Our highlight in Zambia was planned to take place in the East. From Rusco Farm, it would take us about 19 hours to get there. We decided to turn this into 3 trips: about 7 hours to Lusaka, 7 hours to Petauke and another 5 to: SOUTH LUANGWA.
Google Maps isn't really accurate when it comes to duration of the trips, we usually add 10 minutes per hour to account for slow trucks, police stops and busy towns.
The first trip was uneventful. Though lengthy, we arrived exactly when we planned to. Just south of Lusaka, is a B&B and campsite called Lukasa, owned by 2 Dutchies. We planned to spend two nights, to recover from the first 7-hour ride and to prepare for the next 7-hour ride. We used the day in between to relax by the pool and to make some pictures of our camping and overlanding setup, as we had to make a flyer for Gigi's sale. We had dinner together with the owners and the other guests, who appeared to be regulars. This brought back good memories of the Lakeshore Lodge in Tanzania. After two nights we were ready for the next trip.
The next stop was Petauke. It is not a very special city, but it was the best place for a stopover with decent accommodation. The drive to Petauke started with a short drive through Lusaka. Just before a large roundabout in the city, we were asked by the police to stop and show our license, car registration and insurance. We weren't able to immediately show the insurance papers, so we had to park on the side of the road as we were 'holding traffic'. Once parked, Jeroen took the insurance 'yellow card' and went to the police. Before arriving at the police officer, the officer saw the yellow paper and waved that it was all fine. We could continue. Upon arriving at the car, Jeroen noticed that he had taken the wrong paper, as this was the expired one. We were very curious what would have happened if the police officer would have inspected the paper and saw that it was expired. Fortunately we didn't find out. We quickly took the correct papers and put away the old ones, so we wouldn't have to find out next time either.
The rest of the road was quite uneventful. We navigated between the potholes and slowly but surely made our way through. Gigi gave us a scare when, at the hottest part of the day and we had to drive on a few extended climbs. The temperature gauge increased slightly, but also quickly went back as soon as we noticed and drove a bit slower. We kept our eyes on it, but she behaved very well during the remainder of the drive. When we arrived at the hotel in Petauke, we heard that they were actually full. But then, as luck has helped us on several other occasions, there appeared to be one last room available. We inspected the room and happily took it, wondering why there were so many police officers on the parking lot.
We found out at dinner. Apparently the commissioner of police at Chipata and a special military task force were meeting in Petauke. With so many police officers and members of the military, we at least felt very safe.
The last stretch to South Luangwa was also quite uneventful, except for the common snarky 'hangry' remarks. On all trips between Rusco farm and South Luangwa, we had breakfast and then drove until we arrived at the destination, with limited breaks and no lunch. In hindsight, we could have done that differently, but we did manage to arrive without real relationship issues.
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