Cooksons Wildebeest at North Luangwa

24 Jul Martin took the trailer off to the guy down the road who has a welder, while I stayed back at the camp to update the blog a bit. Martin arrived back as they will not be able to get onto the trailer until 11am. So we have some coffee and then head into town. We go to Manda Hill Shopping Centre and have a lovely big breakfast first. Then walk down to Shoprite to get supplies on board, but they are on strike and it is closed. So we then go into Woolworths where I manage to buy some warmer trousers as I am really feeling the cold here at the moment. We then decide to go to Arcades Shopping Centre back up the road and do our shopping at Spar and then all the meat at Zambeef. Oh yeah I forgot Martin had a well needed haircut yesterday – he was starting to look like a woolley sheep!! Once all the shopping is done we then head back to see how they got on with the trailer. They have made a great job and it will definitely hold until we get back down to Worcester where the Bushwakka guys can fix it properly for us. We have a lovely dinner and get off to bed as it will be an early morning. The steak is fabulous at Pioneer Camp, Martin has had the same meal three nights in a row now!

25 Jul Depart Pioneer Camp at 6.20am to try and beat the traffic through the middle of Lusaka. Stop the other side of Lusaka and fuel up for the drive. Stopped for a bit of breakfast for around half an hour and then carry on to Batoka where we turn off to Lake Kariba and Sinazongwe. We have a good tarred road most of the way it is only the last about 17kms which is on a dirt road. We arrive at Wayne & Lucy’s place about 12.30 and it is great to see Lucy. They have a fabulous spot on Lake Kariba. We have some lunch and then a really good catch up, lovely to see Lucy so happy. Wayne is in Livingstone, but will be back this evening. Lucy shows us around the property and the houseboat which is alot bigger than I thought – can sleep about 30 I think. The birdlife around their place is stunning and there must be about 3-4 different sunbirds in the flowering trees. They have got two lovely dogs; Rangi (who was originally Dane’s and Rodney). Rodney is a fox terrior and as there is a female dog up over the hill on heat he is disappearing regularly to see her. We go down to the lake for sundowners as it is quite a tradition and watch the sunset. Meanwhile the Kapenta Rigs have all come into the harbour as the lake is too rough! Apparently the harbour is meant to be a breeding ground and therefore off limits as far as fishing is concerned – they don’t seem to care though and we count around 23 rigs at one stage. Wayne arrives home and then they phone the man who is in charge of the fishing etc to tell him about the number of boats, he says he is in Lusaka but will see what he can do. Wayne laughs and tells us nothing will be done, but they get a text saying that he is sending out some people to see them now ... once again Wayne laughs and says we won’t see anyone. Anyway about an hour or so later a car pulls in and true to his word he has sent people the unfortunate thing is that they don’t have a boat!!! They ask Wayne how they can get out there and he says not sure, they then drive off and call around to see Keith & Leanne who have also complained, but it is too late to be taking your own boats out to try and police these things. We have a lovely dinner and get off to bed hoping that the wind will die down during the night so that we can go out on the lake tomorrow,.204 miles driving in total.

26 Jul Martin wakes at about 4am due to the Kapenta rigs coming in close to shore and leaving the generators running until the sun comes up! I fortunately sleep through the whole commotion. Unfortunately the wind has not dropped and we are not able to get the boat out to go onto the lake so after breakfast we drive around to the campsite for a look. What a stunning spot. We get back to the house and just relax and catch up on all the years that have passed since I last saw them both. We have a fabulous dinner and then show a few of our photos to them over coffee and amarula. A huge big thanks to both Wayne and Lucy for making us so welcome and we can’t wait to see you in the UK!!

27 Jul Have a lovely breakfast and then also some great cheese on toast before we depart at 12.30. Arriv e at Jollyboys at 4.30pm – great to see Kim again and they are very busy as usual. Total drive 173 miles. We go and drop the trailer at Kim & Sue’s house, get changed and head back to Jollyboys as we are going out for dinner with Kim tonight.

We finally managed to catch up with Sue yesterday and had a lovely dinner at Ocean Basket where Annabel also joined us - great to catch up with all the girls.

We are going across to Zimbabwe tomorrow for the day. We willo catch a taxi to the border and walk across the bridge and then catch another taxi into Vic Falls. I have spoken to Garth Pritchard and will be catching up with him and Trish and also hope to catch up with Mags & Leon as well. Also will try and see Rob if he is around. Will be very interesting to see what changes if any there are over that side.

Well hope you are all well and sending love and hugs to all xxx