Lusaka 6/16

Okay so here's the nitty gritty about overland travel in southern Africa. It took me 27 hours on a bus with less leg room than the back row of an airplane. As we approached the Zimbabwe border from South Africa I asked the driver of the bus aproximately how much a transit visa through Zimbabwe would cost. He said about $150 US. I was shocked and probably the most scared I have ever been in my life. It was around 9pm and I flat out didn't have $150 bucks to spend on a visa for a country where I would be for less that 10 hours. I have a very active imagination and the closer we got to the border the more i was freaking out. I was sweating profusly and I felt nausous. I thought that not only was I not going to get to Zambia I was either going to be dumped in some horrid cell with 200 other people in Zimbabwe or just be refused entry which would put me at the border hundreds of kilometers away from anywhere I would want to be, at 9 pm in the evening. I ended up getting a double entry visa for Zimbabwe so when I arive in Vic Falls I don't have to pay alot more for another entry. it cost me less than $40. So feeling alittle foolish I crossed through the checkpoint and waited to reload the bus. Four Tanzanian guys had purchased I would aprox 4 tons of apples in SA and knowing that the zim customs guys would confiscate it, on the SA side of the border we had to unload all the bags from the trailer on the bus stuff all the bags into the minute cargo spot on the bus and reload the trailer with the apples. Supposedly if a vehicle is passing through they can declare the container "sealed" in which case it cannot be openned in transit to it's destination country. More to come on the apples. We arivved in Harare at 2 AM and I must say it was the cleanest city I have seen in a long time, it was very well lit, and as far as basic infrastructure goes seemed to be a solid 9/10. That being said we were dropped off at the equivilent of a Mcdonalds while the bus went to find a gas station that actually had gas, most of them are bone dry. The streets on the way in were so well lit that I could see straight into many of the shops, there were many deli style shops and yet absolutly none of them had any food. Zimbabwe used to have one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Now not only is its economy declining sharply, it is the fastest falling economy ever! Finally the bus got fuel and we continued on. I was feeling just dandy until we arrived at the Zim/Zambia border. Leaving Zimbabwe was no problem whatsoever, but entering Zambia was another story all together. I got taken to the cleaners by the border officail who forced me to change my South Africa Rand to Kwatcha (Zambian currancy) then to US dollars to buy my visa. At first he flat out denied me a visa, and it wasn't until after I pulled out my lonely planet which states that they do offer visas at the border. Because I had to change currancy twice it ended up costing me about $55 to buy $40. I mentally cursed him/the foreign exchange guys and anyone else I thought to be a party to the act. I won't post what was going through my head, but if you're really interested I will tell you when I get back stateside. So I got my bag and proceeded through the checkpoint. The bus was fully unloaded then driven through the checkpoint. each of the crates of apples had to be carried by hand through the checkpoint, and redeposted in the bus. It took two hours to finish that, meanwhile me in long pants was sitting in the blazing sun, about 10 AM now, and at least 90 degree, trying to gaurd my baggage by giving looks of death to anyone who passed within striking distance of me. No sleep and bastard border officials make walker a cranky boy. After clearing Immigration and customs we proceeded to Lusaka after climbing what is called "danger hill" All the roads here are leveled and graded by hand with predicable results. This hill really is too steep for trucks laded like 99% of them here. Often trucks on this hill even in 1st gear will just start rolling backwards. The bus had no problem but we passed the wreckage of many a semi that just didnt have the juice to make it up. After the apex of the hill, we moved down the hill at an alarming rate which after hitting one divot at mach loony I was convinced we lost an axel, we arrived in Lusaka about 2 in the afternoon. I have been a few days now and am stagnating. Liza is supposed to show up here tomorrow. and if she does I think I may volunteer at the same school she is for a few days. Otherwise I will blitz down to Livingstone for more adventure. After Livingstone I will pick up an empty overland truck and shoot back to Cape Town for one night then my departure back home. Keep it real I'll probably post something soon. If you're really bored check the conversion from US dollars to Kwacha, I am carrying a wallet full of money and it's worth absolut bolox, to use the british slang.