Petauke

Day 18 - Petauke

I woke up early, went to the elephant hide shelter, then ran into an elephant on site, took photos before breakfast. 

Leaving the Luangwa Valley this morning we stopped at Tribal Textiles. The Chipata area is a major producer of Cotton, and they use wheat powder to paint on the fabric, stretch to create crack patterns, then dye with various colors including blue, red, and yellow. They also recycle glass bottles into crafts such as lamps and other decorative pieces. 

Our destination tonight was the small town of Petauke. We had honey mustard pork chop for dinner, and I drank the local knockoff coke Chill Cola, which tasted close to American coke cola than locally sold coke cola since it is adapted to local sweeter taste (Zambia produces sugar cans).

Petauke is 425 km from the capital city Lusaka, roughly halfway between Lusaka and the Malawi border. People in Zambia actually eat mice, as our tour guide bought some fried ones on a stick to show us. No one wants to try.

The place we stayed: Chimwemwe Executive Lodge is more like a western motel and has better wifi. It also has onsite emus and other animals.