At the last minute we decided we would visit Kafue National Park before we ventured back into Zimbabwe. Leaving Croc Valley in South Luangwa we made our way towards Lusaka. Once again we took the scenic route, travelling via Petauke rather than the more popular route through Chipata. It probably took us about the same time, but was a shorter distance and we did not have to deal with trucks, buses and potholes. It was a pleasant drive along a bush track through villages and over dry river beds. We stopped on the way at Luangwa Bridge Camp which is fine for an overnight stop with hot showers and free firewood but it was quite dusty.
From there we headed into Lusaka to stock up on money, fuel and food. We have been spoilt for so long now with cheap, fresh veges from the markets and reasonably priced food that it was a rude shock to venture into the supermarket and see the prices! The veges in the first supermarket we tried were terrible and expensive, as was the meat. We found reasonable products at Shoprite in the end, but the prices still hurt!
Food and money replenished we needed to find a tyre place as we had a very slow leak in one of our tyres. Finding the auto repair and spares street (Freedom Way) we picked out one of the numerous tyre shops and they proceeded to sort our tyre for us. For the total sum of $4 they took the tyre off, eventually found the hole, plugged it and put the tyre back on – definitely not worth the hassle of doing it ourselves (which we could have easily done as we have a repair kit). Our driver side mirror broke when a twig flung back and hit it so next mission was to try and find a place to replace the mirror. There are heaps of glass places there but we could not find one who could cut the mirror to size so we still have a cracked mirror.
Our tasks completed we headed out of town to Fringilla Farm for the night. This is a lovely, huge farm where you can camp for $5 each in a shaded, grassed area surround by the farm. There are hot showers and free wifi internet in reception. The farm has a restaurant, butchery (where we bought some excellent steak), I think a dairy and they make fresh bread, some of which the owner gave us to take with us and was very nice (we must be looking poor these days!) Next stop Kafue.
