A DAY IN LUSAKA

LUSAKA.... Civilisation! At last.....


I can hardly believe the enormous difference between Lusaka and rural Zambia. It is another planet.... Imagine this, a few hours ago, I was leaving our bush camp passing mud huts where pigs and chicken were running between the half naked children and here I am sitting in a 21 century modern air conditioned shopping mall enjoying a perfectly foamed cappuccino at one of the many South African owned restaurants.... All this in 4 hours of cycling...
I did very well by the way today. I was in such a hurry to get back to civilization that I had my best ride of the tour. I left camp early and made it to lunch in 4th position. I did the 104 km in just over 3,5 hours and that even included a miss of the finish line resulting in an extra 10 km. I was in my hotel room before 10h00 am, just as I had planned. We have a rest day tomorrow, so making it so early is almost like 2 rest days...

When I see the opulence here in Lusaka contrasting so much with what we have witnessed crossing north east Zambia, I can understand why Africa has a huge migration from rural to urban regions. I can imagine what must go through the mind of people arriving in Lusaka after spending their lives in the bush... Unfortunately, the dream is often short lived for these poor farmers who end up in townships, often abused by city gangsters who are far more street wise than they are.

Arriving in Lusaka was like making it to an oasis in the desert.... This is now the very first time we have access to unlimited supply of Western luxuries. Cinemas, Italian ice creams, even Roquefort cheese and salamis available on the shelves here.... 3 months of crossing Africa on a bicycle has taught us to leave aside our dependence on these goods that we normally take for granted, but now it feels like Christmas has arrived... I filled a supermarket trolley and quickly realised it was stupid as I have only very limited space in my locker and in 2 days I will be back in bush camp mode, so I started to offload my trolley back on the supermarket shelves. I still kept the Italian salami and a bottle of wine which I rushed to enjoy in my hotel room... It was only 11h00 am... but who cares...

There are two big modern shopping malls here in Lusaka and if you did not know, you could be in South Africa. Every shop is a South African chain and even all the South African banks are here. So, at the moment on the continent, it is China building roads and South Africa opening shops it seems. Even the menus of the restaurants are exactly the same as the one we get in Johannesburg...

So, I am going to treat myself to a movie, have an Italian ice cream and wrap this up with a meal at the "Ocean basket" a famous South African fish chain restaurant. Oh... and I forgot to mention the Martini at Rhapsody's....