The Lower Zambezi and the road to Kanyemba

Kanyemba  http://www.kanyemba.com/   is a privately run resort located on the Zambezi river just below the confluence of the Kafue river and east of the major border crossing to Zimbabwe and South Africa. 

The drive down is about 160 km (100 miles) with the majority on a 2-lane tar road that is heavily traveled by truck traffic and it also winds down the escarpment to the Zambezi from the plateau where Lusaka is located. 

The descent is probably 1500 ft and there are sections of the road that are now 3 lane to allow passing of the slow heavy trucks. It is also the site of some spectacular accidents or breakdowns. On our return there was a tractor-trailer with a trailer that was jack knifed in the middle of the road when the main drive shaft to the axles snapped. It had happened the day before. On the way down we saw a tractor-trailer where the whole of the front right wheel and axle had come off and the truck stuck on the road.

Many of the trucks will not drive the road at night particularly up the escarpment where they are loaded and slow. It is a dangerous curvy road, but the added problem is that thieves will climb on the slow truck and steal some of the load. Maybe a couple of bags of maize or a couple of packing cases of canned goods or whatever. The driver is held responsible for the safe delivery of the load. You will also see small cans or plastic containers of diesel fuel for sale. Apparently the truck drivers siphon small quantities of fuel and sell it for pocket money. Buyers are generally smaller operators. Diesel is about US$ 5.75 a US gallon.

There are plenty of other vendors on the roadside selling vegetables and fruit and plenty of people selling sacks of charcoal. This is the favorite local fuel as it is cheap and fairly easy to transport. It is also a problem as the wood is cut and land cleared indiscriminately and soil erosion is a large problem.

To get to the lodge we turned off the paved road and on to a bumpy dirt road. It is only about 22km to the lodge and after about 5 km the road improves some, and after about 10km we came to an African classic. The pontoon. I will do a separate post on pontoons.

The river pontoon.

There are lots of them throughout Africa as a cheap and fairly efficient alternative to a permanent bridge. River widths vary significantly with the seasons (the rains come between November and March). Most are operated with a cable across the river that guides the pontoon and various methods of moving the pontoon across the river. The simplest of these is a second cable and 2-3 guys with a piece of wood about a meter long that hooks over the cable and they pull the pontoon across the river. I was told that there are still a few in operation today in the more remote locations. The “B Series” has a looped cable and a winding device on one shore I assume still operated by the same guys!

The prevalent system today is the single cable and two small diesel motors (often Chinese made). The challenge here is that they rely on fuel and some maintenance and often the pontoons are in very remote locations with no electricity or reliable communication. 

Camp for pontoon staff on Lubungu

 The pontoon at Chirundu is larger than most and does not have a cable but a couple of larger diesels with steerable thrusters.

At Chirundu there were about 5 vehicles waiting in total and Rian (the bridegroom) was also towing a boat. We all boarded for the 5 minute crossing. My son Al had driven one of the Land Cruisers down from Lusaka (first time on the other side of the road) and he had fun driving the Cruiser on to the pontoon.

Once on the other side it was about 20 minutes to Kanyemba Lodge and River Camp where we were staying and the venue for the wedding.

Here are two guys doing it the old fashioned way

Zambia post at last

My apologies for the delay in posting, but a combination of dial up access and lots of planned activity I am way behind on my blog posts. There will be several over the next few days I hope.

After a week in the UK and an eleven-hour flight I arrived back in Lusaka (May 10th)  after a 17 year gap.

The whole place is substantially different in many ways and just the same in many others.

We have a family wedding next Saturday and my son Al, and his Mom have made the trip for the big event.

The wedding is to be held on an island in the Lower Zambezi Game Preserve (just east of Chirundu for you Google Earth fans) and we will all be staying at one of the lodges right on the river.

The following week a much smaller group of us are going to a much smaller self-catering camp in the Kafue National Park called Hippo Lodge.

Zambia has grown from about 5 million people in the mid 70s to around 11 million today. The initial government after independence in 1964 was essentially socialist and a centrally planned economy. There were lots of state owned enterprises with the consequent inefficiencies and monopolistic attitudes.

Around 1992 a new president was elected and the currency opened up and commercial farmers and businesses were encouraged to return, or come to Zambia and start businesses. Many of the commercial farmers (principally white) had left at various stages after independence and gradually the country had got to the point of having to import even basic food items like maize (corn)

From that point of view and the general availability of goods Zambia is a better place to live. Has that positively affected the average Zambian family living in a rural village? I doubt it has had much impact, but the urban Zambians now have a much greater choice, and there is enough competition to help keep prices reasonable.

There are many more shops with a wide variety of goods and much more traffic with more modern vehicles on the road.

There is a fairly new shopping mall, which is in the process of doubling in size with the attendant traffic chaos. I like it as much as any other mall, in other words not at all!!

So on the surface all looks booming and well, but crime is rampant, although not on the level of South Africa from a frequency or violence viewpoint. HIV/AIDS continues to be a huge problem throughout Southern Africa and leaves many orphaned kids, often to be raised by older siblings, grandmothers, or in some cases abandoned to the streets. This is not a problem exclusive to Zambia by any means.

Zambia has diversified its export income, which was almost exclusively copper in the 60s and 70s, but now includes fresh fruit and flowers for Europe and wheat and maize to Zimbabwe and other local place.

Sub Saharan African countries have faired poorly on the world economic scale, and Zambia is right there with them. The “stars” in this respect are Botswana and strangely enough Rwanda. There is some good reading on the subject for those who are interested.