Zambiez Zone April 23 2014

Entering into Zambia was delightful! There are miles of lush green grasslands leaving you curious as to what kind of wild animal might pop out. I think this was just my phobia of snakes as there were never any animals that took us by surprise.  We cruised passed tons of agricultural fields with GMO signs advertising the huge crop yields.

There were many rolling hills in Zambia so lots of climbing for Justin. Not only did we have long riding days, there were also lots of hills for us to mull over. We also had the longest km day on my birthday, 181km and over 2000 meters of climbing. I will remember the day I celebrated my 30th birthday for a long time. Each grueling km!  The night of my birthday we stayed at a lodge along the river and had apple pie for dessert! My amazing friends also sent Justin over with lots of birthday goodies from Bangkok!

Although I planned to ride and meet Justin in Victoria Falls, I decided once we reached Lusaka to take the bus with him. As a rider you are aware of the big buses that fly passed you, but often to not consider that they are filled with people watching you cycle. It was great to be on the opposite side of the tracks, as on the bus we passed all of the TDA cyclists on their ride out of Lusaka. It was then that it really hit me that we are biking down an entire continent that most people bus through.

We found an amazing lodge in Livingstone owned by a retired Canadian couple. It was so nice to sleep in a bed and stay in bed passed 7am in for three days in a row. Justin and I went to visit Victoria Falls and got soaked by the mist. I also took at ride in a micro plane over the Falls in order to get a better view! It was truly spectacular.

Zambia seemed like a quick country to ride through with only 8 days on the bike, and only 5 for me. Off to the Elephant Highway in Botswana we head!