Since our first update, we have been non-stop globetrotting through London and Johannesburg to our final airport destination of Lusaka.
During our 7+ hour layover in London, the group split up and went about their own way of coping with jet-lag and boredom. A couple of the group members pampered themselves within Heathrow with pedicures and a mid-day breakfast while a couple of us took the Heathrow Express into London and saw the sights and experienced some of London’s best.
Some quality London fare (a lobster roll with a delicious cider and an ale).
For those of us that went into London, the weather was great (which was unexpected), and the beer was better (which was far less unexpected). Rene and I grabbed a quick bite and a few pints and then proceeded to explore the Waterloo area (Big Ben, The London Eye, etc.), while Joe made his way to the northernmost tip of London to his favorite soccer team’s stadium in order to pick up some souvenirs.
Big Ben – just one of the stops on our short sightseeing tour.
London’s famous Underground on the way back from Waterloo.
All in all, not such a bad layover. Perhaps a bit shorter than one would have liked, but you know what they say… “When in London…” right?
After the flight to Johannesburg, a bit of a layover, and our final short flight to Lusaka, we were finally in Zambia! Excitement was high and smiles were appearing on some fairly tired faces, but as the title alluded to, this is where the hiccups came into play. Of our 16 bags that we checked from Seattle exactly 0 (yes, zero) made it through to Lusaka. So we waited while Beth did her best to figure the situation out.
The luggage fiasco with Beth in the middle attempting to save the day.
Joe attempting to get some shut-eye during our downtime.
After everyone did their best to describe the bags that they specifically checked onto the flight (which was a bit difficult considering most of the bags were full of supplies and not actually our personal bags), we left for the hotel. We all ended up heading to our rooms and are now showering, cleaning up, and relaxing prior to our dinner this evening with some very important people. Can’t wait to continue our adventure in the morning!
The lack of bags on this carousel is a metaphor for… well… our lack of bags.
Stay tuned for more to come.
Cheers,
Ryan
We left Lusaka at around 8:30am to make the 8 hour drive to Chipata. Chipata is 550 km northeast of Lusaka and 15m from the border with Malawi. The road to Chipata is a paved two lane road that takes you through a series of villages. The terrain is up and down, the bushes and small trees are green, but the land is dry. After seeing some of the modernization of Lusaka, the contrast of the villages is startling. It is hard to tell where one village starts and another ends. Most of the small thached roof huts – with nothing in them – are only a few meters off the road. There is still lots of land relative to the number of people, but the road seems to be the anchor to all the villages. Everyone walks alongside the shoulder of the road with fast moving cars, even very young children by themselves. We see a funeral procession in progress, several overturned trucks on the side of the road, children herding goats and cows. We stop in one of the villages to visit one of Moses’ and Bertha’s nephews in a private boarding school and stop for lunch.
proceeded by the amazing orange sunsets we think of in Africa, and the sky turns pitch dark almost immediately. We arrived at the hotel in Chipata at around 6:30pm. The hotel is new, and very comfortable, and seems totally out of place here. It was built recently as Zambia’s new President is from the Eastern province and to service tourism to a game park that is about 3 hours from here.
