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A little celebration is in order: this morning we got up and ready and were on the road, all in under an hour! We even had time to savour the hot coffee in the new flask (me) and complete a final spin cycle on our washing (Matt). Setting up/putting down the tent is almost like second nature now, and every bag, equipment, piece of paper and even shoes have their own place in Foxy. There is still a lot of gear and equipment (and food) we could get rid of but it is definitely a huge improvement from a week ago. With breakfast on the go (smoked kudu and cream cheese sandwiches, courtesy of deli in Maun), we were off!

We left Chobe early - in fact we leave everywhere early - to take the ferry over to Zambia. This was utter and complete chaos with a backlog of lorries over a mile long waiting to get on it. Problem being it only took one lorry at a time. We actually got through relatively quickly as we were tourists. We were soon in Livingstone and were taken directly to Victoria Falls. You could see the spray from the falls miles away. It looked like a mini cloud. The falls were in full flow when we arrived and they are quite a sight. We all got completely soaked. Crossing bridges while having nature throw water at you makes one feel like you're in a Indiana Jones movie or on a boat in a storm. We then made our way to camp which would be our home for the next four nights. I upgraded immediately. The tents we use smelt of damp as if they'd had fifty old trainers stored in them. We then had a presentation on which activities we could do. One was a flight over the falls in either a microlight or a helicopter. After the presentation the woman who asks too many questions asked what the difference was between a helicopter and a microlight - even though both were shown in the DVD.

We really only had one stop in Zambia and this was Livingstone from which we saw Victoria falls and did a few extreme activities including gorge swinging and microlighting. A few of us decided to make a day trip across to Zimbabwe where we all became millionaires! In Zim we did a lion encounter (walking with lions) and rode elephants. It was an excellent day but did mean we had to pay the ridiculously expensive visa to again to get back into Zambia! Oh and we celebrated Paddy's day on a drive day which basically means we got very drunk on the truck and arrived into our campsite a little worse for wear to discover they had no electricity (power cut) which also meant they had no running water! Arghhhh....

Zambia is a well kept secret in the heart of Africa. It has emerged in recent years as an engaging attraction to tempt even the most well travelled. The country is endowed with a wealth of beautiful sceneries, magnificent physical features, unspoilt swathes of plains and an abundance of wildlife. The highlights for the visitor are its national parks - for the animals and bird-life; Victoria falls -one of the world's most outstanding natural attractions, and the Zambezi river- which offers adventure types great canoeing, white-water rafting and bungee jumping. Zambia lies in the northern frontier of southern Africa, and is squashed between East and Central Africa. This landlocked country has more neighbours than any country needs. It shares its borders with eight countries: Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi and Mozambique to the east, Zimbabwe to the south-east, Botswana and Namibia to the south, Angola to the west and the Democratic Republic of Congo to the north-west.

(1) Emilee and Micah with catch of the day, (2) Caterpillars - not fish bait, but human food, (3) Whitewater rafting the lower Zambezi River, and (4) the calmer way to enjoy the Zambezi above the falls.

Fred Williams-Bowen, Pluckley, writes Having just returned from a holiday in southern Africa that finished with three nights in Zambia, I think you should warn other travellers that Zambia has increased its tourist visa fees for British passport holders to US$140, which must be paid in cash at the point of entry. Fortunately our tour operator told us of the charge, but others on our flight didn't know about it and didn't have enough dollars to pay on arrival. They were either taken by officials to a bank to withdraw cash or told to pay the money to their hotel before regaining their passports. We noticed that holders of passports from other EU countries only had to pay $50 for the visa. Why do Britons have to pay more? Incidentally, we also had to pay a further $50 "departure tax" to get out of the country. Gill Charlton replies On January 25, Zambia's finance ministry announced it was abolishing the visa waiver facility enjoyed by tourists from most Western countries and introduced, with immediate effect, these new charges for British citizens: £75 for a single-entry visa and a whopping £240 for a multiple-entry visa. Other EU countries pay $50 for a single-entry, $80 for a double-entry and $140 for a multiple-entry visa. The high charges for British citizens are said to be in response to the UK's high fees for visiting Zambians: £63 for a single-entry visa. The political tit-for-tat is likely to damage the country's tourism industry, according to the African Travel and Tourism Association. "We are extremely concerned by the imposition of these huge visa charges," said ATTA's spokesman. "Our members had no warning, which has caused many problems [in connection with] contacting customers and explaining the situation to those who thought they had already paid for their holiday in full." ATTA has protested to the Zambian government about the charges and lack of notice. "Visa charges are now reciprocal," said a spokesman for the Zambian tourism ministry in London. "For example, the Irish don't pay for visas because they don't charge us for visas. So far there's been no indication that the new charges are deterring UK visitors." Visitors to Africa should also note that health officials are demanding yellow fever certificates on arrival. I was asked for my certificate at Kilimanjaro airport in Tanzania last month after flying in from Nairobi. An ATTA official who flew to Johannesburg from London via Nairobi, where he was in transit at the airport for just two hours, was forced to submit to a yellow fever jab because he did not have his certificate with him.

Sirs, I am in receipt of a press statement of 14 February 2008 issued jointly by Antelope Park, ALERT, and a Sir Ranulph Fiennes in response to the Sunday Times article by Chris Haslam "African lion encounters: a bloody con," published on February 10, 2008. The press statement attempts to deal with what I consider are two essential points: 1) that ALERT exported 37 lion to South African captive centres and that there was no intention to sell them to a canned hunting operation. This is naïve or disingenuous in the extreme given the many conservation bandits at work in the semi-autonomous nine provinces of South Africa. And to state that "there was a pre-condition on the provision of an export permit by the Zimbabwe Wildlife Authority that those lions could not be used for canned hunting" shows a degree of respect for the Zimbabwean Government and its powers which is touching. The other crucial issue which got us all huffing and puffing in the first place in Zambia is 2) the question of what will happen to the lion once they tire of being cuddled and strolled about with. ALERT'S statement denies that tourists and volunteers are told that the lion cubs are being raised for release in the wild, or that "this form of release has never formed part of the release programme ", yet concluding the paragraph by saying "they will therefore be able to be released into the wild with the same avoidance behaviours towards humans as any wild born lion." This is all very confusing and clearly contradictory.

Leon de Kock visits a languid lodge in Zambia's Kafue National Park, which is now part of the latest transfrontier Kaza Park. In the modern era of "African Safari" tours - a massive, lucrative market of overseas tourists - Zambia is a relatively overlooked treasure of bush and water, playing second fiddle to Kenya especially. But landlocked Zambia has lovely riverine settings - splendid falls and waterways encircled by steaming, remote bush. And Lufupa Camp is a rough jewel that glitters on the banks of the Kafue. With a flight from Johannesburg to Lusaka, and a connecting charter to the camp itself, you could make a perfect long weekend out of it. That's if you're feeling adventurous - and why not? Zambia's three rivers are the Luangwa, the Kafue and the Zambezi. Combined with the great Victoria Falls, they give the country a completely unique look and feel. Apart from rich game, it is also home to hundreds of rare bird species.