I arrived in Zambia after a long bus ride from Windhoek. The bus went through the Caprivi Strip, which is a strange geographical map feature giving Namibia access to the Zambezi River.

I stayed in Livingstone for several days.  Livingstone (map location) is known as the Adrenalin Center of this part of Africa, which has activities such as white-water rafting, Bungee-jumping, hiking and wildlife viewing.

My main reason for stopping in Livingstone was Victoria Falls, only 10 km away. It’s considered one of the natural wonders of the world, with a height of 100 meters (about 300 feet) and a width of 1.7 km (over a mile) of continuous flowing water. To aid in viewing, the falls are a "slot canyon" and there is a headland right in front of the falls to hike and view the water up close. To my disappointment, I found the falls were dry rock walls where water should have been. It was the dry season. During the rainy season (spring), most people rent raincoats for their viewing and keeping your camera dry is a problem. An English lady who had been to the falls before during the wet season said to me “Just imagine a wall of water 1.7 kilometers across.” Imagine, indeed.

Well, something to look forward to for a return trip to Africa.

As I walked along the hiking trails in the park, I saw mist and a rainbow in the distance. That was the southern part of the falls, which are in Zimbabwe. I decided that if I wanted to see some water, I would have to leave Zambia for the afternoon and make a visit to the national park on the Zimbabwe side. 

Victoria Falls on the Zimbabwe side

I walked out of the Zambian National Park, and over the bridge separating the countries. It was only a short 20 minute walk to the Zimbabwe National Park entrance. I had to pay $30 for an entry visa and $20 for a national park entrance fee, but at least I saw some significant waterfalls here.

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Finding water in the dry season in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

Chobe National Park  (Botswana)

There are multiple national parks all around Livingstone, so I booked a safari to the nearby Chobe National Park across the border in Botswana. A day and night tour was $190 U.S..

During the early morning, we started with a boat safari on the Chobe River. This proved to be a very good way to spot the wildlife on the river banks and on the low islands in the river. Our boat would go from location to location on the river and it was almost non-stop wildlife sighting. A truly great safari.

Lusaka

Zamibia was in the midst of a presidential election and after more than a week after the voting had closed, a winner had not been declared. The incumbent candidate had claimed victory, and his challenger claimed a rigged election by the government. There were riots in Lusaka, the capital city, with rock-throwing and teargas, but this stopped the day before I arrived. The incumbent president was declared the winner.

As we were going down the road in the hot afternoon sun, we came upon a bus that was broken down. This bus had come from Botswana and was heading to Lusaka when the engine started smoking. The people had been stopped for 2 hours before we stopped to help them. Our driver offered the stranded passengers a lift in our bus, and quickly all seats were filled. The two bus companies were going to work out the payments for the rides between themselves. We approached one of the frequent police checkpoints, and the police noticed that the bus was filled beyond capacity. They told our driver to report to the police station in the next town.

When he did that, the officers told him he had to pay a fine for each passenger in our bus who didn’t have a seat. Our driver didn’t have the money, since the extra passengers had not paid yet – so they threw him in jail!!!

Our bus was not going anywhere with our driver in jail. It sat parked on the main street of a small town for several hours. This town was so small I had a hard time finding a store that sold soda. I didn’t want to get too far away from the bus, when my luggage was still inside and the departure was unknown.

After 3 hours, the police finally decided to allow our driver to pay the fine sometime in the near future at a police station of his choosing. We were back on the road. A few hours later we heard a loud explosion from the rear of the bus and we stopped again. The rear tire had blown, but on this rear axle, there were two tires and this was the inside tire. The outside tire had to be taken off first. A problem – it was night and there was no lighting for the repair work. The crew had no flashlight and none of the 70 or so passengers had a flashlight – except me. My flashlight was summoned for the repair work and I felt I was really contributing. This repair took over two hours to accomplish. Then we were back on the road. We rolled into Lusaka around midnight instead of 6 pm. I got a taxi to bring me to a hotel recommended in my guidebook not far from the city center.