How was your week end? What did you do this week end? What are your week end plans - Zambia follows a culture left behind by the British, and inquiring one about their week end was a way of polite small talk.
But it was depressing to me, every week end I was holed up at home drinking, online chatting with friends and pretty much doing sweet nothing, missing week ends back home with my awesome friends..Now why did I not go out - all my friends here in Zambia had already been to all places multiple times and were content with the laid back doing nothing week ends!! And partly I was a lazy bum!!
Anyways all that changed this past week end. A bunch of guys from office who were all on short term stay had decided to go to Victoria falls in Livingstone.
We started early in the morning by about 6. We hired a car - A Toyota Corolla, that cost us 200 dollars rent a day. We had a little trouble finding the way out of the city in spite of having google maps. I confirmed my belief that nothing beats human interaction - we just asked a few people and found our way out. It was not an easy task though - Unlike in India people in Zambia seem to take road rules very seriously.So we couldn't stop just anywhere and ask, we had to find the right place and then wait for a person to come by to ask directions.
Anyway we did found the way out, and started out towards Kafue - the closest big town on the way to Linvingstone. On the way a little while outside the city we saw a huge cement factory - Lafarge, which according to a fellow passenger was Tata's - proudly gleaming in the morning sun standing tall as if to say India is everywhere!!
Once outside the city the traffic was almost nil. The roads were empty and on either side was typical African bush - brown with a blue sky line dotted with farms here and there - very few though. The picture above shows it perfectly.
The roads had a lot of long straight stretches that provided a beautiful view of the ribbon like nature of the roads with a lot of ups and downs - it was beautiful, as the pic below shows.
With the roads so free and straight and no traffic we were cruising at an average speed of 120 Km/Hr. And we managed to even touch 180 Km/Hr many a time. We stopped at a few places for natures call. I was a little worried about the norm - did people here use the bush as loos on long trips or was I supposed to hold back? Anyway my system got the better of my thoughts always.
We crossed very few settlements - all sleepy small villages with mud houses and a few buildings. Women folk sat on the road selling their wares ranging from fruits and vegetables to coal (ppl here buy a lot of coal - they barbecue every weekend!) to wooden craft souvenirs.
We were low on fuel we decided we would just stop at the next inhabited place and try to get fuel. So we stopped at a place and as in India there were black marketers selling fuel at higher prices. Bought enough to get us to the next big city Choma and went on. Here I had the chance to photograph a bullock cart as above.
One thing to note on this journey was the trucks - It was a contradicting fact, though economically speaking Zambia was not as great as India one should see the trucks - I was astonished to see such high class brands and quality of trucks. I tried to clicks photographs on the way by hanging out of the car and only one turned out good as below - and it turned out to be a nice colorful truck too. Trucks ranged from Man to Merecdes to Volvo and so on!! Though I managed to spot one Leyland truck and felt Indian an heart!!
Anyways after some real fast driving we got to Livingstone and checked into the Divine lodge. We found a restaurant that served Indian food - the Golden Leaf restaurant and had naans with yummy kadai chicken and daal tadka!! The funny thing was that the restaurant was completely run by Zambians and even the cook was Zambian but the food was definitely Indian!
Once we had satisfied our stomachs we made our way to the famous Victoria falls named by Dr Livingstone after Queen Victoria originally called the Mosi- ao-Tnuya which means the "Cloud that thunders" in the local language.
Walking on a bridge that connects on side of the gorge to the other with the water spray on your face - its one hell of an experience. As you walk you can see birds flyng from the gorge walls against the backdrop of the white water from the falls - a beautiful sight to see.
And then we went to the bridge that connects Zambia to Zimbabwe, got a ticket from the immigration office to see the bridge and walked a few metres to where the bungee jumping was taking place - boy was it exciting!! We watched a lady jumping (read being pushed) and she was flying down to the depths of the gorge screaming until her voice slowly disappeared and then in a few seconds was back up again a few feet with her screams.
My friends asked if I wanted to go and I lied I didn't have the funds - I was just shit scared!! Decided to do it another time. Just as I was leaving I saw a man of 50 to 60 years old getting strapped for the next jump - against my mind saying coward, I said to myself - better a live coward than dead courageous man!! ha ha
Before we went on this bridge to see the bungee jump we had parked at a place that was infested with baboons. A young chap came up to us and said he needs 10,000 Kwacha (Rs 100) to take care of the car from the baboons - they scratch the car up etc was his claim.
I negotiated and paid 2000 kwacha (Indians have shown their bargaining skills in Zambia and it's ok to bargain as long as you don't sound too rude).We got back and saw there were no baboons at all. I had earlier thought I was smart by bargaining and then now felt like a baboon myself at having paid for nothing!!
With that we got back to our room, again had yummy tandoori chicken, rotis and kadai vegetables.
The next morning after breakfast of donuts and rolls at a supermarket we headed towards the falls again as we heard all the safaris and stuff were there. We inquired with some local people and they directed us to a camp site called Big five which had lion and cheetah walks.
I had decided to go on the cheetah walk
Once in we were introduced to Lily, Susan and Magaise ( I have noticed all women in Zambia have christian names while men have local names - looks like it was the case for cheetahs too).The guide asked me to kneel beside Lily and touch her forehead and stroke her like one would a dog or a cat. I was scared but nevertheless did and she started purring like a cat!! I was terrified but the guide said the purring was sign of contentment which meant Lily liked her belly rubs and head ruffling!
All three of these cheetahs were brought from a national park in South Africa as cubs and were reared by men always. They therefore didn't think of men as a threat but as one of their own!They were taken for runs every morning and guess the time they complete 200 meters in - 12 seconds!!
We then took the cats on walks, on the way Lily started pulling me towards a dry stump - she was interested by a small lizard and moved away after the poor lizard found refuge in a small hole in the ground.As a matter of norm it seems Lily always lead the walks - I noticed it and the giudes confirmed this too.Even if she stopped and lagged she would cover up and lead again and drag me along with her - she may have been tame but she was really really strong!
At the end of the walk we got to pet all three of them. And the guides said they loved to lick hands. I offered them my hands and they licked away happily. Their tongues were very rough, it was used to lick away meat off bones of prey apparently. The hairier ones hands was the more they licked - they felt they were grooming one of their own!!\
It was a wonderful experience interacting with such ferocious animals in such a docile mood. As I got up to leave, Lily got up to follow me and a guard restrained her - I guess I charmed Lily, as much as she had charmed me.
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| Me and Lily.. :) |
With that we got back home. And the next day I couldn't wait to go ask colleagues at office how their weekend was!!
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