Place: Livingstone
Tunes: Armin van Buuren, AC/DC
We woke up from huts like this. Nice, but no aircon and it was very hot.
This was the budget option.
Lusaka traffic.
Having a break somewhere. For once, the bikes are lined up nice and tidy.
Selling shotgun shells in a butchery? Hmmm...
Jukka trying to find a more comfortable riding position.
The first and only over-the-shoulder picture I took that was any good.
As the sun was getting down, the sky looked magnificent. Now we would need a proper photographer to take a picture of it. Maybe some ND filters or a polariser...
More sky and clouds.
This was one of the longest driving days so far, more than 700 km from Bridge Camp to Livingstone.
On the road not that much happened today.
We had some near misses with cows, goats, a dog, a snake and a turtle. The snake probably did not walk out of that one. Pun intended. The traffic is easy and the locals are driving much better than we are. We get sneered at for driving like hooligans. Rightfully so.
There was this roadblock, like many police checkpoints we have seen before. We stop and this guy walks up from the booth. He looked like a pimp or a drug-dealer wearing a bright yellow vest that said ”Tsetse inspector”. The stop sign on the gate also read ”Tsetse stop”.
There have been all sorts of stops on the road for whatever reason since Syria and this looked like one of them. You had better treat the inspector/soldier/whatever with respect and co-operate with them or they will make your life difficult. This was my mindset as we stopped even if this looked something unlike anything we had seen before.
When the inspector got closer and started to talk it became apparent that this was either a complete loonie or some kind of candid camera thing. It was so incredibly gay. So, the guy introduced himself as a Tsetse fly inspector and wanted to inspect us for flies. He had a net full of holes and proceeded to prod our bikes and the stuff strapped on with his net. This clip gives you some idea what he was like:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnH5jIRD7zc
I was more than a bit surprised and stunned by this and it took a while to get my head around whatever the hell is going on here. The guy was trying to be serious but the locals nearby were laughing. I should have realised sooner that this is a complete joke and opened the gate myself, but a passer by did that for us as he saw that we did not know quite how to react to this guy. A hilarious episode now that you think about it.
We stopped quickly at a shopping centre in Lusaka to have some expensive but good lunch with proper ”I need more blood pressure” cakes that were most excellent. This is the capitol and you can find European style places at European prices, but we have no time for those. Basically, we are catching up the schedule that was messed up in Ethiopia and because of the bike repairs.
With about 200km to go we stopped to wait for it to get dark and to start raining before riding to Livingstone. Unfortunately we got here too early and quickly got bored of waiting and covered the last 200km in no time at all. Partially because of the new EU-funded road. The president of course takes credit of building the road with signs as big as apartment buildings.
We got to Livingstone in surprisingly good time and waited for the dark as Peter was scouting ahead. The darkness finally came and we passed the time by buying big big Zimbabwean notes for a couple of dollars (100 000 000 000 pounds or whatever they use over there).
The day was complete with a very nice hotel and dinner. And the usual cast of muppets serving the dinner. At least the room has aircon. I love aircon.
Tunes: Armin van Buuren, AC/DC
We woke up from huts like this. Nice, but no aircon and it was very hot.
This was the budget option.
Lusaka traffic.
Having a break somewhere. For once, the bikes are lined up nice and tidy.
Selling shotgun shells in a butchery? Hmmm... 
Jukka trying to find a more comfortable riding position.
The first and only over-the-shoulder picture I took that was any good.
As the sun was getting down, the sky looked magnificent. Now we would need a proper photographer to take a picture of it. Maybe some ND filters or a polariser...
More sky and clouds.This was one of the longest driving days so far, more than 700 km from Bridge Camp to Livingstone.
On the road not that much happened today.
We had some near misses with cows, goats, a dog, a snake and a turtle. The snake probably did not walk out of that one. Pun intended. The traffic is easy and the locals are driving much better than we are. We get sneered at for driving like hooligans. Rightfully so.
There was this roadblock, like many police checkpoints we have seen before. We stop and this guy walks up from the booth. He looked like a pimp or a drug-dealer wearing a bright yellow vest that said ”Tsetse inspector”. The stop sign on the gate also read ”Tsetse stop”.
There have been all sorts of stops on the road for whatever reason since Syria and this looked like one of them. You had better treat the inspector/soldier/whatever with respect and co-operate with them or they will make your life difficult. This was my mindset as we stopped even if this looked something unlike anything we had seen before.
When the inspector got closer and started to talk it became apparent that this was either a complete loonie or some kind of candid camera thing. It was so incredibly gay. So, the guy introduced himself as a Tsetse fly inspector and wanted to inspect us for flies. He had a net full of holes and proceeded to prod our bikes and the stuff strapped on with his net. This clip gives you some idea what he was like:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnH5jIRD7zc
I was more than a bit surprised and stunned by this and it took a while to get my head around whatever the hell is going on here. The guy was trying to be serious but the locals nearby were laughing. I should have realised sooner that this is a complete joke and opened the gate myself, but a passer by did that for us as he saw that we did not know quite how to react to this guy. A hilarious episode now that you think about it.
We stopped quickly at a shopping centre in Lusaka to have some expensive but good lunch with proper ”I need more blood pressure” cakes that were most excellent. This is the capitol and you can find European style places at European prices, but we have no time for those. Basically, we are catching up the schedule that was messed up in Ethiopia and because of the bike repairs.
With about 200km to go we stopped to wait for it to get dark and to start raining before riding to Livingstone. Unfortunately we got here too early and quickly got bored of waiting and covered the last 200km in no time at all. Partially because of the new EU-funded road. The president of course takes credit of building the road with signs as big as apartment buildings.
We got to Livingstone in surprisingly good time and waited for the dark as Peter was scouting ahead. The darkness finally came and we passed the time by buying big big Zimbabwean notes for a couple of dollars (100 000 000 000 pounds or whatever they use over there).
The day was complete with a very nice hotel and dinner. And the usual cast of muppets serving the dinner. At least the room has aircon. I love aircon.
No comments:
Post a Comment