Lusaka to Kafue: on the road again

October 18, 2015

"Grandma, what you need?" says the man selling toilet paper at the Lusaka bus station to Rachel as she waits by the bus luggage compartment with the bikes. While in Africa she's been called mama and madame, this is a first.

On Friday, we arrived by bus 12 hours after leaving Mfuwe to Lusaka. The bus ride was long but we are happy not to have cycled this stretch. The road is so different from 1994 with much more traffic and road construction with long detours. Some roads are worth cycling, some roads are worth cycling again, and some roads are best to be avoided by bike.

In the chaos of the bus station, we are trying to get our bikes and gear off the bus at the same time being surrounded by people asking if we need a taxi or curious about the bikes. We cycle 7km to our warmshowers hosts, Matthias and Karin. They have invited neighbors for an evening BBQ and we enjoyed a steak for the first time in months.

On Saturday, our tasks for Lusaka are getting a new sim card set up for the tablet and find a Thai Restaurant for pad thai. We cycle around the city about 20kms, the traffic is horrible and we made better time cycling. The evening we join them to a concert and play at the Lelayi Lodge and Elephant orphanage.

We love cycling out of big cities on Sundays when there is less traffic. We say goodbye to Matthias and Karin, wonderful warmshowers hosts! The wind isn't exactly a headwind more of crosswind and the road is relatively flat, we make good time to Kafue. Settled into our room before noon, there is power!

Zambia is hurting now with the copper prices low, the currency is dropping in value fast. Lake Kariba is low making the generation of electricity difficult and results in load shedding i.e. power off during different times of the day. So we are keeping our devices plugged in and fully charged not knowing when the power will not be available. We have 5 days more cycling to Livingstone and Victoria Falls.

Matthias finds us a Thai restaurant in Lusaka where we can have the Pad-Thai we have been craving.

Matthias and Karine, a Canadian couple living in Lusaka and very nice "warmshowers" hosts.

Saying our goodbye's to Karine and Matthias.

Not the most exciting landscape today, but a nice road with a wide shoulder for us to ride on.

The River Motel in Kafue has been remodeled and is not as cheap as it used to be...... But the rooms are very comfortable.

Today's ride: 56 km (35 miles)
Total: 7,954 km (4,939 miles)

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