Day 34: Kariba (Zimbabwe) – Lusaka (Zambia)

30 degrees is just too warm for sleeping. And somehow we have hardly ever had as many mosquitoes anywhere as here. We wake up at around 6:00 and have breakfast. The baboons make a few attempts to approach and a few zebras graze across the area.

Leaving Zimbabwe is easy and quick. We deal with the same people as yesterday when we visited the viewpoint at the dam, along which the border road between Zimbabwe and Zambia runs.

Entering Zambia is a bit more time consuming. Immigration is easy – we have the “Univisa” for Zim + Zam. Then check through Port Health, whatever they check there. Then Interpol clearance – since we are driving our own car with German plates, we don’t need proof that the car hasn’t been stolen. It’s more complicated for South African or Namibian cars. Back to customs for road fee (20 US dollars) and carbon tax (352 Kwacha, around 12 euros). Later at the gate we have to pay 50 Kwacha local tax – we are asked for the receipt later at a checkpoint. But first we have to take out insurance. It's hard for the person in question to break away from his group of men and then have to charge his cell phone first. And that takes time... In the end we end up with 250 Kwacha and after a total of almost two hours we are in Zambia. About halfway through in Kafue we buy two SIM cards. It goes well at first, but unfortunately the network is overloaded (change of month) and Airtel needs time to confirm... But we manage to get to Icypeed in Lusaka before 5 p.m. and a short time later we have our new solar panel in our hands. In the meantime, the options regarding our shock absorber have taken a new turn, because the EFS office in South Africa, which we thought was not really existing, has contacted us: There is a fitting center in Lusaka and communication with Ahmed works well. Let's hope for tomorrow.

For now, we are staying at the Pioneer Camp (a tip from Ian and Catherine), around 20 km outside. Nice, quiet, pleasant and much cheaper than comparable places in Botswana or Zimbabwe (around 11 euros pppn).