The border today from Tanzania into Zambia was total chaos. Thousands and thousands and thousands of people in this little town. The queue of trucks down the road trying to cross the border would have been at least 2k’s long. We cut our way through to the border-propper and all the fun started. Dad had the documents and i stayed at the car, some local guy pointed us where we needed to go and was our personal fixer. The disorganisation and how much of a shambles was incredible. I stayed in the car slowing pushing/making my way through the border (about 500meters) without getting out. And dad walked from immigration to customs to police to immigration again. People could walk from one country to another no problems, just like i drove my way through the whole process and pulled up at a petrol station on the other side and not a single person looked at me or my car or rego. Dad popped out and said “let’s go, all done.”
Today was just a transit day, Mbeya to Mpika, Zambia. A nice tarmac road was very welcomed as we pulled out of the border, albeit it was riddled with trucks. Slow trucks are fine though, easy to recklessly overtake without any bad reproductions. But my god, the buses that come down this road! Big giant Coaches that fit like 60 people or whatever, they recklessly overtake ME! And i’m already doing 110kph. But every now and then we have to stomp on the anchors because a cluster of potholes pops up. I swear to god, if some of the little MG’s or Porsche’s stopped at the bottom of these potholes, and you took a picture you wouldn’t be able to see the wheels. These potholes can eat things, never to surface again.
One thing Zambia is better than any other country so far at: wrecking trucks. I can’t drive more than 50k’s and NOT see at least one tuck on its side. In the middle of a town, on a flat bit of road, with no potholes/speed bumps, there is a truck…. on its side. Sometimes it would just be a trailer on its side. And you can tell how long its been over for by the degree of how much has been stripped off. If the cargo is gone then it has been 1 day. If the wiring, wheels, breaks, and hubs are gone then it has been 2 days. If the only thing that remains is the chassis rails, then probably 4 days…. Maximum
James