Zimbabwe – Chanters Lodge Livingstone

David Livingstone – 200th Anniversary

David Livingstone Bicentenary (200th anniversary) UK liaison officer Belinda Hodge has announced plans to develop this event into a world-class festival and draw tourists from all over the world. During a recent media breakfast meeting in Livingstone, Hodge said David Livingstone, the Scottish explorer accredited with being the first European to see and name the Victoria Falls, was committed to exploration, medicine, education and eradication of slavery and was still an active campaigner 200 years later.

Hodge said the event to be commemorated in 2013 would also involve cultural exchange between schools and universities in Zambia and UK. And Livingstone-based David Livingstone Bicentenary 2013 committee liaison officer Frederick Mwendapole said the celebrations would include international arts, cultural and sporting festivals.

“The events to celebrate 200th anniversary of David Livingstone will be held between March and October 2013 in Livingstone. The event will promote Livingstone as a preferred tourism destination as tourists from abroad will come to Zambia and Livingstone in particular,” Mwendapole said. He said Zambia would work closely with several countries in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region to host the occasion.

“As you may be aware, David Livingstone was born in 1813 and it will be 200 years in 2013 from the time he was born. We are seeking to establish links between United Kingdom and Livingstone in Zambia to mark the bicentenary of David Livingstone. We want to ensure that there is a lasting legacy moving forward from this bicentennial year,” said Mwendapole.

And Zambia Tourism Board (ZTB) tourism services manager Jocelyn Mutinta said the event would help to market Livingstone and Zambian tourism products in general to the outside world. Mutinta appealed to companies to support the event and the marketing of Zambian tourism by helping in celebrating a man who is credited with having first documented the Victoria Falls, and later died in Zambia in 1873 at Chitambo mission.

Livingstone Tourism Association (LTA) member Active Monze said the event was a welcome development because it would go a long way in promoting Livingstone town as a preferred destination for tourists.

Zambia and Zimbabwe will also co-host the 20th Session of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) general assembly in 2013 in Livingstone and Victoria Falls town.

23
JAN

Africa, livingstone, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Ross & Helen Quantock Rock 107.7 fm

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!

26
APR

Africa, Australia, Botswana, Chanters, entertainment, guests, radioshow, rsa, victoriafalls, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Ann Fagan & Gavin Dempster Rock 107.7 fm!

The most recent edition of the Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient was super. Our Guests, Ann and Gavin pictured above, were lively, interesting and amusing – they rocked the house and so did the music! Our show airs every Sunday night between 20.30 and 21.30 hours on Zambezi 107.7 fm, Livingstone’s popular local radio station and is a mixture of music and chat.

Gavin and Ann, Guests at Chanters Lodge, told listeners that they came from Perth, Western Australia but had been travelling the world for the past 18 months. They’d arrived in Livingstone a few days previously, having taken an overland truck from Nairobi to Victoria Falls, visiting the Serengeti, Ngorongoro, Zanzibar and Malawi before arriving in Zimbabwe. Gavin was delighted to be back in Livingstone and told listeners that for him anyway the highlight of their overland trip had been Ann’s joy in seeing the sights and sounds of Africa for the very first time! “Awwwww” we said!

Gavin had been in Zambia for a month in 2010 exploring Livingstone for houses where he’d lived as a child in the 50’s – his dad had been an engine driver on the railways in Zambia at that time. He’d also taken a 9 day canoeing trip on the Lower Zambezi, describing it to listeners as one of the best things he’d ever done in his life! This year Ann and Gavin had enjoyed their cycle trip around the city the day after they’d arrived, visiting Linda Community Orphanage School for whom they’d brought various goodies!

The music on the show was hot! We featured Jennifer Hudson’s ‘Gone’ back to back with ‘Next 2U’ from Chris Brown and Justin Bieber at the top of the show. Milli Jam’s local selection of Dalisoul’s ‘Musunge Mushe’ (take care of her) and Kay’s ‘Kanyelele’ (ant) had the Chanters Girls rocking back at the lodge. We dropped ‘Boom’ the latest from Snoop Dogg featuring T-Pain, coupled with Tiesto’s UK smash ‘C’mon’ featuring Diplo and Buster Rhymes. We closed with Britney Spears – Until The World Ends. A great selection from Milli Jam also included Ne-Yo’s ‘Hello’ and Jay Lo’s popular ‘Run This World’ featuring The Dream and Rick Ross.

Gavin and Ann told listeners how much they’d enjoyed their recent two day, one night safari in Chobe National Park, Botswana to celebrate Ann’s birthday, where they’d seen a lot of elephant, buffalo and hippo though they’d missed out on big cats – they weren’t all that worried as they’d seen these in the Serengeti during their overland trip. Milli Jam asked this lovely couple if they’d retired – Gavin said ‘very much’ and Ann replied ‘semi’. They’d met when they were both working for the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, a large charity organization in Australia. “Was it love at first sight?” I asked. “We kind of grew into each other” Ann replied. “Yes” we said, laughing.

Our guests described their musical tastes as ‘eclectic’ but told listeners about concerts they’d recently attended in Perth given by Lionel Richie and Jo Cocker, making us very envious in the studio! We had a great response to our question when we asked those wanting to win a dinner for 2 at Chanters Lodge where our Guests hailed from. Gloria won. Our Guests greeted the staff at the lodge, praising them highly and thanked Zambians listening for giving them such a warm and wonderful welcome to the country.

15
MAR

2010, accommodation, activities, Africa, Australia, Botswana, Chobe, entertainment, Malawi, music, radioshow, Tanzania, victoriafalls, wildlife, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Zambezi FM Stars Rock Zimbabwe!

George da Soulchild, co-presenter of The Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient, our Sunday night radio show on 107.7 fm, contributes regularly to the blog and recently had a great night in Zimbabwe:

Zambezi FM Breakfast Show presenters E-Vibes and myself (George Da Soulchild) together with the Drive Time Show presenters Tendai With An I and Chin-I were invited to make an appearance at the Wild Thing Night Club in Victoria Falls Town, Zimbabwe last Saturday.
We crossed the Border into Zimbabwe slightly after 2pm, where we were received by one of the guys organizing the trip “EASY-T” – that’s what everyone called him, but I for one don’t know his real name! By 2:30 PM we were checked into the world famous Kingdom Resort aka the African Sun. My room was 1047 – ten minutes walk from the Falls and I could actually hear the water roaring and rumbling down!

The show was not until 9pm, so this gave us some time to check out Vic Falls Town – as it turns out 90% of people living and working in Vic Falls Town listen to Zambezi FM radio 24/7 which is a very good thing. I mean it made things a lot easier for us – as it turns out we’re quite popular down there but not as popular as Danny Dee (which made me a bit jealous!) Anyhow at most of the places where we went to advertise the show we had a good reception, every one of us seemed to have fans, which in turn made us appreciate what we do a little more, seeing the effect we had on most of the people with whom we came in close contact. After a tour of the main business activity center/area we headed back to the Kingdom Resort to freshen up and later to have dinner.

Show time 9pm!! Everyone is fresh and clean and ready for a good time. When we got to the club we found more people waiting and wanting to take photos of us, and with us! Most importantly, since Zambian music is big over there, people just wanted to listen to some good Zambian music. So Chin-I stepped up and played some house and R&B music for 40minutes. After Chin-I, I was next, and I played Pop (mostly stuff off the Charts) and Zambian music for 40 minutes. Then the resident DJ’s took over until around 2:30 in the morning.

That was the business part of our trip done and it was time to check out Vic Falls Town at night – first stop was Hunters Club and we had such a great reception! Everyone in the club was glad we were there and I must mention that Tendai got heads turning and most of the attention! Every guy in the bar wanted to buy her a beer or a drink!

Our next stop ‘’Shoe-String” which is a bit like Jolly Boys in Livingstone – lots of young white people, mostly back packers and it was just our luck that there happened to be a party going on! So we all agreed to gatecrash it and we got the VIP treatment! We had a fantastic time and we were not done yet! There was one more party we had to attend, a birthday party in Chinotimba, one BIG Zambezi FM fan just turned 23! Anything for a fan! We almost took over the party once we got there and we stayed until 4am. We met a lot of interesting people and all in all we had such a great time in Zimbabwe, Vic Falls and we’ve been invited to go back there over Easter and we can’t wait!

Its funny how in broadcasting you never know the true effect you may have on somebody else listening to you on radio. In our voices I’m sure they see and hear more than we do – I’m talking about hopes, aspirations and dreams that might help them carry on, or maybe just a friend, a comforting voice. They have us to follow and to keep them company. While they go about living it can’t be denied that in some small way, we’re part of their daily lives, without us even being aware of it!

Therefore…

I love what I do.

11
MAR

Africa, entertainment, radioshow, victoriafalls, Zambia, Zimbabwe

RIP Soosh Matix

George da Soulchild’s mournful piece about the passing of a local musician and DJ

Tributes have continued to flow in following the death of Tendai Maswiswi aka DJ Soosh Matix in a road accident in Lusaka last Friday. It’s very evident that the sudden departure of Lusaka’s Hot FM DJ Soosh has left a huge void in the hearts and minds of many that knew him. This is clear in the way several Zambian entertainers & the DJ’s Facebook status are filled with heartfelt condolences & memories of the very liked DJ Soosh Matix, much as he was known as funny DJ Soosh on radio. His family is mourning the child they have lost.

Soosh, a Zimbabwean who spent most of his productive life in Zambia, was born in Kadoma in 1982. He was employed at Lusaka’s Hot 87.7 FM as a DJ and worked passionately with many local Zambian hip hop artists, including the XYZ crew where he became a member and helped promote the group’s brand.

XYZ founder Slap Dee said the hip hop family will miss Soosh, adding that XYZ will never be the same without him. “Soosh was like a brother to me – a brother who supported XYZ and represented it as his crew. I still don’t believe he’s gone and it will take me some time to come to terms with what has happened. We will soon work on the ‘Unwritten Testament Reload’ Soosh’s album, and all funds raised from album sales will go to his child and to the mother of his child” he said.

Zambian rapper C.R.I.$.I.S has described Soosh as a creative and open-minded person. “Despite being from Zimbabwe, Soosh quickly grasped the local Zambian languages and had no problem fitting into society. This was symbolic of his being an open-minded person. He was always ready and excited to learn new things or explore horizons further than the eye could see. He was full of life and always had something up his sleeve. He was constantly creative and trying new things, as he hated monotony.” Said C.R.I.$.I.$ who performed with Soosh on several occasions, including last year when the duo went to Zimbabwe to perform at the Akon-Sean Paul concert.

“I will always remember him for his great humour and understanding. Just the thought of working with him puts a smile on my face and I know that I was blessed to have had a friend like him. African Hip-Hop has lost a valuable part and it’s irreplaceable,” added C.R.I.$.I.$.

In broadcasting, Soosh’s versatility shone through, with his lively and highly interactive shows on Hot FM drawing scores of listeners. He fondly described himself as the ‘baddest boy on radio’. His colleagues at the station had difficulties accepting news of his passing on, dedicating most of their shifts last week to paying their last respects. The corporate world will also dearly miss Soosh who hosted a number of corporate shows including the Brick and Lace concert last year and most recently the Zamtel-Hot FM Panga Nyimbo project where he played a very prominent role.

On Monday, various musicians, radio personalities, friends, colleagues and family members gathered at Ideal Funeral Home in Villa, Lusaka to bid farewell as Soosh’s body was later taken to Zimbabwe for burial. At the time of his death, he had recorded several songs and had just released an EP called ‘The Unwritten Testament.’ It had underground hits such as ‘Close Your Eyes,’ ‘Move Back’ and ‘Two.’ He was passionate about the project which featured production from several producers around the African continent.

Tendai had also just been listed to be a part of Sony Music as a budding artist. His music proved popular among the Hip-Hop fraternity and his dream was just beginning to unfold.

Rest in peace Soosh Matix.

3
FEB

Africa, entertainment, Lusaka, music, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Tilman Schimmel

Meet Tilman Schimmel (pictured above), economist, soon-to-be fully fledged lawyer and thoroughly nice guy from near Stuttgart, Germany. Tilman was our guest on the 1st 2011 edition of the Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring George da Soulchild, our Sunday night radio show that airs on Zambezi Radio 107.7 fm weekly between 20.30 and 21.30 hrs. 107.7 fm is Livingstone’s best loved local radio station with a listener radius of about 70 kms, strong enough to be heard in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe and Kasane in Botswana.

Tilman was staying at Chanters Lodge for a week, prior to travelling to Johannesburg, South Africa, to take up a 3 month internship with LindsayKeller top attorneys – ‘solution orientated thinking’ quote/unquote! Tilman told listeners that he was very much looking forward to the challenge, though somewhat concerned about the reported dangers of life in Johannesburg. This attachment forms part of the law degree course that he has nearly completed at Eberhard-Karls University, Tubingen.

Still young, Tilman loves to travel which he’s been doing since age 16 and we were surprised to hear that he’d already visited 73 different countries! He professed to love South Africa, Nepal and Seychelles the most. Couldn’t differ with him on the last one, having spent two and a half happy years in Seychelles – ‘The Islands of Love’ – as Food and Beverage Manager, Reef Hotel back in the 70’s.

“Are you married”? Milli Jam asked Tilman. He replied he was not, but told listeners he had a girlfriend back in Stuttgart, a teacher, unable to travel to Zambia with him as she was ‘dogsitting’. A phrase, I suspect, not too easily understood by our Zambian listeners! He was very much hoping she’d be able to join him for a while during his time in Johannesburg.

The music on the show was good. After our opening theme by Aggro Santos we spun ‘Immabadboy’ a single by Mr.Vezzy featuring Mugeez from R2Bees the Ghanian outfit. Vezzy is a DJ on Qfm one of Lusaka’s hot radio stations and this single’s making waves – “brought to you by Richard Chanter via Twitter” I added! We played it back to back with Sean Kingston’s ‘Party All Night’ which Zambians were still doing as our show aired! George’s Zambian selection was ‘old and new’ – the old – Black Muntu’s ‘Chibzibe’, the new – B’flow’s ‘No More Kawilo’. I really liked that one, “what does it mean”? I enquired. ‘No more being single’ I was told, though as usual there appeared to be some debate!

Milli Jam wanted to know what activities Tilman had done or had planned while he was in Zambia. It was clear that he was very interested in the local culture and had even been playing ‘solo’, a traditional game, in Livingstone Zimbabwe Market with local characters. The following day he had a trip planned to Zimbabwe to see ‘the other side’ of Victoria Falls, and the day afterwards a visit to Botswana on the Chobe 1 day safari offered by Chanters Lodge. Tilman has a keen interest in animals and wildlife.

The music continued with ‘Fireworks’ by Alicia Keys ft Drake and the ‘still at number one in UK’ Matt Cardle’s cover of the Biffy Clyro number ‘When We Collide’ (originally ‘Many Of Horror’ – gotta be one of the weirdist pop titles ever!) We gave away the usual dinner for two – won by Lydia for rightly texting us that Tilman was from Germany and updated listeners on pop chart information from UK and USA, and this week Germany too in deference to Tilman.

“So you’re a qualified economist and soon-to-be fully fledged lawyer” Milli Jam observed to Tilman, “what sort of job would you like when your course is through”? After a pause for thought Tilman replied that he’d love to hold a post with an international company which afforded him the opportunity to travel. Great stuff – and I wouldn’t bet against this serious young man achieving his ambition.

4
JAN

Africa, Botswana, Chanters, Germany, guests, livingstone, music, radioshow, rsa, victoriafalls, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Jorma Vuorio & Manu Kitinoja

Meet Jorma and Manu (surnames as above) from Finland who guested on the most recent edition of The Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring George Soulchild, our Sunday night radio show going out weekly at 20.30 hrs on Zambezi Radio 107.7 fm, Livingstone’s best loved local radio station.

Yes, the names were very difficult to pronounce! (You were going to ask, weren’t you?) But we struggled through. We never realised that Finns had such a dry and wry sense of humour either, and we were rocking with laughter at some of the succinct answers we got to our interrogation! Jorma and Manu have known each other since they were at University together in Finland 30 odd years ago, studying Special Education. Jorma is now retired but Manu is still working as Director, Residential School, Limingan Koulutuskeskus. It’s a reform school for ‘bad boys and girls’ Manu told us. “Do they have bad boys and girls in Finland”? I asked, surprised. Apparently they do. Manu is divorced but about to re-marry, and Jorma has been married for a long time and has two daughters, but no grandchildren yet.

Manu had been to Chobe in Botswana for the one day safari on Sunday, and Milli Jam wanted to know if he’d enjoyed the trip. (Manu and Jorma didn’t go together on this outing, as Jorma’s sister was coming to join him at Chanters in Livingstone later in the week, and they planned to go together.) Manu told listeners he’d had a great time even though the weather was windy and wet. The highlight of the trip had come in the afternoon, during the game drive when he and the group had seen a leopard in a tree lunching on impala! That was very lucky!

What other activities had the guys done in Livingstone? Bungee? Milli Jam wanted to know. “No” was the one word answer. “Why not”? “We don’t”. We understood.

Manu and Jorma have both travelled widely – Jorma more than 40 countries. They’d been to Africa before – mostly North Africa though, as well as South Africa itself. They’d spent a week or so in Zimbabwe before arriving in Zambia – in Bulawayo and at Victoria Falls – and had had a good time. This gave us the chance to greet our listeners in Victoria Falls. “Is it cold in Finland at the moment”? We wanted to know. -3C apparently, but in winter it goes down as far as -40C. That’s cold, we agreed.

The music on the show was good. We opened as usual with Aggro Santos ‘Candy’ and the first two tracks were Nelly ‘Just A Dream’ back to back with Jay Sean & Nicki Minaj ‘2012’. George’s tracks were Runnel ‘Why Ninvela So’? and Dandy Crazy ‘Osayenda’. ‘Why do I feel this way’ and ‘Don’t go’ translated respectively. Milli Jam chose TLC ‘Creep’ and Foxy Brown ‘Gotta Get You Home’. Taylor Swift ‘Back In December’ is one of my favourite tracks at the moment and Pink ‘Raise Your Glass’ is thoroughly latest. George also took the chance to tell listeners of the significance of ONE8 as per his recent blog.

“How did you come to choose Chanters Lodge”? Milli Jam asked our Guests. “I take a lot of notice of reviews on TripAdvisor” Jorma replied “and the lodge has very good reviews on that site”. “Happy with your choice”? “Yes”! Another one word answer. At least it wasn’t “no”! “And Jorma added, I’ve been following Richard on Facebook ever since we made our reservation”.

Where would these gentlemen like to be and what would they like to be doing 10 years from now? In good health and still travelling.

2
NOV

accommodation, activities, Africa, Botswana, Chanters, Finland, guests, health, music, radioshow, victoriafalls, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Lion Country

We were delighted on Sunday night’s ‘Chanters Lodge Experience’ (our regular weekly radio show aired from 20.30 hrs for an hour on Zambezi 107.7 fm Livingstone’s great local radio station), to host the film crew staying at Chanters. The team are winding up filming the lion encounter based at Thorn Tree Lodge for the forthcoming second series of Lion Country, a documentary to be broadcast on ITV in UK from January 2011 every Friday at 20.00 hrs for 12 weeks.

“We’re in competition with Eastenders at that time” commented Phil Broadhurst – the cameraman who took that great shot of the studio above. Personally I don’t think they need to worry – they had an audience of 4 million for the first series and the second series sounds wonderful! The rest of the crew in attendance were Sebastian Dunn, the sound man, and Alison Quirk, the producer. Also in the photo are Milli Jam and George Soulchild who expertly co-host the show, and myself.

“Are you scared of lions?” We wanted to know. Generally they said they were not, but they mentioned that when they were filming in Zimbabwe they were surrounded at night by 80 of the beasts making a tremendous noise. Sebastian, the sound man, gave us a great impression of a lion’s roar which we made him repeat! “Have you done the night encounter?” we asked the crew. “Not yet, it’s the last thing we have to shoot before we go home” Alison informed the listeners.

The crew gave us the background to their professional careers revealing that both Phil and Seb have been highly involved with all sorts of programmes featuring wildlife in the past. Alison is the producer and the organizer. We’ve had great business at Chanters from various members of this crew during 2010, and it was lovely to hear them praise the lodge, the food and the staff and to tell listeners that Chanters really felt like their second home.

The music for the show was a good mix as usual. Bruno Mars ‘Just The Way You Are’ kept up our record of playing the current number one in UK – we played it back to back with Rihanna’s ‘Only Girl In The World’ the first single from her new album, high in the US Charts. On the local scene George featured ‘Temperature’ by Uniq (“I suppose it means his girl friend raises his temperature” I speculated. “Affirmative” the guys replied). We played the ever popular Petersen’s “Dance With You” as well. (I was delighted to be given a copy of the new JK album by George, though Milli Jam reported massive disappointment amongst the Livingstone public that JK had been miming during his recent album launch at Steprite).

Milli Jam featured Soul IV Real’ ‘Candy Love’ back to back with Aaliyah’s ‘Rock The Boat’ and we played two tracks from the new Phil Collins album ‘Going Back’ – the title track and ‘Papa Was A Rolling Stone’. Great new version of an old favourite. We played ‘Going Back’ for Cara, the Lion Manager out at lion encounter who’s a great Collins fan.

As usual we gave away a dinner for 2 at Chanters Lodge with drinks – this week for the first person to text us the name of the animal the guys had come to here to film. There was a quick response and everyone got it right! We greeted Guests, mentioning that we were very multi-national this week at Chanters with Guests from Japan, Italy, UK, Egypt, USA, Norway, South Africa and Zambia. We wished two of the Chanters Girls not feeling well a speedy recovery, and greeted the rest of the staff by name too.

The crew thanked the lodge for our hospitality and thanked too all the people at lion encounter who had made their trip so memorable. “When do you leave?” Asked Milli Jam. “On Wednesday” replied Phil, as Milimo and George laughed. “What’s funny?” asked Phil. “Richard only brings Guests leaving on Monday” they replied, as we closed a really fun show.

5
OCT

accommodation, activities, Africa, entertainment, radioshow, tourism, uk, wildlife, Zambia, Zimbabwe

The Chanters Lodge Experience

It could be a title of a Guest review couldn’t it? In fact it’s the name of a weekly radio show, sponsored by Chanters Lodge on Zambezi Radio 107.7 fm, Livingstone’s leading local radio station. The full title of the show is ‘The Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring George Soulchild’. George and Milli Jam, famous local DJ’s, are pictured above. The show goes out live at 20.30 hours every Sunday.

The radio programme is essentially musical, featuring old pop, new pop and Zambian music. Richard Chanter, owner and manager of Chanters Lodge also features weekly on the show. A Guest from the lodge is usually invited to talk about their experiences in Zambia and at the lodge, and the music and chat are intertwined in an exciting and interesting way. Local personalities also feature on the show from time to time, and several members of staff at the lodge have guested on the show.

Last week our Guest was a retired professor of history from Australia who was interesting and entertaining. The music was good. The show featured two Zambian tracks – Exile with ‘Nganalikwe ba le’ (‘If I Had Told You’) and Afunika with ‘Darling’. (George might write more for the blog about these artists and tracks later in the week, time permitting). The show opened with ‘Candy’ by Aggro Santos ft Kimberley Wyatt. The new UK number one ‘Beautiful Monster’ by Ne-Yo featured, as well as Mary J Blige’s ‘Each Tear’. Leona Lewis’s ‘Bleeding Love’ took people back a couple of years while Professor Green’s ‘Just Be Good’ and Usher’s ‘DJ Got Us Falling In Love’ are smack up to date. The show closed with Treysongz ‘Already Taken’.

The lodge gives away a dinner for two with drinks every week. This week the prize was given to the first person to text Richard the Guest’s nationality and as usual there was a good response, showing that after more than a two year run, the show has lost none of its popularity with the local population. Zambezi 107.7 fm has a range of about 65 kms, touching as far as Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe and Kasane in Botswana.

Our Guest praised the staff at the lodge on air, which was good news, and the radio show has proved excellent for staff morale. We often wonder what the Chanters Girls get up to while they’re listening to the programme at the lodge! Dancing? We guess so! The staff love to hear their names mentioned weekly and feel proud that the lodge is recognised on radio.

18
AUG

Africa, Botswana, Chanters, guests, livingstone, music, radioshow, reviews, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Zambia-Zimbabwe Border

Now, we wouldn’t blame you for thinking this photo was contrived or rigged! Not so! It’s the real deal! It was shot by Cara Watts, the Lions Manager (awesome job title!) at Lion Encounter in Livingstone, Zambia. Cara hails from the South West of England (Yeovil, Somerset) and studied BSc (HONS) Animal Management and Welfare at the University of Lincoln. She says she’s ‘always loved animals and especially the African Lion’.

Cara first volunteered at Antelope Park in Zimbabwe in 2006 and returned again in 2007 to help with the lions. She then stayed on at the Park and became the Lions Manager there. In April 2009 she moved to Livingstone, Zambia to Lion Encounter where they now have 17 lions and are working towards achieving their four stage rehabilitation programme to release lions back into the wild.

Whilst Cara’s parents Mike and Sue visited her in Livingstone (naturally staying at Chanters Lodge) they headed to the Royal Livingstone for high tea and some cocktails. This is where they saw this spectacular view over the Falls and the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia.

Cara’s dry comment: “It certainly looks like I left the dark side for bright Livingstone!”

Great photo Cara!

13
APR

activities, Chanters, guests, victoriafalls, wildlife, zambezi, Zambia, Zimbabwe

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