Post 7

I'm dedicating this post to the Sharabbq on May 30th, which I have RSVP'd for.

Anyways, I'm back in Lusaka after a week in the Northwest of Zambia. After an extra day in Lusaka because of car problems the three of us finally made it out on the road. We drove north to the region of Zambia called the copperbelt the first day. Zambia is very rich in minerals, especially copper, and most of the countries revenues come from copper. This region is where the majority of the industry in the country is, its oil refineries, better hospitals, pretty much everything. The two main cities, which we passed through, of Kitwe and Ndola look pretty nice. They have wide streets, modernish looking buildings, and you don't feel like you're in a poor country. Just outside of Kitwe was the city of Chingola, which has copper mines literally on the edge of the city, which alarmed me environmentally. In Chile I visited what is the world's largest open pit copper mine, and the city next door was evacuated because of environmental issues. So I can't imagine it's too healthy to grow up in Chingola.

There are other copper mines being opened up all over this region and exploration is being done further north and west, where we were headed. Zambia reminds me of Chile in a few regards. They're both very large, sparsely populated countries, with tons of copper. Chile is the economic success story of south america, and while there are too many issues in Zambia, in my opinion, to see it reach Chilean economic levels, who knows. If the price of copper keeps rising, and there's sound economic planning, than Zambia could be pretty well off. On top of copper, there are diamonds, and quite a few other minerals in the area. In one city, just stopping to be some oranges, we were approached by some folks trying to illegally sell us some mineral i'd never heard of. Apparently, illegal mining is a big thing in the area. The area is huge, forested, and there's not too much law and order, so its almost an anything goes atmosphere.

At the end of our first day we pulled into a Chimpanzee reserve called Chimfunji, or something like that. There's a white Zambian family that decades ago was given some hurt chimpanzees that the police got while stopping smugglers from the Congo. The police gave the family the chimpanzees and ever since they've been rehabilitating sick chimpanzees from whomever will give them to them. Most are ones taken from smugglers from the Congo. The family is actually quite mean, don't like tourists, but need them to help pay for the chimp farm. Fortunately they hired a Zimbabwean family to run the campsite, lodge section and they were quite nice and very helpful. We came in late at night, and they got a fire going for us right away, and heated up water for showers.

The sunrise the next morning was absolutely incredible. The campsite is right on the river which divides Zambia and the Congo in the area. I'll post pictures tomorrow, so you can see how amazing the sunrise was. That night we saw this city glow in the distance, which turns out to be the major Congo city of Lumbambashi. It's a huge copper city, and the mines in that area make Zambia's look like scraps in comparison. The instability has prevented the Congo from really taking advantage of their mineral wealth, but that country is loaded with natural resources.

The next morning we saw the chimps in the reserve, and their pet hippo. They have a hippo that has been there since she was born, and is basically tame, which for a hippo is a heck of a thing. They're quite mean animals, apparently. The Zambian family was again fairly dismissive of us in the morning, so we left and kept on our way.

Our first destination on this trip was supposed to be a place called Hillwood farm. We didn't know much about it, just that it was supposed to be really impressive, and that the region was nice. We were hoping to get there that night, but the roads were in such bad condition we couldn't make much progress, and spent the night on the side of the road in the Zambian bush. The next day we finally made it to the farm, and what a farm it is. It's massive first of all, there's a game hunting ecoreserve in the middle of it, and it's as modern a farm as I've ever seen. All of this is great, but they were closed for tourists for a few more weeks. Fortuantely for us we met up with Stuart, another white Zimbabwean, who was working for the farm. He was just leaving to go to a different reserve, operated by the same farm, about 70 kilometers away. He said it was super remote, really pretty, had a river right by the site, and we could stay as long as we wanted for free. So, off we were following Stuart to the site called Nkwaji.

Nkwaji means Fish Eagle, in the Lunda language, the language of the local people, who are called, no surprise, the Lunda. The area is also being slated to be a hunting reserve, and Stuart is building fences and other facilities for the area. The site really is about as remote as it gets, and its just stunning. Semi-tropical forests, big grasslands, and just really stunning. The next day I went hiking in the area on the footpaths and 4x4 trails that go through the area. Went through quite a few villages, and just had a great time in the area. Stuart set up a canoe trip for the three of us for the next day with his workers. Stuart also took us to all these cool spots in the area, and was just thrilled to have company. He's been there for a few months, pretty much on his own, and was so hospitable to us the whole time we were there.

So the next day he took us to the nearby river and three of his workers came with some dugout canoes. It was kind of like Heart of Darkness light. We paddled through rainforest, mangroves, and some really nice scenery. We paddled a lot though, and mostly not straight. Dugout canoes are not easy things to maneuver, and a lot of the time was spent avoiding going into mangroves, and other places we could get stuck in. Going upstream was also not so easy, but was a nice workout. After paddling for about 3.5 hours upstream, we got to finally enjoy a nice cruise back to the starting point. For all of that time paddling, we only got about 20 minutes to float back downstream. We were stunned by how short of a distance we made paddled, but it makes sense with all the time spent just trying to direct the canoe in the right direction. It was a great time though.

Oh, back to mining for a second. Throughout my time up in this area I saw lots of light aircraft carrying drones behind them. Apparently the drones are surveying the area for copper and other minerals. Again, there is a lot of copper, and lot of people trying to take advantage of the wealth.

There's not much to do a Nkwaji at night, and Stuart has gone a little stir crazy in his time there. His main source of entertainment is shooting bottles filled with gasoline into fires. He's got this huge shotgun with him, and we spent our nights shooting stuff. Bottles with water we'd throw, like clay pigeons, and shoot in midair. At night we'd shoot these gas filled bottles, which made a huge blast, but at the same time the blast for the shotgun was enough to immediate extinguish the fire and the small fire we set up behind the bottle. It was a lot of fun, and I'm not a bad shot. I hit almost every water bottle in midair that was thrown for me.

So, after a few days at Nkwaji Tom and Omer wanted to continue further south in western Zambia, and I didn't want to go. I was having a great time being in Nkwaji, and I couldn't bear the thought of being in a jeep for a few more days. So, after talking to Stuart, I decided to stay at Nkwaji for another day and than go back to Hillwood Farm for the weekend. From there I'd head back to Lusaka, where I am now, and than go to Victoria Falls on my own. So Tom and Omer went off, and I hope they're having a great time, and stayed at Nkwaji.

My last day at Nkwaji I went hiking again, and found these cool fruits that are the root of a plant. The hard shell holds a really sweet fruit, which nobody could tell me the name of, but guarenteed me were safe to eat. That day I also took a half day trip with Stuart to visit the local chief. The local chiefs have to kind of approve everything, otherwise your bound to have certain problems. The thing about this chief is that he lives in the Congo. So, off we went through roads not monitored by immigration officers to the chiefs village in the Congo. Because the chief likes the reserve, and everyone knows that Stuart works for the reserve we were actually as safe as one could be in the area. We went the chiefs village, had lunch with him, and headed back for another night of shooting things. So it was amazingly cool to have gone to the Congo, but it was just an hour drive from where we were, and was kind of anti climactic. Still, I can now say I've been to the Congo.

The next morning I left Nkwaji and headed back to Hillwood farm with Stuart. Like I said before, the farm is enormous, and there are quite a few large houses on it. Stuart, and a peacecorp volunteer have one to themselves. There are quite a few extra rooms, so I got myself a room in a villa for this past weekend. The farm also raises cattle and sheep, and Stuart gets a certain amount of meat for free. So this past weekend I had steak and lampchops, and really good ones too. The house we stayed in has an orchard around it with guavas, oranges, and avocadoes, so i picked those fresh from the trees each day too. It was a really nice weekend to stay the least.

During the day Stuart took me around the game reserve. All the wildlife in the area has long sinced been poached or killed for food. So the reserve is specially fenced off and antelopes, buffalo, zebra, and all sorts of stuff has been reintroduced. This area once had lion, rhino, and elephant too, but the farm has not reintroduced that because they don't have enough room. Rhino might come back though. Basically super rich people spend an enormous amount of money to come shoot them, and that's how the farm supports itself these days. A zebra costs 50k US to kill! Rhinos, if they add them, would be in the 200k US range!!! So some people have got a lot of extra money lying around. I was initially against this whole hunting thing, but it actually does quite a bit of good. The local communities always get a cut, going back to the keeping the chief happy thing, and this way at least the animals are back in the area, even if its just in a reserve. Hunting concessions in general also keep poaching down, because you can hunt legally, and the local people have an interest in keeping tourists coming to the area. So they dont' engage in poaching anywhere near as much as in areas where sanctioned hunting in prohibited.

Anyways, a little about the farm. The farm was started over a hundred years ago by missionaries from Britain that came originally to Angola. They came across the country and crossed the Angolan border and set up a hospital where the farm is today. The hospital is still there, and is apparently the best in the region. People come from Angola and Congo for treatment there, and its still run and funded by missionaries, from Canada mostly. There's also a prestigious boarding school on the farm. The school, called Sakeji, is ridiculous. Huge swimming pools, and air strip, modern buildings, science labs, its quite weird to see it in this far out location. Another really interesting feature of the farm is the footpath going across the game reserve. The footpath is hundreds of years old, and was used by slave traders to take slaves from the Congo to the Angolan coast. The farm still lets local people use it as they pass through the area from village to village.

Stuart took me into the reserve to the animals, and I saw almost everything they have, except the two really cool things, the zebra and sitatunga. Sitatungas are some weird antelope animal that submerges itself in water most of the day. I missed both because I was off looking at plants. There are tree ferns and iris all over the place, and i was looking at these when Stuart says he say the zebra and sitatunga. I was thrilled to see the tree ferns and iris though, and I don't care for a second i missed out on the animals. I think I'll be able to see at least zebras later while in Uganda. The forests in this area full out tropical, and really cool to see and hike through.

Well, after an amazing, relaxing, and well fed weekend at Hillwood farm I hitchhiked my way out of the farm back to Lusaka. Its been two long, not comfortable days, but its over. So now, I'm going to go to Victorial falls before I head north to Tanzania. I'm going to get an overnight bus or train tomorrow and spend a day or two before heading back to Lusaka and going back north. I'll try to post pictures tomorrow, and I'll post the links in another blog post. I'll probably remember a few more things I forgot to put on this post. All is going well, and I'm excited for Victoria Falls and a big bunjee jump.

Hope everyone is doing well, and Happy 60th to Israel!