Drive from Livingstone, Zambia to Bridge Camp, Zambia.

We were up at 5:00 am this morning – no hint of sunrise, our breath creating foggy shrouds around our faces in the chill air.

Brett in the chilly Zambian morning air.

Roger and I got a quick tent folding lesson in the dark, then we shoved all our gear in the one of the outside lockers on the overland truck. Ebron boiled some water so we got a coffee for the road, and it was all aboard Malaika, the truck, for 12 hours on the road today.

As we made our way out of Livingston, the Eastern horizon began to glow blood orange. We watched, fascinated by the African sunrise as it illuminated the gently rolling hills and Mopane forests. The African sun rises and sets without delay. No long twilight like we get in the Northern latitudes. No hours of lingering light here. The sun hangs just below the horizon, then ascends from the edge of the Earth in just a few moments.

Eron’s opinion of early morning starts.

We are driving from the city of Livingston, near Victoria Falls in the South Western corner of Zambia to central Zambia along the border of Mozambique.  We will be staying at Bridge Camp tonight, just outside of the Lower Zambezi National Park.

Much later:

It is now dark, and we have driven all day along bumpy, narrow roads that are the major East – West highways in Zambia. It has been our first full day of driving, We are dirty, tired, and hungry. We are getting used to the rhythm of overlanding, and learning about our traveling companions.

We pull into the Bridge Camp after dark. The moon is just one day past full, and lights the Luangwa River for us. Ebron makes dinner while we set up our tents.

Around the campfire after dinner.

After dinner we walk across the dirt road to the banks of the Luangwa River, where the hippos were lounging in the cool water, and Mozambique is a mere stone’s throw away across the dark waters. I guess I really never thought about what hippos might sound like, but they make me chuckle every time. They sound just like crotchety old men having a good laugh at our expense. It is a deep throated, low pitched ah haa haa.  

Moonlight over Luangwa River.

An almost full moon over a river in Zambia, with hippos providing the soundtrack… Amazing!