So on the bus to Livingstone it's like a dose of déjà vu let alone the fact it's actually raining, guess I've caught the start of the wet season. The bus is showing a film I've already seen on another journey and we meet a bunch of cows casually strolling by the side of the road. This time the driver decides to avoid them rather than spread one all over the front of the bus.
The journey as a whole goes pretty smoothly, there is diddly squat room in the seats so I'm glad when the person next time gets off so I can stretch abit. We arrive at Katima Mulilo at about 8am which is the Namibian border town just across the Zambezi river from Zambia. A 4x4 has just pulled along side and loaded up a dozen cases of sunflower oil onto the bus, weird, I'd be surprised if there was a shortage in Zambia. Now here comes a shed load of beer from the same vehicle. Maybe someone is trying to smuggle alcohol and cooking oil over the border.
Crossing the border into Zam was a diddle, there so much more laid back than the SA border posts. Form and stamp at the Namib side then walk over and sign the book, get a visa at the Zam side. Entering Zambia you feel like your in the real Africa, there's no computers or signposts or anything modern to be seen. I have to search around for the Immigration office amongst the dodgy money exchangers and border guards casually resting their head on the barrel of an ancient rifle. The office I'm looking for is a glorified hut amongst the various caravans and shacks that form the border offices. The lady asks me to sign a book (it's exactly like signing in to visit a school or something) and she then stamps something illegible in my passport which is supposedly my visa which I've just paid $50USD for. Well done for everyone so far or using as little space in my passport as possible, cramming visas ontop of visas means ill get a reasonable lifetime out of this one.
No comments:
Post a Comment