Zambia Side - Road to Malawi Pt. II

Next stop, we arrive in Katima and get our group back together. We take a taxi to the border, get our visa (50 American dollars for a one time visa) and proceed on into Zambia. We find a shared taxi to take us to Livingstone (about a 190 km drive). Coincidentally we get a ride with the same guy that many of us have ridden with before (our group has been to Livingstone a few times before on separate trips). It was this dreadlocked guy with a massive bump on his forehead, very recognizable fellow, we were able to find him and work out a cheap deal for the ride. In Africa when you travel by a shared taxi it is common to squeeze as many people as you possibly can into the car. Efficient I guess, but not comfortable. I was lucky to have the longest legs of our group so I got the front seat. Packed in with our bags on our laps we began the journey to Livingstone. Dreadful trip by the way, you figure 190 km, you should be there in an hour and a half if you drive fast but it took us closer to four. The road from Shesheke (the Zambian border town) to Livingstone is a tar road but it would have been better if it were dirt. The road looks like it was bombed out, potholes literally everywhere, you would not stay on your side of the street since you would have to veer around huge 3 feet wide holes to make forward progress. We made it at around eight or nine at night, and we stayed at the Jolly Boys Backpackers in Livingstone (very nice place if you happen to be in Livingstone, cool community atmosphere, chill bar, pool table, swimming pool, and a nice vibe). Over there we met up with five other Namibian Peace Corps volunteers and we stayed the night. 

Hanging out at Jolly Boys

Kelsey and Sara were staying in Livingstone for a few extra days (hanging out with some of the other volunteers and Sara was picking up her brother from the airport) while Tim, Lindsey and I were leaving the night after we arrived. We were taking a bus at 7 p.m. that would take us overnight to Lusaka, the capital of Zambia. Since we had some time to kill my Kavango brethren and I decided to go check out the Victoria Falls National Park. Before we get in Tim says “Bra, get ready, when you are in there you will literally be inside a rain cloud its crazy! Bring clothes that you would use to go swimming” I though he was exaggerating but I put on swimming clothes anyway. We got in the shuttle (free from Jolly Boys) and rode off to the falls. The craziest part was before we even got there. The sky was completely clear that day, but there was a strange cloud, starting real low to the ground that stretched up a few hundred feet and about a hundred feet wide. Tim told me, “Dude, that’s the mist riding up from the water falls.” It was crazy, the mist went really high, it made sense to me now why they call Vic Falls Mosi-O-Tunya or Smoke that Thunders. We get there and the driver warns us about the baboons that are all over the park. Apparently the baboons are very smart, they recognize plastic bags from grocery stores and will come to you and take away whatever they think is food. Some of these baboons were pretty intimidating, the biggest one’s shoulders were waist level to me when he was walking on all fours. Big boy sauntered not three feet from me and he definitely made me feel like I wasn’t the Alfa male around these parts. 

 

The Smoke That Thunders 

We walk into the park and down the trail to the falls. You hear the falls before you get there. You also see giddy people soaked from head to toe climbing back up the trail. It looked as if they had gone swimming in their clothes, some had ponchos but even those didn’t seem to have helped much. The rainy season had just ended about a week or two before so the Zambezi River which fed Vic Falls was very high and dumping huge amounts of water down the cliffs. We get to the first look out and get our first site of the falls. Truly one of the great wonders of the world. I’ve never seen so much moving water, we weren’t even able to see how big the falls were since most of it was covered by mist. We walked down the trail further and I find out what Tim meant by being inside a rain cloud. Actually it felt more like being inside a thunderstorm, water droplets were cascading down on us and you couldn’t see the falls anymore (they were only about 50 feet away). I start giggling like a little girl because I thought it was so cool. The weirdest part was that the mist would shift. So if you were standing still all of a sudden all the rain would stop but you would see rain all around you. 10 seconds later the mist would come back again and you were back in the storm. I was able to snag a picture real quick during one of these breaks. 

 

Inside the waterfall raincloud

We finish with the park and head back to Jolly Boys. Lindsey made some delicious guacamole and we hung out until the three of us needed to leave. Around seven we walk over to the bus station. There were many people around the buses, close to three hundred is my guess, and there were about seven large tourist style buses. We get in our bus, pick a spot, Lindsey hands out some Benadryl to Tim and I and we all pass out.

Around 10 o’clock the bus stops for a bathroom break. We were in the middle of a Benadryl daze, everything looking cloudy and slow. We walk over to the bathroom in this tiny Zambian town (disgusting bathroom) and do our business. On the way out this short skinny man appears all of a sudden and tells us that we need to pay for the bathroom. We didn’t find it that weird since this was normal practice and the guy was also charging money from the locals. Tim didn’t have his wallet with him so he told the guy that he would go to the bus to get his money. The small man yelled back “No! No! You must pay now now!” Tim still being in a daze and tired didn’t really have patience for this guy so he told him again that he would go get his wallet. Again the little man refused. Tim started getting impatient and started walking like he was going to run over the guy. “No big man! Calm down!  I just need your money for the bathroom!” I had been watching the exchange with my mouth open, probably drooling a bit and not really registering what was going on. But when Tim started walking towards the guy and ready to go through him it snapped in my head that I had enough money to pay for both of us, so we paid the guy and continued on our way. 

 

People selling goods outside of our bus including delicious samosas

We arrived at Lusaka at 3 in the morning. Our next bus to Lilongwe (the capital of Malawi) was leaving at 5. We were still pretty zonked out but feeling a bit better. We reach the bus doors and out there are about ten men yelling “Yes boss, come with me! I take you! Taxi? Where do you go?” Not the most pleasant way to arrive in a new city at three in the morning. We picked one guy and told him we were going to Malawi on the Shalom bus. He walked us over to the ticket station and we got our tickets, we tipped the guy then started walking around the real grimy Lusaka bus station. The place seemed to be half bus station half market. Small shops where everywhere selling everything from food to cellphones. Since it was so early most of the stores were closed. All the store owners where sleeping on the ground, covered up in blankets (it was actually pretty cold there at night). We see a store that is selling some food, we get some bread, coffee, and water and we sit down and wait for our bus. The station was really run down and kind of weird. I was standing by the bathroom and I feel something on my leg and I see this older man extending his foot to poke my leg then ask for money. Strange begging technique, never seen it before. I refuse and we walk away. We hang out for a bit then head to our bus where we fall asleep, Benadryl still taking effect.