Appointment in Zambia: A Trans-African Adventure

by Sara Dunn

'We could always go overland now that we have wheels, ' Ross had suggested out of the blue. I'd pulled out an atlas and we'd traced a route down through Africa via countries still marked with their colonial names. Only two strips of water interrupted the flow of land between Edinburgh and Chingola; the English Channel and the Straits of Gibraltar. Fourteen months had passed since Neil Armstrong walked on the moon so Africa couldn't be that difficult, could it? A month later we boarded the ferry for Calais... In 1970 newly-weds Ross and Sara set off, with extraordinary naivety and a lack of proper preparation, to drive from Edinburgh to Zambia in a standard saloon car. Appointment in Zambia is the story of their epic car journey. Sara was 21 (and could not drive) and Ross was 23 when they and their brand new Hillman Hunter (in 'Golden Sand', a colour chosen before they'd opted to drive through the Sahara...) started out. For eight weeks, in a trip of over 20 000 kms, they slept in the car, coped with illness and looked up the barrel of rifles from the wrong end. Apart from the car their only technology was a compass. Their journey encompassed the Sahara, where they had to dig themselves out of trouble with Tupperware containers. They also braved war-torn Biafra, navigated storm-wrecked roads through equatorial forests and traversed the main tributary of the Congo River (on a raft cobbled together with dug-out canoes by locals). They met lepers, pygmies, drunken officials, prostitutes and missionaries while their journey took them across 13 countries with widely different frontiers, customs, currencies and language before they reached Chingola - just in time for Ross to start his new job. Appointment in Zambia is a unique take on an epic journey - a young couple and their basic car travel acrosss Africa, not because they want to challenge themselves and prove something, but because they decide it's the best way to get to a new job in Zambia.

Genres: Memoir, Africa, Nonfiction, Travel

234 pages, Paperback

First published July 24, 2012

Reviews

[Ricardo Ribeiro · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book in little more than 24 hours - and that was because I was sick and not permanently in conditions to read. Fascinating. Not only it was a pleasant reading, providing pleasure by itself, due to the writing style, the chain of exciting events in the book, the interesting description of people, places and situations but also because it made me think. How different traveling is nowadays. With GPS, and Internet, and cellular phones. I do travel. Semi-professionally and like Sara and Ross, I go to awkward destinations. My last adventure was visiting Syria in the early times of the civil war. But I wouldn't have the guts to do it in the conditions this (by then) young couple did it.

I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in travel literature, specially to those interested in traveling in the "good old times."

[Pam · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this book because I recently volunteered in Zambia, but it was really about this couple's rather foolish trek in the wrong kind of car from Scotland all the way through the Sahara to Zambia (it ends with their arrival). It was quite an adventure though. Enjoyable reading. Part of me wished I had been along, and the other part is so glad I wasn't!

[marydye36hotmail.com · Rating 5 out of 5]

An awesome story

This book held me on edge as they travelled through Africa I would recommend it to anyone who likes an adventure or a very good story