Zambian BBQ

Back in Lusaka we got invited along to a BBQ to celebrate the birthday of Charles and David. Charles works with my Dad at Christian Voice in Zambia... David is his nephew and they share the same birthday. Here are some of the photos from the day...

Boat Trip

In the evening we took a slow cruise up the Zambezi river to watch the sunset... the boat was called the African Queen and I got some awesome photos... check these out ;-)

Tiger Fish

Now does anyone know which fresh water fish has the strongest fight in the world?.. yes that's right the TIGER FISH. Native to the waters of the Zambezi it was an opportunity to good to to be missed therefore I got up bright and early and headed up river to hunt me a Tiger.

I didn't get a single bight for three hours - however I didn't mind too much; cold beer in hand I just kicked back and took in the scenery. Then suddenly I caught two fish back to back... the first being a Bream (nice to eat)... and the second the legendary Tiger Fish! It gave a decent fight on the line but I manged to land it.

The highlight of the day was watching a female Fish Eagle (the Zambian national bird)... swoop down and snatch a fish right out of the water. I managed to capture this awesome moment on film!

The Mighty Zambezi

A trip to Victoria Falls is not complete without a trip down the Mighty Zambezi river. At this time of year its in High Water and extremely powerful - therefore the boat of choice... White Water Rafting! The Zambezi is a mad river, full of large rapids (grade 5) which are just crying out to be ridden. Pete and I joinedA trip to Victoria Falls is not complete without a trip down the Mighty Zambezi river. At this time of year its in High Water and extremely powerful - therefore the boat of choice... White Water Rafting! The Zambezi is a mad river, full up with a group of others who were also in search of adventure on the rapids and booked in for a days rafting with some local guides.

I'd been rafting before in the French Alps; however that was quite tame and only a couple of people fell in... the Zambezi on the other hand is completely mental and took every opportunity to sallow us up, churn us around and then spit us out. We had two complete flips at rapids called Terminator 2 and Oblivion... which to our delight was captured on film.

Mosi-oa-Tunya

'The Smoke that Thunders' - this the name given to Victoria Falls by the locals. I've loved spending three incredible days at this beautiful awe inspiring location. At this time of year there the Zambezi river which feeds the falls is very high, causing A LOT of water to pour over and create large clouds of vapor which then rain down as you take in the awesome sight. The noise of the falls sounds like the roar of an engine which increases to the point of deafening when standing directly opposite - you have to shout to on another just to be heard.

There's a permanent rainbow over the falls due to the year round sunshine and clouds of water vapor... at some places this turns into a complete 360 degree circle due the amount to water in the air. At certain points during the year there's even whats known as the lunar rainbow - this is a rainbow that appears at night, illuminated by the moon!

We are staying at the Zambezi Sun which as so close to the falls a drop of water vapor hits you as you walk around. In the evening you completely understand why the locals call it 'The Smoke that Thunders' as the clouds of vapor appear dark against the twilight sky.

Lusaka

I've spent the last couple of days in Lusaka, Zambia's capital city. Its here where my Mum & Dad are spending a lot of there time... Christian Vision the charity which they work for have a farm here which is HUGE... It takes about 40 mins just to drive from one end to the other! On the farm there is a school, bible college and radio station. There's quite a few local families who live and work on the farm. There's loads of kids everywhere and as you walk they follow you around hiding behind trees and bushes!

The bible college is for training up church planters who are then sent off into rural Zambia to make disciples. The radio station broadcasts on FM into Lusaka and on short-wave to the rest of the country. The content is very evangelistic and aimed at sharing the gospel with as many people as possible... Christian Visions vision is to touch a billion people across the world with the gospel. Its awesome to see this in action first hand especially watching my Mum & Dad in their element!


On Tuesday morning we leave early to travel out to Livingston to spend 3 days at Victoria Falls. In true Zambian style we're traveling by bus (no aircon and NO TOILET!)... a six hour journey, the bus will be packed with locals so its going to be quite an experience. The country is very poor so there's not many cars (the roads have big potholes in so only 4x4 can travel around anyway!) This means most local people travel by bus or walk... you'll also often see many a Zambian packed into the back of a battered pick-up truck. The people are very friendly and are always smiling; they even wave as you pass by... just like London then?!
Below is a photo of the small house my Mum & Dad live in when in Zambia... lots of scorpions and spiders running around!

Catch of the Day

On Thursday I was booked to go diving with Great White sharks... however to my disappointment the trip was canceled at the last minute due to bad weather. Instead we decided to visit Cape Town's botanical gardens which are on the southern side of Table Mountain. There's a lot more rainfall on the Southern side which gives the landscape a tropical jungle feel. If you compare this photo with my trip up table mountain earlier in the week then you'll clearly see the difference.

Once on the opposite side of Table Mountain I took the opportunity to visit Camps Bay & Clifton. This is where the rich and famous buy property overlooking the seafront and beaches. The wind here in the winter is often gale force and as you can see it has quite an effect on the trees... its not called the Cape of Storms for nothing!

On Friday we went on a fishing trip to hunt down the famous yellow fin tuna. These fish start at about 10kg and can grow over 100kg! The weather was not great following a cold front that had moved in over night... however we decided to go for it anyway and started out at 5am. Yellow fin tuna hunt in very deep water, therefore we had to drive out 30 miles off the coast which took a couple of hours through rough water. Once out there I caught a 60kg Yellow fin which put up quite a good fight for half an hour... now its in my belly ;-)