Southern Africa: Zambia to South Africa - The Lions on the Road: Cycling London to Cape Town - page 267

ofthetiresandseveraltearsonthesidewallsaboutaninchinlength.Hesaidthathewould
send them to my parents in Canada as a souvenir but they never arrived.
Alas, my last day in Lusaka turned out to be very low key for I spent it simply
filling out postcards and writing a letter to STC-Canada.
On the Thursday, my sixth day in Lusaka, I woke up to have my last breakfast with
Piers. He left for the office and I went to my room to collect my things. Just as I was about
to leave, Bobby handed me a packed lunch and after thanking him, I shook his hand and
said my final good-bye. What a good man.
The road out of Lusaka was like the road entering it, partially under construction.
Instead of joining the traffic on the road that was opened to vehicles, I cycled on the side
that was not yet opened. This provided a stress-free break from the heavy traffic. I soon
arrived in Kafue, a town on the edge of the Kafue River and visited an Italian mission only
to say the Rosary. The road from this point predominantly descended to the border. The
hills became more pronounced and reminded me of the foothills of the Alps especially as
I passed just south of the Kafue Gorge. Needless to say, the scenery was quite beautiful
and worth taking pictures (if I had a working camera.) Since I had been off the bike for six
days, I slowed my pace considerably and again walked on the hour. The road slowly des-
cended to a long bridge that spanned the Zambezi River. This was the border to Zimbabwe
at a place called Chirundu. Even though I arrived well before the bridge's 6 p.m. closing, I
stayed in Zambia for one last night.
Eight hundred meters from the bridge, I came across a Catholic Mission hospital
and was welcomed to stay. I ate the remaining food from Bobby's lunch and then went to
sleep. The next day I was about to venture into my 15 th African country, Zimbabwe.