Zambia Trip, Part 4, Hot Springs

The distance from the river camp to Hot Springs is not that far, but it took us a good few hours to get out of the bush.


Our last stop for this trip was to be Hot Springs, a village that some of the team had vistited before. There were clusters of huts, long skinny palms and the hot spring. Beautiful, but almost surreal.









Adventure4Christ's mobile unit for showing the Jesus film with attached screen and built-in projector and speakers.














Here I am with a couple of kids who followed us around everywhere. So cute! I took close-ups of them individually and showed it to them, which they thought was hilarious.
The water comes out of the ground almost boiling, runs in a little stream and forms a few small ponds which get progressively cooler.






Bath time!!! It was fun watching the kids enjoying the nice, warm water. We camped right next to the pond......














.....but had to share it with other creatures.












Another breath-taking sunset! It was like God putting on a show for us every morning and every evening. The same sun, but a different painting every time.










Many people believe that everywhere in Africa it's always hot, but that is not true. In most parts of Southern Africa the winter nights are very cold. During our trip the temperature went down to 6 degrees C., and when you are camping that is cold!

I took this photo early in the morning. You can see the steam rising.







Old mokoros at the Itezhi-Tezhi dam













We spent the last night in Zambia at this beautiful spot at the Zambezi gorge at Overland Mission in Livingstone.












The Zambezi Gorge at Rapid 14. It was a bit of a misty morning, so the photo didn't come out very clear, but take my word for it - it is absolutely magnificent! This is also one of the spots where they do white water rafting.






From Livingstone we still had 2 days of traveling through Botswana. The drive is not very interesting, but we were rewarded with sights of elephants, giraffes, sable antilope and ground hornbill.
It's always hard to leave the bush and get back into civilization, but there is the anticipation and planning for the next trip.

Zambia Trip, part 3 - River Camp

After 2 days in Mumbwa and breaking camp early we had another long and bumpy ride to a little piece of paradise along the Kafue River. On the website of Kaingu Lodge, which we saw signs of a couple of hours before we got to our destination, it says, 'A Paradise Livingstone Never Found."

It was a long, tough ride with the wheel bearing on one vehicle giving out, and some cars getting stuck in a shallow river, but it sure was worth it. Such beauty!

The view of the sunset from my tent on the banks of the Kafue River.

Can it get any better than this?

This is where we set up camp for 2 days. About

1 km from this place was the river camp of a hunting concession.

They graciously let us use their ablutions, but that meant we had to walk through bush land with wild animals to get there. We never saw elephants or lions, but there were lots of tell-tale signs that they are around.

Here I am with Corrie, inspecting a piece of land along the river where there will be a missionary training camp. We had some local guys with us to protect us. You never know what's lurking in the bushes!

One of the guys showed us the spot where his grandfather was fishing in a canoe when a crocodile jumped out of the water and pulled him under.

Joey is making fried eggs and pap (a starch made from maize flour) for breakfast. I was helping for a while, but mainly so I could get my picture taken. Still learning about outdoor cooking! For this trip I kept it to washing dishes after the meal.

Until I heard the crocodile story I went to fetch water from the river for coffee, dishes etc. Yikes! Crocodiles can jump 3 meters out of the water, and here the water is quite deep, so you can't see them. There have been instances where people where grabbed from the river bank.

From then on I'd get the water from a little stream that flowed into the big river, just to be sure!

Pastor Daniel and his wife Florence came with us to the river camp for a little time away from their busy lives. They told me that they had been praying for someone who would be able to teach some people from their congregation to feed the kids spiritually. They were so thrilled when I gave them the STEPS program and some other faith-building materials for kids, and thanked me over and over.

Thank you to Activated Ministries in the US who sponsored the books.



Staff quarters at the river camp

These guys are pulling a hippo that had been shot early in the morning. When a hippo gets shot it will sink to the bottom, and after many hours the gases in the stomach will make it rise. It took 3 canoes and 6 guys to pull the hippo through the water, and then a Landcruise to pull it out of the water. This happened right next to our camp.

I was quite disgusted by the fact that this hippo was shot by German hunters, and that, other than the head which they will keep as a trophy, the meat will be hung in trees as bait to shoot ...leopards!

But I couldn't resist taking a photo of it. The next morning some of the staff came to cut it up, but I won't post any photos of that!

The next post will be of a place called Hot Springs.

Zambia Trip, July 2011 - Mumbwa, Zambia

Mumbwa is in the Central Province of Zambia. I was going to look up some info online about Mumbwa, but there is hardly anything other than that this used to be a copper and gold mining area, but most mines are closed now.
We put up our camp by a school near a township in a very dusty spot under a few trees. It was to be our home for 2 days; no water (the nearest pump was about 500m away), 2 long drops, and extremely windy. The wind blew the dirt into our tents; it got into everything, and after 2 days I was longing for a shower. But as soon as my thoughts turned to the people living here under these conditions all the time, I was quickly very thankful for all my blessings.

Here is part of our team dancing with the locals. Lots of fun! The Africans have such rhythm and passion, it's beautiful to watch.

One day went to visit people in their homes. Not many white people venture out into these areas, so most people pull up a little stool or crate for you to sit on. I really enjoyed meeting and talking with these wonderful people, hearing about their lives and struggles.

Somehow it is difficult to get them to smile. We had a great time talking and laughing together. I was shocked when I looked at the photos later to see their serious expressions.

Since we camped in a public place, our every move was watched. From the time we pulled into this place until we had said our good-byes we had some spectators around us.