A last true WILDERNESS
Tour guides and books describe Zambia as the land of waterfalls and large lakes. What is often omitted from these tales and writings, though, is that it is also the land of unknown roads; roads that lead to the most beautiful places on this continent. To see a road on a map or GPS and then physically driving it, are two different things all together, but that is precisely what makes this overlanding thing we enjoy so much so attractive and adventurous. The excitement of the unknown and the adventure that awaits you around the next turn are what inspire us to do it again and again. That was the case with Route 5, just south of Mpika, when we saw it on an old map for the first time. But wait, let us start at the beginning….
To get to South Luangwa you actually have only three choices. If you don’t want to drive via Malawi, there is the boring road via Lusaka, Chongwe and Chipata. For the more adventurous there is the better-known northern road through North Luangwa. And if you’re truly up for a challenge, the southern road via the Muchinga Escarpment and across the Mupamadzi river (over a very dodgy pole bridge) is the way to go.
I should probably mention that the latter is only open from July to the end of October or perhaps the first week in November, as the first rains make it totally impassable beyond the Munyamadzi corridor, where large black mud pans and many river crossings will stop you dead in your tracks. The black mud – commonly referred to as cotton mud – is
