Departing at 20.55 hours on June 9th at Amsterdam, most of the flight to our first stop in Nairobi, Kenya took place during the night. What can I say about it? It was dark outside and most of the flight I was sleeping. After a change of planes at Jomo Kenyatta Airport in Nairobi, we ascend again for the next short stretch of our trip from Nairobi to Lilongwe, capital of Malawi. Under us, the sky is completely covered with clouds, a monotonous sight only broken by snow-capped 5895 meters high Mt Kilimanjaro rising from the plains below.

Above Malawi, the sky is more open, offering us nice views on Lake Malawi and the Rift Valley. But on the last stretch from Lilongwe to Lusaka, Zambia the sky becomes covered again and we land at Lusaka Airport under an overcast sky. Is this an omen? Will Munich repeat itself? Or is this just a temporary cloudy day? At least the temperature is fine and I'm glad to be outside the plane walking the short distance from the platform to the gate. It's 12.35 hours local time.

Immigration is, after paying US$ 40 for a double-entry visa, passed quickly and not much later we're again in the possession of our travelbags as well. Although we'll leave Zambia again the day after tomorrow, I would like to have some local currency at hand and decide to change US$ 20 for Zambian Kwacha. At the current rate this yields more than 68,000 Kwacha, quite a pile of banknotes.

point to see the notes

Outside the airport we met our driver Mick and cook Marlene, both from Australia, and their truck. And after stuffing all our baggage into the truck, we drove off to our campsite, situated a few kilometers from the airport. In the afternoon we made ourselves familiar with the tents and our fellow companions. The day ended with a traditional braai and under a dark sky with billions of stars we were happy to be back in Africa.