Day 43 Nairobi to Cape Town
Eureka Camp, Lusaka to Warthogs Camp, Lake Kariba, Zimbabwe 190kmWe packed up our tents, showered and after breakfast left Eureka Camp & Lusaka for the 150km trip to the Zimbabwe border crossing.
We arrived at the Zambian border just before lunch and it was over 40 degrees Celsius (in the shade). We cleared the Zambian border crossing with no hassle (our quickest crossing of the trip so far!) and slowly proceeded down to the Kariba Dam Wall (which supplies much of Zimbabwe and Zambia's power needs), we crossed over from the North side to the South of the Dam Wall, very impressive sight! We arrived at the Zimbabwe border crossing and marched off to get our visas. When we arrived at the immigration tent we found out that the A/C system had broken which meant that we waited for over 30 minutes in 45 degree heat (Zimbo weight loss program)! We finally got our visas and headed back to the truck and waited for the trucks paperwork to be finished......and waited......and waited.....then finally after 3 hours Patrick and Gareth obtained the necessary paperwork and we passed into Zimbabwe.
We headed straight for the supermarket to stock up for the houseboat group which were going on a 2 day trip around Lake Kariba while a few of us would be staying at Warthogs Bush Camp instead. After shopping we headed to the marina where we dropped off the houseboat group, said our goodbyes before heading on towards our campsite with the sun setting behind us. We pulled into Warthogs as the sun faded behind the Kariba mountain range and moved into our cabin for the night with a herd of elephants wandering through the campsite, trumpeting as they walked.
Ingrid did first aid on my Gamy foot after the last few days the infection had got much worse and we slowly fell asleep to the sound of Hippos calling. Al helped by heavy anti-biotics!
Useful Fact: The Kariba Hydroelectric dam was constructed in the late 1950s, over a million cubic meters of concrete was used in the construction of the 128 meter high wall. The length is 579 meters long and has an annual output of 6400 GWh. It cost $48,000,000 to build and 86 lives were lost in its construction.