5th august
Mana Pools
We were glad that the suspension broke when it did because of all the help we got and the gravel road to Mana Pools after the Tar road is so badly corrugated for over 30 km’s that at times we were doing less than 5 kph and other times up to 40 only to slow down again to a virtual stop as everything shook to pieces. This road tested the “Newly Repaired” suspension which held together nicely, which is just as well because I had had enough of being a “bush Mechanic” by now.
The pools camp site – Nyamepi – although the ablutions are run down it is right on the banks of the Zambezi River. Elephant wonder through your camp all day picking at the trees, and Hyena scratch in you used braai. One night A Hyena tried to drag off our trailer cover which was lying on the ground with spare poles in it. We had to shout at it and shine my torch at it to chase it away – ugly thing. We saw Buffalo, lots of Ellies, Zebra, 4 lion cubs but had to get back to camp before we could see the parents, a few Hyena in the day as well as wild dogs and bush pigs. Lots of bird life – breading pairs of fish eagles, Bee eaters digging into the banks and millions of Scimitar billed Wood Hoopoe, squabbling in the trees. Not to mention the continuous orchestra of hippo’s, lion, and hyena singing in unison all night. Colleen said it’s like sleeping in Noah’s Ark. Met a few people their who gave us some good info on Zambia for us to look forwards to.
After 4 nights in Mana - Nymepi camp we left to got to Zambia. Again the road returning shock everything apart, even though we let the tyres down to 1,5 bar. Sometimes we were only doing idle speed and still shaking about. Eventually there was a huge thud and we stopped. We lost the tow hitch and the trailer was hanging on the ball by the safety chain – lucky. I ran back and picked up the hitch with both bolts sheared off. I was wearing a Black shirt and the Tsetse fly’s were all over me biting like mad. In the middle of the road I had to change my shirt to a white one and colleen sprayed us with Doom, it’s about the only thing that stopped them. Lucky I had two 10mm bolts in my box (but should have been 12mm) but did the job anyway. Then on to Chirundu, Zambia border crossing.
Mana Pools
We were glad that the suspension broke when it did because of all the help we got and the gravel road to Mana Pools after the Tar road is so badly corrugated for over 30 km’s that at times we were doing less than 5 kph and other times up to 40 only to slow down again to a virtual stop as everything shook to pieces. This road tested the “Newly Repaired” suspension which held together nicely, which is just as well because I had had enough of being a “bush Mechanic” by now.
The pools camp site – Nyamepi – although the ablutions are run down it is right on the banks of the Zambezi River. Elephant wonder through your camp all day picking at the trees, and Hyena scratch in you used braai. One night A Hyena tried to drag off our trailer cover which was lying on the ground with spare poles in it. We had to shout at it and shine my torch at it to chase it away – ugly thing. We saw Buffalo, lots of Ellies, Zebra, 4 lion cubs but had to get back to camp before we could see the parents, a few Hyena in the day as well as wild dogs and bush pigs. Lots of bird life – breading pairs of fish eagles, Bee eaters digging into the banks and millions of Scimitar billed Wood Hoopoe, squabbling in the trees. Not to mention the continuous orchestra of hippo’s, lion, and hyena singing in unison all night. Colleen said it’s like sleeping in Noah’s Ark. Met a few people their who gave us some good info on Zambia for us to look forwards to.
After 4 nights in Mana - Nymepi camp we left to got to Zambia. Again the road returning shock everything apart, even though we let the tyres down to 1,5 bar. Sometimes we were only doing idle speed and still shaking about. Eventually there was a huge thud and we stopped. We lost the tow hitch and the trailer was hanging on the ball by the safety chain – lucky. I ran back and picked up the hitch with both bolts sheared off. I was wearing a Black shirt and the Tsetse fly’s were all over me biting like mad. In the middle of the road I had to change my shirt to a white one and colleen sprayed us with Doom, it’s about the only thing that stopped them. Lucky I had two 10mm bolts in my box (but should have been 12mm) but did the job anyway. Then on to Chirundu, Zambia border crossing.
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