Zambia 2 May 2006 - The roads in Zambia needs immediate attention.

After reviewing the archives, it has been a while since we had a report on the road conditions. A few minor comments about the road network in Zambia, as we have been travelling for a week on both gravel and tar roads. Joining me on this leg of the journey is a well known road expert from Norway and he is, to say the least, shocked about how damaged the road network is in this country. I guess we could blame the heavy rain and flooding, but it looks like the road authorities are not aware of the term contingency planning. We have seen a lot of equipment that could be used to maintain the roads, but what use is the fancy equipment if the people operating them do not get training. From Livingstone we wanted to visit the Kariba Dam and after planning the route we decided to take a gravel road down to Shipepo and it took us two days to reach a village with a lodge by the waterfront. Its a shame, because the people living there could have done so much with some tourism dollars. We talked to a woman in one of the villages and she carried fruits for two whole days to sell it to a marketplace in a neighbourhood town.