2023-08-14: Victoria Falls to South Luangwa

It was our last morning in Victoria Falls. We got up at 7:30am, got cleaned up, and grabbed some breakfast at Jungle Junction in the hotel. By the time we were done breakfast, it was time to grab our gear and get checked out of the hotel. A driver met us at the entrance to take us to the Zimbabwe/Zambia border. He escorted us as we filled out the exit paperwork for Zimbabwe and then walked us through the border gate where we met the driver for the next leg of our journey. We hopped into the new bus and drove across the Victoria Falls bridge for the last time. We hdad to stop at the Zambia border to go through immigration there. It was pretty painless. Before long, we were back in the bus and on our way to the Livingstone airport which was about a 20 minute drive.

When we arrived at the airport, there was a Wilderness Tours rep waiting for us. He grabbed our bags and escorted us to a cafe inside the airport. The check-in for our flight didn’t open until 10:50am and it was only 9:45 at this point. The rep left us while we hung out in the cafe and had a drink. He returned at 10:50 to escort us to the check-in desk and then to security. We were flying to Lusaka, Zambia then on to Mfuwe, Zambia. We were able to check our bags through the Mfuwe which was excellent.

We went through security and into the terminal. It’s a small airport so there was no line at security. What a difference the terminal is from back home though. There were a couple of international deparature gates but they were roped off. We could not find a domestic gate. There are no monitors or anything that show departure, arrival, or gate information. We ended up asking someone where we were supposed to board. Because it’s such a small airport, they only use a single gate for all their flights. So, even though it’s labelled an “international gate”, that’s where we board. They would allow us into the gate area when it was closer to boarding time. We grabbed a seat and waited. About half an hour prior to departure, they announced our flight was ready for boarding. We entered the gate area, and we watched as our bags got loaded onto the airplane. A short time later, we were walking on the tarmac and boarding the plane. They wouldn’t let us on with our backpacks though because they were too big. They put them in the luggage hold while we boarded the plane.

It was a small Jetstream 41 turboprop. We departed on time and encountered some turbulence during the ascent. Because of the smaller size of the plane, the turbulence bounced us around a fair bit. Patrick was not impressed that “we’re bouncing like a bouncy ball”. The flight was only an hour and we were soon landing in Lusaka. We got off on the tarmac again. After grabbing our backpacks, we walked to the terminal building. We passed the luggage carousel. The bags were supposed to be checked through to Mfuwe but we wanted to make sure. We aked one of the airport workers and he said we had to grab our bags and re-check them which didn’t make sense to use. So, we waited while they unloaded the bags onto the carousel. We could see the wagon with all the luggage from our plane on the other side of the wall. We saw the baggage handlers grab our bag from the wagon but it didn’t appear on the carousel. Amanda could see the handlers through the hole where the carousel enters the building so she asked for clarification. They confirmed that the bags would be transferred to our next flight and meet us in Mfuwe. No need to pick them up here.

We left the arrivals area and found a rep holding a sign with our names from The Bushcamp Company who we were staying with for the next week. We were not expecting to have someone meet us here, but gladly accepted the assistance. We had 3 hours until our next flight, and again we couldn’t check in until 1.5 hours prior to departure. The rep escorted us to terminal 2, which is the international terminal, because it has better air conditioning. It was definitely a newer building. He escorted us to a restaurant where we could have some lunch and left us. We grabbed some food and relaxed until 3:00pm.

The rep met up with us again and escorted us back to the domestic terminal. Even though we had our boarding passes for the second flight, we still had to check in at the check-in counter for some reason. They had to verify our passports I guess. The agent asked us where our luggage was and we told them it was tagged through to Mfuwe. She looked a little confused and asked her colleague about that. She kinda shrugged and sent us on our way. It didn’t give us a great feeling. We said goodbye to the Bushcamp rep and went through security to the departures area. Again, they seemed to only have a single seating area and gate for all the domestic flights. We grabbed some seats and waited to board our plane. We saw a Jetstream 41 sitting on the tarmac which is the plane we are flying on again. We watched them load the luggage onto the plane. The timing seemed about right for our flight. We did not see our luggage get loaded though which had us concerned. Around boarding time, airport staff came and announced the plane to Livingstone was boarding. We watched the people walk onto the tarmac and start boarding the flight we thought was ours. We breathed a sigh of relief that we weren’t missing our luggage… yet…

Our boarding time came and went and we were still in the departures area. We didn’t see any other planes that could be ours on the tarmac. We started getting a little concerned again. Again, there were no monitors showing flight status or gate information. We asked one of the airport workers about our flight and they just said “we’ll call you when it’s time to board”. They couldn’t provide any further information. A few minutes later we saw another Jetstream 41 land and pull up which ended up being our plane. The incoming flight was just running behind. They got the plane turned around quickly. We boarded and were on our way to Mfuwe about 20 minutes behind schedule. Another hour later and we were landing in Mfuwe. We noticed it looked quite hazy as we were landing.

We got off the plane and entered the terminal building. It’s the smallest one we’ve been to yet. There is no luggage carousel or anything. They just offload the luggage by hand through the same door we entered through. When we entered the building, we were met by another Bushcamps representative. He waited with us until our bags showed up, which they all did. He took us out to his safari jeep and loaded the bags and us into it. It was a little after 6:00pm at this point. He told us we’d be driving to Mfuwe Lodge. We questioned him on this because we’re supposed to be staying at Chamilandu Bushcamp tonight, not Mfuwe Lodge. He confirmed that we’ll be driving to Mfuwe Lodge first, then they’ll drive us from there to Chamilandu which will be another 2 hour drive. It looks like it’s going to be a late night.

We started the drive to Mfuwe Lodge. We were in an open air vehicle with no windshield or anything. Driving through rural Africa at night in an open air vehicle is quite the experience. The road itself was in bad condition. Sometimes there’s pavement and other times there isn’t. And it’s not a nice smooth transition from pavement to dirt. There are people walking and biking along the sides of the roads that the driver had to avoid. We enjoyed watching the people and the local kiosks/stores along the way. It is all very rustic. We also saw people burning bushes on the side of the road producing large amounts of smoke. We assume that’s what was causing the haze. It was too dark to get any pictures. Maybe on the way back to the airport we’ll be able to get some during the day. After 45 minutes in the wind and having the odd bug hitting our faces, we arrived at Mfuwe Lodge.

We were greeted by an american woman by the name of Amy. She is from Nashville originally, but has been working here for many years. She had us sign some paperwork and provided some refreshments before giving us a bit of a briefing on the camps we’ll be staying at. After the briefing, she gave us a keychaing which was a gift from our travel agency and the funds go to the local community which was pretty cool. She also gave us a Buschamp branded water bottle and then loaded us into another truck. We were on our way to Chamilandu Bushcamp. We had Jacob as our driver and Harrison as our spotter. We did a night gamedrive on the way to camp. Harrison had a spotlight and was scanning the landscape for signs of any animals. He did a good job. Along the way we saw hippos, a young elephant, a giraffe, several impala, zebra, a hyena, and a leopard. It was a great start to our safari!

We pulled into Chamilandu camp around 9:45pm. The staff were all waiting at the entrance. They waved at us as we arrived and said “Welcome to Chamilandu camp” in unison. We unloaded our gear and had a quick introduction to our guide, Mishta, for the next few days. He gave us a rundown of the schedule for our time at camp. They had a late dinner prepared for us so we moved to the dining table and ate. They brought some warm bread and a vegetable tower out for an appetizer, followed by some roasted pork with mashed potatoes and some vegetables for the main course. Dessert was a carrot cheesecake. The food was declicious. Once we finished dinner, we were shown to our cabins. We had two cabins. Michael was scared to be in a cabin without a parent so Amanda stayed in a cabin with Michael and Darrell and Patrick shared the other one. There are only three cabins at the camp. The cabins are perched 2.5 meters above the ground to keep animals out. It was dark so we couldn’t see anything outside at this point. The rooms are amazing. There is a room at the entrance where we can put our shoes and such. Then it opens to the bedroom where there is a desk , a couple of chairs, and two beds. One of the walls opens to an outdoor patio that has a couple of chairs and a couple of lounges. Off the bedroom is a bathroom area with two showers, two sinks, and a toilet. The bathroom also has a wall that opens to the patio.

We were pretty tired at this point, so we got ourselves ready for bed and called it a night.