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Zambezi
Adventure
By Mike
Humphries
Phil, Martyn
and myself decided some months ago to explore the western part of
Zambia, with the Zambezi as the focal point of the journey. We felt
Zambia has so much to offer but that it is difficult to gain an
appreciation of all of it without taking the trouble to go and see
for ourselves. And this part of Zambia didn’t let us down.
We were not
without significant concerns prior to setting off. Fuel was one of
them. The crisis looked to have been resolved, at least as far as
diesel was concerned, just before we left in early November but it
was far from certain that the outlying towns we were to visit would
have any. The longest part of the journey between fuel stops was
from Solwezi up to the most northerly north-western nodule of Zambia
at Nchila, down through Mwinilunga and around Angola to Zambezi
town, thence south on the eastern side of the Zambezi to Mongu,
having made a prescribed detour along the Kabompo river to the
Watopa Ferry along the way.
After Mongu,
we predicted that fuel would be ok even given a second detour to
Liuwa Plains, as we should have been able to fill up at Senanga,
Sesheke and Livingstone.
Another
concern was the Landcruiser which had been at the menders having its
engine redone for nearly 3 months and which we only got back 3 days
before the off. Running in a new engine at the start of a 4000 km
offroad trip is not to be recommended, but we decided to go ahead
anyway. Rain was also an issue as it would make the going more
difficult. My confident prediction that the dry would break as we
were setting up camp on the first night was proved wrong. It
bucketed down instead whilst we packed on the day before! However,
except for one other night of rain on Luiwa Plains, it was
mercifully dry for the whole trip.
The last of
the big concerns was that we couldn’t find any other mad people to
come with us, so off we went in one vehicle trusting to winch and
satphone to get us out of trouble. One of which did later on.
Nchila is in a
remarkably beautiful part of Zambia. Bordered by two countries which
have undergone years of horrible civil war, remarkably a mission
station, schools, hospital, farm and game reserve have survived and
prospered for many decades; the latter under the management of the
third generation of the Fisher family. We were privileged to be
taken walking and birding by Esther Townsend who showed me 7 birds
I’d never seen before, my favourite being a Bannerman’s sunbird.
Esther’s specialist quirk of conducting complex self-conversations
about the nature of the latest bird-spot was a delight. Where we
walked, ancient riparian forests stud the many waterways in Nchila,
and give way to rolling grasslands, where all manner of the greatest
antelope graze, allowing breathtaking views. The orphanage near the
entrance to Nchila was filled with some of the happiest children we
had ever seen, testimony, no doubt, to the love and quality of care
they receive. Beautiful places often have a downside and one
imagines that the rain does come down for dreary months, and that
hookworm, malaria and other niceties are to be had in abundance, but
I think what grabbed our attention was the variety and colour of the
insects as well as the lurid green of the snake that slid past
Martyn one afternoon.
 The
source of the Zambezi is a moving spot to be if you’ve seen the
river further on. Here it is so insignificant and yet so important
to Zambia. A plaque reminds one of the origins of Zambia and its
links to the Zambezi.
The road past
Mwinilunga and round the corner of Angola all the way to Zambezi
town is a reasonably good sand track or unmaintained gravel and
passes fine stretches of cryptosepalum forest (three tiers up to 20
metres high). The drop off the escarpment is dramatic and views are
spellbinding. There is plenty of evidence of hanging log bee-keeping
all along the way. Finding nowhere suitable to camp in Zambezi we
went on to the Chinyingi mission, run by Capuchin monks, an order
founded by St Francis of Assisi, and there we met Friar Patrick
Musenga whose welcome was extraordinary. Friar Patrick has the
distinction of being the first Zambian Catholic priest ordained in a
Zambian seminary. The pontoon was immediately dispatched but would
not budge off the bank once the cruiser had been inched onto it, the
water being too low. Plan B was then to lock the vehicle in one of
the garages, but the keys could not be found. Plan C was then
hatched, Friar Patrick showing great tenacity and good humour, and
we took a lot of our kit across the suspension bridge in the pitch
dark. A brisk wind on the edge of a storm edded extra excitement to
the normal sway of the bridge when Friar Patrick thoroughly unnerved
me by stopping in the middle to tell me about a 300 kg priest from
America who had dropped clean through. To my relief, I learned later
that he had escaped unharmed and that the then wooden slats had
since been replaced with aluminium ones.
We went north
to the Chavuma Falls to gain an impression of the growth in size
from the source after its 200 km journey through Angola and it had
already grown to some 200 metres wide, giving the impression that
the main headwaters form up on these far northern highlands. This
would explain why it takes so long for rains here to fill the
Barotse floodplains lower down and then to influence Victoria Falls
and Kariba significantly, only in the second quarter of the next
year. The Falls are minor at that time of year as the river cuts
through a narrow basalt gulch. The high rain season will no doubt
create a much more dramatic sweep and drop.
We had
decided, for the route south, to travel all along the Zambezi on
sand track to the confluence of the Kabompo and then east until the
Watopa ferry across the Kabompo. All of this area is settled by
Lunda and Kaonde people and we were warmly greeted and treated
wherever we went. We set up camp at the bathing area after getting
permission from the chief. The welcome was so great that in order to
eat and get some rest, we had to gently ask for some peace and time
on our own, a concept not readily understood by villagers. The sky
slowly turned and started to burn directly over the river,
reminding us why we did these things. Bush-magic does wonders for
the soul.
We reached
Mongu uneventfully, having had a good few glimpses of the vastness
of the floodplains. After reprovisioning, we headed for Kalabo along
the five year old incomplete highway, already potholed where tarred,
but mostly just unfinished. We made Kalabo after sunset but got hold
of a highly efficient African Parks guard and scout and spent the
night at their good campsite just outside Kalabo. Liuwa Plains is
spectacular. A vast brown field of grass dotted with good quantities
of wildebeest, zebra, oribi and crested and crowned cranes. We
chanced upon an array of raptors feeding on termites (cbi termes,
apparently) emerging from their low mounds. Bataleur eagles, yellow
billed kites, red footed kestrels as well as lappet faced, white
headed and white backed vultures and marabou storks allowed us to
park in the middle of them watching them gobble up the plain’s
bounty. Chances of successful colonisation by these termites were
lower than usual. Phil’s ablutions were one morning assisted by a
puff adder which broke cover nearby.
We had decided
to travel down the eastern bank of the Zambezi on the way out of
Liuwa Plains instead of the more difficult western side because of
concerns about fuel as usage rockets in the sand and we had
discovered a leak. The eastern side is slow-going because the road
is part tar, part unmaintained gravel and part sand. The forest in
this area is the remains of Baikiaea, or teak, an extravagantly
coloured redwood which, once depleted will not regenerate as it is a
relic from a long-ago altered route of the river from deep in the
Congo. The ferry at Sitoti is an experience. Given that it had
broken down and the ensuing ‘fix’ an obviously Heath Robinson
effort, we were truly alarmed at the quantity of water being pumped
ostentatiously from one of the floats. On too-close inspection, one
began to imagine a list to one side.
The Sioma
Falls were a surprise. They stretch, in fallettes, for more than two
hundred metres which culminate in the main falls which, while not
high, are spectacular. A bath above these was a delight as was the
appearance of otters, the latter being something of a highlight for
the trip. A new operation, Touch the Wild, is beginning to set up
base at the National Parks site and if this has any connection with
an excellent outfit of the same name from Zimbabwe, it bodes well
for the area. It took us no time to make Livingstone, reaching it by
mid-afternoon. We had distant views of some of the rapids which
punctuate the river along its descent to the lowlands around the
Namibia and Botswana borders. The heat, as we dropped below 1000
metres, became oppressive.
Livingstone is
beginning, at last, to have an air of a town on the move. There are
improved shop fronts and construction is underway all over. We met
up with Bob Sjernstedt and decided that we would set off very early
for Taita Falcon Lodge early the next morning. We had a splendid
morning’s viewing spotting a taita falcon being chased by a
peregrine falcon, as well as black eagles. The lodge has a
precarious position with a glorious view of the gorge. Breakfast on
their deck is a great experience.
Our journey
home was to be through the southern part of the Kafue Park, an area
I had not previously visited. The road from Kalomo is pretty slow
going and, given that this is the main access to the park from the
south, will act as a deterrent to visitors. However, nothing
prepared us adequately for the Nanzhila River crossing deep in the
park. We arrived at it around sunset having enquired whether we
could get through at the Dumdumwezi gate, but found the crossings
(two of them) waterlogged, the banks steep and, once we had got
properly stuck, the soil a slippery clay. The winch was called into
service for both crossings and worked well. We eventually got
through to Itezhitezhi well after dark having found the Musa gate
conveniently unlocked. We camped on the grass outside the chalets at
the WCSZ site which has pleasant shade and is a nice height above
the dam. During a trip back into the park to the Nanzhila Plains, a
lovely area, we found some intrepid investors building a lodge. What
animals we did see showed only their rear ends as they ran away and
breeding herds of impala and kudu were notable for the absence of
males.
The road back
to Chingola via Landless Corner is in reasonable shape and the
journey by and large uneventful. We all found it hard to concentrate
on anything meaningful after a wonderful trip which served well to
reinforce the well-formed idea of the richness of the people and
natural beauty on offer in Zambia.
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May
2006