Hi guys

I need a road map of zambia. Im driving to luanga valley due to cancelation of flight from lusaka to mvuye.Any places to sleep between lusaka and chipata where there is a tv that i can watch the final off the rugby.

Thanks
Luan

Here is a rough one:

http://www.hunt-africa.com/images/zambia_map.jpg

Thank you mouse it helped a bit.Anymore info from anybody will be helpfull.

Luan

Not too many places with DSTV between Lusaka and Chipata! Try the Atlas Southern and East African road map book or the AA maps which you can buy at any AA branch in RSA.

Lusaka to Mfuwe will be your best bet, then on to Chipata. Happy driving!

From: http://www.zambia-travel-guide.com/bradt_guide.asp?bradt=173

The Great East Road


The Great East Road leads from Lusaka to Chipata, the Luangwa's 'gateway'. That is about 570km of tar which is good in places, and potholed in others. It's a long drive. Hitchhiking is possible, though even leaving Lusaka early in the morning might not get you to Chipata by evening. Buses leave Lusaka for Chipata frequently, from early morning through to late afternoon, and take 10–12 hours. Expect them to cost around Kw13,000.

There's relatively little en route, and just beyond Chipata is the little–visited town of Lundazi, notable mainly for its anachronistic castle.

Luangwa River area

There's one place to stay on the west bank of the Luangwa River, close to the Great East Road. It's the obvious place to sleep between Lusaka and the Luangwa (or Malawi):

Bridge Camp
This camp, operating under Changa Changa Adventures, consists of a wide range of accommodation from twin and three-bunk chalets to family chalets with four beds. All the chalets are very basic: thatched roofs with windows of gauze (chicken-wire), separate ablutions and sometimes questionable electrics. There's also a bar and a small pool (which was empty when I last visited).

Activities include hiking to the confluence of the Lunsemfwa and Zambezi, followed by canoeing back the following morning; trekking in the Lunsemfwa Gorge, and fishing. Bridge Camp will probably not be the highlight of your trip, but it does make a convenient stopover.

Petauke

Little more than a dot on the map, this small town does have a campsite and a simple motel.

Where to stay


Nyika Motel
This comes recommended as a clean and safe place to stay, and as serving a decent meal of chicken and rice if requested.

Zulu's Kraal Campsite
I received news of a campsite here from its manageress, Nellars Tembo. She wrote that the camp offers campsites and a couple of simple A-frame chalets, each sleeping four people. Hot showers and a fully equipped kitchen are also available for campers to use. Perhaps this is just the place for breaking the long journey from Lusaka to the Luangwa Valley?

Katete

This is another fairly nondescript town on the way to Chipata from Lusaka. Katete is home to a large mosque, a useful BP filling station and half a dozen grocery shops. There's also a Smart Choice Restaurant and Takeaway, a Catholic church on the southern side of the road at the western end of town and, perhaps of most interest to travellers, a couple of small resthouses, including, on the north side of Katete a couple of kilometres from the centre, the basic Tikandone Guest House.

Luan,

If it's of any use to you, I have a Garmin 60CSX you can borrow. I don't have the Southern African CD but you can buy them in Nelspruit and I think that if you download that to the unit, it should give you everything you need..... you're quite welcome to borrow it if you need to........ and if you're short of time, I can probably drop it off to you.

Not as cheap as a map though!

Let me know if you need it.

Mouse

Thanks very much for all the info.Its very usefull.

Shakari
Wife and friends think im totally crazy but hey what a great way to see some old places i havent been in a long time.I have a gps with all the info thx for that.Im just waiting for my brother his in mozambique fishing for marlin so i have three days to organize everything.
My friend in chipata said he drive from lusaka to chipata yesterday it tooked him 6 hours. I wanna leave friday and sleep in kasane then saturday in chipata hope t work out.

Luan

Damn, but I wish I were going with you! - Have a great time!

Shakari

I hope you are packed we leaving friday morning 10 oclock im getting the drinks and meat.

Luan

Hi Luan

That is quite a trip you are planning. Is it ONLY yourself and brother whom with be going ...

What vehicle are you chaps travelling in.

Which route do you propose to travel ex: Lydenburg through SA to Bots /

Will it be the more out of the way (scenic route) through Blyde River Canyon, Tzaneen, Louis Trichardt, Alldays, to Botswan border, or a more direct route through Polokwane.

That trip through Bots is a rather brutal boring long ride to Kasane, then the pontoon trip over Zambezi to Livingstone is cool, and onwards through Choma to Lusaka.

I dont know if you guys are on a fast as possible mission to just get there or will you be stopping off at periodic intervals to take in the adventure so to speak.

If you are not hell bent on getting there in the fastest possible time, then you might consider a stop over in Livingstone to see the crocodile farm that is owned by Joe Brooks.

Joe is a wonderful character ex: Scotland whom has lived in Zambia for over 58 years and has just had a book published of his life/days long ago crocodile hunting and other game adventures in Zambia.

If Joe is not at the Livingstone Croc farm you can very likely catch up with him at his other Farm come Chalet accommodation in Choma. It is worth a visit just to talk to Joe, if you are interested I can give you his contact, mention Peter Bird from Dendro Park Ranch fame sent you (-:

(Report from another traveller) ....

Our last update finished on the Zambian side of the Victoria Falls. We headed north (to actually end up going south), and found ourselves in Choma for two nights where me met the irrepressible and adventourous Joe MacGregor Brooks. A mere 78 years old, this gent plays volleyball every night with the local teenagers. He also catches crocodiles in his spare time and currently has fourteen in a pen in his backyard.

Alan felt right at home with this easy-going Scot, who has the most fascinating stories to tell of his time as a Game Ranger at the time Kariba was filling up with water. For example he told us of when he had had to track and shoot a troublesome elephant... he laid his rifle next to the elephant, got out his camera on a little tripod, set up the timer and ran to stand next to his rifle - then the very angry elephant, who was not at all dead, got up! If you are ever in the area of Choma, stop off and visit Joe at Gwembe Safaris.


(excerpt from Jan 2007 interview) with Joe

Today, 78-year-old Bo'ness born crocodile hunter Joe Brooks talks about his extraordinary life in Zambia, where he has lived for the last 50 years. Joe was just 26 when the call of the wild drew him to the African bush to try his hand as a game warden and hunter. And despite being one of the world's oldest croc hunters, he insists he has no plans to hang up his trusty harpoon yet.

TO the rest of the world, they are 20-foot long and 2000lbs of teeth and terror. Infamous as a dangerous and cunning predator, the crocodile is one of the most feared animals on earth. But to Joe Brooks, from Bo'ness in West Lothian, they are just the big, grumpy but beloved pets that have been part of his every working day since he left Scotland 52 years ago and set up life in the African bush as a game warden and hunter. At the age of 78, the Scot is possibly the world's oldest professional crocodile hunter.
================================================

This is the book I mention for those with any interest, those in USA can get it from Safari Press.

Those in South Africa can also get it locally from Netbooks Cape Town I understand, let me know if you need a contact, it will cost ZAR 999.00

SIATWINDA

The Autobiography of J. McGregor Brooks, Fifty Years of Hunting Problem Elephant—Buffalo, and Crocodile in the Zambezi Valley of Zambia
Brooks, Joe (with Ashly L. Palles)

Ltd. edn. of 1,000 signed, numbered, & slipcased copies. USD $ 65.00 (Not Sold in Bookstores)

New! Available November 2008

In 1962 Elizabeth Balneaves wrote a book about the life of Zambia Problem Animal Control Officer Joe McGregor Brooks. Obviously, a lot had happened between 1962 and 1992, so Brooks wrote his own book with the help of Ashly Palles. Here then is the story of an elephant control officer in Zambia as well as a PH, crocodile hunter, crocodile breeder, and, in general, an adventuresome individual.

It is true that biographies of professional hunters are many, and only the good stories stand out, but this is a good story. In the beginning of his career, Joe met “Crazy Mack†who took him along hunting for crocs in a leaky boat and showed Joe the ropes of elephant hunting. Mack was a Scot who walked around in a roughly woven woolen kilt and was slightly odd because of his traumatic experiences in WW II. His career launched, Brooks went from ridding a village of a man-killing elephant to shooting two crop-raiding pachyderms with one shot. Crocodiles were of great interest to Brooks, and he hunted some outsized monsters including one that went over twenty feet. On another occasion, Brooks was asked to dislodge a long-since dead elephant carcass from a river. As he pulled the body out of the water with his vehicle, several people jumped on it to float along . . . that is till the carcass turned over and everybody fell in among the crocs that were following their meal!

Brooks's lifetime of being in the wilds of Africa has yielded some interesting stories, and this well-written account is a very worthwhile read. Joe Brooks still lives in Zambia today, and if you are lucky, you can see him if you visit his crocodile farm in Choma and Livingstone.

All questions welcome

Cheers, Peter

Peter

We going thru botswana and trying to sleep over in kasane.My brother just phoned from inhambane they on the way they got two marlins and one saily in two days.We leaving friday morning early and sleeping over in kasane then leaving early for chipata so the stops we wanna make arent going to be long.We driving a toyota double cab diesel4*4.Sunday we leaving for the valley until next friday then we of to kariba and heading home again.

Any other info will be helpful police road blocks and speeding tickets and how the road condition are.

Luan

luan

I have not personally travelled that route for about 7 years now, but if you want a recent update on potential issues give my sister in law Jessie Bird a phone call in Louis Trichardt as she and my brother know the route well from RSA through Bots to Livingstone Chomo on to Lusaka, not beyond Lusaka unfortunately.

Drop me an email asking for the phone number contact for Jessie as she is possibly out with a hunting group at her SA ranch for the next few days or so. I live in New Zealand.

peterb@sable-sands.com

The road in Bots from Nata to Kisane is really bad with potholes so be prepared for some slower driving on that section.

A good few years ago when i was an appy/camp maanger in Zambia the diff on my landcruiser packed in about 10kms from Joes place, lucky for me his workshop was able to fix it and i got to spend two days with Joe. His stories were amazing and the pair of tusks in his lounge are unbelievable, some of his old photos of game were incredible. The down side was that i got to hear all about the "good old days" and what it used to be like!

I look forward to reading his book.Thanks for that info Peter