What a major rainstorm. Everything is wet. Some guys tents collapsed. I hate packing up in the rain so luckily it stopped just after we got up. Still everything is wet.

A long drive and we are actually in Zambia. Yes, we hit the road and got to Lilongwe at 3pm so we decided to go on to the border. We got through at 5:30 and were at the campsite in Chipata by 6pm. $10 for the night. It is popular with the locals but not too much so hopefully it will not get too noisy. There is a big fence so it is safe.

Tomorrow we head for Lusaka. We filled up 6 jerries because we heard that the diesel refinery burnt down so now we have enough. Well, sore arm from writing so goodnight.

Finally got good BBC radio.
 

8th August 99
 

Odo	59 354.2km
Co-ords	S 13 38 22.7 E 32 39 01
Fuel	none

Lusaka today. Quite a long drive but not too bad roads. 100km or so of bad potholes but the rest OK. Lusaka seems very modern and quite clean. The people we met last night in Chipata seem to have hated the place but I can’t really understand why. It has all the fast food places you can wish for, really good roads in town (not a common feature, Arusha and Dar being points in case – don’t even mention Kampala), banks, new buildings and clean too. So I quite like it – OK it was Sunday and not too many  people around.

So today was just a drive day again. We are pushing hard for Victoria falls where we will take a rest day. Had a nice chicken burger and chips for dinner, a beer (coke for Renee) and that’s it. We put up the big tent again which is nice, it doesn’t look like rain (or wind).

So not much to say today as I said, driving. We are at Eureka camp 10km out of Lusaka. Tomorrow another day on the road but as it’s all good road we won’t start out too early. There are two overland trucks here but at the end of their trip so a bit knackered and no noise.

Good night.