August 20th - Day 17

A fast, fairly featureless drive of just under 600 kms across north western Botswana to cross the border into Zambia and the Victoria Falls. That's what we have done today, but not without quite a drama at the border.
The Zambezi river divides the two countries and a ferry carries cars, trucks and passengers across. Our problem was that there was only one of the two ferries running at the time. The first time the ferry loaded after we arrived it was completely filled with just one of the enormous articulated trucks waiting with us.

Jim Taylor with his Landcruiser in the queue waiting for the ferry over the Zambezi

David Harris and Rosalie Gatsonides on the ferry across the Zambezi.

So a long wait followed, that is until Joanna Brown and Ursula 'negotiated' with the supervisor loading the ferry to allow it to be completely loaded with our cars. The trip across took ten minutes and after the usual bureaucracy at customs and immigration we entered Zambia. The fifth country of the tour.

We drove the 70 kms to the Royal Livingstone Hotel, which is just above the falls, in forty minutes. After a quick change we took the fifteen minute walk to the Falls.

The magnificent Victoria Falls from the Zambian side

Because it is winter the flow of water is considerably less than in the summer wet season. Even though the water flow was down, the falls are a fantastic sight.

Tonight Mark I'Anson's co-driver David Liddell, as well as his two daughters leave us. They are replaced by his wife, son and another daughter. Terence English has the wife of a colleague joining him for the second half of the tour. We have now covered 50% of the total distance, 5,650 kms.

Tomorrow we make a change to the planned route by only going as far as the Chobe National Park, about 30 kms back into Botswana, where we are staying at the Chobe Game Lodge. The tour meanwhile goes from the Victoria Falls to Maun, a town on the edge of the Okavango Delta. They will stay there for two nights whereas we will arrive on Monday and stay for one night only.