Exploring Southern Africa - Our Travel to Victoria Falls from Malawi by Road

It was all done in haste during December 2011, the decision to visit Livingstone to see the Victoria falls driving up and down about 3,500 kms. Arranging fuel for our Toyota Hilux to reach the Zambian border from Blantyre, Malawi was a challenge. However, we managed that at the last moment. My husband  Dr Jay who was the only person eligible to drive was all geared up for the long drive. Daddy was excited and kept himself updated by internet searching and familiarizing the routes we were planning to travel. Nisha aunty and myself were running it over in our mind about the things we would require, about the travel food, cloths, minimum medicines etc. Abijit and Abiram were not keen to travel out of home because they didn’t want to miss their cartoons and had to be convinced about the fun they were going to have during the trip, which they experienced all through …. they said they want to stay back in Zambia ! ! !

My younger son Abiram in front of the Vehicle and
 Abijit is too tired to show his face for the photo

The real journey started on December 24th early in the morning 5.00 AM, without any hitches and we made a long smooth drive to Lusaka. It was for the first time that Jay was driving so far. He was switched on to full horse power, extra alert, not wanting any thing to budge out of its way onto ours. But he was so much geared up that he decided not to take any major stops on the way. Children became restless and weak because of travel sickness. But Jay whose philosophy on food intake especially during travel is - eat to live and not live to eat - and could sustain himself on very limited food, was too eager to get to the border and get the immigration clearance. It was close to 12 noon by the time border clearance came through and we finally took a break at Chipata (border Zambian town) to freshen up, stretch and have our brunch.

Michinji-Chipata Border Post

Very bravely, the travel sickness ridden trios - Abijit, Abiram and Nishaunty ate the idlies during the break. They had their travel sickness tablets earlier. The sun was going down and we had expected to reach Lusaka before dusk, but that was not to be. At 7.00 PM we reached Lusaka and met Sajeev (my husband's friend) at Lusaka, who and his family were all prepared to receive us. The stay at Lusaka had been arranged by him in the company guest house. Sajeev's wife Neera and two daughters (Amrita and Ananya) seemed all geared up for their holiday too which they had decided to couple with us. Stay at Lusaka began with a hot ginger tea at Sajeev's house which was Neera's specialty and was followed by a simple dinner. Then, later we retired for the night in the Guest house  given to us.

We are at Sajeev's house (Amrita is also seen) 

Aiyappa Pooja in Lusaka

Next day was X'mas . We spend the day relaxing at home after the long drive.Children played monopoly and we ladies were in the kitchen preparing a meal. Men were busy making the exchanges and getting the finances ready for the travel to Lake Kariba and Livingstone. In the evening we went to the Sunday market at arcades. A place where  locals traded curios,painting and ornaments. After successfully buying two beautiful bracelets , thanks to neera who i think knew the right value of those stuff because of her experienced long stay in Zambia, we proceeded to the Vedanta Center. The ayappa mandala pooja and laksha archana organised by the tamil sangam went on for around 3 hours . It was heartening to see Jayachandran take part in the laksha archana and chanting the mantras, transfering the rice grains from one hand to another. We had prasadam at the center and after a few pleasantries with the zambian tamil and mallu expats we returned home for the night.

We started early, next morning to Siavonga to see one of the largest man made lake named Kariba. On our way to Siavonga we visited the South Indian temple at kafue. Abijit and Abiram decided to make their mark by refusing to enter the temple. I fail to understand why they behave in such a manner many times.

In front of the south indian temple

We reached Siavonga at around 1:30 in the afternoon and checked into our rooms at Lake Kariba Inn. It is the biggest hotel in the town and looked well maintained. The rooms were good but not the food. The children were itching to go for a swim even without lunch. They left for the pool. Daddy and Nisha Aunty settled in their rooms. At the pool children had fun playing with the noodle,ring and boat.

Lunch was some  unsalted bland bream fish which the men, nisha aunty and abijit had . Neera, the girls,abiram and i (mandala fasting) had to put up with some potato chips for lunch. After the swimming it was time to take a shower in the rooms and freshen up. We ordered for some asian food and were not very happy with it.
We were up by 6:30 in the morning the next day and had decided to go for a walk. So Neera, amtoo,nonu and  me took a stroll around the inn. Neera wanted to enjoy the lake side and the girls wanted to locate the other pools in the inn.

Neera and Nonu by the lakeside

Amtoo and Nonu

Lake Kariba

 After the morning walk we freshened up and went for breakfast at the inn. The breakfast was good.
The girls wanted to go for a swim before boarding the  chipembere to visit the dam wall and islands.

Dad and Nisha aunty at Breakfast

    

On the Chipembere

Jay and Abi squares on the boat

Jay on the raft

Neera outside the room

We enjoyed the boat ride and reached the inn at around 1:30 PM. Jayachandran and children packed off for swimming and i took a small nap in the room. Jayachandran seemed to have fun getting on to the raft in the pool. They wound up the swimming by 6 and got back to the rooms. There were strong winds and some showers. Meera and I had a good chat sitting outside our rooms. Then there was a power cut and we had to manage with candles. The restaurant in the inn closed down because of the power cut and we had to go without dinner :-(


Finally we were packing off from Siavonga to Livingstone. It was a long drive again. We reached living stone at 8:30 PM and had to look for a place to stay as we had not done the bookings earlier. We did some looking around for a good place and finally settled down to Hotel Fairmount. I am glad we did that. Fairmount was a good place and the FOOD was too good :-))

Fairmount hotel 

We went for dinner at 10:30 PM. It was a feast cooked by an oriya chef. Very spicy and tasty yummm...

The next day we started for victoria falls by around 10 Am . We decided to check out the museum before that. It was an informative place. Had a look around for about an hour and then left to the VICTORIA FALLS - a wonderful experience.

Dad and Nisha aunty by Victoria Falls

A rainbow at the base of the falls

River Zambezi

The experience of the spray of the falls on us and the long walk along the falls with the shoosh... sound of gushing water and the splash was all so rejuvenating. After the spray drenching us, we made our way to the upstream of the falls called the boiling point where we could dry ourselves. There we saw the sprawling Zambezi river quiet and still.

We left the Victoria falls with a refreshed mind… all of us were super excited and have the experience lingering on. ...

The return journey to Lusaka would have been another smooth drive, but for the small accident that we met with. Could have been worse but with God's grace it was just a close shave. A trailer truck rammed into the side rear of our vehicle. It turned out to be another saga of making a police complaint, stalking the police, getting the FIR etc. We lost lot of time in it. But all said and done, the beautiful memory of the Falls out shadowed the trailer truck incident. It was almost midnight when we got back to Lusaka and children were all fast asleep.  

It was a long nap for me but not for Jayachandran who was up early next morning ready to go to the police station. Nisha Aunty and Daddy were busy setting things right for the breakfast and taking care of the clothes. It was 31st of December. Venu pillai planned for a New year eve dinner and all of us had a quiet dinner with indian food in Lusaka. Again,  it was a late beginning of the New year day for me and it occurred to me that something nice has to be done. So with Neera's help and Amtoo in hand i baked a cake for Nonu whose B'day was on 2nd January. In the evening we attended a B'day party at Dinesh pillai's house and got back home in a hurry so that we could relax enough for the last long drive of the holiday. Drive back to Blantrye which took 13 hours in a stretch. So it was done, the holiday to Zambia was over.....We are now all ready to take on the next trip !!!