Since I left the safari camp in the North Luangwa valley, I'm experiencing what is to travel in Africa on my own. So far, I just have positive things to tell. I decided to go see the Lake Tanganyika. I took the night bus service from Mpika to Mpulungu in Northern Zambia. I got there at 6:00 am after 8 hours of journey. The town was already awake. Life starts very early in Africa. I asked for directions to the fish market, for which Mpulungu is renowned nationwide. This town is an important trading center for capenta, a type of very small sardine that is really appreciated all around Zambia. Traders from all over the country come to Mpulungu to buy this tasty fish and then transport it to the rest of the country. This occurs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday when boats full of capenta sellers get to port.
It's normally the wives of the fishermen who have the responsibility of trading after their husbands and oldest sons have spent the night before fishing in the waters of the many fishing villages around the lake's shores. Once caught, the fish is left to dry for 4 to 6 hours before it is ready for sale.
Once at the fish market, I asked around to find out how I could get to Mishembe Bay, a very remote place on the lake near the border with Tanzania. I didn't want to hire a private boat but to get there in the same way the locals do. I'm starting to develop an appetite to do things off the beaten track. After a while, I was told that the same boats that bring the capenta sellers early in the morning go back to their villages of origin once the trading session has ended. This is normally somewhere between 1 and 2 pm, which meant I had nearly 7 hours of waiting ahead of me. As I wasn't in a rush, I decided to pay attention to all the activity happening at the port. Boats arriving from all directions of the lake, the deafening shouts of the captains asking for space on the shore for the boat, the avid capenta traders getting ready to access the capenta of the highest quality, the female sellers, many of them with their babies cloth-wrapped hanging on their backs, opening the 25 kg net-like bags so that the buyers could inspect the produce, plus all the other opportunistic sellers of drinks, snacks, shoes, clothes and the like whose incomes depend on the success of the port's main
activity.
As I was standing up there and watching all this interesting spectacle, a local man approached and introduced himself. His name was Peter. He asked me what I was up to. When I mentioned my plans to him, he invited me to come to his store so that I could wait for the boat's departure there. This
gesture would turn to be a very nice and genuine experience. We talked about life at the fishing port, its activity, his family, his occupation as a small fuel trader and his plans for the future. Nothing abnormal there so far, until the point when he told me that the fuel, in its different forms -gasoline, diesel and parafine- was smuggled from Tanzania, where it was cheaper and where he had to pay no duties. In order to be able to keep his unregistered business in Zambia, he had some local police officers bribed with a few thousand kuachas a month so they would turn their eyes blind on this illicit activity. During those 5 hours that I spent with him, his partner Moises and a few friend helpers around there, we drank some soft drinks, ate some cassava, Nshima, fish, beans and even played a game of dames with bottle caps on a home-made and painted wooden board. It was fun! He then assisted me to negotiate the fare for the fishing boat that would take me to Mishembe, my destination in the Lake Tanganyika.
The ride on the fishing boat took nearly three hours. During that time, I got a flavor of the tight relationship between the people in the fishing villages and the lake. As the boat went from one village to the next -Chilila island, Chiptwa, Miamba- etc, I could appreciate how their lives depend on the lake. As some villagers, mostly fishermen and/or fish sellers, disembarked or came aboard the boat, there was always a great expectation by the village children that would come near the boat surprised to see a 'Muzungu', many of them probably for the first time, and were so keen on posing for the photos that I was taking from the boat.
Their main source of income comes from the trade of capenta an other types of fishes. They drink the water from the lake. They wash themselves up and their clothes in the lake. Even most of their leisure time is spent in or by the lake. Zambia can only claim 7% percent of the Tanganyika waters. The remaining is Tanzania, Burundi and the Republic Democratic of Congo, countries that bathed by its waters.
I arrived in Mishembe in the late afternoon.
This is a very small and secluded bay whose water front's length is no longer than a football pitch. As the boat approached, I felt I was coming to paradise. From the distance, the palm trees leaned towards the shore as if welcoming me. A beach of a very light yellow sand was lying in front of me. A very steep hill, named Miamba mountain as I'd learn the day after, was overlooking this remote lake beach. I disembarked and was greeted by Eruni Mukupa, the caretaker of Mishembe. My plan was to camp. However, he explained that there were very strong winds at night times so he suggested that I occupied one of the three open wooden cabins available. They had been built on the slope of the hill and a certain height above the beach underneath. The rest of the afternoon, I chilled out and waited for the sunset to enchant me. The sunset was breathtaking. As the sun went down the sky started turning yellow, orange and a very intense red.
Then that intensity would start fading into more subtle pink and violet tonalities that would darken up until the night had completely fallen down. And it was a very dark night, already at 18:30, and all I could hear were the waves splashing into the shore and the random distant voices of some fishermen who were initiating their fishing activities like every other evening and that would keep them busy until close to midnight so that their wives and/or mothers would have something to sell in Mpulungu two days after. I learnt that this fishing activity is an every day ritual that they celebrate with songs, swims in the lake and a great love for what they do. I could only sleep inn short intervals that night. There were some mosquitoes bothering me; the cabin didn't have a mosquito net and the insect repellent didn't seem to be effective enough in those latitudes. I must admit that I was slightly nervous for being in the middle of nowhere, in a very dark place, sleeping in an open cabin with no door, placed on an unknown bay I hadn't heard about until just a few days earlier.
I was up at 6:00 am the next morning. I had agreed with Enuri that he would escort me to the Kallambo Falls early enough in order to try to beat the heat of the afternoon. These falls are 236 meters high, the second highest in Africa. It would take us 2 hours and a half to reach there. The first hour was a quite strenuous hike up the steep slopes of Miamba mountain. The climb starts in Miamba village, just 10 minutes walk from Mishembe.
As we passed by, some villagers came out of their houses to greet us. Enuri lives in the village. As we climbed the mountain, there were wonderful views over the bay and the lake where the waters are lost in the horizon. We had to stop for a rest several times. I could feel that I hadn't exercised much during the 7 last weeks I spent at the safari camp.
We reached the Falls just before 9 am. There was some construction going. We learnt afterwards that the Zambian government is going to promote the site as a tourist destination. They were building a visitors centre, a lodge and a restaurant. The Kalambo Falls are not as impressive as Victoria Falls by no means but are worth a visit.
They mark the natural border between Zambia and Tanzania at the point where the river Kalambo finds the fall into the gorge that divides the mountains Kalambo in Tanzania and Miamba in Zambia on its way into the lake Tanganyika.
I met Rufus, the official that supervises the site and the development of the tourist attractions over there. He was very enthusiastic about the apparent serious government plans for its promotion as a successful tourist destination.
After an hour or so there, we commenced our hike back to Mishembe. It was much hotter than in the early morning. I had to drink more water that I had actually calculated. This meant that I was about to run out of drinking water. There was no place around there or Mishembe where to buy more. I was also running out of food. At least some snacks like biscuits and milky and maize drinks were on sale in Miamba. As for water, I boiled some liters from the lake itself with the help of Enuri, who advised that he had done it before when other Muzungu visitors had the same challenge.
We got back in Mishembe Bay at around 1 pm. Enuri offered me to have lunch with him. It would be a traditional Zambian meal of Nshima, fish and beans that his wife would cook for us. I didn't have a lot of appetite. In fact, I was feeling a bit dizzy. I think it was a combination of the effort to get to the Falls and back, slight dehydration and the fact that in the last two days I had been eating quite poorly. I forced myself to have some of the Zambian food and then excused myself for a siesta. Two hours later, I woke up and already felt much better. The rest of the day I spent it resting under a palm tree, swimming in the lake and awaiting the sunset again before my trip back to Mpulungu the morning after.
The morning after, the fishing boat would pass by Mishembe at 4:30 am initiating the route along the different villages to collect all those capenta sellers and the fish itself for sale in Mpulungu. Although it was a very early morning, I really enjoyed that. It was still dark as we approached the fist village, Chiptwa, right on the Tanzanian border. We stopped there for nearly an hour before the boat was full and ready to go. I saw the sunrise from the boat. I saw how the village awoke. How the women would come with their 25 kg bags full of capenta on their heads. How some other women would come to the shore to wash themselves and cleaning their clothes. How the people from the first line of huts near the shore would come out to start a new day. The barks of the village dogs. The awakening of the hens. All that from the boat. At some point a huge wave of mosquitoes came around me, probably attracted by the strong odor of the capenta fish as it was being loaded aboard. The mosquitoes we all over my head, shoulders, back. I was wearing my sports jacket but my head was more difficult to cover. I tried to relax as I couldn't do anything about it. Eventually they would move on and mosquitoes we not a problem any longer once the boat would initiate its journey to the port.
The journey was somehow faster than on the way in two days ago. I talked to a local from Chiptwa for the duration of the transit. His name was Gasper, a fisherman, this time going to Mpulungu with his pregnant wife who was due to give birth within the next two days.
He was a very nice man who explained to me his life as a fisherman, the different qualities of the capenta fish, the seasonality of the capenta catches, the market prices for this fish, as well as his views about the Zambian government. It was a very pleasant conversation and the perfect way of putting an end to my short visit to the lake Tanganika.
Once I got to Mpulungu before 8 am, Peter and Moises, the fuel smugglers, were waiting for me in their little store. I spent a few short minutes with them as the bus back to Mpika was leaving shortly. In the early evening, I arrived in Mpika. I stayed there overnight before my bus ride to Lusaka the next morning. In the capital of Zambia I would spend my last two days in this country. I used the time to plan what I was going to do next. I had some ideas but no concrete plans whatsoever. After some thought, I decided that my next stop would be Mozambique. I bought a flight ticket Lusaka-Maputo via Joburg.
I have been in Maputo for the last three days already with some interesting adventures to tell. I'm well and enjoying and practicing my Portuguese in this interesting city. In my next post I will share some of my experiences here. I hope you did enjoy this post. Thanks a lot for reading!
As I was standing up there and watching all this interesting spectacle, a local man approached and introduced himself. His name was Peter. He asked me what I was up to. When I mentioned my plans to him, he invited me to come to his store so that I could wait for the boat's departure there. This
gesture would turn to be a very nice and genuine experience. We talked about life at the fishing port, its activity, his family, his occupation as a small fuel trader and his plans for the future. Nothing abnormal there so far, until the point when he told me that the fuel, in its different forms -gasoline, diesel and parafine- was smuggled from Tanzania, where it was cheaper and where he had to pay no duties. In order to be able to keep his unregistered business in Zambia, he had some local police officers bribed with a few thousand kuachas a month so they would turn their eyes blind on this illicit activity. During those 5 hours that I spent with him, his partner Moises and a few friend helpers around there, we drank some soft drinks, ate some cassava, Nshima, fish, beans and even played a game of dames with bottle caps on a home-made and painted wooden board. It was fun! He then assisted me to negotiate the fare for the fishing boat that would take me to Mishembe, my destination in the Lake Tanganyika.
The ride on the fishing boat took nearly three hours. During that time, I got a flavor of the tight relationship between the people in the fishing villages and the lake. As the boat went from one village to the next -Chilila island, Chiptwa, Miamba- etc, I could appreciate how their lives depend on the lake. As some villagers, mostly fishermen and/or fish sellers, disembarked or came aboard the boat, there was always a great expectation by the village children that would come near the boat surprised to see a 'Muzungu', many of them probably for the first time, and were so keen on posing for the photos that I was taking from the boat.
I arrived in Mishembe in the late afternoon.
I was up at 6:00 am the next morning. I had agreed with Enuri that he would escort me to the Kallambo Falls early enough in order to try to beat the heat of the afternoon. These falls are 236 meters high, the second highest in Africa. It would take us 2 hours and a half to reach there. The first hour was a quite strenuous hike up the steep slopes of Miamba mountain. The climb starts in Miamba village, just 10 minutes walk from Mishembe.
As we passed by, some villagers came out of their houses to greet us. Enuri lives in the village. As we climbed the mountain, there were wonderful views over the bay and the lake where the waters are lost in the horizon. We had to stop for a rest several times. I could feel that I hadn't exercised much during the 7 last weeks I spent at the safari camp.
We reached the Falls just before 9 am. There was some construction going. We learnt afterwards that the Zambian government is going to promote the site as a tourist destination. They were building a visitors centre, a lodge and a restaurant. The Kalambo Falls are not as impressive as Victoria Falls by no means but are worth a visit.
They mark the natural border between Zambia and Tanzania at the point where the river Kalambo finds the fall into the gorge that divides the mountains Kalambo in Tanzania and Miamba in Zambia on its way into the lake Tanganyika.
I met Rufus, the official that supervises the site and the development of the tourist attractions over there. He was very enthusiastic about the apparent serious government plans for its promotion as a successful tourist destination.After an hour or so there, we commenced our hike back to Mishembe. It was much hotter than in the early morning. I had to drink more water that I had actually calculated. This meant that I was about to run out of drinking water. There was no place around there or Mishembe where to buy more. I was also running out of food. At least some snacks like biscuits and milky and maize drinks were on sale in Miamba. As for water, I boiled some liters from the lake itself with the help of Enuri, who advised that he had done it before when other Muzungu visitors had the same challenge.
We got back in Mishembe Bay at around 1 pm. Enuri offered me to have lunch with him. It would be a traditional Zambian meal of Nshima, fish and beans that his wife would cook for us. I didn't have a lot of appetite. In fact, I was feeling a bit dizzy. I think it was a combination of the effort to get to the Falls and back, slight dehydration and the fact that in the last two days I had been eating quite poorly. I forced myself to have some of the Zambian food and then excused myself for a siesta. Two hours later, I woke up and already felt much better. The rest of the day I spent it resting under a palm tree, swimming in the lake and awaiting the sunset again before my trip back to Mpulungu the morning after.
The morning after, the fishing boat would pass by Mishembe at 4:30 am initiating the route along the different villages to collect all those capenta sellers and the fish itself for sale in Mpulungu. Although it was a very early morning, I really enjoyed that. It was still dark as we approached the fist village, Chiptwa, right on the Tanzanian border. We stopped there for nearly an hour before the boat was full and ready to go. I saw the sunrise from the boat. I saw how the village awoke. How the women would come with their 25 kg bags full of capenta on their heads. How some other women would come to the shore to wash themselves and cleaning their clothes. How the people from the first line of huts near the shore would come out to start a new day. The barks of the village dogs. The awakening of the hens. All that from the boat. At some point a huge wave of mosquitoes came around me, probably attracted by the strong odor of the capenta fish as it was being loaded aboard. The mosquitoes we all over my head, shoulders, back. I was wearing my sports jacket but my head was more difficult to cover. I tried to relax as I couldn't do anything about it. Eventually they would move on and mosquitoes we not a problem any longer once the boat would initiate its journey to the port.
The journey was somehow faster than on the way in two days ago. I talked to a local from Chiptwa for the duration of the transit. His name was Gasper, a fisherman, this time going to Mpulungu with his pregnant wife who was due to give birth within the next two days.
Once I got to Mpulungu before 8 am, Peter and Moises, the fuel smugglers, were waiting for me in their little store. I spent a few short minutes with them as the bus back to Mpika was leaving shortly. In the early evening, I arrived in Mpika. I stayed there overnight before my bus ride to Lusaka the next morning. In the capital of Zambia I would spend my last two days in this country. I used the time to plan what I was going to do next. I had some ideas but no concrete plans whatsoever. After some thought, I decided that my next stop would be Mozambique. I bought a flight ticket Lusaka-Maputo via Joburg.
I have been in Maputo for the last three days already with some interesting adventures to tell. I'm well and enjoying and practicing my Portuguese in this interesting city. In my next post I will share some of my experiences here. I hope you did enjoy this post. Thanks a lot for reading!
