It’s Sunny - Off to a Safari Lodge

After riding through torrential rain the night before on my way to Chongwe, I awoke to a hot sunny day, so decided to deviate from my route and head towards the the Nsofu Safari Lodge for the night, as it overlooked the Zambezi River with the National Park on the other side of the river bank. This would mean traveling along a road that starts off as tarmac and then onto a dirt track for well over 30 miles.

The dirt track started off wide and muddy....

but soon turned into almost a single track for some 20 + miles.

This was the reason why I had picked the Yamaha 700 Tenere for this trip. It managed to eat up the miles on the tarmac and when it came to off road, even with a full load it would still manage the mud and stone terrain that I had to endure. However I did have to reduce the tyre pressure, as last nights rain had made the track pretty slippery in places. I kept going along the track and looked down at the Sat Nav, only 3 miles to go and then the track dropped away into a river...

I couldn’t believe it. It had rained so much that the small stream that would have been easy to cross had turned into a fast flowing river in 2 parts and to continue to Chiawa, I would have to cross it. This was the time when I wished I had someone with me as there was no way I was going to attempt this by myself with a fully loaded Yamaha Tenere. If I dropped the bike in the water and it took on water via the exhaust I would be buggered, bearing in mind I was a good 27 miles down the track...basically in the middle of nowhere!

I stood there thinking, what the F*** am I going to do and remembered 200 yards back along the track there were some tents in a shaded area by the river, so decided to turn the bike around and see if there was any one at the tents that could advise me of an alternative route.

I was greeted by 2 locals who were actually living in these tents who told me there was no way across the river and that I had to go back to the tarmac road section and then go around via Lusaka. This was an extremely long way round to get to the Safari lodge, so decided to retrace my steps and head for Lusaka and then re evaluate my options.

I arrived in Lusaka, the bike and myself covered in mud, so decided to get me and the bike jet washed.....

Once the bike and myself were clean, I jumped on the bike to head to the next town Mazabuka, but before leaving the outskirts of Lusaka the sky turned black and looked like a storm was on its way, so decided to stop at the Christma Hotel in Lusaka. I was glad I did, as the heavens opened 15 mins after I checked in.

Relax time before continuing my journey to the Victoria Falls tomorrow.