Zambia

Actually ended up illegally in Malawi for 3 days as the visa expired but got away with it no problem..eventually got from Lilongwe (a really pretty capital,certainly the nicest i've seen although very very ex-pat) to Chipata, a small but quite lovely town about an hour from the boarder. From there we took a hilariously entertaining taxi trip to SOuth Louangwa National Park (7 people, 6 backpacks, a dirt track and one toyota carolla..) where we stayed in possibly the craziest campsite in Africa! Platforms built into trees on which campers can pitch their tents while elephants, hippos and even lions stroll around below!i kid you knot, the campsite has no boundries and there were lions footprints outside our tent on morning. Same morning we watched from our side of the Louangwa river bank a family of elephants swimming across (inc a baby), climb up the other side and dry themselves off with dust showers, accompanied by a soundtrack of 3 male lions clearly marking out their territory. Did a night safari here which was a totally different experiene form our serengetti etc extravganza..the drivers shine UV torhes all around so as not to damage the animals eyes. Honestly the first hour and a bit i was doubting how good this would turn out to be as we saw little other that Poku (like gazelles) and birds of various varieties. BUT THEN we 'stumbled across' a pack of wild dogs, apparnelty only found in some parts f southern afric - and they were really surprisingly beautiful. BUT THEN even better we spotted a lioness on the hunt and followed her for about an hour on her chase for Poku. In our completely open roofed safari cars it was a little disconcerting when one ran right up beside our car!The whole experience was entirely different from our big Tz safari..far less tourists with few set paths to follow etc.

Back to chipata and then a longlong bus ride to Lousaka - i'm cnvinced by the end of this trip a world record is in order for time spent on african bus trips. There we were met by the Nowa's and treated like absolute princesses for 2 days, shown round Lousaka (shopping malls included!) and taken to church and the Kafue Misson..what a treat to see it all at last after so many stories and photos. ALthough a boarding school along the same lines as the secondary school in our village the differences were huge..they have so much space there! Met lots of teachers and were shown round the health centre..all very special and so lovely to see the Nowa's again.

And today i threw myself over the Victoria Falls!! And absailed down the cliffs of the Zambezi gorge and generally have turned into an adrenaline junkie overnight! WHat can i say about the falls..truely spectacular (and we got absolutely drenched!)

On friday we're taking a ptentially 4 day train trip back up to TZ and then to zanzibar when i'll do some more blogging - we have free internet here but there's an insanely long queue and i'm being shouted at!Lots of love xxxx