We drive slowly up the main street of Mongu looking for a garage. We spot a car up on ramps made of two oil cans and planks of wood so pull in. A guy slides out from underneath and we explain about the clang on every bump… he tells us to drive round the next building where four men jump out a broken down mini bus. The mini bus has no windows but is obviously where someone lives. A guy wearing a beany walks over and offers to have a look for us.

10mins later the car is up on its jack and one wheel is off, its immediately apparent that a rubber bit (we have since found out its called a suspension bumper/dampener) which stops the axel hitting the underside of a the car is worn out.

Beany man starts to remove it so he can go find a replacement… it took a long time. The boys started playing (in the sand) with some local children that had appeared to watch. As it got hotter and hotter we waited until the part was finally off. Husband and the boys followed beany man to go buy the part whilst me and Baby Blue waited with the car. Sometime later they returned without the part required but instead with two brake pads, nowhere in Mongu seemed to sell the part. Brake pads where fitted and wire wrapped around what was left of the rubber part. The second back wheel also had the same issue so more wire was used to patch it and its pad also replaced. The boys had now moved to playing in a stripped car whilst I taught some of the local kids hopscotch.

Two hours later in a car which had stop clanging (for the time being) we set off south and finally got an unbroken view of the flood plains.

On the road we pulled in every auto part shop we saw but no one had the part so kept going till we reached Senanga. Here we stopped for lunch with our first views of the impressive Zambezi river.

Not long after Senanga we crossed the mighty river on a pontoon ferry! Whilst the rest of us took in the river views Middle Man was fascinated by the steam engines which were extra noisy due to the lack of casing. Getting on and off the ferry was a tricky maneuver as the ramp was missing a section just a bit smaller than the width of the car. It’s OK though because builder obsessed middle man announces “I will fix it later”.

Next stop was Ngonye Falls which was a short walk over some very hot sand in very hot sun. Although the boys were unimpressed with the falls it was worth stopping to see the Zambezi thunder down these series of rapids.  The boys were more fascinated in the guy stood at the water edge fishing. They didn’t understand why we wouldn’t let them climb down to the rapid edge to join in. In the end the promise of a fishing trip convinced them to join us on the walk back.

Outside the little visitor centers were some skulls of local animals, Lego Boy was slightly disappointed to learn that the massive one didn’t belong to a dinosaur but actually an elephant. Both were impressed with the number of teeth in the crocodiles skull.

Soon we reached the turn off to our campsite and were hoping for descendant showers! Kabula Lodge was a stunning spot, right on the Zambezi! The outdoor showers felt like hevan as we washed away two days of traveling filth!

It was definitely low season as there was only one other couple on the whole site and the bar wasn’t manned but never the less it was a great place for first time setting up the tent! We had limited supplies and were desperately low on drinks so hoped to find someone to serve from the bar in the morning.

We managed to beg a small bottle of water from the other couple, made up Middle Mans milk and settled the boys down to the first night camping under African sky.