Expect Delays

“Sparrow sized”… “Grey head, black wings with a solid white stripe”… “Yellow around the eye”. Our fledgling birding career is taking off. A problem has grounded us for the time being and we’re trying to make the most of it. Over the last weeks a pain has been getting slowly worse in Ben’s upper arm/shoulder and Dr ChatGPT has recommended some rest and light stretching. We also have to kill some time while Ben’s new camera is shipped to Lusaka.

Our little camp by Lake Kariba seems like a great place to linger a while before crossing over to country number 9. The days roll together pleasantly. We make great progress on our books if not our cycling. We identify 30 bird species around the camp. We cool off in the pool. We become acquainted with the resident zebras, waterbuck and elephant. At night a hippo is posted outside our tent to make sure no one bothers us.

The steady stream of older overlanders staying at the campsite take turns introducing themselves to us, asking about our trip, being suitably impressed and proceeding to give us fruit/money/advice all of which is very much appreciated. They almost invariably have children our own age and the parental instinct seems to kick in.

After a few days of rest Ben’s shoulder isn’t exactly better, but also not worse and we decide to start moving again. To go from Zim to Zam we cross over the Kariba Dam. Built in 1958 it holds back what is now the world’s largest artificial lake. In the no mans land of razor wire lined road, we stop to use up the last of our Zimbabwe mobile data to download some more podcasts. After 5 minutes some armed men turn up and suggest that we should move along, which we promptly do.

Coming from the lake up to the main road feels even more hot and empty than in Zimbabwe and we are thankful when we eventually come to a village with cold coca cola. The sprawling scrubland, scattered baobabs and occasional hornbills are so typically African and it’s a wonderful reminder to appreciate where we are.

Grateful reflection melts into a determined slog as we rejoin the main road and wake up once more to the reality that the nice tar road is there for the trucks and not for us. As the procession of screeching and leaking vehicles rattle past their fallen roadside brethren, we once more marvel at how machinery here seems to run on very little besides hope.

At a campsite just before Lusaka we meet two other cyclists. They are Olympic athletes from New Zealand (track cycling and kayaking respectively) who managed to convince their coaches that a few months bikepacking in Africa is valid training. Ben asks (you know, athlete to athlete) about his shoulder and they provide some good advice and confirm some of the exercises suggested by the AI. It’s nice to spend some time with people on a similar trip and the evening is quickly chatted away.

Now in Lusaka we dust off our e-readers, once again vow to do some yoga, turn off our morning alarms and mentally settle in. Our package is estimated to arrive on the 7th of October. Realistically that means we’ll probably be here for a week; fingers crossed our delivery doesn’t get stuck in customs purgatory. We foolishly went with UPS and not tried and true (and German) DHL.

P.s. If anyone has noticed a decline in the quality of the writing for this post, it’s because Lina has taken a well earned break from writing whilst Ben is cameraless.