Lusaka to South Luangwa National Park/ Mfuwe and Flatdogs:
(Note: We are just getting used to the mechanics of blogspot-- the pictures should be views bottom to top.)
As was mentioned to us, there are several places worth visiting in Zambia, but unfortunately it is difficult to reach them very easily travelling on a budget. Traveling to get to Flatdogs/Mfwe the cheapest way was by bus to Chipata and then on to Mfwe by minibus. Visiting with other travelers at Chachacha, the option of taking the Postal bus was brought up. According to this one traveler, it was dependable and a good way to travel.
We went to the Post Office and checked out the Postal bus. It was fully booked and so was not an option for us to travel that way. Another person had told us the Postal Bus was slow, crowded, and made many, many stops. So as information goes, much of it is in the eye of the traveler.
We next checked out the bus to Chipata. Going to the bus station is a trip in itself. The touts hit you the minute you enter the station grounds, hollering the names of places, busses and so forth. They are not deterred by a simple no, a forceful no, they just are not deterred. We had been given the name of a bus company by one of the employees of Chachacha and so we went to the Juldan Bus Company. There is still some confusion in my mind as to the correct name; because it also had the name Marks on the side of some of the busses and Juldan on others.
They had two buses heading to Chipata in the morning--one at 4:00 a.m. leaving from Freedom Way and one at 9:00 a.m. leaving from the main bus station. We had been told if you leave early enough you can make it all the way to Flatdogs in one day so we decided to try for the 4:00 a.m. bus. We arranged with the reception at Chachacha for a taxi to take us there at 3:30 a.m.
Got up early and were ready to go by 3:30 but no taxi. We are not sure what the glitch was; we had made arrangements to be picked up at the airport when we arrived in Lusaka and no problem there. I feel certain it must have been the early hour. At 5:00 a truck dropped a backpacker off at the gate, told us it was not a taxi and the night watchman offered to find us a taxi. Came back with a taxi and off we went to the bus station.
Be ready for the touts again. This time they run alongside the taxi and if they know where you are headed are running ahead leading the taxi to the proper bus. Since Juldan did not have a bus until 9:00 a.m., they took us over to a bus called Zambia-Botswana buslines. The ticket issuer assured us this bus did go to Chipata. Another word to the wise, lock your door, and if you have luggage in the backseat, lock that door also. While Robert was outside making arrangements, the back door opened and guys began to try to pull our luggage out. I won the tug of war with the taxi driver telling them I didn't want the luggage out yet. Finally all was settled, K115,000 per person to Chipata and K5000 per piece of luggage.
Another incident that happened while all this was going on, was our taxi driver was fined by the station security for parking in the wrong place. It could have been that, the fact he was not an official taxi, or just a new scam for the unsuspecting traveler. We paid the fine of K18,000 and got on the bus.
The bus was to leave at 7:30 so for the next 1 1/2 hours we watched the ebb and flow of the machinations of tout, ticket issuer, passenger, and who ever else was involved in getting someone on the bus! The bus left at about 7:30 and then we had a 15 minute stop to fuel the bus. Another thing to learn, when fueling the bus we all get off.
The bus is comparable in comfort to a Greyhound bus back in the states as far as seat room, etc. Except the seats are three across like on an airline. We were entertained by 'religious MTV' music and dancing most of the way but the scenery was both beautiful and interesting. The bus did not make many stops along the way except for what looked like three or four regular pick up and drop off spots.
Dean's Hillside Camp in Chipata
We made it to Chipata by about 4:00 p.m. and finally let a tout negotiate a taxi for us to Dean's Hillside Camp. The taxi to Dean's was much cheaper than one would be to Mama Rula's, another backpackers we had found on the web. Dean's Hillside Camp is very near town and if you are making an early getaway, it is a good place to be nearby. It is a lovely camp with places to pitch your tent and a house with inside guest rooms and an area on the second floor with room for more people.
The shower/toilet 'ablutions block' is very nice. The kitchen the staff uses to cook short order meals in we were told we were welcome to also use by the very helpful and friendly.
We were surprised to be have a horse and a rooster wander nearby while we were setting up our tent and enjoying the hill view. N'kwazi camp in Namibia near Rundu also let its horses have the run of the campsite. One interesting thing about this horse--while we were setting up our tent, it wandered through eating a few flower blooms along the way !
Dean, the owner, is a very interesting character and we had a nice visit about his story about coming to Zambia and how his place came to be. The price for camping is K25,000 per person.
Chipata to Flatdogs Camp
While we were visiting with some people that had just come from Flatdogs where we were headed to the next day, Moffat, a minibus owner came up wanting to know if we wanted to take his minibus (7-8 passengers) to Mfuwe. We had heard from the people we were talking to that the last 42 km of the road were very bad. We also were concerned about how long it could take given our experience of minibus travel where frequent stops are the norm. He offered a cost was $80.00USD since he already had booked to take passengers from Flatdogs, and did not want to drive there empty. We said we would go with him with the understanding that if he picked up other travelers he would reduce our fee. We suggested he stop at Mama Rula's and see if there were any, but he said he did not have time. Sure enough, he picked up two other locals along the way, one of which he claimed was his brother and another had a Flatdogs shirt on. Oh well....
Moffat was supposed to pick us up at 8:00 a.m. the next morning and was early and would not be able to let us go to the bank before we left Chipata because it did not open until 8:30 and he had to pick up his Flatdog customers at 12:00 He said he operated on "English time" instead of "African time." He had told us the night before that we could pay him in US dollars, but wanted an advance in order to purchase fuel.
We gave him two twenties, then to our surprise he went to a foreign exchange place. They wanted to give him a bad rate for small bills. Laura went in to change more than 50 and got a better rate. The rate was very low for small bills $20 or lower but higher for $50 or larger bills. The only problem they only had $300 on hand at the moment. Said it would be just "a few minutes" but we opted to move on.
The first part of the road is quite easy and the last 42km are just as everyone said, very rough, lots of potholes and slow going.
I was glad we took the faster, albeit much more expensive option, because after all we had been through to get to Chipata, we would have had another very long day. We were awakened in the campsite around 11:30 pm by some people setting up a tent that evidently had just arrived by minibus, but we do not know what time they left Chipata.
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