Zambia: Livingstone by Victoria Falls.

Saturday 28^th February. Livingstone, Zambia

First impression of Zambia, entry formalities excluded, is of a very nice people and country. Didn’t get out of bed until 9.15 today and had the continental breakfast before heading for Vic Falls, just 7 kms away. Having paid our $10 entry fee, we spent about 90 minutes walking around the viewing site.


It is truly one of the most awesome sights we have ever seen. The sheer power of those falls is wondrous and of course we were soaking wet, despite having a reasonable amount of waterproofing on us. 

Where we are now is an area that borders 4 countries. Zimbabwe, Namibia, Botswana, and Zambia of course. Angola is just a short distance away as well. Today, we are having a day off in Livingstone, it is baking hot and although there is not a lot to see outside of the falls, it is an interesting town and being Saturday, it is buzzing.

Tomorrow we are heading for Lusaka, about 500 kms away. Apparently the road is dreadful for part of the journey, very badly potholed and quite slow going. It’ll be an early start and shared driving but if it looks too challenging, we will stop in a small town enroute.

We had a relaxing afternoon and a drive around town. That killed 5 minutes! 

Bought some provisions in the Spar supermarket near our hotel. We were fascinated to see people buying loaves of bread by the trolley full. They were queuing up at the bakery and as quick as the bread came out of the oven, it was in a trolley. 

We asked back at the hotel why this was happening and had our reality check, Zimbabwe. Of course there is a huge shortage of bread and food so people were buying as much as they could and take it across the border. Apparently, the amount they can bring in is still rationed by Mugabe. The bridge into Zim is just by Vic Falls, 7kms away. We picked up some Zimbabwean notes similar to this. Just an indication of what can go wrong with an economy!! 

We found a bar in town and had a couple of beers there, with the local folk. We were made to feel very welcome and we watched some English premier football.  We then went to Steers, a South African food chain restaurant that mainly sells burgers, a bit like McDonalds really. 2 burgers & fries plus 2 drinks came to almost $30, pretty outrageous for Zambia I feel, and double the price of SA. We were back in the hotel by 9pm & after a chat with the owner, off to bed soon after, in preparation of our early start tomorrow.