Zambia Travel Blogs

Zambia via Botswana
Jan 21, 2006

... government wanted a $25 visa fee, which we later found can be waved if you organize your Zambian activities from outside Zambia through a tour or safari company. Then we needed a ride from the border to Livingston. There were plenty of trucks going that ...

Bovu Island and Mr. John
Jan 23, 2006 (6 photos)

... ground was sand and I knew I was on an island. But, no, just on the Zambezi River. We were to go back to mainland Zambia for a few hours of plant walking with an elder of the Tokoleza tribe, Mr. John. One of the Bovu Island staff, Godfrey, would be our ...

Victoria Falls and to the Middle of the River
Jan 22, 2006 (5 photos)

... two groups. Bovu Island is an idyllic little (1 km x .5 km) island in the middle of the Zambezi River between Zambia and Zimbabwe, though it is officially Zambian. Frank knows the Euro-Botswanan owners who run an incredible little resort there. One of ...

Finally viewing Vic Falls and microlites flights
Apr 15, 2006 (10 photos)

Woke up for what was to be a big day. Vic Falls viewing followed by an afternoon microlite flight. Vic Falls had been high on my itinerary of must dos since starting my trip, infact since I was young and had seen some of the fantastic paintings and ...

Zambia - South Luangwa
Apr 8, 2006 (15 photos)

We spent the last couple days doing game drives in Zambia's South Luangwa National Park. Just before we arrived at the park, we decided to visit a batik textile factory for a tour and some shopping. Our tour leader figured it might also be a good place ...

Full up for Easter Friday - Jollyboys saves day
Apr 14, 2006

... a nice early start with a trip to the bank, a coffee before heading back to the bus station. Lusaka, the capital of Zambia seemed like a nice city and with some affluence. I even spotted a subway, things are also a little more expensive than Malawi. I' ...

Feeding time for the crocs
Apr 16, 2006 (5 photos)

... , the 3 Danes I also met in the Usambara Mountains in Tanzania. Found out one of the reasons that evening why the Zambia is quite expensive. The election are in September and typically all the previous elections in Zambia have been disasterous. In the ...

I always thought Canadians were nice people
Apr 13, 2006

... best bus I'd taken in the whole of Africa. It surprised me as my Lonely Planet guide book had mentioned that travel in Zambia could be a nightmare. Oh well better this way around than thinking the transport was good and it turning out crap. There was a ...

Crazy In Zambezi
Jun 26, 2005 (4 photos)

... Zambia, we had only a few day's respite before heading out again. I didn't expect to be doing HIV/Aids awareness work in Zambia. The sad story of the epidemic belongs in another story, but on this trip it was barely an issue as we cruised from town to ...

Northern Road Trip 3
Jul 8, 2005 (4 photos)

... in North America is yet another tragic but not-unlikely incident in a country where life, even young life, is cheap. Zambia's president, Levy Mwanawas, didn't even attend the mass funeral that followed, sending his wife and the vice-president, who in a ...

Northern Road Trip 4
Jul 9, 2005 (3 photos)

Back on the highway we make for Kashikishi and the area of Zambia where Bwalya and his family are from. Kashikishi is a two-nightclub town, which makes it something of a party destination in Luapula province. It's Friday night and the Mushima Bar is ...

Calm Before the Dust
Jun 23, 2005 (2 photos)

... feared for it. (Belief in juju is so prevalent that it even reaches into the capital, where with all seriousness, Zambia's major papers sometimes publish stories involving mankwala. A recent news item told the story of a man who'd stolen a bag of ...

Northern Road Trip 5
Jul 10, 2005 (3 photos)

Unlike much of the country, northern Zambia is flush with water; huge lakes and swift rivers, many of which flow into the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania and the Great Lakes to the north. Kashikishi is on Lake Mweru, a massive body of water ...

Western Road Trip 3
Jul 28, 2005 (4 photos)

... , ragged grassy skirts and elaborate headdresses, their faces hidden by the same striped fabric. We've just passed a Zambia National Service farm, essentially a labour camp, and Bwalya explains that these men are recruiters for the camp, trawling ...

Western Road Trip 2
Jul 25, 2005 (4 photos)

... , I have bigger fish to fry. As we bump along the road out of Shangombo I'm day-dreaming about my future. Living in Zambia is quickly becoming a means to the productive end of my writing. I have a rare opportunity here, with a seemingly endless trove of ...

Western Road Trip 4
Jul 29, 2005 (1 photos)

On that night in Kaoma Bwalya asked me for money, a "loan payable" he called it. I gave him the 100,000K (about $24) but found the request awkward and strange. After all, he was carrying most of the money for the trip. We went out and I forgot all about ...

Mean Streets
Aug 1, 2005 (2 photos)

... and armed robberies are not rare here; in fact, crime is the rule rather than the exception. It doesn't matter that Zambia is a peaceful country. Peace doesn't put food on the table, and poverty and desperation are endemic. While violent crime is ...

The President is Not a Cabbage
Nov 11, 2005 (1 photos)

... cover-ups and party intrigue that have plagued Zambian politics in the past year. The stakes are certainly high for Zambia's top Bwana. With presidential elections are set for July 2006, and Mwanawasa seems intent on neutralizing all opposition. The ...

Serious animals!
Oct 21, 2006 (7 photos)

... tell you about in her colorful stories; she'll paint a far more vivid picture than I can! So next we are off through Zambia. First a quick stop in Chipata to catch a bus the next morning to the capital city of Lusaka. After spending the night in Lusaka ...

Merry Christmas
Dec 16, 2005

... of us drove from Gabs (in the south east) to Kasane (right up in the north east at the border between, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe). It took us 9 ½ hours, with Erin and I doing most of the driving on roads full of potholes, that disappeared ...

Northern Road Trip 6
Jul 13, 2005 (2 photos)

It started in Chinsali, that happening little town with the interminably loud guesthouse bar. I went to bed early that night without finishing my beer, exhausted and aching from the cold. Despite the early and unwelcome wake up call I felt better in the ...

Lusaka to Dar es Salaam
Dec 5, 2006 (5 photos)

... compartments next to us all contained 'drivers', whose job entailed picking up bare-bones truck chassis' and driving them back to Zambia.  I found out their journey took a week and they drove with helmets on, Mad Max style, sometimes in 20-vehicle ...

Northern Road Trip 2
Jul 7, 2005 (11 photos)

... and the Chocolate Factory" name, Mpulungu is on the southern shore of Lake Tanganyka and is the only port in land-locked Zambia. The road to town holds all the promise of a great cottage adventure; long, remote, and winding through hills and valleys. ...

Western Road Trip 1
Jul 22, 2005 (9 photos)

... River and its tributaries break their banks. Just west of Mongu, the largest town in Barotseland and the capital of Zambia's Western Province, the Barotse stretches wide and flat into the horizon, where the Ku'omboka Ceremony takes place here. Meaning "to ...

Zambia - Victoria Falls
Apr 4, 2006 (18 photos)

... group on his jump. Normally it costs $65 US for a visa into Zimbabwe, but as the Vic falls bridge straddles both Zambia and Zimbabwe, we thought we'd sneak across to Zim... and back... Our overland group decided to go on a dinner/booze sunset ...

Random Passages
May 12, 2005 (10 photos)

... the telling has done little to curb my fears. * * * From the Miscellaneous section of the Classifieds in the Post, 'Zambia's Leading Newspaper': "An astrologer herbalist why not try him welcome Dr. N. Magaga from East Africa He is here to pay ...

Buses, Falls and Good Old-Fashioned Religion!
Oct 27, 2006 (5 photos)

... each ride started with a rather unique blessing that I'll leave it to Katie tell you about! The countryside of Zambia is rather sparsely populated and dotted with the occasional small village. Most residential dwellings in villages are round, mud brick ...

Mpulungu to Chitipa
Jan 20, 2007

... is transport to Malawi; the roads are good". At 09:30 I jumped off the train in Nakonde, the border town between Zambia and Tanzania.  They recommended I jump out at Nakonde and guaranteed me I could get to Chitipa, the Malawian border town 92km ...

A Sigh for Africa
Nov 15, 2005 (2 photos)

... had many questions about politics in Zambia, my opinions about Malawi, and my general experience in Africa. Before I left Zambia to travel to Botswana, Johannesburg and Malawi, I'd have painted a very different and disparaging picture of the country ...

The Longcut to Kabompo
Jun 25, 2005 (2 photos)

... We reach the checkpoint early on, and Bwalya speculates that somewhere in the area is one of the backwater barracks favoured by Zambia's old military establishment. Later we see signs of the refugee camps where many Angolans still live, waiting to be--or ...