11-Oct-2015 -- This is the first out of 6 reports, describing confluence visits in Zambia and Zimbabwe. More pictures about our trip can be found here.
Again, we tried to escape Europe’s misty autumn in exchange for a sunny warm time in the southern hemisphere. We had only five days of vacation time left for this working year, but adding two weekends, we had altogether 9 days to spend for the trip. We arrived at Lusaka International Airport on Saturday afternoon at 1 PM. There we rented a 4 x 4 (Mitsubishi Challenger, 1999). After spending the first night in a camp near Lusaka, we got on the road towards Victoria Falls. On our way to the falls, this Confluence is located just 3.4 km from the main road.
An animal fence prohibited us to reach the confluence point directly by car. There were dust roads behind the fence, but we didn’t search around to find a gate for entering by car. Instead we just walked the remaining distance of 3.4 km – a good opportunity to get to know the area a bit. Most of the area has been
burnt. We passed by several huts.
The Confluence is right next to a track (that is actually drivable by car). The area around the Confluence has also burnt down lately. But I learned that such fires belong to a normal process that often happens during the dry season. While the grass burns down, the trees survive.
We returned via another route back to our car.
CP Visit Details:
- Distance to a road: 3400 m
- Distance to a track: 10 m
- Distance of car parking: 3400 m
- Time to reach the CP from the road: 40 minutes
- Time at the CP: 9:29 AM
- Measured height: 1257 m
- Minimal distance according to GPS: 0 m
- Position accuracy: 3 m
- Topography: almost flat
- Vegetation: scattered acacia trees without leaves due to the dry season. Groundcover burnt recently.
- Weather: cloudless, 25° C (felt temperature)
- Given Name: The Burnt Groundcover Confluence
The story continues at 16°S 27°E.