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Mpulungu+17-hr wait+14-hr bus=Lusaka+15-hr bus=Livingston.
Hello from Zambia
Sent 5/1 from Jolly Boys Backpackers in Livingstone, Zambia
Mpulungu+17-hr wait+14-hr bus=Lusaka+15-hr bus=Livingston.
Hello from Zambia. I am typing this from the Jolly Boys
Backpackers (dorms $6 to $8, one of the nicest hostels I
have seen, Internet on site $2.50/hour, also food) in
Livingston, where our tour group north had started on Mar.
28. Tomorrow morning I am off to Kasane, a small town at
Botswana border, to start doing Botswana, then Namibia.
African tour group, I came a longer distance (Mombasa,
Nairobi (Kenya), Jinja, Kampala, Kabale, Kisoro (Uganda),
Ruhengeri, Kigali (Rwanda), a few hours in Congo, Bujumbura
(Burundi), Kigoma (Tanzania), Lake Tanganyika to Mpulungu
(Zambia)), than the one up. I left Mombasa on Apr. 20, so
the return trip took me 12 days. I spent about 1/4th of
the tour price without upgrade, without setting up and
collecting the tent, without "flopping" my wings (to dry
dishes), etc. And I covered one scenic stretch (Kabale to
Kisoro) recommended by Lonely Planet, did 3 Off the Beaten
Track stretches of my own (crossing Burundi, crossing Lake
Tanganyika (see below), and the very scenic stretch from
Bujumbura to Mabanda, Burundi then the uncharted territory
to Kigoma, Tanzania. And for these 12 days, I was the only
white person around (except the 4 British students at the
hostel in Jinja and a missionary couple in Kigoma). I
arranged my own time, found the buses and stations, way of
getting there, selected my own hostels, ate what I wanted,
slept when I wanted . . . all among black Africans,
experiencing their world as they do, why, after all, I came
to Africa, why I travel.
1. Cargo ships from Burundi thru Lake Tanganyika. I found
out from 5 travelers from Burundi, with whom I shared ride
from Mpulungu to Lusaka, that there are 3 cargo ships
(Teza, Tora, Rwegura) that sail from Bujumbura to Kigoma.
They have 5 cabins each for double occupancy. The people I
talked to were on Teza. They paid each $70 for the 34-hour
trip from Bujumbura to Mpulungu (for which I paid $50, plus
$5 port taxes, but from Kigoma, Tanzania, covering the
shorter distance in 40 hours, due to the dozen stops along
the way--the cargo ships had 4 stops).
2. Lake Tanganyika (2nd deepest lake in the world, after
Lake Baikal near Irkutsk in Siberia). Our ship MV
Mwongozo--I saw the the regular ship, MV Liemba, being
repaired in the next dock--had been on repair for a month
and had its first trip the week before. Alas, you cannot
find out these kinds of info unless you are on site in
Kigoma. It is difficult to get such info in Bujumbura,
because people there talk in French and unlike Rwanda, very
few people speak English. The other local languages are
also useless: Swahili and more often Kirundi. I dont even
remember which agencies the girl who helped me talked to,
and how to find these locations again. There were no
signs, in one we went up to the 2nd floor.
The boarding area was like an open flee market, everyone
talking the local dialect. I did not even know where to
board from, but eventually figured out and boarded at 3pm.
The ship was ancient, smelling of dried fish. The 1st
class cabins were as simple as you could get. 2 bunk beds,
a table, and a chair. That's it. Bathrooms were stainless
squat-kind, open to everyone, located in the front and back
of the center section. There were 3 decks from which to
observe the scenery. The first night I shared the cabin
with another person, a black official of some sort, who
disembarked early next morning. Most people were in 3rd
class, under the 3 decks. I noticed that all garbage,
including plastic bottles, wrappings, etc. were just
dumped overboard. In fact, there was no garbage container
on board. There was a congested kitchen and a TV lounge
serving as dining-room where buffet meals (one plate per
person, including fish, beef, and chicken) were served for
lunch and dinner. I ate only the dinner on my last night.
And, yes, I was the only white person on board.
The ship left Kigoma at 4:38pm. Although Lake Tanganyika
is quite wide, you can see both shores at all times, Congo
on the right, going south, Tanzania closer on the left.
All sorts of make-shift small fishing boats--most of their
catch is small anchovy-size fish they call Apenta--dotted
the scene, especially near the settlements, often of mud
huts with thatched roofs. (Imagine spending a lifetime in
one at such a place . . .) We stopped about a dozen times.
I watched the 5 or 6 row boats approaching the ships with
new passengers and cargo, taking back people who had
reached their destinations. On 2 ports there were one or
two motorized boats, and on one occasion we docked next to
a concrete pier, as also in Kigoma.
I dont know which of the scenes, the two shores and the
lake or the scene on board was more interesting. Surely
the former was serene and picturesque, the other showing
poor people coping in dignity. I could not take too many
photos of the people for fear of offending them. Anyway,
we left on Wednesday Apr. 26 at 4:38pm, and arrived on
Friday Apr. 29 at about 8 am, though we could not get off
the ship until the customs people gave their OK, say at
about 9am.
At the last port call, at about 4am, a Tanzanian official
and his loud friends walked into the room across from mine,
waking me up in the process. I did not know it then, but
after asking around where I would get my exit stamp from
Tanzania, I was refereed to this room. The guy put the exit
stamp for Tanzania in my passport and I walked up onto the
pier to Mpulungu, Zambia.
b) Visa, Exchange. I paid $25 for a 14-day transit visa to
Zambia, and exchanged my leftover 39 Tanzanian Shillings at
4 to 1 ratio--instead of true 5 Kwatches for each
Shilling--thus losing $8 in the process. (Mpulungu and
other border towns are the only places where you can change
Tan. Sh. to Zambian Kwatches. The banks dont accept the
Shillings. So, indeed, I had been ready to swallow $39
worth of Shillings; as I saw it, I gained $31. These paid
my way for the 2 buses to Livingstone and some expenses
since Mpulungu.)
3. Mpulungu to Lusaka, Zambia (bus fare 80,000 Kwatches or
$16). Lonely Planet says that RPS Buses has now arranged
its schedule to coincide with the ship's arrival. Lonely
Planet must have forgotten to inform the RPS Bus of this,
for there was no bus waiting. In fact RPS Bus no longer
operates; instead there C.R. Lines, Zoom, and Germins, all
new buses, all leaving at 3am the next morning. This meant
18-hour wait. There was no Internet cafe as yet. Calls to
USA cost $3 per minute.
Mpulungu is a one-main street (a short one at that) town.
There are hole-in-the-wall hotels, but I did not trust
myself into one of these, also for fear that I might not
wake up in time. So I and a few others from the ship
waited and waited at the patio of the inn where Zoom and
Germins buses stop. The buses arrived at 6pm the night
before and by 7pm they were cleaned. So we walked into the
buses and settled down for the night. (Again, I was the
only white person in site.)
4. Lusaka to Livingstone (bus fare 45,000 Kwatches or $9).
Our bus left Mpulungu at 4am Apr. 30 and we covered the
1,200km or so to Lusaka by 5:30pm the same day, the
landscape changing gradually from more lush to semi-arid
"bush" scenery. At the bus station in Lusaka someone
directed me to the last bus departing for Livingstone for
the day. I got a good seat and we waited, and waited, for
the bus to have 20 or so passengers so it would leave. At
8pm someone said that another bus would take us. So we
switched buses, and waited more. At 10pm we left for
Livingstone, about 600km or 6 to 7 hours.
Somewhere in a town, at about mid-point, at 12 midnight,
the bus driver said he is sleepy, that he would get some
sleep and return at 3am, leaving us all in the bus. OK, so
we slept too, sitting. At 3:30am, I woke up everyone, by
asking "does anyone know where the driver might be?". No
one did. By 6 am a delegation of passengers went to the
police station to complain, for them to find the driver.
They did at 6:30am, and we left again at 7am, and after
many stops reached Livingston at noon May. 1, turning a
6-hour drive to 15 hours. By then I had been sleepless
since that official woke me up at 4am on Apr. 29.
5. Zambia. South Africa is the most westernized country in
Africa. However, of all the black-African countries I have
visited, Zambia is the closest in sentiment to USA. They
love the USA, have adopted even its Evangelical religion.
The towns--NOT villages--look like they might be
neighborhoods in Mississippi, Alabama, of course with
somewhat different geology and fauna. The people are kind,
gentle, courteous, and really quite civilized. I did not
once have to worry about my safety at any hour. In fact,
from my perspective, Zimbabwe may be currently the most
dangerous, followed by cities like Nairobi, Kenya, possibly
Maputo, Mozambique.
Sirman