The Harts in Zambia: Hippo Lodge

Two weeks after our trip to Makambi we again ventured west towards Kafue National Park. This time we travelled with Jill and Elli and headed to Hippo Lodge which is an hour north of Ian's Exploration camp. Although only 300km and the first 200km on sealed roads - the last 100km is on a very bad road and resulted in a 7 hour epic adventure to reach our destination.

We headed off in two cars as Ian was going to stay at the camp on the way back. Despite very slow going things initially ran to schedule. We stopped off at the Blackthorne Exploration site and saw where Daddy spent most of his time when he was not in Lusaka. We were fed lunch and had a laugh at how chile sauce miraculously appeared at "the bosses" table.

Stopping only to swap electronic devices between cars we proceeded cautiously and managed to make it to within 5km of the lodge before I managed to get the car so deeply bogged in mud that there was absolutely no way out! Luckily Ian and Cameron were ahead of us and after assessing the severity of the situation decided to go to the lodge and get help. Knowing we were close to our destination - we stayed calm and Jill even got out of the car to take some photos despite the millions of tsetse flies swarming our car. We were also to find out later that I had bogged the car in close to proximity to 2 lions who had been spotted in that very spot only 1 hour before!

Much to our surprise - help arrived within 15 minutes although the assessment was not great. The car would need to be dug out which would take hours. The staff from the lodge suggested that Jessica and Elli sit in the front of the pickup they were in and Jill and I could sit in the tray and they would drive us to Hippo. We agreed with half this plan but took the girls in the back with us as there were no seatbelts and seeing the road ahead we did not want them flying through the windscreen.

The next 15minutes was possibly one of the most traumatic in our lives as we proceeded at top speed (to avoid being bogged) though massive potholes filled with mud. With Jill and I using 1 hand to hold onto the vehicle and 1 hand to hold our girls we had no spare hands to protect is from hundreds of tsetse flies who proceeded to make a meal of Jill, Elli and myself (for some lucky reason they did not bite Jess). The trip finally ended and we were greeted by a relieved Ian and Cameron.

A couple of Gin and Tonics later the tears had dried up and we went on to have a great 3 days playing board games, reading and going out for 2 trips on a very comfortable boat from which we saw hippos, elephants and lots of beautiful birds. Jessica, Cameron and Elli also caught some fish and enjoyed toasting marshmallows over the fire at night.