The Road to Livingstone

not an elephant was seen on the Caprivi Strip

The ride up from the Caprivi Strip remains elephant free despite promises otherwise, and the road in Namibia is straight and fast with lush vegetation and more traditional African villages to the left (Angola) and to the right (Botswana). It stretches some 310 kms. There is a police check 115kms from the Zambian border.

There is little problem departing the Namibian border, but with our rental car it takes almost two hours to negotiate the four offices we need to register both ourselves and the car.

The road on the Zambian side remains lush and straight with mud huts either side, but with huge pot-holes. Maybe it’s because it’s the 50th Anniversary of African Independence Day today, but the road to Livingstone (190kms) is deserted both ways. There are two police check-points about 30kms before Livingstone, but we are greeted warmly and thanked for visiting the country.

John and i stroll round the city centre for a bit with our cameras, but with all the shops shut for the holiday, there is not much to shoot.

Livingstone museum in the city centre

Livingstone market

It’s a race to Victoria Falls at sunrise at which point we say fond farewells to Josef, whilst John and i need to bomb back to Tsumeb to return the hired car on Friday.

Zambia is a great place to be able to celebrate African Independence Day especially such an auspicious one - today is the fiftieth anniversary!