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Writer's picture Anouck & Marie

ZAMBIA: RECIPE OF A LIGHTNING SPEED CROSSING



ZAMBIA'S RECIPE



Preparing time:

23 days on spot, or 2577 kms travelled


Cooking time:

55 hours and 30 minutes spent in 36 different transports


Ingredients:

  • 1 helicopter

  • 4 buses

  • 1 minibus

  • 16 taxis

  • 14 bicycles-taxis

Seasonings:

  • 15 tarantulas at least

  • 2 days to learn the local greetings (including daily questions)

  • 6 unexpected awakenings at 7am in the morning with a loud “BREAKFAST IS READY” at our bedroom’s door because the hotel decided it was time for us to eat breakfast

  • 10 daily hours of power failures, including:

    • 3 meals cooked on charcoal stoves

    • 2 very profitable headlamps

    • 1 essential external battery (RIP to our second one lost in the Philippines)

    • many cold showers

  • 50 hassles with the service providers (buses, hotels, restaurants, administration), unable to respect the delays and lying constantly about them, involving:

    • 4 hours of waiting after a ghost bus

    • 1 meal ordered at 1pm and delivered at 11pm

    • 30 minutes of waiting (AT LEAST) for every booked taxi

    • 1 Covid test with unbelievable sanitation conditions and results that travelled across the whole country

    • 150 harassing messages to reach our goals (this is the only way)

    • 100 less hair/person from pulling them out

  • 1 iced AND non drinkable bottle of water, not digested at all by Anouck, followed by

  • 1 hotel with all the staff panicking and wearing masks (for once), thinking she caught Covid19

  • 15 minutes of helicopter flight on top of the Victoria Falls

  • 1 public presentation at the church

  • 20 nshimas eaten with our hands

  • 1 handful of habitual cockroaches

  • 2 babies carried the African way


Method (overview):

  • NAKONDE

Acclimatization phase (customs, local currency, food)


  • LUSAKA

Visit of the national museum retracing the country's history


  • KATETE

Voluntering in an NGO fighting poverty (article available HERE)

Immersion in the local life (bicycles-taxis, meals, church)


  • LIVINGSTONE

Helicopter flight over the Victoria Falls

Half-day at the site on foot


The bill (for 2): 691€


Positive feedback:

  • The possibility to learn and exchange culturally

  • The locals' kindness

  • Zero feeling of oppression

  • Country off the beaten tracks, so very authentic

Negative feedback:

  • A life paced by the many power failures

  • The never-ending lies concerning the delays


To go further and read the recipe's full details, click HERE !

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