard and aksing ‘can I have 100,000 in airtime please’.

 I got to town and finally to the house where I am to spend the night, when the penny dropped that I was back in a thirld world country where water can’t be trusted, street signs are not considered necessary, hot water is not a given and there are roadblocks into town checking for bombs under the car I’m travelling in. It’s when you realise that you are preparing as if you’re going on a three day hike, just to attempt to go into town, buy groceries and get back to your accommodation that you understand the pampered UK days are well and truly over.

To put it crudly it’s now time to nutt up or shut up. Hope you here from me again!