Meet Ross and Helen Quantock pictured above, all the way from Busselton, Western Australia, a town famous for having the longest wooden structure in the southern hemisphere, namely the 1841m long Busselton Jetty pushing right out into the Indian Ocean! The Quantocks told us this when they featured on the latest edition of the Chanters Lodge Experience, our Sunday night radio show on Zambezi 107.7 fm, airing weekly for an hour at 20.30 hrs and co-hosted by Milli Jam (who also happens to be manager of Ayuba, the trendiest club in Livingstone), George Kaufela (rapper on technical) and myself.

Ross and Helen told listeners that one of the main purposes of their visit to Livingstone, staying at Chanters Lodge, was to catch up with old friends from Zimbabwe whom they’d first met in 1992, by chance, on the bridge between Zambia and Zimbabwe. Helen had asked this lady if she could take her photo, she’d done so, they’d exchanged addresses and kept in touch ever since. As Ross and Helen didn’t, I told listeners of the fantastic help the Quantocks had given this lady and her family through the tough years in Zimbabwe, up to now. Eunah from Zimbabwe and her family of 4 had just spent 3 days in Livingstone at Ross and Helen’s expense having a great holiday and returning home laden with presents, as usual!

Ross and Helen have been married for 42 years and have a son and daughter, as well as four grandchildren. Ross told listeners that he was now retired but for the last 25 years of his working life he’d driven huge trucks and graders on a bauxite mine in Western Australia. He also confirmed that ordinary vehicles do seem very small to him these days! At that time he was working for Alcoa a US aluminum manufacturing company. The trucks he drove carried up to 100 tons of ore! Helen said he’d loved playing with his Tonka toy trucks but she thought she was happy now he’d retired!

The music on the show was super. We played ‘Party Rock Anthem’ by LMFAO and friends for the second week running, mainly because it was the current Australian number one and also top in UK. We featured the latest tracks by Lady Gaga and Jennifer Lopez – ‘Judas’ and ‘Papi’ respectively. Our local track selection included Slap Dee with ‘Nomba Nishi’ (‘So what’?) and B-Flow ft JK with ‘Wanga Wanga’ (‘Mine all mine’ – yes a girl of course!). Kelly Rowland’s ‘Train On A Track’ and Akon ft Chris Brown with ‘Take It Down Low’ wound up a great play list.

Amongst the activities Ross and Helen had chosen during their Livingstone visit were the sunset cruise, the Chobe one day safari and a visit to Zimbabwe mainly to see their friend and her family safely on to the night train to Bulawayo. Helen mentioned that they’d also brought a friend Margaret from Australia with them for this trip, a former neighbour of theirs in Australia who was also thoroughly enjoying the sights and sounds of Livingstone and Victoria Falls. When they left Zambia at the end of the following week, the party were heading to Pretoria to spend some nights with a friend before leaving for home in Australia.

Our guests thanked everyone in Livingstone for their hospitality and wished listeners a happy Easter. As usual we gave away a dinner for 2 at Chanters Lodge for the first person to text us telling us where this lovely, loving, generous couple came from. Australia was the right answer on many messages. We also gave listeners all the latest international chart and Lodgeblog news.

Great show, great guests, great music!