June 6, 2001 - Zambia: Overland trek from Victoria Falls to Zambezi River

We got up and - at 6:30AM - went to Victoria Falls.  Beautiful sight.  Even with a rain coat we were completely soaked.  Back to camp, we packed up and loaded the truck.  Then we hit the road to drive to our canoe site.  We were on the road for about 3 hours when we stopped at Choma for lunch at a little museum and park.  Very cute!

Jon at Victoria Falls

Vic Falls

The Truck

The truck we're riding in seats 22 people comfortably.  There are only 17 of us, so we have plenty of room.  The Aussies call it a "glorified taxi", but it's basically a cross between a truck and a large bus - only we're not allowed to call it a bus.   It's very efficiently designed - tables hide into random chutes and chairs lift up to store food and gear.  Pretty cool.

The bus-truck (and Matt)

The Overpass

Right now, we're sitting on a mountain overpass in stopped traffic.  We have 1.5 hours to get to our campsite before the last pontoon boat stops running.  Apparently, a huge truck is blocking the pass and we may be here for a little while.

One Hour Later: So this overpass is renowned for having accidents and stalled trucks.  It's the only road between this town and a few power plants, so it's frequented by trucks and tankers, but is also a narrow, windy road.  When a truck breaks down and the driver abandons it, it blocks this little two-lane road.  I suppose this happens a lot.  The solution - naturally - is to push the truck off the road down the hill which of course causes serious mangling and devastation.  That's what happened this time (3 days ago), but they couldn't get the truck all the way down the hill and its back was projected over one of the lanes.  For some bizarre reason someone decided to call a tow truck to haul it out of the ravine.  Unfortunately, they couldn't  get it more than 1/2 way out.  So - after many hours - they just pushed it back to where it was before and we inched our way around it.  All in all, it was very interesting.  We sat on top of the truck on top of a hill and watched this entire mess pan out.  Well, everyone had parked their cars/trucks and had congregated near the truck to offer their advice.  It was all very efficient.

African entertainment

The man-powered ferry that took us to our campsite (literally powered by one man!)

Things can get a little boring on the drive, so having fun with the person that is lucky enough to fall asleep is all part of the trip