Heading to the capital Lusaka

Today we relocated to the capital city of Lusaka. A drawn out drive of seven hours or so was ahead of us. We filled up the tank of gasoline of our car, and were super shocked at the price of it! Apparently the fuel prices in Namibia were a lot more moderate than in Zambia. But another reason for the high fuel cost was that in Zambia the cars on the road were significantly older than in Namibia. Our rented Mitsubishi 4x4 was from the year 2000, over 20 years old. Due to the age, it had an absolutely horrible fuel efficiency. We spent 100€ in fuel for the relatively short drive (500km) to Lusaka.

Along the way, we quickly noticed some major differences to the roadside action in Namibia.. Firstly, the quality of the road was really not good. It was tarred, yes, but there were potholes the size of small cars 😅 Well, not quite, but large enough to break an axle when you hit it.

Secondly, we noticed a lot of manual labor along the streets. Dozens and dozens of men per company that were positioned along the highway, to mow the grass. However, they mowed the grass by hand, with instruments that looked like machetes with a bent blade. It didn't just look like backbreaking work, it really was, because the workers had to bend down a lot in order to reach the desired height of grass.

There were also a lot more people trying to sell things along the roads. That's not something we really observed in Namibia, though it should be noted that Namibia also has one of the lowest population densities in the world.

Along the way we stopped for lunch in a cute place called coffeeberry farm, where we got to enjoy some artisanal ice cream to keep us going for the remainder of the trip. I drove the first half of the trip, and Likumbi the second half as we were heading into Lusaka, the city where she lived. Apart from some aggressive driving by Likumbi in order to get us to the city in time for an afternoon call that was scheduled, the remainder of the drive was uneventful, though exhausting due to the crazy traffic and bad roads.Read more