Zambia recorded its first covid case on 22nd March 2020 and immediately the government announced partial lockdown. Of course the tourist places were included in this partial lockdown.
Two months passed and luckily,Zambia escaped the harsh brunt of covid impact. By 1st week of June the government removed the closure ban from traveling .Camping was allowed but hotels, lodges still closed . Fear took time to evaporate but all those posts in our Zambia travel group emboldened me and I was ready for a trip.
By 1st July most of the lockdown restrictions was removed and now was time for travellers like us to pickup those neglected dusty suitcases and pack our holiday clothes. Precaution was the key for a successful' out in open' call. I decided to test waters by choosing an attraction close to home and an open area with very fewer scope of interaction with people.
Plan was to go visit Kundalila falls.A comfortable 6 to 7 hours of drive. Stay a night at a lodge and come back next day. Of course I had not consulted Zambia’s road . They choose to slow us with all those potholes, the copper filled trucks and waht not also lets not forget my tendency to stop at every beautiful site which are like million as this is Africa!
July is winter month in Zambia so we started late after breakfast. The road trip went like a dream . That feeing of being free, of being able to do as we choose and of being out on road was intoxicating. Even the boys were super excited and involved, entertaining us with blast of music and even 100 times repeated, a very strange song 'Take my horse to old town road ' seem to resonate with us. This time for a change, I was too euphoria to ask them to tone it down.Our journey seemed never ending.
Seeing that it will be almost late afternoon when we will reach the falls,we decided to stop at the lodge and visit the waterfall next day. The lodge in Forest inn lodge in a place called Mkushi. As the name suggest the lodge in right on the highway but surrounded by miombo forest.
https://forestinn-zambia.com/
The lodge is nothing special according to African standards lodges, resorts here tend to be quite over the top. But for us it was a heaven. A beacon of hope. Hope of travelling more and living in a world far from fear of a virus .We had a great picnic in the lawn. As part of precaution I had carried cooked food for lunch. We enjoyed quite a restful afternoon and evening. We ordered dinner in the lodge’s restaurant as were very impressed with their precautionary measures.
Next day again after a lovely breakfast of toast, pancakes and cheese omelette we set off to the falls. Again, the drive was lovely and we reached the falls in 3 hours.
Zambia has almost 200 plus waterfalls ,The most famous one ‘Victoria Falls' .But there are so many equally magnificent falls and new ones are discovered regularlly, especially after the rains and as men venture deep in forest .There is a dedicated Facebook group page on waterfalls of Zambia .Kundalila falls is one of the better known ones. The beauty of this fall is that from the viewing platform you can literally see the whole Luangwa valley.
Pristine and almost empty, this was the place to visit during the ongoing virus scare. One can hike to the base of the fall but we did not do that. Rather the boys decided to take a dip in the river and we enjoyed a nice picnic in this beautiful surroundings.
Of course we overstayed and then had to call Forest Inn to book us for another night. That is the beauty of holidays-plans are fluid.
After another restful night we drove back to our house enjoying the company of each other, secure in the knowledge that here atleast in Zambia we have immense scope of travelling without the fear of second, third, nth wave, overcrowding, revenge travel or self-centered mask less tourist!