Africa house, a little bit of Historic England in Zambia
The warm springs in Zambia are not like Iceland, yes they are hot and natural, but when you get out the air temp is 28 deg C not zero deg C.
we stayed on the Kapishya hot springs campsite and had a little fire , a groundsman stayed around and cut us more wood, such service.
The campsite sits on the river and is another lovely place but the main feature is the big house owned by the same family, the grandson of the original builder of Shiwa Ngandu House (Africa house).
The campsite is owned by Mark Harvey and the house by Charles Harvey , marks brother and both are grand children to sir Gore Browne , they are both featured in the film.
Both are really nice people , we got drunk with Mark and listened to stories about his childhood at the house in times long gone now.
The Campsite is a haven of plants and agriculture, Mark is an unreal fountain of knowledge on all things planty and Zambia.
The video gives a basic oversite of the house up until 2000, the full story is way more interesting.
After the murder of Mark and Charles’s parents, the house was left to the 3 youngest siblings, Charles the eldest was left out of the will entirely because he was the favorite grandson of sir Gore Browne who did not get on with their father, even Mark says his father was a bloody difficult man to get on with but it was rather unfair.
the youngest son tried to run it as was seen in the film but he was useless, eventually, around 2001 Charles and his wife convinced the other 3 to sell it to them and now they own it and the 50000 acres outright, but are struggling to renovate the house that sits on an earthquake zone and has no footings, made of bricks randomly fired by amateurs.
Mark kept the land with the spring and made the lodge/campsite and does tours of the National parks
the other two children took the money and live in London and have nothing to do with the house.
Marks children live in London and are not interested in the Hot springs campsite and he has no idea how to make sure it lasts. he is looking for lodgers to look after the 8 dogs and ensure the staff tend to the gardens, all that’s needed are flights to Zambia.
The steam engine has an interesting history, it was purchased by the B.S.A company to work on their rubber plantation in Zambia 120km north of the house. Sir Gore Browne purchased it and then had it driven down to the house, first they had to cut a path overland to the house, it took a month to drive it along the rough tracks, on the way they stopped at a pretty location and discovered the hot springs that are no run as a campsite ( see above), non of the locals knew about the hot springs.
It has been renovated once but now stands near the entrance with some other old steam boiler stuff.
