The border to Zambia at Chirundu (which is in Zimbabwe) was not so busy, but lots of people just chilling out at immigration, seemed like it to me. “Not busy” sounds pretty promising, but it’s not that easy. Nothing was logical, so we headed for a line. Of course, it was the wrong line, but at least we got some information. Because we needed to bring our rental car into Zam, there were “extra” measures that needed to be taken into consideration. But first, we had to find the immigration officer responsible.

“He’s just outside, over there,” someone mentions to us as he points outside to an area where 20 men are hanging out, laughing and laying out in the sun. Okeeeeey, which one? We couldn’t figure that part out, so we kind of walk around aimlessly and pretended like we knew what we were doing. Finally, a very reassuring guy comes up to help us. He leads us here and there, takes our papers and tells us to stay put. He returns after a few minutes and takes us to the guards outside to have our passports and belongings checked (they also checked the car papers to make sure the car is not stolen and is insured). The guards had huge weapons and were holding it like it was an accessory while joking around with me (Thomas was getting the car) and “our guide” was there making sure nothing weird was going on. When Thomas finally drove up to us, they took our passports and one of the guards (in civilians) checked through all of our camping stuff and looked in my bag. He found my domino cards and asked what they were for. Other than that, no problems at all! After about 15 minutes with the guards, they said everything is okay and we crossed the border! But not without giving “our guide” a handsome tip.

Hellloooo Zambia!

From there, it was a fairly short drive to Lusaka, where we would return the car and where our true adventure would start. Why, you ask? Because we won’t have a car of our own and we would be back to regular backpacking and taking local transportation. Which, of course, is also an important part of what makes a trip an adventure.

What’s the difference between a tourist and a traveller? Travellers enjoy the “how to get there” just as much as the destination.