Suite 1 – Progress


The photo shows the new entrance to Suite 1 from the poolside at Chanters Lodge early this Friday morning as Max, our hard working handyman, sweeps the water used to cure the floor out of the way, so that the carpenters can access the site and start fitting the ceiling.

Ireen, my partner, is going to Lusaka today to buy curtain, bed-cover and cushion cover material – her speciality – she has excellent taste (I would say that wouldn’t I?). Oh! And she’s going to a Michael W Smith concert at Woodland Stadium tomorrow afternoon too!

We’ve bought the additional air conditioner we needed and the chairs for the sitting room are on order and partially paid for. New panel doors are in stock.

The next big job will be tiling the floor. Tiles are yet to be bought. Thought for the weekend…may the Zambian Kwacha still be weak against the US$ next Monday!

Chanters is located in the suburbs of Livingstone, just 10 kms from the mighty Victoria Falls.

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Suite 1




Here are some new pictures as we go ahead with our plan to convert two of the small original bedrooms into a suite at Chanters Lodge, Livingstone. The interior photo is taken from the bathroom door looking through the bedroom to the sitting room – on the right is the large built in wardrobe/luggage storage area.

The picture of the pool is taken from the sitting room window (isn’t that nice?) and the third photo shows the scene as you leave the suite sitting room via the new front door.

The plastering is all but finished. The next job is to prepare the floor for relaying and then to caste it. Once that’s cured, the new ceiling will be fitted and floor tiles (not yet bought!) laid.

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Suite 1


Here’s a photo of the ongoing work to convert rooms 1 and 2 into a suite at Chanters Lodge, Livingstone, Zambia. The picture shows the new entrance doorway into the sitting room, and if you’ve been following the work, you’ll see that the sitting room roof has been successfully raised!

The electricians have been busy inside re-wiring, and the masons will be preparing the walls for plastering, hopefully to start early next week.

There will be steps with railings leading up to the door of the suite, and of course the whole of the new outside wall will be plastered and painted. Anyway, there’s good progress. Next comes the expensive part – finishing!

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Sweet Conversion – Update



‘Better than volcanic ash’ a friend commented on Facebook when I was complaining about the rubble, dust, mess and noise emanating from the conversion of Rooms 1 and 2 into Suite 1 at Chanters Lodge, Livingstone in Zambia! I’m really not so sure, they seem comparable.

Anyway, check the picture of Charles the builder, taken from the garden, still demolishing, but preparing to raise the roof of the proposed suite sitting room up to the level of the existing roof.

Where’s the rubble? I hear you ask. Well there’s still a hell of a lot indoors but check that pile outside waiting to be collected by someone who needs it to raise the level of their yard to protect against flooding. There’s recycling for you!

It’s my half day today and I’ll be pleased to have a break away from the dust, mess and noise! Oh! And they’ve broken the wheelbarrow – again!

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Sweet Conversion




Check the three photos above, taken yesterday at Chanters Lodge Livingstone.

With my back to the bathroom (which is almost finished) I took the photo at the bottom. The builders (demolition workers?) are knocking through from ex Room 2 to ex Room 1. This is to allow for a new big en suite double bedroom.

The middle photo shows the space being created in ex bathroom 1 for a large window overlooking the pool, which will be the feature of the suite’s new sitting room. The entrance to the suite will be on the right of this picture around the corner, with steps leading from the poolside to a new front door opening on to the sitting room.

The suite bedroom will have its own entrance door from the main house as well – just in case….! The top photo is with my back to the new sitting room, looking through the new bedroom to the en suite bathroom.

Do we have it right? I think so, but you can’t really tell until it’s finished! I’m already seeing a few things I wish we’d done or were doing differently, and some things I hadn’t anticipated.

Anyway, as my friend Derek said: “Full Steam Ahead”!

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Melissa Shales

We were lucky to have Melissa Shales as a Guest at Chanters Lodge recently, and there’s the picture of us together in the garden at the lodge.

Melissa’s an award-winning travel writer, editor and photographer, and has worked with many of the world’s best-known guidebook publishers, including Michelin, Fodors, the AA, Frommers, Dorling Kindersley, Berlitz and Insight Guides, winning three best guidebook awards! In addition to her freelance work, Melissa’s a director of l & L Media, a contract publishing company producing high quality books, magazines and newsletters for consumers and the trade. She’s currently Chairman of the British Guild of Travel Writers.

Melissa’s on a Steel Safari through Africa researching the history of the Cape to Cairo rail routes, though her quest to travel from Lusaka to Livingstone by rail failed – that service has deteriorated ever since, and perhaps because, my shoes were stolen in the night in about May 1998, when Chanters Lodge was a start-up and we frequently used the service!

Ms Shales writes “with the British firmly ensconced at either end of the African continent, Cecil Rhodes, great visionary or megalomaniac, depending on your point of view, dreamed of colouring the map of Africa red and of running a railway line the length of the continent, through British territory the whole way – from Cairo to Cape Town. He didn’t quite succeed, although he annexed half of Africa in the attempt, but with the creation of the Tazara railway in the 1970s, the route was almost completed. The story however is not that simple…”

“The main route south from Cairo to Cape Town leads through Egypt, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia and South Africa. Each of the main lines along the route was built by different people, at a different time and for a different purpose. Together, these lines were an extraordinary achievement for the builders, but also represent a staggering feat of social engineering that opened up a continent to the modern world.”

We wish Melissa all the best with her project and thank her for choosing Chanters Lodge.

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Adventures With Ben


It’s great to get reservations at Chanters Lodge through social media sites and we were delighted yesterday to get a reservation for June from Ben Reed (above) through Twitter @adventureswben Ben has a really active blog and he says this about himself:

“Greetings to all you adventurers out there! My name is Ben and welcome to adventureswithben.com – my home on the Internet where each week, I’ll share with you some of my most amazing adventures from around the globe and here in my hometown of Orlando, Florida. You might be wondering, “who are you Ben” and “why should I read your site”?

I’m originally from Massachusetts and currently residing in the Sunshine State. Frustrated by sitting at home and always saying, “there’s nothing to do around here”, I charted a course to find adventure in my life and share it with all of you.

I’m 28 and have traveled to 5 of the 7 continents, with a goal of reaching the 6th this year. Before I had ever sat behind the wheel of a car I was piloting aircraft at the age of 16. I’ve descended over a mile underground into a South African Gold Mine and have backpacked throughout Europe.

An award-winning blogger, in 2009 I was selected by the Tourism Authority of Thailand to use social media to promote the City of Pattaya, Thailand as a vacation destination in their Ultimate Thailand Explorers Competition.

Everyday is an adventure – if you want it to be. I do. Here at adventureswithben.com you’ll find a collection of stories from my favorite travel experiences and, more importantly, advice and motivation on how to seek out, and bring adventures into your own life. I love to travel and capture the unique story of each destination and share with the world how wonderful a place it all is.”

Great stuff – can’t wait to meet Ben in person!

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Demolition



At Chanters Lodge Livingstone we’re busy demolishing the bathroom interior of room 2, to redevelop to be the bathroom for the new executive suite we intend to create from rooms 1 and 2. There’s a couple of photos!

As I write I can hear the banging. We have so far only broken 3 hammers trying to prize the original wall tiles from the bathroom walls!

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Management Offices, Chanters Lodge, Livingstone




The new executive office suite at Chanters Lodge, Livingstone is finished and only has to be furnished. There are pictures of the outside, the new curtains and the ‘curtain ladies’ above. The suite comprises two offices, one for the ‘director’ and one for the assistant manager (eventually manager) and a lou. I’ve often been asked why we’re spending so much money building apparently non-revenue earning rooms – well, there’s method in our madness.

Two of the original ‘main house’ bedrooms are small and one is currently used as an office (except in ’emergencies’). In the early development of the lodge we never got round to making an office, and only lately has the need become more evident. The plan is to convert these two original main house rooms into a suite with a pool facing sitting room, a large double bedroom, and a totally renovated bathroom with the installation of a new bathroom suite and seperate shower.

Why? Well, pool facing rooms are our most popular accommodation, and with our current room rates we’ll be able to let the suite for a total of what we can now earn from the two existing small rooms – when they’re let – which isn’t very often. In addition, we’ll have a suite suitable for VIP’s which we should be able to let for much more when it’s requested, and if there’s a demand for long term accommodation, which there often seems to be, the new suite would also be suitable.

Apart from the bathroom renovation which we want to begin next week, to finish the suite we only have to knock down three walls, raise a roof, relocate all the satellite dishes, install new entrance steps and a new front door from the poolside. Then, fit a pool facing picture window in the existing external wall and build a new dividing wall between the sitting room and bedroom incorporating a fitted wardrobe!

Oh! And the suite won’t be cheap to furnish either!

A very Happy Easter to you all!

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