We woke up to a beautiful day and headed off to Livingstonia which is 20 kms from the camp around a very bad windy road with many sharp hairpins, which will take us about 90 minutes to get to the top. The plan was to travel to Livingstonia and see the museum and bell Dr Livingstone had transported from England and then come down half way and have lunch at the mushroom farm and arrive back at camp about mid afternoon all going well.
Livingstonia is situated 900 metres above our camp site with incredible views across the lake to Tanzania and is a mission dating from 1894 and established by Robert Laws, a disciple of David Livingstone.
As we exit the camp site 2 guys are making a fishing canoe out of a tree trunk
We start the journey and get spectacular views back down to our camp ground and lake
Wasn't too long before we strike the first problem with a local taxi transporting people to the local university with a flat tyre. The spare of course was flat and they had no pump so it was a waiting game until some more cars turned up with a pump, which takes about an hour to finally get fixed and we all get under way.
Given they had a dodgy car we didn't think they would make the distance and so about 10 minutes later they lost the flat tyre from under the car and then became bogged.
He backed down to take a run off and we managed to get past him given the state of the road I was sure that they would have further problems along the way .We then got about another 3 kms along the track before we got bogged going up a steep incline of mud as they had been building a new road and the construction company had wrecked the road in the progress as the locals told us. Steph was close to the edge of the road so a few helpful locals assisted with removing the mud around the tyres and pushing against the side of the car to keep it away from the edge. Was finally free and able to reverse back down the hill and start the decent back home as the mushroom farm was also closed until April. The photos show where Steph was struck on the right hand side beside the trees and the 3 helpers who helped get us out. Gave them all a couple of green meaney $2 notes which would buy them a six pack of beer each.
Further view back to the camp ground and lake on the decent down
The boys had been busy with the canoe whilst we were out. As Jan would say AWA - Africa Wins Again as neither of our plans came off today but with an adventure and a half under our belts today we came out unscathed which was excellent.
Had lunch and then an ahan a rest with some local visitors on the scrounge
Awoke and joined Jan and Willy down the beach for afternoon swim and drinks listening to Johnny Cash with spectacular views back up to the mountains where we had been today
Charcoal eye fillet streak again tonight followed by a history lesson by Willy on Dr Livingstone whilst we sat around the fire - he is a walking encyclopaedia on African history and related the story behind when Stanley found Dr Livingstone and said the legendary line " Dr Livingstone I presume"
Wasn't too long before we strike the first problem with a local taxi transporting people to the local university with a flat tyre. The spare of course was flat and they had no pump so it was a waiting game until some more cars turned up with a pump, which takes about an hour to finally get fixed and we all get under way.
No comments:
Post a Comment