Another Africa - off river pursuits for a trip to the Zambezi.


It always seems a great shame to hear that people have visited Africa, boated the might of the Zambezi or Nile, drank like soldiers… and then returned home. Maybe it’s just me, but there seems to be a charm and magic about travel in Africa that can only be fully appreciated by dumping the kayak for a few weeks and going exploring.

In 2001 I was paddling the Zambezi for the summer, an experience of a lifetime. Keen to discover more of what the region had to offer, myself and my friend Jon went on an adventure. These are some notes on what we found...

 

Hwange National Park

Formerly known as Wankie National Park, but renamed for some reason, this lies just a few hours across the border in Zimbabwe. It was our first wee adventure and something we fell into by chance. A guy called Mark had posted a notice on the front door of our hostel looking for companions to make the trip. He was keen to do everything independently of guides or tour companies and we were keen to do everything as cheap as possible – perfect. We rented a car in Victoria Falls and drove a few hours towards Bulawayo.

Zimbabwe was (still is) in political turmoil. White farmers were being killed, the economy was crashing, inflation was rife, people were starving. Although initially concerned, these factors actually acted in our favour. The National Park was still priced in Zim currency and as it was a government entity, prices were still based on an artificially strong official exchange rate.

Sound complicated? Let me explain. With an official bank exchange rate of 60 Zim to 1 US dollar, a room for 600 Zim would normally be equivalent to US$10 a night. However, by exchanging our US dollar on the black market for 300 Zim, the room only cost us US$2. Thus we spent one of our cheapest weeks in safari chalets, gorging ourselves on tender steaks and bottles of wine, while the population around us faced crisis and real hunger. It sounds so harsh, but that’s Africa. Real issues stare you in the face everywhere you go.

Back to the park. There are several places to stay – hit your google for more. Having your own car means you can do what you like, but the rules require you to stay inside the vehicle at all times. Admittedly a 4 wheel drive would be better than a Mazda 323, but getting stuck in the sand was all part of the adventure! Since my memory is incomplete, I’ll give you an entry from my diary to give you the idea:

Zanzibar

It’s one of those placenames that rolls off the tongue and oozes exotic. The legendary spice island of East Africa, a paradise isle… At least that’s what we’d heard, but just to be sure we set off from Livingstone at 6am on a Monday to find out. It took us till late Thursday night to reach the island so this is not something you can do in a few short days.

Our journey went like this:
Bus from Livingstone to Lusaka, taxis to Tanzanian embassy to get tourist visa, bus from Lusaka to Kapiri Mposhi, train from Kapiri Mposhi to Dar Es Salaam, ferry to Zanzibar. The journey took us 4 days and it was one of the most memorable trips I’ve ever made. The train takes 2 days and 2 nights and we had 2nd class accommodation with 6 to a cabin. Men and women are not permitted to share carriages.

Zanzibar is also a possible side trip if you’re paddling Uganda’s White Nile. I haven’t gone this way but it’s basically a sequence of long, uncomfortable bus rides.
Anyway, here’s a diary entry to give you a taste…

From Dar Es Salaam several companies run catamaran fast ferries to Zanzibar. An alternative is to take up the inevitable offer of a crossing in a traditional dhow. These offers are illegal and despite the romantic attraction of sailing to the legendary isle of Zanzibar in the dead of night, the chances of getting ripped off are fairly high.

Hapana, hapana, HAPANA…

Hapana is NO in Swahili and essential vocab for survival in Zanzibar. Arrival in Stone Town is a major hassle. The town is full of touts, known as papaasi. They latch onto tourists and offer to guide them around the maze of narrow alleys that makes up this ancient town. Unfortunately, non payment is insufficient deterrent. They work on a system of commission / intimidation.

For example, if they guide you to a particular hotel then they charge the hotel commission. In fact, even if you find the hotel on your own there is still a chance someone will run in and claim to be your guide. If a business doesn’t pay up then they spread rumours and try to sabotage all future business. In short, these lads are a serious pain in the hole. They present you with a constant challenge in self-control...

A challenge that I lost after a full hour of being followed by a fella chanting “motorbike, hashish, hotel, motorbike, hashish, hotel…” It was hot, I was tired and it was time he disappeared. I can’t remember the exact language I used but my mother wouldn’t have liked it. He withdrew, justifiably afraid for his own safety… only to reappear with friends and some nasty threats that we would be stabbed on our way home that evening. It wasn’t a pleasant experience and a lesson that when travelling, conflict should always be diffused where possible.

We made swift arrangements to leave Stone town and find some paradise on the eastern coast. Transport is available in HiAce minibuses for just a few dollars.

Then things got better…

The East and North coasts of the island are well set up for tourists. Most accommodation is low impact, beach hut style. There are excellent and cheap seafood restaurants and bars on the beach. Snorkelling is offered by most hotels for just a few dollars. Scuba Diving is more expensive but apparently well worth it. Trips can be organised to the nearby island of Pemba, which has very few tourists. There are numerous other attractions around Zanzibar to suit all tastes. Overall a trip to Zanzibar will not leave you disappointed and is a welcome change from the madness of river life on the Zam or Nile.

 

Lake Malawi

We decided to quit Zanzibar while we were still enjoying it and go search for something different. Scuba diving on the coral reefs had been a real temptation but a little outside our budget, so we headed for the fresh waters of Lake Malawi to find something different and enrol on one of the cheapest scuba courses in the world.

To get to Malawi from the Zambezi requires a series of horrible bus rides. Most major cities are connected by “express” buses. Smaller towns are connected by not-so-express buses and villages are connected by Matatu (HiAce van). You often need to book a ticket for express buses and the general rule is to get the most expensive thing going.

There is an express bus from Lusaka to Lilongwe in Malawi. Even these are unlikely to leave on time and prone to breakdown. In fact, the only time I had a bus leave dead on time was in Lilongwe. The police had started firing tear gas at us for no reason and the crowd were making barricades in preparation for a riot. It is an example of just how wild and unpredictable things can be in Africa.

If you find yourself having to spend a night in Lilongwe waiting to connect a bus then tread with care. Every “hotel” we tried was basically a brothel. Prostitutes line the corridors, mosquitoes buzz about the room and the bedding is far from clean.

Regional buses are generally worse quality than inter-city routes. I remember spending 6 sleepless hours wedged on the floor between people and bags, bouncing along Malawi’s dirt roads wondering if my back would ever recover. The matatu is another step down again, although journeys are generally short(ish). It is standard practice for the driver to declare in a panic that he is leaving, rev his engine for all it’s worth, then wait a further hour to squeeze yet more people, produce and animal life into his already overloaded HiAce.

I frequently had to stand – a position only made possible by the existence of a sunroof. The whole thing makes an amusing sight – a HiAce van full of Africans and a big Irish head sticking out the roof. The moral of the story being that if you don’t have a sense of humour then you may forget about bus travel in Africa!

Anyway, about the lake. We based ourselves at Nkata Bay which is pretty chill, in a backpacker kind of way. There is a good dive school there run by 2 English lads and we enrolled on a 5 day course for a bargain $150. There are numerous places to stay – mostly pretty basic – huts or camping. But for $2 a night we couldn’t complain. We got a place out of town with free use of dugout canoes and a good restaurant.

It’s the kind of place where you meet a lot of Israeli hippies in homemade clothes, trying to out-do each other for laziness and skinny-ness. Most of them had chilled out so much that they were genuinely cold. Fellow participants at the dive-centre were much more friendly however and we passed a very pleasant week or so learning how to dive, going wild in local reggae bars and trying to avoid getting mugged late at night.

Something to be aware of at the lake is the high risk of Bilharzia – a waterborne worm thing that gets into your blood stream and kills a lot of Africans every year. Treatment is pretty straightforward – one toxic pill usually does the trick – but needs to be properly diagnosed. Getting a check-up at the Tropical Medical Bureau on your return is recommended.

Conclusion

I realise all this is a highly personal account of my own experiences, but I guess that’s just the only way I can describe it. I was 21 when I made that first trip to Africa and the experience was more of an education for me than any college course. Travel in Africa doesn’t take much money, but it does take time. Just getting to a destination can be a major ordeal. An African journey demands patience, diplomacy, physical endurance, mental strength. Above all it requires you to have a real sense of humour and an acceptance that what ever happens happens!

Of course, many of these things are required of you when running the river. However, to discover the true charm of Africa it is well worth shedding the weight of your boating gear, getting outside the comfort zone of the paddling / drinking culture and doing some real exploring for yourself. You won’t be disappointed.