Zooming through Zambia and Lusaka
Trip Start
Mar 30, 2008
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Trip End
Mar 31, 2009
Lusaka,
Zambia
Monday, March 2, 2009
Lusaka
Saturday 28th February - Day 10 Waterfront to Kafue Hook (350km)
At last we were now on the road with our new travelling buddies. The music pumping we made our way 350km north east to an area outside Lusaka. There we were greeted by a team of people who ran the 'Kafue Queen'. She was a cruise 'ship' made from two pontoons with a two storey structure welded on top driven by two outboards that would have been more suited to your toy boat for the bath. Still we loaded up our tents and camping gear and after a lot of revving of the underpowered outboards we were on our way up stream.
The cruise was through the Kafue Gorge area and was very peaceful and relaxing despite the speed boats wizzing up and down in search of prime fishing spots angling for a $5000 prize in the local competition
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. It was made even more entertaining by a quartet of local men who performed for us by singing and playing the African drums. They had a pantomime thing going on as they acted out various events. Our favourite was the officer soldier act when the officer kept asking questions of the soldier then when he replied 'Yes Sir' telling him to 'Shut up!' Very funny act. Before long we arrived at Kafue Hook, a meander in the river and docked. Forming a human chain we unloaded the equipment ashore and settled into our bush camp for the evening.While the performance continued we struggled to cook dinner on an open fire as we had found that the gas burner we brought along was missing a vital piece. Adding to the challenge it was now raining hard too. The performers did a spectacular fire act and then we settled down around the fire. As it was our first night we had an ice breaker session despite the owners son Darryl being a drunken 25 year old arse. I sat talking to Francis (33), the camp security man from the nearby village, and Richard who helped to run the boat. Francis was a from the Tonga Tribe and together they tried to give me some history about the origins of the four main tribes in Zambia. There are a total of 72 tribes here, although in an attempt to unify them the official language is now English. We were to bed early as we were up early again the next day. Darryl kept us awake until around 12 with music and noise until his father, Ian returned
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. None of us wanted to party so he decided to party on his own. This included getting his rifle out and taking pot shots at crocodiles!Sunday 1st March - Day 11 Kafue to Lusaka, (70km)
Fortunately we did get some good sleep and left just after 6.30am to walk to the local village. Francis, despite being up all night on guard, was our guide to his small family area of 10 people. As we arrived we were met by his brother Joseph (53) who took us into an open meeeeting hut where he welcomed us to his village. The main part of the village lies just behind a hill and has around 500 members. Central to the village is the chuch run by an American charity, they also help to fund the local primary school. Joseph confidently tells us all about life in his village, the hardships, traditions and the plans for the future. He recalls how as a boy his mum would cook Hippo meat hunted by the men, in a clay pot that. That of course is no longer acceptable as is most of the ancestor worship now that they have all embraced Christianity.
He knows of a man from the village who's talent was to make the fermented maize beer who met Dr Livingstone during his travel in the area. Now they survive hand to mouth on fish, small animals hunted traditionally using snare traps and pumpkins grown in the village and shared unfortunately with opportunistic monkeys. They have however also just formed a farming cooperative which should open up the possibility of government subsidised fertilizer. This would offset the 300,000 Kwocha (US$60) price tag for a 50 kg bag, allowing more crops to be grown and reducing the need to sell charcoal for food
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. The charcoal comes from large trees felled in an unsustainable manner in the surrounding forests and all over southern Zambia. Bags of it we have seen for on the roadside ever since we entered the country.Life although hard must benefit from lack of stress as Joseph tells us that his father was over 90 when he died from old age. Of course now Malaria, from which Joseph is recovering, is the highest risk, but is often easily treated if the victim can make it across the river to the clinic in good time and with money to buy treatment. Also now they are sleeping in mosquito nets provided free during a recent charity uplift sponsored by the church. A close second is the usual HIV/AIDS, but prevention is starting to work and many like Joseph now only choose one wife which must go some way to reduce cross infection.
Interestingly Joseph speaks excellent English and when asked how he learned this he tells us it started at school, but was perfected by this, he pointed to his radio and confessed he is addicted to BBC World Service. We took a walk around the village and I cornered Joseph to air my concerns about his involvement with Ian and Darryl. He assures me that although he is constantly disappointed by Darryl's behaviour (largely due to his foster child background, prison sentence served in the UK and being an ex Heroine addict) the Chief supports the joint venture and they are improving their standard of living with the money they are making
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. He also said that he had no intention of selling off the traditional land that Ian is using and the Chief supported by the government could move them off at any time. I was relieved as Joseph and I with the rest of the goup walked back to the camping area. We said our farewells and boarded the Kafue Queen to be taken back to Songwe the Devstator to continue our journey. I took the opportunity of expressing my disgust at Darryls behaviour to Ian including the weeing in front of everyone and poor treatment of his staff.Relieved to find our truck still there and untouched we loaded up using our best human chain to date. Some poles fell in the river and Richard expertly dived for them. Waving goodbye we drove off and headed to Lusaka. We stopped for an hour in a shopping centre to use the internet and I bought a map of Southern Africa so I can mark out the route we are taking. Its a very modern town and seemed pretty safe apart from one guy we saw crossing the road on a flyover with a rosary in one hand and pistol in the other!
After leaving the centre of Lusaka we pulled in Eureka Camping Ground early enough to have most of the afternoon free. I arranged a circuit session and for 45 minutes Clare, Pete, Rich, Max, Megan and I beasted ourselves silly
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. Everyone felt much better for it and after a dip in the pool the evening was used to prepare dinner and then get a really early night, ready for a 5am start.Monday 2nd March - Day 12 Lusaka to Chipata (620km)
Sure enough the adjacent trucks woke us up at 4.50 am as they prepared to leave, we were not far behind as we piled on board after a quick breakfast ready for a 620km drive today. On route we crossed the Luangwe River where some Police asked us for some of our valuable drinking water. We arrived finally in good time at Mama Rulas campsite where we had a fantastic braai with huge steaks and boerewors sausages after swimming in the pool there.
