On to Kapishya

It was 5:30 on Sunday afternoon before we were able to get on the road from Mpepo. We had met with the church leaders, eaten at the Chief’s palace, and said our goodbyes to Joseph and Cosmas who were staying behind to work with the congregation for a few days. Now we wondered whether we should even leave. We had broken our “no driving at night” rule the night before to take the young man to the hospital in Mpika, and we didn’t want to do that again.

But Joseph assured us that the road to the Kapishya Hot Springs Campground was good, estimating that we could be there in 20 minutes. I multiplied that by three just to be safe and figured surely we could make it before dark. If not, we reasoned, we could always turn around and come back.

Twenty minutes down the road we came to the turnoff for Kapishya—a turnoff onto a one-lane dirt road. A turnoff with a sign and said Kapishya was 30 miles down this dirt road. I was getting a little nervous as the shadows lengthened and the air grew cooler. We headed down the road, with David promising, “If the road gets worse, we’ll turn around and go back.” The road continued to be relatively smooth for about 10 miles or so, and we were making pretty good time traveling through a totally deserted wooded area with absolutely no signs of human life other than an occasional hut every three miles or so.

By 6:30 it was getting dark fast, and we both realized we had come far enough that turning back was not a good option. About that time the road narrowed to a trail and we began to see that the recent rains had left their mark. David shifted into four-wheel drive and we slowed to a crawl. At two or three places the road had washed out completely. David had to get out and look it over carefully to decide if we could make it, but our invincible Toyota managed to get us through.

At 7:00 the sky was black and we were still miles from Kapishya. I was making lists of our options in my head. We had never been able to contact the campground by e-mail or phone, so we were just hoping that the place was even open. When we saw how absolutely deserted the area was, I had a panicky thought that maybe the place was closed for the season. We also faced the possibility that any minute we might come to a washed-out place in the road that would be too much even for our four-wheel drive pickup to maneuver. We decided that in either of those events we would just crawl in the back of the truck for the night and sort it all out in the morning. At any rate, I would have blog material and we could chalk up another adventure.

After two hours of seeing nothing but trees and road, the sight of a burning lightbulb seemed just as welcome as an oasis in the desert. We spotted the sign for Kapishya Hot Springs Lodge and drove through the gate to find a parking lot filled with safari vehicles around a gorgeous thatched roof building illumined by electric lights. I don’t know when I have felt more relieved. I stifled the urge to hug the night watchman in sheer gratitude that I was alive and out of the dark wilderness where we had spent two nail-biting hours!

We made arrangements in the lodge for our campsite and headed back into the inky night to set up camp. We were, as you might guess, the ONLY people in the campground, but we had flush toilets and hot showers, and after having been resigned to the idea of parking our vehicle by the roadside in the bush, this seemed pretty luxurious. For the second night in a row we set up our tent on the back of the truck by the light of a flashlight—shaving minutes off our previous time--and crawled into our sleeping bags. Lulled by the sound of rushing river water, croaking frogs, and squeaking fruit bats, we slept soundly.