Home » Zambia » Day 0. Fri 16th April - Lusaka

Packing for this safari has been something of a nightmare, due to the whole trip having been extended by two and a half weeks, during which time I shall be staying in Malawi and helping Ken with Project African Wilderness, the project that he has set up to revitalise the Mwabvi Game Reserve. As a result, as well as the usual safari kit, I have a CD writer (plus several blank CDs), a sound card (with software), a Land Rover speedo cable, and a set of synchro disks, also for the Land Rover (delivered to Manchester Airport at the last moment by Gaynor, the UK director of the PAW project, and one of her colleagues David), 3 home-printed PAW T-shirts and a load of presents for Charlotte and the kids. My scales assure me that I am still within my weight limit, but I am glad when the lady on check-in confirms it - I believe they charge £27 per Kg for excess baggage weight.

Day 0. Fri 16th April - Lusaka

DaveMidgley
2005-10-22 09:52:35

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Packing for this safari has been something of a nightmare, due to the whole trip having been extended by two and a half weeks, during which time I shall be staying in Malawi and helping Ken with Project African Wilderness, the project that he has set up to revitalise the Mwabvi Game Reserve. As a result, as well as the usual safari kit, I have a CD writer (plus several blank CDs), a sound card (with software), a Land Rover speedo cable, and a set of synchro disks, also for the Land Rover (delivered to Manchester Airport at the last moment by Gaynor, the UK director of the PAW project, and one of her colleagues David), 3 home-printed PAW T-shirts and a load of presents for Charlotte and the kids. My scales assure me that I am still within my weight limit, but I am glad when the lady on check-in confirms it - I believe they charge £27 per Kg for excess baggage weight.

The "diginocs" are another less than successful experiment. Without detailing the whole sorry saga, I have ended up with probably the last pair of Mercury Binacom 10x magnification binoculars with built-in 1024x768 resolution digital camera in the country. I strongly suspect that they have been withdrawn by the manufacturers as they are seriously flawed in that the catch on the battery compartment is so flimsy that the batteries are apt to fly out unexpectedly and with considerable force. They also have other drawbacks, but I don't want to go to Africa with no binos at all, so I have done them up tightly with sellotape. Even if I can't get photographs, they still function as binoculars even without batteries. I shall send them back when I get home and try to convince the retailer to give me my money back.

The check-in lady at the KLM desk is very helpful, and even checks my visas for Zambia and Botswana. She also offers me an earlier flight to Amsterdam, which is fairly pointless as I shall still be catching the same flight to Nairobi, but I take it anyway just to be on my way, ...