Day 22 - Into Zambia

Pretty straightforward day moving from Mbeya in Tanzania to 250 inside Zambia. No competitive sections to worry us or put more stress on the cars. 

So it was a 70km drive to the border. I've enjoyed Tanzania, always pretty, sometimes beautiful and occasionally stunning. The people are justifiably proud of their country and always welcoming. I feel for many of them though as we have driven through the outlying parts. So many seem to have so little; a roof, (usually in a cabin or village hut) a bed, food most of the time and a basic to reasonable education if you're lucky. Its getting better but still very primitive a few miles from each city. 

The border with Zambia was chaotic to say the least. Firstly, we had to negotiate a 1 mile queue of trucks on a 2 lane road with traffic coming into Tanzania along the lane that we were trying to use. This meant driving on the unofficial dirt track 'third lane' running parallel which was like a 4x4 training track of ups and down 30 degree slopes and a water splash. Some intrepid motorcyclists used this coming towards us, playing chicken on their Fochu machines (not sure the make will catch on in the UK). 

Busy border crossing from Tanzania to Zambia on day 22

The border crossing was the usual argy-bargy of queue's and paperwork and we were fortunate to have good 'fixers' to ease the way, pointing us from one desk to the next and telling us what documents we needed. Meanwhile, cars and lorries try to push their way through a single track road which is the border crossing, squeezing and pushing as far as they can until it is totally blocked whereupon a policeman comes out and shouts at everyone until some movement is possible - never at more than walking pace. We also spotted a number of prestige UK registered cars on a car park at the back of the border crossing buildings. As the recent countries we have passed through drive on the left like the UK, there is probably a good market for stolen UK cars coming into Africa. 

Tomorrow we have a 6 hour drive towards Lusaka and one competitive gravel section on the way. 

There has been some grumblings about running orders lately. In the stage events, I am more familiar with the seeding of cars into order is decided on how fast a crew is. If done correctly, this should avoid a car catching up another And trying to pass. In dry conditions, the dust will make the problem much more dangerous as visibility can go down to just a few yards. 

On this event seeding of the daily running order is not based on speed like a stage event but on position on any particular day. So if you pick up penalties due to a breakdown, you drop down the start list. This has been causing problems with faster cars overtaking slower cars in dangerous dusty conditions. So exceptions are made. The 911 was allowed to run at the front. Andy the current leader was quite happy as the 911 is so fast he won't him catch him and be delayed by dust. We do tend to catch Andy up though on some sections and have done so 3 times in a few days. Not only does it delay us but it is dangerous. For instance, we broke Andy's windscreen when we passed him yesterday throwing up stones and it is tempting to leave insufficient room to squeeze through when the 'red mist' has descended. There has been inconsistency from the organisers on this and cars have been put the early starting list only to be moved back down the next day. 

Massive thunderstorm this evening so we might be ín for some wet weather and dust will obviously not be a problem.