Zambia Oct 2009 - A 2700km Road Trip

Some of you may or may not know I am half Zambian half Irish.

In any case, I took a trip to Zambia in October of this year with my old man. I am sure you will pick us both out, First picture after the first clip, I'm on the left with my beer, he is on the right.

From the capital city Lusaka we drove for two days straight to the village where my family comes from. My village, I kid you not, is something sooo remote. Any operated tour of Africa that claims to take you somewhere as authentic as this is probably not even close. For the record, "off the beaten track" is the ultimate cliché.

The journey to the village of my origins involves an 850km drive from the capital (in total we did 2700km). Through mountains that have had the road carved into them with explosives. Needless to say, these roads have no barriers with 1000ft drops about 20cm from the car tyres... during the dry season they are leathal, during the rainy season... I wouldn't want to contemplate it (as wreckage in the clip at 2:41 shows).

The first part of the video contains clips of our holiday to the village. After a serious amount of mileage, we decided that a few days at one of the 7 natural wonders of the world was in order. The second part of the trip, (2:48 onwards, with the picture of a monkey running away with some toast from our breakfast table) was in Livingstone, where we got to admire Victoria Falls. Not for the first time in my life... Last time I was there I was 16 years old. My old man forbid me for doing certain activities :) Not this time...

There are pictures of me standing right at the edge of a 400ft drop (video time 3:02). And when I say right at the edge, I mean 15cm from the edge. You will notice I have a blue towel in my hand. Fear not, this was not to clean up the potential and accidental pooping of my pants, I went swimming in the Devils Pool. Accessible only during the dry season. During the wet season, it would kill you. I linked a random youtube link of the actual pool because I didn't want to risk my own camera in the water. But you get the idea. Don't let the guy who back flipped into the pool kid you (he is a guide, only accessible by tour via boat). Even during dry season, a metre to the left or right, the current will sweep you over and you have a free ticket to the Indian Ocean. You won't need your passport.

Anyway, this was one of the best holidays of my life. Next year I am planning a similar trip, but bringng my younger brother and sister with me, and a group of close family friends.

The original trip of 09 that I did with my old man will form the core of next year's holiday with my friends. However the plan is to try and expand it to Lake Malawi as my village Edaleni is only 20km from the Malawi border (Lake Malawi is 680km long by 75km wide, so large it has it's own tidal flow). We hope to finish the tour with a couple of days relaxing in Cape Town.

I hope this video and commentry inspires some of you to consider this wonderful wonderful place. It is sooo hard to imagine, that like the kids in the video you are about to see, my father came from this village that only gained electricity through solar panels about a year ago.

He worked so much harder in life than I ever have. From a child born in an outback village, hundreds of miles from basic technology, thousands of miles from the west. My father, the village boy in ripped t-shirts, who gained his first pair of shoes at the age of 14, managed to educate himself. Today he is a Senior Aircraft Engineer. Right now he works for British Midlands International (BMI). Next time you use that airline, just think, that one of the village kids who you normally see in Red Cross adverts made it possible for your plane to fly safe.

He truly started off life in another world. I will always be proud of him. I will always be proud of where I am from. Not only the Zambian side, but the Irish side too.

I hope you enjoy this vid as much as I did making it.

A few final notes:

1) The backing music is by a local Zambian artist that I heard on the radio time a few times during my trip.
2) You will enjoy it more if there is a little bit of bass line.
3) The song translates to My Sun My Air.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Zambia
• 2700km road trip
• dandy krazy
• victoria falls bungee

[devito108]

hey dude whats the name of this song

[VenHav]

Dandy Krazy - Zuba Yanga

[levanter1M]

that an inspirational story. You must be proud of your Dad. The place looks so worth visiting...

[Ngambok]

OMG...this is beautiful...miss home!

[Ngambok]

Lovely video...I should travel up there too. Zambian but haven't been to the east or noth parts of the country.

[thanditaonga]

Bwanji - such a nice video. It brings back happy memories of my visits to Zed. I hope my half-Zambians children get to make such a trip one day with their dad - minus the bungee jumping activities!

[patrikums]

wow. you sure look like you had alot of fun. nice.

[helgatridr]

really cool story bra, I know Malawi better, A good place to live too (speaking as a European who is about to move south) hope ya picked up some chichewa too

[mchobe]

thank you for posting this up good memories of zambia miss it so much nafuti nafuti .