Dispatch 41 - BSA Expedition Completes Zambian Leg

Zambia always proves a great adventure - it's the friendly manner of the people, the smiles, and once you've crossed the Zambezi - that going orth into Central Africa feel - that adds to any adventure. As our adventure to link 2 oceans, 7 Transfrontier Conservation Areas and 9 countries unfolds, we are forever mindful of how important for future generations this journey could become, the opportunity to link nature, culture and community in a single journey from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic. Garmin/Garmap are mapping out the journey in the hope that this could become one of the world's greatest adventure routes. The Victoria Falls are in full flood. We camp at the waterfront - it's chock-a-block and the city of Livingstone is buzzing. It's good to see how tourism in Zambia is pumping, whilst sadly on the other side of the river in Zimbabwe, tourism is comparatively quiet, something that we sense is about to change, Zim is still great value, the people are delightful and one way that we adventure travellers can help is by visiting - that's the only way that people that are hanging on in tourism will survive and keep people employed.

Our Zambian journey takes us from Livingstone through Mosi ao Tunya National Park, to the Old Drift cemetery where a number of early settlers expired from malaria and black water fever.

Now the Zambezi, our favourite river, is on our left as we head upstream. In our lives we've had the privilege of following most of Africa's great rivers - the Congo, Rufiji, Rovuma, the Nile, Niger and others. But for us the most beautiful remains the Zambezi on which we've spent years of our lives - from the mouth to the source and the source to the mouth, journeys by inflatable boat in the footsteps of Dr David Livingstone, who with his Makololo porters followed the river to the sea and in a later expedition attempted to prove that the river was navigatable all the way from the mouth to the Batoko Gorge at the base of the Victoria Falls which he had named after his regent queen. The Caborra Bassa rapids turned him back and sadly Mary Livingstone, his wife who'd had such a hard life died from malaria and was buried under a baobab tree at Chupanga on the Southern bank of the Zambezi. Wherever possible on this Boundless Expedition we camp on the banks of the great river. The sunsets, white sand beaches, the grunting of hippos, elephants coming down to drink, fishermen in dugout canoes, drums and marimbas at night.

The two overloaded expedition Land Rover Discovery 3's lead the rest of the expedition Land Rover convoy through the immense Sioma Ngwezi National Park. It's a beautiful pristine area that sadly has suffered greatly from poaching and logging, but now there's hope. The Peace Parks Foundation and the governments of Zambia, Namibia (the Caprivi area) and Angola have got involved to ensure that this area becomes a functioning part of the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area, especially to ensure the safe movement of large herds of elephant and other game between the three countries.

Hour after hour along high middel-mannetjie sand tracks and then down to the banks of the flooded Kwando where entire villages have been swallowed by the river and where the thick black gooey mud track destroys the myth that Land Rover Discoveries are only for boulevard cruising or a mom's taxi.

We meet a tsetse fly control team who lend us a banana boat to cross to Angola where we add some water to the calabash and sign the Boundless Southern Africa Scroll we are carrying across Africa. "It's a bit dangerous," whispers the guide, "there's still some unexploded landmines, you have to know where you're going - the tough war years are over now but we still remember when Savimbe and his Unita Forces would come across to kill and rape and take young men to join their forces." The challenge for the future is that this beautiful area becomes fully functional as part of a Transfrontier Peace Park and that the village communities prosper from wildlife adventure tourism - the area is unbelievably beautiful, the potential is Boundless. We get turned back by the flood waters and using our Garmin GPSs and paper maps we work out a route to the Ngonya Falls discovered by Dr David Livingstone two months before he discovered the Victoria Falls, their big brother downstream. The Ngonya Falls are magnificent - white sand beaches that squeak underfoot, the roar of the cascading water, a small community ferry boat and campsite. The stretch of Zambezi River water below the falls has stolen many hearts as Hans Christian Aaskov, a colourful Danish character who used to work at the embassy in Lusaka, has found out. He's built a beautiful lodge called Sioma Camp where 4x4 adventurers can set up camp or stay in his well-appointed tents. He meets us on the road and insists that we come in for a Captain Morgan. "I've been waiting for you to arrive and have kept a bottle aside." Hans like so many others in this region is committed to be part of one of the most beautiful areas in the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area. We stand at his hand-carved wooden bar and he writes this message in the leather bound book that we call the Expedition Scroll:

"To Kingsley and the Boundless team, all the best to your team, this expedition and its catalyst function of Peace Parks in Southern Africa. Marketing the parks and the significance of wildlife-based tourism can do a lot to conserve wildlife and support community development. In my view wildlife related tourism with a strong community link can be the most important poverty reduction / livelihood improvement tool in poor rural areas. And for my area - the Sioma Ngwezi National Park, the surrounding game management area all the way up to Liuwa Plain National Park - it could easily be a wildlife destination among the top three of the world (Africa). It has a huge potential. Let's unleash that potential for the benefit of people and wildlife."

Springbok rugby player Gavin Johnston and his wife Penny host a community day at Kalobolelwa near their lodge at Matemwu - Gavin is close friends with the king of Barotseland with whom they also have a lodge at beautiful Mazeba Bay. The Boundless Soccer Challenge kicks off, there's a Grindrod trophy, Hugh Roe and his team of volunteers from British American Tobacco are back with the expedition main party, having just completed an incredible journey through the Kafue National Park and on through Barotseland via Mongu and the ferry across the flooded river at Senanga. They judge the man-of-the-match competition, Flip Nel from Peace Parks and Sioma Park manager Moses Mufaya help with the wildlife quiz with school children in which we use a poster to identify the animals of the park. The enthusiasm is wonderful - it's all about linking nature, culture and community for which Gavin Johnston is a wonderful ambassador. The school headmaster Mr Charles Mandandi adds these words to the Boundless Southern Africa Expedition Scroll we are carrying across Africa:

"On behalf of the community of Kalobolelwa, I wish to register our sincere gratitude for your visit, the donations to the winning team and the school, the library books, sporting equipment, goal posts and nets, and the football cap. This indeed will help us treasure nature conservation and to live in harmony with nature."

The winning soccer team add their signatures, there are already thousands of messages. Peace Parks facilitator Flip Nel scribbles these words:

"To Kingsley and the team of Boundless Expedition, Thank you so much for your visit to Sioma Ngwezi and Ngonye Falls National Park, and the message of goodwill and hope you have brought to the people of the area. With contributions and efforts like this the area will also soon be on the 'map' as part of the Great Kaza Transfrontier Conservation Area. 'Wild' Africa is in our blood and we all want to save it for generations to come. Good luck for the rest of your trip of Peace and Goodwill."

And so our long line of expedition Land Rovers head South, still following the Zambezi, to cross the border into Namibia's Caprivi strip. Zambia as always has proved a great adventure.