zambezi – Chanters Lodge Livingstone

Bridge At Kazungula

Seeing is believing after all these years but this is potentially good news for Livingstone – interesting that Japan is helping with the money. We hope that if they are also doing the bridge building it’s done better than the main road from the water tower on the outskirts of Livingstone to the Falls which is hopeless and gets worse day by hot day even though the work was only completed by the Japanese two years ago! Picture is the existing form of river crossing!!!

Zambia Daily Mail

Zambia and Botswana have finally signed a loan agreement with the Japanese government to finance the construction project of Kazungula Bridge at a cost of US$124.22 million. The bridge project will be jointly financed by the Japanese government through the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the African Development Bank (AfDB). The signing ceremony which took place at the JICA headquarters in Tokyo on Friday was witnessed by Minister of Foreign Affairs Given Lubinda and Bank of Zambia Governor Michael Gondwe.

Under the agreement, JICA will provide US$41.77 million, AfDB US$78.41 million while Zambia will contribute US$1.57 million. The project comprises the construction of a new toll road, railway bridge with one stop-border post facilities and access roads at Kazungula border. Zambia’s Ambassador to Japan Mwelwa Chibesakunda signed on behalf of Zambia while Botswana’s Minister of Finance and Development Planning Ontefetse Matambo signed for the neighbouring country.

Mr Chibesakunda said the signing of the loan agreement marks another milestone in the history of the warm bilateral relations that exist between Zambia and Japan, describing the development as a significant step in regional integration.He said the bridge project which seeks to replace the current Zambezi river pontoon, will improve the efficiency of transit traffic through the Kazungula border thereby leading to increased trade activities and improvement of regional connectivity of the north-south corridor.

Mr Domichi said JICA is considering going beyond construction of the bridge to streamlining administrative processes at border posts for trade facilitation. And Mr Matambo, the Botswana Minister of Finance and Development planning, said the construction of the bridge at Kazungula will improve people’s movement between Botswana and Zambia.

16
OCT

Africa, Botswana, infrastructure, Japan, zambezi, Zambia

The Alpha Experience!

Abi Kajumba (above left) and Erin Winfield were the latest Guests at Chanters Lodge, Livingstone, Zambia, to get roped into appearing on our Sunday night radio show on Zambezi 107.7 fm, Livingstone’s leading local radio station. The show is called The Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring George da Soulchild Kaufela, and airs between 20.30 and 21.30 hrs every Sunday night – it streams live on the internet too!

Why ‘The Alpha Experience’, well Abi and Erin both work for Alpha. Erin told listeners that the Alpha course is a course which seeks to explore the basics of the Christian faith, described as “an opportunity to explore the meaning of life”. Alpha courses are currently being run in churches, homes, workplaces, prisons, universities and a wide variety of other locations. The course is being run around the world by all major Christian denominations. The girls were spending a few days in Livingstone before moving on to Lusaka to attend an Alpha training workshop at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, being attended by delegates from more than nine other African countries. They were much looking forward to the experience.

Erin originally hails from Arkansas, USA but has lived in England for the past seven years, she’s married and her husband is training for the priesthood in the Anglican church in UK. Abi is still single, has a Ugandan dad and an English mum and has spent years of her life in both countries – she described her mum as ‘brave and adventurous’ – we got the impression on the show that these girls are too, as they described the activities they’d undertaken while they were in Livingstone! They’d walked out to Livingstone Island and jumped into the Devil’s Pool, right on the edge of Victoria Falls. They’d enjoyed a sunset cruise on the Zambezi, as well as undertaking a one day safari to Chobe National Park in Botswana. They’d also taken the flight of angels in a microlight over Victoria Falls! Brave and adventurous indeed!

The music on the show was right up to date as usual – we opened with Little Mix and ‘Wings’, back to back with Fazer’s ‘Killer’. George chose hot Zambian tracks from Roberto and JK, while Milli Jam chose songs from Taio Cruz, and up and coming R&B star Jeremy Greene. Our oldie of the week was from Beyonce and Jay Z, and the prize we give every week to the first person to text us telling us who’s singing our oldie was quickly snapped up by a certain Felistus. She won a dinner for two with drinks at Chanters Lodge! We closed with Cover Drive’s latest UK hit, ‘Explode’.

Erin told listeners that her musical taste leans towards acoustic jazz as well as more popular artists such as Jason Mraz and Mumford and Sons – in terms of sport she loves to swim. Abi favours pop and gospel music and loves to play tennis. Asked where they would like to be and what they would like to be doing ten years from now. Erin said she hoped to be living and working in an Anglican parish with her husband the priest, travelling and changing lives. Abi would like to be married with children, still involved with Alpha, as well as having become a successful author of novels for children – travelling on the royalties earned! We wished them the best of luck and thanked them for appearing on the show.

7
SEP

activities, Africa, Botswana, Chanters, Chobe, education, entertainment, Lusaka, music, radioshow, religion, zambezi, Zambia

Peter Bailey and Lewis James

Meet Peter Bailey (left) and Lewis James, above, as they appeared on the Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring George da Soulchild Kaufela last Sunday night. The Experience is our regular Sunday night radio show airing from 20.30 to 21.30 hrs on Zambezi 107.7 fm, Livingstone’s leading local radio station. Peter and Lewis hail from Knysna in South Africa, a coastal town on the famous Garden Route. Peter owns a sports shop in the town and Lewis works with him. Peter has his own boat and told our listeners he goes fishing ‘eight days a week’! Peter and Lewis, with wives Pat and Julia had been spending a few days on holiday at Chanters Lodge and we were delighted to invite them on to the show as our Guests.

“When did you arrive in Livingstone?” Asked Milli Jam at the start of the show – one of his usual opening gambits. “This time or in 1948?” Was Peter’s surprise reply. Peter explained that he had been brought up in Livingstone as a young man in the 50’s – his father had come to Zambia after the war and had opened the Zambezi Bar in town – actually still open up to a couple of years ago. Peter had been educated at Hillcrest Technical Secondary School, just up the road from Chanters Lodge and had been head boy in his time. Lewis explained that it was his first visit to Zambia and told listeners that he and Julia were loving the experience, and really like Zambia and its people.

The music on the show was great, though both our Guests told us they had much more interest in fishing than they did in music! We opened with Amy Macdonald’s ‘Pride’ from her new album, coupled with Redlight’s ‘Lost In Your Love’ – charting in UK as we went on air. George featured Zambia’s Roberto with ‘Good Women’ a track from Roberto’s new album, together with EddyBoy ft Kaufela and ‘Baby x 2’. Kaufela is of course our very own George by another name! Milli Jam picked Rihanna ft Ne-Yo and ‘Hate That I Love You’ as our oldie of the week and we were happy that the prize was won – it’s given to the first person to text us telling us who’s singing the track. We also featured songs from Tyga ft Chris Brown, John Legend, Gyptian and Jan Sean ft Tyga.

“Have you managed to do any fishing while you’ve been in Zambia?” Milli Jam asked our Guests who explained that they’d had a few days in Mambova on a houseboat before they arrived at Chanters, and even that very morning had been fishing in the Zambezi quite near the Falls catching some14 fish! “Where are they?” Our DJ’s wanted to know, and Peter explained that some had been given to the wild life officers in the park, others were given to the Chanters Girls. “And being eaten right now back at the lodge I wouldn’t be surprised!” I quipped.

Asked where they would like to be and what they would like to be doing ten years’ from now, the unsurprising replies were ‘still alive and fishing’! Even though I had told them ‘fishing’ would not be an acceptable reply!

15
AUG

activities, Africa, entertainment, music, radioshow, rsa, zambezi, Zambia

The Calgary Crowd on Zambezi 107.7 fm

Actually this wasn’t the whole ‘Calgary Crowd’ who’d been staying at Chanters Lodge, Livingstone, Zambia, there were a couple more back at the lodge! They are big people and it’s quite a small studio! Meet (left to right) Julie and Dallas Mauck with Hobie Schmautz. All hail from Alberta, Canada and were visiting Zambia – and for that matter Africa – for the first time. They were a little hesitant about appearing on our regular Sunday evening radio show on Zambezi 107.7 fm – The Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient, featuring George da Soulchild Kaufela – but I twisted their arms and I believe they enjoyed ‘The Experience’ – though it was, perhaps, one of the last things they expected to do while they were visiting Livingstone and Victoria Falls!

During their visit to Zambia, apart from appearing on the radio, Julie and Dallas, married for 20 years this year and celebrating the anniversary with their stunning trip to Africa, as well as Hobie and the rest of the crowd, had taken a 30 minute helicopter flight over the Falls which they described as ‘amazing’. On their second day they’d rafted the famous Zambezi white water rapids – numbers 14-25 which are those open while there’s ‘high water’ – as it is at the moment. I asked Hobie on air if he’d enjoyed the ride and he said ‘well, yes, I did seeing I can’t swim’! The group had also ‘zip lined’ from the famous railway bridge between Zambia and Zimbabwe but had, apparently, drawn the line at bungee jumping!

The music on the show was good, we dropped Cheryl Cole’s UK number one hit ‘Call My Name’ back to back with Flo Rida’s ‘Whistle’ at the top of the show. For the Zambian part of our play list we chose Dandy Krazy’s ‘Dangana Nkupule’ as well as B’Flow’s ‘Efyo Waba featuring P-Jay. Jennifer Hudson’s ‘Spotlight’ was our ‘oldie of the week’ – listeners have to text us telling us who’s singing the track if they want to win a dinner for two with drinks at Chanters Lodge – they do and they did, so the prize was quickly won. Milli Jam featured Camp Mulla’s ‘Party Don’t Stop’ – they’re a Kenyan outfit – and for our Canadian Guests we played ‘As Long As You Love Me’ Justin Bieber’s dubstep smash, featuring Big Sean.

Julie and Dallas told listeners that they run their own business back in Calgary – it’s a quick service garage that offers complete oil and filter changes in 20 minutes for US$60. We believed them!! And so too did we believe that you can get used to -45C degree temperatures though I’m not sure I’d want to! The group also told us they’d had a great time in South Africa on safari for almost three weeks before they arrived in Zambia, and that they would be headed back for Canada the day after the show. Asked where they would like to be and what they would like to be doing in ten years’ time Julie said she and Dallas would like still to be healthy, wealthy and travelling! Hobie was ‘hoping for the best’.

Great show!

21
JUN

activities, Africa, Canada, Chanters, entertainment, music, radioshow, rsa, tourism, travel, victoriafalls, wildlife, zambezi, Zambia

Kate & Nick Minns on Zambezi 107.7 fm

We were delighted to welcome Kate and Nick Minns, pictured above, to Chanters Lodge last week, and indeed as guests on our local radio show ‘The Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring George da Soulchild’. As regular readers will know, our show goes out every Sunday night on Zambezi 107.7 fm, Livingstone’s leading local radio station, at 20.30 hrs and streams live on the internet too! It’s a locally popular show, perhaps because we give away a weekly prize of a dinner for two with drinks at Chanters Lodge to the first person texting us the correct answer to the name of the artist singing our ‘oldie of the week’. This week the track was ‘With You’ and the artist Chris Brown. The prize was quickly snapped up!

Kate and Nick are from Adelaide, Australia and are both nurses qualified from University of South Australia. For the past two and a half years they’ve been working in a cardiac unit in a military hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, taking the chance to travel during their breaks. They told listeners they’d been to Spain, Syria, Italy, France, Germany amongst others on a long list of countries! When Milli Jam asked them which country they’d visited they liked the most, Nick rather surprisingly opted for Syria – they’d been there before the current troubles, while Kate said she’d loved Italy, partly because of her family background which contained roots in Italy. During their present trip they’d been to Uganda to see the mountain gorillas, as well as to Kenya and Tanzania. They’d been impressed to see the magnificent migration of tens of thousands of wildebeest in Tanzania.

The music on the show was great. We opened with Flavour’s ‘Adamma’ – a huge hit in Nigeria and a great dance track, back to back with Flo Rida’s latest ‘Parapapa’. Milli Jam had trouble getting his tongue around that. Local tracks were ‘It’s Alright’ by Exile featuring K’Millian coupled with ‘SpotLight’ George Kaufela’s smash with Ty2. We moved on with ‘Talk That Talk’ by Rihanna featuring JayZ and ‘Til I’m Gone’ – Tinie Tempah featuring Wiz Khalifa. Great stuff and we surmised that the Chanters Girls would be dancing back at the lodge. We closed with Maverick Sabre’s ‘I Need’.

Nick and Kate told listeners how much they’d enjoyed their breakfast on Livingstone Island the previous day – Nick had jumped into Devil’s Pool but Kate had not (wise girl!) They’d seen Victoria Falls from both sides and although they’d been impressed with the Zimbabwe side they felt that the Zambian side offered better opportunities for photography. We liked that! This lovely, adventurous couple told listeners that they’d be spending the last few days of their holiday in Cape Town and were then looking forward to flying home to friends and family in Australia, after a long time away.

Asked where they would like to be and what they would like to be doing ten years from now, their first reaction was to cry in unison ‘we don’t know’ but after a pause for thought agreed that they’d like to be working in Australia, still travelling from time to time and raising a family. Sounded like good ideas to us.

22
NOV

Africa, Australia, Chanters, Kenya, livingstone, medical, music, radioshow, Tanzania, tourism, victoriafalls, zambezi, Zambia

Andrew Deane & Marion Gibson Experience ‘The Experience’!

Meet Andrew Deane and Marion Gibson (above) from High Wycombe in UK – guests on the most recent edition of The Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient, featuring George da Soulchild. ‘The Experience’ is the weekly radio show we sponsor on Zambezi Radio 107.7 fm, Livingstone’s leading local radio station. Our programme airs from 20.30-21.30 hrs every Sunday night and is a great mixture of local and international music as well as lively chat. 107.7 fm streams live on the internet and you can find the link on their site or ours. (Links are above).

Andrew and Marion told listeners they’d been in Livingstone for the past few days staying at Chanters Lodge, although they’d been so busy with activities they hadn’t spent much time there! They’d already been on a one day safari to Chobe National Park in Botswana and the very day of the show they’d been white water rafting on the Zambezi. They described both experiences as ‘amazing’! Marion particularly liked Chobe due to her love of elephants – Chobe NP has the highest concentration of that particular animal in the whole world – Andrew loved the rafting.

Andrew explained that he’d been a police officer with Thames Valley Police in UK for the past 13 years. “It’s true” said Milli Jam, “I’ve even seen and touched his badge!” “Stop sweating and shaking!” I advised George who looked apprehensive. Marion told listeners that she’d spent a large part of her career as a social worker but had been laid off a while ago as a result of recent budget cuts in England. Luckily she’d quickly found another job with APH Mortgages, which she loved. This engaging and lively couple told listeners they been in love for the past 6 years and although they had no children together, Andrew had a 12 year old son Joshua from a previous relationship.

The music on the show was great. We featured ‘Fireball’ by Willow Smith ft Nicki Minaj back to back with ‘We Found Love’ by Rihanna ft Calvin Harris – number one in the UK actually! George featured ‘Man Dem’ by Zone-Fam ft Cactus Agony & Macky 2 – taken from Zone-Fam’s brand new album. He coupled this with Exile’s ‘So Lucky’. Milli Jam dropped Ne-Yo’s ‘Break Up To Make Up’ and Sean Paul’s ‘She Doesn’t Mind’. Oldie Of The Week was Johnny Clegg Savuka’s ‘Scatterlings Of Africa’. Silence, no-one knew the artist until almost the end of the track when Angela texted the right answer and won the dinner for 2 with drinks at the lodge!

Andrew told listeners that he’s an Arsenal supporter – we were happy about this especially as they’d won that afternoon. Marion supports Wycombe Wanderers, her local team. They both love Take That and Robbie Williams. They were looking forward to breakfast on Livingstone Island the next morning with a swim in Devil’s Pool and had scheduled a sunset cruise on the Lady Livingstone for the afternoon. Marion told listeners she’d first visited Victoria Falls some years ago and had liked it so much she’d determined to bring Andrew to see it for himself. They’d chosen Chanters Lodge after reading the reviews on TripAdvisor.

Milli Jam asked Andrew and Marion which of the many countries they’d visited they loved the most. Marion said Bermuda, Andrew replied USA, explaining that he and Marion both loved rollercoasters and in their opionion the USA had the best in the world. Asked what they’d like to be doing and where they’d like to be in 10 years’ time – Andrew said he thought he’d still be working, Marion wanted to be retired and they both wanted to still be together and travelling. Nice couple! Nice show!

19
OCT

accommodation, activities, Africa, Arsenal, Botswana, Chanters, Chobe, Customers, entertainment, guests, livingstone, music, reviews, tourism, TripAdvisor, victoriafalls, wildlife, zambezi, Zambia

Marianne Olsen plays 107.7 fm

Meet Marianne Olsen (above) from Tromsoe, Norway, guest on the most recent edition of The Chanters Lodge Experience with The Milli Jam Ingredient featuring George da Soulchild. That’s our regular Sunday night radio show airing weekly on Zambezi Radio 107.7 fm from 20.30-21.30 hrs. 107.7 fm is Livingstone’s most popular local radio station reaching a radius of about 70 kilometres domestically and streaming live on the internet from their site and from ours. Our show is a great mixture of local and international music plus chat – we also give away a dinner for two with drinks every week for the first person to text us the answer to a usually simple question! Keeps us popular!

Marianne told listeners she’d been coming to Zambia off and on since 1994. She’s an occupational therapist by profession and explained that this is a discipline aiming to promote health by enabling people to perform meaningful and purposeful activities. Occupational therapists work with individuals who suffer from a mentally, physically, developmentally, and/or emotionally disabling condition by utilizing treatments that develop, recover, or maintain clients’ activities of daily living. “There are very few occupational therapists in Zambia” she said.

I told our audience that Marianne was one of the first ever Clients at Chanters Lodge when we opened in July 1998. At that time she was living and working in Livingstone. This, her most recent visit, had come about as a result of attending an international congress for occupational therapists, held during the course of the past week in another Livingstone hotel. She had enjoyed the congress. We asked Marianne about the recent massacre of young people in Norway and she was emotional as she recounted to listeners what had happened and how the Norwegian people and government had reacted to the tragedy.

The music on the show was good. We opened with Vanessa Carlton’s ‘1000 Miles’ back to back with ‘Collide’ by Leona Lewis. Local tracks were ‘Come Follow Me’ by Judy featuring Cactus and Mampi’s ‘Wali lo Weleka’. Milimo featured Jay Lo and Pibull with ‘On The Floor’. Our oldie of the week was Phil Collins with ‘Against All Odds’ and we closed with Ed Sheeran’s ‘Little Bird’. Ed hit the number one spot in the UK album charts that very evening!

Asking Marianne about her family, she replied that she had two children Temba and Tawanda. “What?!” Exclaimed Milimo “but these are Zambian names!” Marianne went on to explain that she’d been married to a Zambian who had two children from a previous relationship and that she had brought up the two boys in Norway as their mum. Both were doing well, one working for a courier company and the other still in high school. Football? Arsenal though she confessed to being much more interested in winter sports than soccer! Music? Everything, but she particularly likes Danny the Zambian star.

Marianne spoke wistfully of her younger days in Livingstone sleeping nights on one of the islands in the Zambezi and enjoying a great social life while she was researching for her Phd in Medical Studies from Tromsoe University. Where would she like to be and what would she like to be doing 10 years from now? She sighed “Africa” she said “maybe I’ll be in Zambia doing something with occupational therapy”. We hope so!

21
SEP

Africa, entertainment, guests, health, music, Norway, radioshow, zambezi, Zambia

Peter & Gill Langmead on Zambezi 107.7 fm

Meet Peter and Gill Langmead from Chisamba, north of Lusaka, who’ve been visiting Livingstone to see the lunar rainbow over Victoria Falls for the first time, even though they’ve lived in Zambia for many years. So, we took the chance of inviting them to guest on The Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient, our regular Sunday night radio show airing on Zambezi fm every Sunday at 20.30 hrs Zambian time, and also streaming live on the internet. Peter and Gill own Langmead and Baker – click the link to read all about their company!

“Did the lunar rainbow live up to expectations?” Milli Jam asked our guests at the beginning of the programme. “It probably exceeded them” replied Peter “it was absolutely fantastic!” “Did you get some good photos?” We wanted to know. “Absolutely!” said Gill “in fact we’ve already posted quite a lot of them on the internet via Twitter and Facebook”. “How did you hear about Chanters Lodge?” asked Milli Jam. Our guests went on to explain that they’d first made contact with me through Twitter and everything had then fallen into place when they came to make their arrangements to visit Livingstone and see the lunar rainbow. Of course they’d found time to do other things as well, including visits to Livingstone Museum and the Railway Museum, as well as Lawrence Yombwe’s fabulous art gallery.

Peter explained that he’d first come to Zambia in the mid 80’s and that for most of his career he’d been involved in agricultural development – for much of that time with cassava. We were amazed to hear about the many uses of this shrubby plant whose starch filled roots are much in demand in Zambia for food. For some time Peter and Gill produced cassava starch commercially. They’d been involved in many other things, we heard, including but not limited to, the production of essential oils and bath soap, the publication for 5 years of Beauty Zambia magazine and handling media interests and public relations for British Airways in Zambia, amongst a load of other corporate clients!

The music on the show was great. We opened with Cher Lloyd’s ‘Swagger Jagger’ (number one last week in the UK), back to back with One Direction’s ‘What Makes You Beautiful’ – “sure fire future hit” I commented. Our Zambian tracks were ‘Vomela’ by Dalitso and ‘Nalilwala’ by Afunika. (The first track saying ‘if you’re sick, accept it’ and the second ‘I’m sick’ ….apparently!) Milli Jam also featured ‘My Life’ by DJ Khaled and Akon coupled with ‘Oleku’ by Prince ft Brymo. Our oldie of the week was ‘Dancing On The Ceiling’ by Lionel Richie and we closed with Jessie J’s ‘Sometimes Dreams Come True’. (In a disappointing number of replies Enoch won a dinner for 2 at Chanters Lodge for texting us that it was Lionel Richie singing ‘Dancing’.) The Langmeads informed us that they were friendly with Hip-Hop Mr Cri$iS with whom they had been involved on the United Against Malaria campaign.

Peter and Gill told listeners that they’d been married for 11 years and had originally met in England (in a Hampshire wine bar!) They’d spent some time living in Thailand. Gill’s background was in journalism but at the moment their focus was on public relations and media matters. Peter had just returned from a trip to the far north of Zambia and when they left Livingstone the next morning they were heading for Choma to research a vitamin A enhanced maize.

Interesting, lively and nice guests? You bet!

16
AUG

accommodation, Africa, agriculture, entertainment, guests, lunar rainbow, Lusaka, marketing, media, People, radioshow, victoriafalls, zambezi, Zambia

Laura Goble & Carla Roberts Have Impact on 107.7fm

Meet Laura Goble (left) and Carla Roberts pictured above, project and volunteer co-ordinators respectively with African Impact in Zambia, an organization with over 5 years experience facilitating quality volunteer programmes they are the African specialists in volunteering. These two pretty, funny, lively, vivacious young ladies represented the organization brilliantly on the latest edition of the Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring George da Soulchild, our regular Sunday night radio show airing live on Zambezi 107.7 fm at 18.30 hrs GMT and now streaming live on the internet. We had proof that the streaming is normal, receiving messages from England and Scotland while we were on air. Very excited about that we were too! Thanks to Edward Chanter and Isaac Mwanza 107.7 fm is now available on the Chanters Lodge website too! Scroll to Radio Show on our site!

Laura comes from South Africa while Carla hails from Ireland, we discovered as Milli Jam started to interview the girls. They explained to listeners that at the moment African Impact has 20 volunteers in Livingstone, all staying at Livingstone Backpackers and involved variously in education and health projects. We were told that the majority of the volunteers came from UK but also from other European countries such as Holland and Germany. Milli Jam seemed taken aback that Laura and Carla were not staying at Chanters Lodge – “how did you meet Richard then?” He wanted to know. “We met him at the airport while we were all waiting for clients” the girls explained. “Are you in the habit of picking up old men at airports?” The clearly envious Milli Jam continued. “Only if they’re good looking like Richard!” was the wonderful reply. (Flattery will get you dinner for 2 at Chanters Lodge! Lol!)

The music on the show was a great mixture. The girls requested Flavor’s track ‘Sawa Sawa’ a smash hit in Zambia for the Nigerian star, which they dedicated to all the African Impact and Livingstone Backpackers staff, as well as volunteers listening to the show. Before that track we’d opened with ‘She Makes Me Wanna’ by JLS featuring Dev, the current UK number one, back to back with Ester Dean featuring Chris Brown and ‘Drop It Low’. More African tracks were Dandy Krazy with ‘Donchi Kubeba’ and Ty2 ft Kaufela with ‘Spotlight’. We played Ice Prince ‘Oleku’ as well. Oldie of the week was the late Akim Simukonda’s haunting ‘Bana Bandi’ (‘don’t hate each other when I’m gone’ his advice to his many children recorded just before he died). We asked for the name of the artist singing Bana Bandi by text to win a prize of dinner for 2 at Chanters Lodge with drinks and the prize was quickly snapped up!

The girls told listeners they’d done loads of the activities available for tourists – everything from elephant riding to the zip line, excluding bungee! That very day they’d returned from a weekend on Bovu Island which they’d loved. “It used to be famous for fun and games” I commented. The girls just giggled. Enough said.

“Are you married?” Asked Milli Jam. “No” the girls replied. “Boyfriends?” Milli Jam persisted. “No” replied the girls. “George!” said Milli Jam as we laughed. Asked about their musical tastes, Carla surprised us ‘Aqua’ she said. “What!?” I exclaimed “Barbie Doll Aqua?” “Yes” said Carla. I was stunned. ‘Pink’ said Laura much more understandably. Milli Jam closed with the usual question of where the girls would like to be and what they’d like to be doing 10 years from now but the answer didn’t go much further than “errr Africa”.

Good show this one!

12
AUG

accommodation, activities, Africa, Chanters, Customers, education, entertainment, livingstone, radioshow, rsa, training, volunteers, website, zambezi

Livingstone Island Re-opens!

Livingstone Island has re-opened though it is not yet possible to swim in Devil’s Pool. Check my drenched friend Kwameh!

Victoria Falls is one of the world’s natural wonders and among the most spectacular sights in all Africa. The best place to witness this immense mass of water is tiny Livingstone Island, the place where Dr David Livingstone first glimpsed Mosi-oa-Tunya (The Smoke That Thunders).

Tongabezi offers five trips a day to Livingstone Island. A twin-engine boat that carries up to 12 people will take you through the fast-moving channels of the Zambezi, a thrilling journey. Once on the island, you will be given a guided tour, learning about its history from ancient times, when it served as a sacrificial site, to the present day and its World Heritage status.

Livingstone Island Tour Rates

7:30 – US$ 65
9:00 – US$ 65
10:30 – US$ 65
12:30 – US$ 120
15:30 – US$ 95
Children under 5 pay 50%

US$65 includes breakfast, US$120 lunch and US$95 high tea.

20
JUN

activities, Africa, livingstone, tourism, zambezi, Zambia

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