Tales From the Chicken Bus

Day 256

We were up at 5:30am, an hour that has become quite common for us to rise at. Our bus to Lusaka left at 7am and lucky enough it was a 500 meter walk from the hostel. We had a quick breakfast of cereal from the bag we’ve been carrying around and were off.

The main street of Livingstone was already a busy place at this hour. People starting business before the heat of the day set in. The scene around the bus was busy as people loaded just about everything you could imagine on the bus. Jordana boarded the bus to claim our seats and I handed our bags to someone to load in the cargo hold. “Hi, how are you?” A man asked as I waited for the bags to be stored. I figured he was trying to sell me something. “I’m good, how about you?” “Fine, where are you from? London?” I’m not sure why he guessed London, maybe most people he met were from London. I told him no, Toronto and we chatted briefly about Canada and he wished me a safe journey. I boarded the bus and can’t say I’ve seen a bus like this before, 5 seats in each aisle. I squeezed in the narrow seat. Jordana and I had the first row on the left side, which had rows of 2. On the right side of the bus each row had three seats. That equalled a lot of people, although as we pulled away we were surprised that they didn’t allow standing passengers on this bus. Safety first I guess.

About 10km outside of Livingstone the road deteriorated and turned into a mess of potholes. We dogged huge potholes and there seemed to be more dirt than paved sections. Moving along at a max speed of 20km/h I was beginning to wonder if we’d make the 400km to Lusaka before night fall. The road eventually improved and so did the scenery. Zambia was definitely remote and beautiful. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen such a green country before. The green on the countryside was only broken by the occasional muddy river and the basic mud brick homes of the small villages we passed through.

For lunch we stopped at a rest stop, Zambian style. I really had to use the bathroom but to be honest I was a bit nervous. I walked in and there was one long trough. The stench in the 30 degree plus heat was disgusting and to top it off I have stage fright when it comes to urinating in public bathrooms. I was the first one in so I quickly did my business and just as people started to enter I finished before my fright took over. I literally breathed a sigh of relief as I exited and washed my hands at an outdoor tap. A small snack stand sold chips (french fries) that looked really good and fresh so I bought two paper bags for lunch. Back on the bus we enjoyed some of the best chips I’ve had in a long time. The rest of the way to Lusaka was hot but the scenery was beautiful. The so called real Africa was dotted with traditional villages and little signs of the western world. That is until we reached Lusaka.

Like a dusty slap in the face we entered the centre of the capital. Immediately it looked like everything that’s wrong with an African city was also wrong with Lusaka. Ugly concrete buildings, dusty streets and piles of garbage. It was a huge contrast to the Zambian countryside. The bus station was one of the most chaotic and dirty we’ve seen anywhere in the world. “Taxi! Taxi! Mzungu, Taxi!” The drivers were shouting at us before we even walked of the bus, actually before the bus had even stopped. We got our bags as taxi drivers tried to grab them from us. “No, that’s my bag thank you.” I said. We got away, found a bus company that had a bus to Lilongwe, Malawi in 2 days and finally jumped in a taxi.

We arrived at Kiboko Backpackers that was more of a hotel than a backpackers. I think we were the only backpackers when we arrived, most guests were business men. It was an OK place to stay, if a bit dirty. I saw more than my share of roaches in the share bathroom. We pulled down our mosquito nets, tucked them in the bed and felt safe from the mosquitos and roaches. I think we were both so tried from the hot day of travel that we were both quickly asleep as heavy rain began to fall outside. I missed the beauty and simplicity of the Zambian countryside, Lusaka is definitely not a place to linger. We don’t plan to linger but 2 nights may be 2 too many.

Day 254

One of the great things about Jolly Boys is they have a free shuttle to the falls for the first 14 people who sign up each day. Its only one way but saves about 25,000 Kwacha ($7 CAD) in taxi fare, a decent savings when things cost quite a bit here. As we ate breakfast we discussed doing rafting or walking with lion cubs. We always thought we would go rafting at the source of the Nile instead of here since we heard it was cheaper. So that left us with the rare opportunity to walk with lion cubs. It was $120 U.S. per person for a few hours. It sounded unique but also sounded odd to me. I mean why were these lions here? Where did they come from? Are they ever going to be released to the wild? We tried to get these answers from the friendly girl at the tour desk but she just didn’t know. I didn’t know if I wanted to spend $240 on what might be something I regret in the end.

At 10am it was time to climb in the mini van for Victoria Falls, or Mosi al Tunya as the natives call it. Victoria Falls was named by David Livingstone, the first white man to see it. He decided to name it after his queen, I guess the real name just wasn’t good enough. Well at least the Mosi name lives in the form of Zambia’s favourite beer. The van stopped outside the modest entry gate to the national park. We all exited and paid our $10 U.S. entry fee. Again a fee that was posted only in U.S. dollars. I asked, “Can I pay in Kwacha?” “Yes, no problem”. With the rate they used it worked out to be a few dollars cheaper to pay in kwacha. I figure you have your own currency you should use it.

We entered the park and walked along a path through the forest. We passed some vervet monkeys and a man selling paintings then we caught our first glimpse of the falls. Through the trees I could see some water falling, but not a whole lot. We exited the forest and came to a view point on the edge of the canyon. We had a great view of the falls across from us, problem was the falls were little more than a trickle of water. There were about 3 sections that we could see that contained quite a bit of water, but most of the falls were dry. Further down as the canyon narrowed we saw a huge volume of water plunging over the side. However from our vantage point it was mostly mist we saw. Standing here looking out we could see that in the dry season Zimbabwe is the side to best view the falls. We walked as far as we could and stood at the end of the viewing area. I’ll admit it, I was disappointed. I mean we did hear it was the dry season but this was very dry, almost dried up when I compared it to photos from the rainy season. Don’t get me wrong it was still very beautiful. We began to walk back when we saw people across the canyon, atop of the falls. I wanted to get over there, but how?

Jordana and I followed the path back to the ticket office, before the office was another path that led to the other side. We reached the shore of the Zambezi river. There was not much water and plenty of exposed rocks. We waded through knee deep water and skipped along rocks and eventually reached the edge of the falls. It was incredible to think the volume of water that would be soon flowing here after the rains. Today we stood right at the edge on the falls looking way down below. Imagine doing such a thing at Niagara if there was ever such little water. Even though the volume of water just wasn’t what we hoped to be able to be standing where we are is an incredible thing.

After a couple of hours at the falls we caught a taxi back into town and stopped off at the Ocean Basket for lunch. A South African restaurant that we actually never went to there but decided wed try it here in Zambia. The food was OK if very overpriced. It began to thunder and soon after the heavy rain came. We tried to wait out the storm but eventually made a run for it when it let up. Livingstone’s streets turned very muddy with the rains, which only made the already scruffy town look that much more unattractive. We returned to Jolly Boys not overly wet and both relaxed with a books as the rain still fell.

We decided that night that the activities on offer were just way out of our price range and to be honest they weren’t really things that we had a great desire to do anyways. We came here to see the falls and that we did, one day of rest and relaxation and the next we’d be off to the capital, Lusaka. I was interested to see the countryside of Zambia. A remote and rural country that the guidebooks tout as “real Africa”, well outside of Livingstone at least. I’m not sure what that meant exactly but I figured if anything it would be less touristy.

Day 253 It felt a bit strange going to the airport, its only the 3rd flight we've used to get somewhere on the trip. Strange but good as well. In South America we had a clear goal, overland from ... [Continue reading this entry]