Late home

Well, that was an adventure, just getting back to Lusaka from London. We had planned to spend a night in Dubai to catch up with friends and have a decent sleep in a proper bed. What we didn't plan however, was that Emirates airline would change the type of plane going to Lusaka, meaning that the seats we had booked were not available. Oh there were a lot of very unhappy people at the departure gate I can tell you. The staff weren't too thrilled either, trying to deal with the fallout.
We were offered the option to stay overnight (at Emirates's expense) and travel the next day when we were assured that our seats would be available. So that's what we did, although it took a few hours to work out all the details and get vouchers for the hotel and go back through immigration.
Unfortunately we didn't have phone numbers for our friends so couldn't let them know we were still around so we just spent the day at one of the many shopping malls. It was very hot and humid and we didn't have swimming stuff so we couldn't even hang out by or in the pool.
The next morning it was déjà vu all over again! Our seats were not in fact available.....surprise surprise, but as my DH needed to get back to work and we were fed up with the whole process, we agreed to the seats they offered us and eventually got on the plane.
Happily, we arrived safely, as did our luggage and so we are back to the sunshine and blue skies of Zambia.
More adventures to come, no doubt!

Busy, busy

Phew that was a busy week! I can't believe I was ever bored here. Last week was my busiest week ever in Zambia, in fact the last two weeks have been very exciting, interesting and eventful. DH and I had a wonderful trip to Lower Zambezi national park at the end of April to celebrate our wedding anniversary. Two nights in a lovely lodge, sunset boat ride, game drive, canoe trip and watching an elephant who likes to wander along the paths in the lodge!

Oh and did I mention lunchtime margaritas?

Then I joined DH on a 600km road trip to the far west of Zambia, to a town called Mongu, on the longest, straightest road I have ever seen (were the Romans ever in Zambia??). While he had meetings, I wandered around the town and visited the market, which gave me the impression that Mongu is the tomato capital of Zambia. Shame I didn't need any tomatoes at the time.

On the edge of town is a road which looks over the Zambezi flood plains. It was quite a spectacular scene at sunset.

On the way home we stayed at Mukambi lodge near the kafue national park, another chance for game and bird viewing plus a bit of serious chilling out.

Trip to Livingstone

I had a wonderful trip to Livingstone with my DH and some friends over the easter holidays. Lots of highlights: the view from our room was stunning, we could see the cloud of spray from the falls,  the trip to Victoria falls of course was amazing (we saw them from the Zimbabwean side 20 years ago)  the experience from the Zambian side was wonderful and.....er.....well...very, very wet! We did a walking safari to see some rhinos, saw seven out of only eight left in this particular game reserve. They have armed trackers who keep an eye on them to prevent poaching. Lovely to see them but so sad to think they could be extinct in my lifetime. The sunset cruise was spectacular, can't find the words to describe how thrilled I was, best sunset like ever!!

Sunshine

Having been reprimanded (by more than one person) while I was in England the other week for not keeping my blog up to date, I promise to try harder in future! (I'm doing the whole brownie's honour salute thing, shame you can't see it).

Right now I'm sitting in a cafe in lusaka with my coffee and Internet access with time on my hands so here goes.

It's been a busy since I got back. I did have one relaxing day to recover from the journey and sort out all the stuff I brought back. Then I plunged back into by lusaka life by visiting friends for coffee, shopping, cooking, knitting and looking for a car. Can you spot the 'odd one out' in my activity schedule? Yes, I have decided I need a car here as relying on taxis is soooo frustrating and expensive. I saw a lovely car on Saturday but stupidly expensive for the age of the car.......but it was soooo nice I really wanted it! Ho hum, onwards and upwards. Will trawl around the car dealers later in the week and see what turns up. The other option is to have a car imported from Japan. That's quite a common thing to do here but might take a couple of months.

We went out to a farewell party yesterday and have another one next Sunday....was it something I said? That is the nature of this 'expat' life, always saying goodbyes which is a sad thing but that is usually balanced out by the 'hellos' which are good things. Then there are the 'in betweens' like 'it's nice to meet you but I gather you're leaving next month'! I had on such meeting on Friday, a very nice Japanese lady who lives almost next door but is leaving in May, how sad is that?

The weather in Lusaka is very nice at the moment, warm and sunny but not too hot. Can be a bit windy at times though. I went on a birdwatching walk yesterday (bit naughty bunking off church) out to a farm with lovely ploughed fields, a pond and big trees. It was a lovely morning out and we saw wonderful birds and I enjoyed being out of the city and seeing how agriculture is done here. I don't have a camera so no pictures of birds to bore you with, although some of my birding colleagues were very serious about their pictures and have very serious equipment!

Well, time for my next appointment, a committee meeting for one of the groups I'm involved with.

Better not forget to pay for my coffee!