The black lechwe and wattled cranes on the plains at Bangweulu (Chikuni Game Management Area)

14 Jul We depart Ian’s place at about 8.15am and retrace our steps through the plains filled with black lechwe and wattled cranes (the causeway is uncrossable and has became a bicycle track for the local people). We once again travel through the ‘Gaza Strip’ with the sounds of give me my pen, money and sweets disappearing behind us. We arrive at the ZAWA checkpoint at about 10.45am and try to find a shop selling cigarettes as Martin is scared that he will run out. They only sell methol in this region so get one packet as a back up. We arrive at the gate to Lavushi Manda National Park, which we will be transitting through at about 11.40am. Roads are really bad in this region with a top speed of around 15km per hour; in fact some of the roads or should I say tracks look more like cattle of cycle tracks than roads! Upon asking the ranger at the gate what is inside this park we hear that sable are present, but upon asking if we are likely to see anything the reply is a definite no! It seems that there is a hell of alot of poaching still in this area. We leave the gate at around 12.55 and head through the park and true to the rangers word don’t see any sign of wildlife at all, even the birds are thin on the ground. We stop in Mpika to get some fresh supplies, what a horrible dirty little town – we get hasseled by local people for money and anything really. Not so many shops about either, I struggle to find most things, but we manage to get enough after going to about 4-5 different shops. We arrive at Kapishya Hot Springs at around 5pm and what a little gem of a place. Mark & Mel Harvey are awesome and we have great fun with them. We decide to go full board here as Mel is a fabulous cook and it is great to have someone else cooking for a change – gets a bit tiring cooking every day especially after a long days drive. We have a lovely evening and enjoy hearing Mark’s stories and also recounting our Shoebill experience to them. He puts us right on the so called Chaplin’s Barbets we have seen. They are actually Black Backed Barbets and quite common in this region.

15 Jul Have a great breakfast and then decide to spend the day walking around the region, the gardens are beautiful and birdlife is prolific here – we spend a few hours walking around the gardens, sables, go see the brick works and walk back along the river. We manage to loose Martin along the way (he is not as enthusiastic as I am about the birds). Have a great lunch and then decide to go and see the water fall in the afternoon. Apparently ZESCO the electric company here are planning to put in a hydro station at some point so we get to see the falls before they are completely ruined. Northern Zambia has lots of water falls and heaps of hidden little stunning spots to see what an amazing part of the country. The springs themselves are great, at a constant 40 degree temperature it is fantastic to sit in them and just relax and the birdlife around the springs is fab as well. I have about 2 hours sitting in them (fortunately alone which is lovely) with my binoculars trying to spot new birds. When I get out I am as red as a beetroot and look as if I am ready to burst... We have a lovely meal and evening once again.

16 Jul Today we decide to go up to the main house Shiwa N’gandu (Stewart Gore Brown built this English mansion years ago) and have a tour of the house and then go down to the lake have a picnic and walk around. The house itself needs alot of work in quite a bad state of disrepair and I suspect alot of money will be needed to get it back to it’s former glory. It is fascinating to think about how alot of the furniture was bought in by ox cart years ago and how long it must have taken on those journeys as there were no roads existing then. We meet Charlie Mark’s older brother who lives in the house with his wife and he tells us about some of the history and also where we should walk around the lake. He also tells us about the original site that was chosen for the house which still has remanents of the old brick kilns that made all of the bricks for the house. We decide to go and check it out after our picnic and walk by the lake. The estate is stocked with quite alot of wildlife, mainly antelope and we manage to spot Kafue lechwe, wildebeest, zebra and puku. When we get to the original house site we also spot sitatunga in the swamp. We get back to Kapishya and go sit in the springs for about an hour – lovely.

I will keep trying to get updated fully and also as many photos on as possible. Hope you are all fit and well. We have made a big decision to go back south rather than transit up north after our next part of our trip through Zambia. Main reasons are due to the fact that we have cracked the trailer chassis and there is also other work that needs doing on the car and trailer. Rather take it back to who made it to fix as they know there product the best. We will take off on about 2nd August to do Lower Zambezi and South Luangwa and then come back down through Livingstone and then transit through Namibia and into South Africa. We should be flying back to UK on about 10-12 September.

Love and hugs to all xxx