Day 0. Fri 16th April
Lusaka
Packing for this safari has been something of a nightmare, due to the whole
trip having been extended by two and a half weeks, during which time I
shall be staying in Malawi and helping Ken with Project
African Wilderness, the project that he has set up to revitalise the
Mwabvi Game Reserve. As a result, as well as the usual safari kit, I have
a CD writer (plus several blank CDs), a sound card (with software), a Land
Rover speedo cable, and a set of synchro disks, also for the Land Rover
(delivered to Manchester Airport at the last moment by Gaynor, the UK director of the
PAW project, and one of her colleagues David),
3 home-printed PAW T-shirts and a load of presents for Charlotte and the
kids. My scales assure me that I am still within my weight limit, but I
am glad when the lady on check-in confirms it - I believe they charge £27
per Kg for excess baggage weight.
The "diginocs" are another less than successful
experiment. Without detailing the whole sorry saga, I have ended up with
probably the last pair of Mercury Binacom 10x magnification binoculars
with built-in 1024x768 resolution digital camera in the country. I strongly
suspect that they have been withdrawn by the manufacturers as they are seriously
flawed in that the catch on the battery compartment is so flimsy that the
batteries are apt to fly out unexpectedly and with considerable force.
They also have other drawbacks, but I don't want to go to Africa with no
binos at all, so I have done them up tightly with sellotape. Even if I
can't get photographs, they still function as binoculars even without batteries.
I shall send them back when I get home and try to convince the retailer
to give me my money back.
The check-in lady at the KLM desk is very helpful, and even checks
my visas for Zambia and Botswana. She also offers me an earlier flight
to Amsterdam, which is fairly pointless as I shall still be catching the
same flight to Nairobi, but I take it anyway just to be on my way, with
the result that I have 3½ hours in Shiphol airport in which to browse
the duty free and purchase the obligatory bottle of Jack Daniels for Ken.
12 hours later I arrive at Lusaka airport, and there is Ken "Barefoot"
Smith to meet me.
The reason this page is entitled "Day 0" is not computer nerdishness,
but because I have flown out a day earlier than the rest of the group.
Flying from Manchester via Amsterdam, Nairobi and (briefly) Harare is significantly
cheaper than flying direct from London. It takes a little longer but avoiding
the nightmare of getting to Heathrow on the train makes it well worth it.
The problem is that it gets in several hours later in the day than the
direct flight, so in order to avoid screwing up Ken's schedule on the first
day I arrange to fly a day earlier and join Ken at the Barn Motel in Lusaka
for a night. In order that my numbers match those in the itinerary
I've called this Day 0.
After a night on a plane I have been looking forward to spending a
day lounging in the sunshine, with the occasional dip in the Barn Motel's
swimming pool, but sadly this is not to be. For one thing, it's raining
- RAINING! - I can hardly believe it. On top of this Ken has various things
to do in Lusaka, and I am amused by the fact that my very first photo of
the trip . . .
. . . is Ken underneath the Land Rover. Apparently the power steering belt
has broken, and we have to traipse around Lusaka to find a new one.
Once this is fixed, and we have changed some USDs into Zambian Kwatcha
at the black-super-market and stocked up with provisions for the safari,
we head on to the Barn Motel for a meal and a few beers. It turns out that
Jess, the manager, wants me to design a web site for the motel, which is
a nice bonus. He agrees to put together some information while we are travelling,
and I will decide how much to charge him.
We are able to stash all the PAW stuff in a lock-up until we get back
from the safari, which is a relief as I have been a little worried about
carting a CD writer all around the Kalahari Desert.
We are both pretty knackered, so after a barbecued steak and chips
we both head off to bed - it's only 8 o'clock!