The Zambian driving adventure

As Jon and I have done the majority of the driving since arriving, I’ve already gained a fair bit of 4x4 experience, so I thought I’d take this opportunity to talk about driving in Zambia. I’ve already mentioned my run in with the Zambian traffic police on my first day of driving, but since then I’ve not had any more brushes with the law, and in any case as you get more into the rural areas, the number of police roadblocks dwindles, however the number of potholes increases, and the roads to the villages are quite a challenge, especially at night. The last couple of weeks have involved travelling along some of the worst roads, I have driven along in my life. Large holes in the road, boulders. The task of the driver is to try and get a compromise between travelling slow enough so that the vehicle stays in one piece and the passengers are not thrown about too much (that said, Mark has the ability to sleep on the most bumpy of roads) and fast enough that you actually get somewhere this year. Night driving is even more challenging, not only because of the dark but also dodging various animals such as goats, rabbits, owls, bats, etc.

Last Tuesday, I drove back to Chingola from Mibila to collect Ruth, who was coming a day late due to having to do some work for the conference we’ll hold next month. After coming off the main Solwezi Road, it is only another 20kms to Mibila, however this can take around 45 minutes, and in the rainy season this road can at times be impassable. After passing the small bridge over a stream, we got stuck in some mud, which had been chucked onto the road, while farmers had been clearing a ditch for irrigation. After a few attempts to drive out forwards or reversing, it became clear that the vehicle was just sinking deeper into the mud. A farmer tried to help using a big stick, and after this didn’t work, I asked if a spade was available. He came back with a spade, and after removing most of the mud, I tried again, but with similar results. We would have to wait for more passers by to come and help push the car. Eventually some people did come by, and we managed to reverse the car out of the mud. The next task was to build a road on top of the mud, using some rocks, sticks and some larger branches. Our temporary road surface did the job, and we were on our way after nearly 2 hours! Not 10 minutes further down the road however, we encountered the next problem – The road on fire. At this time of year, much of the land is being burned, and on this occasion the fire had spread onto the road. With flames half a metre high, I didn’t want to risk a film stunt drive through the fire, so we put out the fire, and then got back in the car very quickly as the fire on the side of the road, was getting very hot.

Photo1: Failing to dig way out of mud Photo2: Putting out fire in road

The other thing I should mention is that while the cars drive on the left over here as in the UK, the bicycles drive on the right. Yes that’s right, so the slightly strange site of people riding their bikes in the opposing direction was slightly unnerving at first, but now just seems normal. Many people will know that when walking along country lanes the correct procedure is to face oncoming traffic, so you can be aware of it, and be able to take action if necessary. It would also seem that this principle has been taken a stage further here to cyclists. And in Zambia, most cannot afford motorised transport, so they will carry anything and everything on their bikes, including crops that villagers will try to sell at markets, building materials and on occasion furniture even! So as you can see, driving here is full of excitement! – But please keep praying for our safety when travelling.

This week it's been a bit less hectic, with the team back in Chingola. Today, everything was closed and a national holiday due to the funeral of Zambia’s former president, so the town was eerily quiet. Later this week the team head off for a break for a few days, going to game reserves, as well as picking up our final team member Jo, who arrives next Wednesday.