Another night of torrential rain, and we thought that Central Africa would be hot and dry. Quite the opposite, a long drive today through green jungle , lots of trees but separated by grassy areas, it feels very fertile,amazing orangey red soil, and you can imagine the original white settlers getting very excited about the farming potential here. We only saw subsistence farming though for the first 300km mostly collections of round mud thatched huts with mealie growing in a small patch and a few chickens scratching around- we forgot to say that yesterday at the border there was a woman walking around with two live chickens in her arms and one on her head!-and lots of stalls on the side of the road selling mangoes, tomatoes, charcoal and honey. Then gradually the farming became more organised, larger plots and we think soya and coffee. Stopped to have some lunch and Owen looked at our car with a worried face, the front left corner again, a long term injury from our crash, is moving back every time we hit the sump guard. He thinks we need some welding done. Oh well we had a World Cup Section to do first, a lovely off road drive through long grass and trees but quite a few hidden gulleys which take you by surprise. Then into Lusaka and the Intercontinental tonight, slightly different to last night! Found Philip in the Lobby who was talking to the local Rally Association and were here to help so dispatched to a local work shop for some welding. The main problem is the radiator which has come loose and is floating around a bit.
Well done, great achievement and hopefully you are over the worst with the car still intact. Sad to hear that Zambia has not apparently changed much over the past 30 years!
ReplyDeleteWe haven't picked up news since Lusaka, but hope all's going okay: hopefully it feels as if you are on the final stretch. Nicky and I were just looking at the day by day route, and hoping you are now in Tsumeb, which you'll doubtless be interested to hear Nicky thinks translates from local dialect into "place of the moss", or "place of the frogs": we hope for your sake she's confusing with one of the southern Namibian dialects, and that it's the former. We must check on Wikipedia.... If the latter, say no more but "bonne chance". Apparently there's also a big "copper pipe" there, to do with mining: doubtless this will be very useful for last minute repairs, though it sounds more a plumbing thing really. Also Nicky thinks (but we must check on Wikipedia) that Tsumeb is connected to the national rail network in Namibia: tempting, we realise, but really it's a bit late for TransNamib Rail bookings, so you might as well finish by road. Windhoek next, which has an airport called Eros: more travel temptation we realise, but home stretch by then, and anyway places called Eros are usually dodgy. Safe travels, and well done on your very frightening levels of determination, stamina and mechanical knowledge. Love James and Nicky
ReplyDeleteLoving the photographs....not long to go now. Go Girls Go!
ReplyDeleteYippee, fantastic, so close now...the finish line is just around the corner! We hope the welding did the trick for the car/radiator and the rest of the rally goes smoothly. Will be thinking of you as you head down to Cape Town. xxxx
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