Zambia
Saturday, November 5, 2016
- Three Continents
In the first days I immediately wanted to get out again of Sambia. Just like in the rest of East Africa is also a mud hut next to the other here and all are crammed with people. Moreover, the brand grubbing-up scheme is here operated in even greater style as in Tanzania. Almost no stain is not burned. A totally dismal and frustrating sight. Even the supply with provisions is really difficult here. Water is only available in small bottles and even in larger localities you hardly get proper food. The temperatures rise now to almost 40° C (104° F). I need almost 8 liter drinking water a day. Particularly as vegetarian, it is often quite difficult. Also are food prices enormously high compared to Europe.
Also the drivers here in Zambia are tremendously ruthless against bicycle riders. My middle finger came quite often to use. Because of their driving these idiots endanger not only themselves rather also all other road users. Moreover, the vehicles are partially in real bad condition. In Mpika I managed to the Great North Road. On this street are goods transported from Tanzania to Zambia. Especially petroleum.
Bit out of Mpika I suddenly discovered a cyclist at the roadside. Jang from South Korea is also on the way towards south. We were both pleased mightily to have a companion. 17 months ago he drove off from home. First he cycled through China and Southeast Asia, after which he spent some time in Nepal and Egypt before he continued from Uganda by bicycle.
His destination is Capetown in South Africa. The many people were easier to bear with him. With the many fires we had to fight fairly. The road was partially complete with smoke coated exactly as in fog. You could see something sometimes barely and breathing was quite difficult.
Once we had to flee in the middle of the night because a few idiots set the bush on fire. To such people, I can only feel anger and disappointment. Out of sheer frustration I said once to Jang: „The people here are merely all so black because they put their whole country on fire“.
In Kapiri Mposhi we reached the main road T1 which leads to Lusaka, the capital of Zambia. In this region, I saw for the first time since the Sudan again correct fields. A bit I felt like in Europe, when I was looking at this professionally managed fields. For a moment I forgot to be in Africa.
We were both enormously happy when we arrived in Lusaka after 13 days on the bicycle. A week long we recovered at the Wanderers Lodge and met two more cyclists in that time. Daniel from Germany started his trip from Capetown and he tries to reach Cairo. Wesley from South Africa was the other guy. He studied some few years in the USA and is cycling back home from Kenya to his house door. Most of all I was happy to see Olivier again. He started 6 months before me from Switzerland. The coincidence would have it that our paths crossed here. We spend many nights (and beers) to exchange stories. It was nice to finally talk again with other people which share the same passion.
After 7 days, we get back in the saddle to cycle to Livingstone. The monotony went here straight on as in the north. Here the whole landscape is cut just as in the rest of Eastern and Central Africa. Firewood is needed everywhere. Characterized you see practically only bush landscapes here. Namely all the way down from Ethiopia to here to Zambia. Something has to change drastically. Otherwise, the entire region will turn soon into a desert. Regularly, we drove past accidents. In this driving example it surprised me not.
The roads are very poorly maintained. Everywhere is garbage around. We had every day some tire inflator. I set my personal record on with three tire inflator simultaneously. Fortunately no one except Jang could hear me curse. With the time we designated the road as .
We recovered at the Jollyboys Camp in Livingstone after 1200km (745mi) ride through Zambia. We could also extend our Zambian Visas here. Unfortunately made the night clubs and also the churches here permanently noisy. The times in which the Africans set on fire and beat on bush drums are over. Modern african goes in the night club and get drunk without restraint.
Livingstone is a tourism centre for the Victoria Falls and a border town with road and rail connections to Zimbabwe on the other side of the Victoria Falls. It is named after David Livingstone, the British explorer who was the first European to explore the area.
The constant power outages slowly go me quite on the nerves. There is so much wind and solar energy here than almost anywhere else in the world. It is frustrating that the people here are simply unable to use this. After one week Jang decided to continue onwards to Botswana. I had to wait a few more days to get no problems with my next visa. Therefore it was time to say goodbye to each other. Thank you so much for the nice time Jang!
