Day 56: Lusaka –

If you have exceptionally low expectations, you’ll probably be nicely impressed by the Zambian Museum in Lusaka. It is without doubt the worst museum I’ve ever been to. To the point of amusement. But I guess at least they have one.

I get the new tyre, I haggle down from 2.0 million to 1.6 million (£235 to £188). So just about acceptable (approx £150 in the UK). But it’s an absolute wanker to fit. After about an hour I’m there, but I now have a brilliant ‘trailer trash’ look. Dirty jeans tucked into motorcycle boots, filthy greasy t-shirt, greasy black hands, grease on my face, longish unkempt hair and an untrimmed overgrown moustache. Sweet look.

We heard from Rob a few days ago, he'd made it to Jungle Junction in Nairobi. I was very impressed to hear he made it down the A2 ('The Worst Road in Africa'), and happy to hear he was OK too. He then sent me the following about his bike:

• You would have laughed your ass off following me picking up the pieces that shook loose on the corrugation or simply ripped off on rocks - ok, take a deep breath, now try to imagine riding behind me, watching my bike coming out of the soft sand, hitting the corrugations, then maybe a huge pothole or two... which causes me to blow the suspension hose again.
  Ok, just a quick repair, right? Well a little while down the road on the corrugation, one of the nuts on the rear shock sheers off - overloading and compressing the second shock... basically I am now riding the corrugations on the "WRIA" as a hard-tail - no suspension at all.
  I can hear you giggling...And without suspension it's only a matter of time before all the bolts work loose... and then the Windscreen (fell off) / The all the headlights (fell off) / One saddle bag (fell off) / A hole ripped into the Exhaust / the pill-on seat melted (turns out the rear tire was scraping against the fender on ever bump - apparently to the melting point - oh yeah, rear tire is toast / A couple pieces of trim fell off: muffler heat shield, the bit that locks around the headlight, the entire Speedo unit. And then... the center stand rips off on a rock - and... the bolt that mounts the center stand to the frame tore through the sump. Fortunately for me, I discovered the oil leak after the Maxi-Fuse rattled apart and the bike shut down. I also came off pretty hard and bent up the engine guard. I'm sure I'm forgetting a few things, it was a rough few days. 

So well done for making it!

Tomorrow I’m going to hit the Wanda Munda wildlife sanctuary...