Overland Travel With KMcGee

First order of business: The mystery structure in the rocks of saanane island was, I believe, the home of a rock hyrax. Now, I must disclose that I can’t say for certain that this was a rock hyrax den because I didn’t actually see a rock hyrax at the entrance. However, I did see rock hyrax all over these and all the other rocks on the island, so I am pretty sure of its occupant. You may recall that the hyrax is also called rock rabbit or dassie, and it is a small furry mammal that looks like an oversized guinea pig and its closest living relative is the elephant.

After leaving Mwanza, my destination was the famous Serengeti National Park, but rather than pay $300/day (all fees included) for a partial day in the Park, I opted to stay outside the Park for a night on the shores of Lake Victoria near the Ndabaka Gate (the western gate into the “western corridor” of the Park where it almost touches Lake Victoria on the map above).

My campsite was at Nyatwali Beach Lodge and Campsite. Once again, I was the only guest at this lodge and campsite. This time, however, I had a wonderful site literally on the lakeshore with yet another spectacular sunset, but this time over Lake Victoria. Check out this camping spot:

In addition, I had the pleasure to give away some crayons and coloring books to three grateful young pre-school aged children of the native host, and later to the older school-aged “sister” once she returned from school and heard of the gift-giving mzungu (swahili for white man) in camp. Here are some photos:

I am going to submit this astonishingly short post because tomorrow I head into the western corridor of Serengeti National Park and will be camping at an exclusive site for a few nights almost certainly without cell service or wifi. See you in a few days, I hope.

First order of business: the answer to the mystery structure in the tree is an arboreal-nesting ant. Most of you guessed termites or wasps, both of which are good guesses. Ants and termites are very similar but termites don’t have the narrow waist and have straight antenae. These ant colonies are abundant throughout the forest and woodlands here in Africa. The structure is made from masticated leaves, soil and some kind of saliva-like substance that acts as a glue. These ants are the arboreal counterparts to the ground-dwelling termites.

En route to the Serengeti from Kigoma and the chimps, I decided to make a brief visit to Saanane Island National Park located in Lake Victoria near the town of Mwanza.

Let’s begin with a satellite view of East Africa that puts Lake Victoria in perspective relative to the Rift Valley lakes such as Tanganyika. Here’s an image borrowed from the internet:

Lake Victoria is one of the African Great Lakes. It is not actually in the Rift Valley, instead occupying a depression between the eastern and western rifts formed by the uplift of the rifts to either side. With a surface area of approximately 23,146 sq mi, Lake Victoria is Africa’s largest lake by area, the world’s largest tropical lake, and the world’s second-largest fresh water lake by surface area (Tanganyika is by volume) after Lake Superior in North America. Lake Victoria is drained solely by the Nile River. What is most phenomenal about Lake Victoria is its fish diversity. Unfortunately, a large number of endemic fish species have become extinct since the 1940s for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the lake’s eutrophication caused by pollution from the shoreline development, but also due to the introduction of non-native Nile tilapia and perch. The complete disappearance of many endemic cichlid species has been called the “most dramatic example of human-caused extinctions within an ecosystem”. Despite this decline, the lake hosts more than 500 species of fish mostly belonging to a group known as haplochromine cichlids (note, I put this factoid in for Caitlin), which is far more species of fish than any other lake in the world, except Lake Malawi. Lake Victoria supports a huge commercial fishery, which initially was based on the native species but over the last several decades has switched to the non-native Nile tilapia and perch, although even these fisheries have been in decline over recent years due to the ecosystem’s rapid collapse.

En route to Saanane Island National Park, I had an unrewarding night stopover in a town I already forget the name of and in a lodge that I don’t want to remember, so we’ll leave it at that. Before heading to Saanane for the day, I ended up spending the night at the Rock Bay Resort and Campsite situated on a rocky bay (dah) of Lake Victoria. This place felt more like a country club than a campground on the shores of Lake Victoria. The landscape was extremely well-manicured, with golf-green like sculptured lawns built into a rocky hillside. It was actually quite a stunning setting if it weren’t so artificial looking. In any event, it served me well enough for my purpose. Here’s a photo of my “campsite”:

On a positive note, there were dozens of Mwanza flat-headed rock agama lizards (or just Mwanza agama) running all over the rocks, and the males have a brilliant mixture of pink and blue, as seen in this borrowed internet photo:

While at my stopover in Mwanza en route to the Serengeti, I opted to take a brief day excursion out to Saanane Island National Park, located a short distance offshore from Mwanze (5 minute boat ride). I camped next to the boat launch at the Mwanze Yacht Club – but don’t think of Atlantic Coast Yacht Clubs. This place was essentially a fenced-in patch of lawn with ablutions (dirty, but at least they had them) and a few boats tied up to the shoreline. Not surprisingly, I had this place to myself. While not the spectacular setting for a Lake Victoria shoreline campsite, it served my purposes. Here’s a photo:

Saanane Island NP (<1 sq. mi.) was established as Tanzania’s first zoo in 1964, eventually designated as a game reserve in 1991, and finally became a national park in 2013. This tiny little park – Tanzania’s smallest – is situated on a small island in the Gulf of Lake Victoria. Many of the large mammals in the Park were brought here when it was a zoo (or “animal garden”). But I am not visiting to see large herds of mammals, but rather to stretch my legs on the hiking trails, enjoy the lakeside scenery and see a few birds. As it turns out, this Park receives very few visitors (<50/year) and nobody spends the night in the nice campsite or the awesome bedded tented camps overlooking the Bay, so I had the entire island Park to myself, except for the overabundant Park staff. In fact, the Park is appears to be desparate for visitors as the tourism manager for the Park whatsapp chatted me after I returned from the Park begging me to spread the word on how nice the Park was. There were a few kilometers of mostly stone pathways snaking up and down and around the few rocky hills – it was actually quite nice the way they cut the trails into the stones in a very natural way. I did see the few large mammals they have on the island- very tame zebra, blue wildebeest and impala, and let’s not forget the lions (male, female, and cub) in the much-too-small enclosure – and picked up several new bird species and watched what I think was a black mamba (snake) speed away from me on the trial (yikes!), but the highlight for me was finding and watching a rather large (~16×12 inch) leopard tortoise (photo below). Here are some photos of my visit to the Park:

And let’s finish this post with another mystery structure for the few of you that like to test your identification skills. This structure was on Saanane Island. Answer will come with the next post:

First things first: The answer to the mystery burrow. Several of you submitted guesses and except for our family clown – you know who you are – all guessed honey badger. That would be a very logical choice and one I might have even made had I not seen a warthog sitting in the entrance of the burrow when I approached. New mystery image at the end of this post.

After leaving Katavi National Park, I headed north to the town of Kigoma on the shores of Lake Tanganyika and my jump off point for a boat ride to Gombe National Park and the site of Jane Goodall’s pioneering work on chimpanzees.

First, Lake Tanganyika is notable for being the second-oldest freshwater lake in the world, the second-largest by volume, and the second-deepest. It is also the world’s longest freshwater lake at 421 miles (and averaging 31 miles in width). The lake is shared among four countries—Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Burundi, and Zambia, with Tanzania (46%) and DRC (40%) possessing the majority of the lake. It drains into the Congo River system and ultimately into the Atlantic Ocean. And for you fish folk (i.e., Caitlin), this lake has at least 250 different species of cichlids – wow – and 98% are endemic (i.e., found nowhere else) – double wow! And there is a thriving fishery focused on the non-cichlid “tanganyika sardines”, which make up 25-40% of the protein in the local diet – wow again. Here’s a satellite view of this impressive lake that I borrowed from the internet:

My journey to “trek with the chimps” began in the town of Kigoma where I spent the night camping at Jacobsons Beach Lodge. Nothing too remarkable about this campsite except for the very tame zebra in my campsite that apparently escaped (and nobody cares) from an adjacent wildlife sanctuary. The site normally has a nice beach but apparently the lake level has risen in the past few years (presumably due to global warming?) and the beaches are now inundated, leaving a mostly rocky and rugged shoreline. Here are a couple of photos:

Oh, and did I mention that I met a really nice young Maasai man who hails from Lake Manyara region (folks from our Tanzania trip last year will remember this locale) but lives and works most of the time in Zanzibar running a small shop selling Maasai paraphernalia that he makes (mostly), but also serves as guide for an Italian couple (who he is with right now) that come back to Tanzania each year. His goal is to earn enough to return to his beloved homeland of Manyara. Here he is:

Kigoma was the jump-off port for a boat ride up the lake to the relatively small, but incredibly important, Gombe National Park and Jane Goodall’s chimps. The journey started with an attempt to get to the boat launch for the Park on the crowded portside streets. Turns out the street to the launch was blocked due to a washed out culvert that was under repair and the only other way to get there was on a side road that had a heavy hauler broken down in the one and only critical turn, making that route impassable. Did I ever meantion TIA before! Well, this was another classic TIA (This is Africa, in case you forgot). Fortunately, I was following a guide with a very nice German family that I met via the Parks office so I was not in charge of navigation – if I was, I would have never gotten there. To make a long story short, after much pondering and discussions with many street people offering advice, we inched our way through a small market lane not meant for landcruisers and then along the side of a drainage ditch not meant for vehicles at all that gave about 2 inches of space between the vehicle and either the metal sign post on one side and the 5-foot drop into the ditch on the other side. Well, we made it of course, and started our 1.5 hour boat ride up the lake to the Park. Here are a few photos of this auspicious start:

My destination of course was Gombe National Park, established in 1968 and one of the smallest parks in Tanzania at 13.5 square miles. This park is where Jane Goodall did her pioneering research on chimps for 60 years begining in 1960. Her work helped awaken the world to the plight of chimps and to their incredible social structure and human-like behavior. Chimp populations have declined dramatically over the past century from over 2 million to around 200,000, mainly due to habitat loss and fragmentation, poaching for the meat market (yes, native Africans eath chimps and other monkeys if given the opportunity), and the live animal (pet) trade (yes, people still think they can raise a chimp to be a household pet). Gombe used to be part of an extensive and contiuous forested habitat for chimps that extended the length of Lake Tanganyika and connected Gombe with the extensive Congo basin. Today, the only habitat remaining in Tanzania is in Gombe and her big sister Park, Mahale, located some distance down the lake. But Gombe is essentially an isolated island population now and likely to remain so. Fortunately, the 100 or so chimps in Gombe have maintained a relatively stable population for the past few decades since their isolation, but genetics over the long term could be the cause of their ultimate demise – only time will tell.

Here is the Gombe rest house (where I stayed) and adjacent research offices:

There is a rather large primate research station here at Gombe, including some 50-60 folks studying/monitoring chimps and another 20-30 studying/monitoring olive baboons and the red colobus and blue monkeys. It appears that is being run under the auspices of the Jane Goodall Institute and funded primarily by the US National Science Foundation. It turns out that I just missed meeting Jane Goodall herself by 2 days – bummer! Apparently, even at the age of 89 she still manages to come to Gombe for at least a week each year to check up on the chimp research. After considerable discussion with a couple of research assistants in the field, I must report that from what I understand the large team of researchers aren’t really doing much actual science anymore. The teams of assistants are simply watching the chimps and recording their behavior, for example, what they eat, how often and for how long, how much they play, clean each other, etc.. But they didn’t seem to know the overall purpose or objective of the behavioral observations. In otherwords, I gather there isn’t a big research question being addressed, but rather just behavioral monitoring. That’s OK, in part because it is employing a lot of people and maintaining enthusiasm for the Gombe chimps, but I don’t think they are trying to answer any big questions.

Our chimp trek on my first afternoon was unsuccessful as the chimps were not to be found nearby. However, on the morning of day 2, our trek took us into the hills of Gombe to cross paths with a small family of chimps. In the first half of the video below, you will meet Tanga, a 33 year old female, her 6.5 year old daughter Turwa, and her 2 year old son Temeke. We begin with them foraging on fruits in the tree canopy (at this point there are just a few of us with the chimps), then follow them overland to another foraging stop where they again go into the canopy (at this point we are joined by 3 other parties so our numbers baloon to like 25 – yuk!), and then follow them until they stop on a trail for some grooming. Temeke is quite a little character and loves to play and do somersaults and mess with his big sister. On the morning of day 3, our trek took us on an adventurous climb halfway up the mountain and several kilometers from camp, partly on human trails and partly on chimp trails requiring a fair amount of hands and knees to get through the tangle vines. In the second half of the video you will join Hippo and her offspring and her sister and her offspring as they trek along the trails for quite some time, eventually, thank goodness, stopping a couple of times on the trail so that we could catch our breadth and watch them. At the end along the creek they meet up with the alpha male of the entire community of about 60 chimps. His name is Fudge. Hope you enjoy watching this and although the video quality sucks at times and it doesn’t give you the full sensory experience, hopefully it will give you a partial experience a chimp trek.

Gombe Chimps video (21 minutes)

OK, I am off north to the shores of Lake Victoria, although it will take me a couple of days to get there. See you there.

Mystery image:

OK, for you people that like quizes and games, here’s another mystery organism picture for you to ponder. What kind of species made this structure? Answer come with next post:

Photo Gallery:

My first destination in Tanzania is Katavi National Park, located in the far western reaches of the country. Note, my inland journey through Tanzania this year focuses on the western-most section of the country because last year Nancy and I and friends spent 1 month overlanding in the eastern and central part of Tanzania, where we visited some amazing National Parks.

Katavi NP (1,726 sq. mi.), established in 1974, is a very remote and thus rarely visited Park (I read that they have fewer than 500 guests a year, and I am told by one of the rangers almost never a self-drive camper like me) – making it extremely attractive to me. The Park is situated within a truncated arm of the Rift Valley (the Rukwa Riff basin) that terminates in the shallow, brooding expanse of Lake Rukwa just outside the Park.

Most of Katavi NP supports a rather homogeneous cover of tangled Miombo woodlands (discussed previously) in the uplands, home to substantial but elusive populations of eland, sable and roan antelopes. However, the main focus of the Park is the Katuma and Kavuu Rivers and associated floodplains, along which are found some extensive grasslands such as the Katisunga Plain and the seasonal Lakes Katavi and Chada. I spent almost all of my time driving along the Katuma River and the immediately adjacent floodplains, and along the edge of Katisunga Plain, since that is where most of the wildlife concentrate during this time of year. Here are some photos the landscape I visited, beginning with an aerial view of Katisunga Plain that I borrowed from the internet to give you a better perspective on this awesome natural setting:

My first two nights in the Park I camped at the one interior public campsite, called Ikuu, which was only set up for a single party – in part because they almost never get any campers and, if they do, it is a single party. It’s only redeeming feature was that it was close to the Katuma River and my wildlife drives along it. On the downside, the site itself was rather bland. First of all, it was about 100 meters from the river, so there was no river view – although there could have been had they sited the campsite closer to the river! Second, there was only a single “shade” tree, but it was deciduous and had lost most of its leaves, so I had to “chase” the shade of the tree trunk on one of my siestas. On the second day, I had learned my lesson and spent the midday along the river watching the “circle-of-life” scene play out, as shown the video. Lastly, there was trash everywhere left over from the last camper and NOT picked up by the Park staff, but rather left for the monkeys to scatter it everywhere. I picked up most of the trash and bagged it and delivered to the Park headquarters and let them know of my disappointment. This combined with the fact that the water tank ran dry after the first day allowed me to successfully argue for not paying for a night of camping. Here is a photo of my not-so-spectacular campsite:

After realizing that the water tank was dry and that after 2 days I had done all the local wildlife drives at Ikuu, rather than retread those same tracks, I decided to head to the Park headquarters where there was the only other public campsite in the Park and tour the area around Lake Katavi. Well, when I got there I learned from the head ranger that the public campground “was not working”, basically because they could not get the toilets to work. So, instead of a campsite, they put me in a “banda”; essentially, a small 2-room concrete hut, but for the same price of $30. So here I sit for my midday siesta. Here’s a photo of my banda, in case you were wondering:

I visited Lake Katavi on my last evening and I found it quite interesting. I describe the interesting dynamic of this seasonal lake in the video below, but the upshot is that this lake goes from being a huge but relatively shallow water body in the wet season to a mostly dried up basin with small channels and remnant pools of various sizes during the dry season when I visited. Here’s a photo of some of what I saw:

For those of you interested in local culture, I also learned that the Lake was named after a spirit that inhabits the Lake called Katabi, after which the Lake and the Park were named. Apparently, this spirit has the power to grant myriad fortunes to the natives, or so some believe, as described in the sign fronting the spirit tree shown here:

The most noteworthy things about this Park are: 1) the remoteness and rarely visited atmosphere – as one site put it, it’s “far-flung and off-the-map quality” being the most impressive drawcard – I believe I saw a couple of other vehicles on my two days of wildlife drives, and thus all of my wildlife viewing was private; and 2) the high densities of hippos and crocs. In fact, Katavi has the highest densities of these two species in all of Tanzania, and I can verify this to be true as the rivers were crowded with both species. Indeed, hippos are to Katavi as elephants are to Hwange in Zimbabwe. I did see quite a few other mammal pecies, including elephants, giraffe, defassa waterbuck, common bushbuck, impala, topi, zebra, cape buffalo, banded mongoose, and two new mammal species for me: the large grey mongoose and the bohor reedbuck. Unfortunately, I did not see any of the big cats or wild dogs, all of which are reported to be here. However, the highlight for me was all the wading birds, including storks, herons, egrets, ibises, pelicans, and plovers. They were everywhere along the rivers and kept my binoculars very busy – Phil, you would have loved it!

Here is another long (sorry, I can’t help as it is all so interesting to me) composite video of my observations at Katavi for the most dedicated among you, including some landscape scenes and descriptions, lots of hippos, a “circle-of-life” sequence involving a dead hippo and a bunch of scavenger birds, a couple of cool bird species snippits, and even a “dragon”. Hope you enjoy:

Katavi National Park composite video (39 minutes)

It’s been a long time since I gave you a mystery quiz, either auditory or visual, so I am going to throw one in here for good luck. What creature do you think made this burrow? Hints: it is about 1 foot in diameter and the creature is one of Sherry and Kirsten’s favorites:

If you think you know, submit your entry. The first to get it wins the prize of pride.

Cheers!

Photo Gallery:

My 5^th country on this overland trip is Tanzania, and once again, it is worth sharing a few factoids about this country to put things in better context and to educate myself (and you, if needed) a little about this corner of the world.

• As you can see in the map above, Tanzania is on the east coast of Africa bordering the Indian Ocean and abutting 8 countries, including Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, and Kenya, and it is located just south of the equator between the latitudes 2-6 degrees south.
• It is part of what is commonly referred to as “East Africa”, along with Kenya and Uganda (although there are many other recognized delineations).
• The official name of Tanzania is the United Republic of Tanzania.
• Roughly 1.4 times the size as Texas or twice the size of California.
• Roughly 64 million people, compared to ~332 million in the U.S..
• 3 official languages: Swahili and English everywhere and Arabic only in Zanzibar. However, over 100 different languages are spoken in Tanzania, making it the most linguistically diverse country in East Africa. Swahili is used in parliamentary debate, in the lower courts, and as a medium of instruction in primary school. English is used in foreign trade, in diplomacy, in higher courts, and as a medium of instruction in secondary and higher education.
• Government is a democratic republic, which includes independent executive, legislative and judicial branches with a structure similar to the US, except that the legislature is unicameral and thus contains only a single national assembly.
• Official currency is the Tanzanian Shilling, but many tourist places (e.g., hotels, lodges, etc.) accept US Dollars.
• Major exports include Gold, copper, diamonds, and other minerals, in addition to coffee, tobacco, cotton, coconuts, Brazil nuts and cashews.
• Although the government does not recognize indigenous peoples, roughly 1% self-identify as indigenous, including the Hadzabe, Akie and Maasai peoples. However, there are some 120 self-recognized tribes.
• Maasai are the most recognizeable tribe due to their distinctive bright red-patterned robe, or “Shuka”, wrapped around their bodies.
• Often referred to as the “Cradle of Humanity” because the earliest known hominids and the oldest remains of genus Homo are found here and elsewhere in East Africa.
• Tanzania’s colonization history is very similar to much of eastern Africa, with a few twists. The indigenous hunter-gatherers began to be displaced by Bantu peoples some two thousand years ago, and the influx of various Bantu peoples continued through the 19th century. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to sway influence over the region during the 16^th and 17^th centuries but never assumed any real colonial control over the native peoples and never reached too far from the coast. During the second half of the 17^th century the Portuguese were slowly driven from the coast by Arabs from Oman, and from the end of the 17^th century the Arabs were the dominant power in the region. The Arabs became slave traders and took huge numbers of slaves from the region during the 18^th and 19^th centuries, exporting slaves mostly to Arab or European colonies in the Indian Ocean. Eventually, the Germans arrived in the mid 1800’s and by 1885 had started ruthlessly taking over the region under the banners of the German East Africa Company. Meanwhile, the British invaded from the North in modern-day Kenya and from the coast during the first world war and fought the Germans for control of the region. After the war the Germans surrendered to the British and in 1918 the mainland area was named “Tanganyika” and fell under British territorial control. British colonial rule of Tanganyika ended in 1961. After the Zanzibar Revolution overthrew the Arab dynasty in Zanzibar, it too became independent in 1963, and then in 1964 merged with mainland Tanganyika in 1964 to become the United Republic of Tanzania.
• Has the tallest mountain in Africa, Mount Kilimanjaro, at 19,340 feet!
• Has the world’s largest intact caldera (collapsed volcano), Ngorongoro Crater.
• Has the world’s second largest lake, Lake Tanganyika, although the Lake falls on the international border and thus is shares this distinction with the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi.
• Has ~38% of its total land area devoted to national parks, reserves and wildlife management areas – impressive accomplishment and second only to Zambia in all of Africa!

Time to reflect back on observations of Zambia from behind the wheel. As before, some of these observations are really not limited to Zambia, but they climaxed in my mind here. I really wish I had more positive things to say about this country, but alas I don’t have many. Here are some general observations and ponderings:

#1. Demolition Derby. Driving the tarmacked roads (i.e., major highways and some secondary roads) in Zambia is something akin to driving in the demolition derby. First, most of the tarmack roads, even when they are not riddled with suspension-altering potholes (some of the worst roads yet, but also some of the best too – go figure), have the asphalt perched up above the gravel road edge with a precipitous edge. Sometimes the asphalt is only 1-2 inches above the road edge because that is how thick the asphalt is, but other times the aspalt is perched 3-4 inches above the road edge. And don’t forgot, the edge of the asphalt is more often than not broken and irregular. This means when you are passing oncoming traffic, especially the big rigs, you have to litteraly hug the broken edge of the tarmack with the nerve-wracking possibility of your tire slipping over the precipitous edge and causing who knows what to happen to the vehicle. Needlesstosay, you can’t just relax and enjoy the view because your attention to the road is always required. Note, because of this I usually drive in the middle of the road until I see an oncoming vehicle or some speed demon coming up from behind.

In addition, they love their rumble tracks and speed bumps, which is OK in principle. However, they put rumble tracks and speed bumps in the most unlikely and unneeded places. You can be cruising along the highway at 100 km/hr and all of sudden in the middle of nowhere there are rumble tracks and a speed bump. Why? There is nothing around on either side! The rationale behind these is a mystery to me. In addition, in the cities, such as Lusaka, they really, really love these speed control devices. Again, this device to control speed is OK in principle. However, they post warning signs for some but not others. So, you get complacent about them because you have warning signs for the first 3 and then all of a sudden there is unposted one that catches you offguard unless you are super vigilant. I can’t help but think these surprise traps are just that – traps for the non-locals to cause all sorts of vehicle damage and help keep the numerous tire and suspension shops in business.

#2. Checkstations for What? I found it very perplexing why they have supposed police checkstations on the roads at frequent but irregular intervals. In most cases, the checkstations were attended by people that did not appear to be official in any capacity based on their clothing. At a couple of these checkstations I asked the attendant what was the purpose or function of the checkstation and they replied with something along the lines of “to check the vehicle”, but for what? I tried to get further clarification but they were stumped. They had no real idea why they were stopping you. They never asked for any paperwork or money, or ever actually looked in the vehicle. They usually either just waved you on through after opening the gate or had you fill in a line in a registration book with your name and plate number. But they literally did not know what they were accomplishing other than slowing you down and giving them a job. Very strange practice that I will probably never understand.

#3. If Only Trash Could Pay. One of the most disappointing things about driving the roads of Zambia is all the household trash littering the sides of the roads. It is particularly bad around the settlements and, of course, in the city. I watched numerous drivers toss trash out the window while driving. And the trash accumulates until in some places it is almost as bad as a landfill. There simply doesn’t exist any respect for the environment. What is odd is that they usually have very tiddy yards around their rustic homes, but as soon as you leave the kraal or boma, forget it – it is a tragedy of the commons. I often ponder the psychology of this behavior and the only thing I can figure is that they are so busy trying to get by each day, hand-to-mouth sort of living, that they simply don’t have time or energy to care about anything but living each day, and I guess getting rid of trash is a burden they can’t afford. I suppose it is impossible to know how I might behave in similar circumstances.

#4. Where Has All the Money Gone. It is not cheap to visit the national parks here, even as a self-driver. Park entrance fees are steep, as are the camping and vehicle fees. But where has all the money gone? Give the volume of tourists visiting these parks, they must be bringing in considerable revenue. My impression is that it is all going into salaries for the inflated staff and very little, if anything, into the physical infrastructure to support the tourism they purport to rely on. With notable exceptions, the Park campgrounds often have minimal facilities that sometimes don’t even function anymore, and don’t even get me started on the road conditions in the Parks. I wouldn’t mind at all paying the high fees if I saw that they were being used to improve, or even just maintain, the Park infrastructure. Instead, as I have noted before, it seems like they get (or got in the distant past, in most cases) some capital to build an ablution facilities or put in solar water heaters or build a bridge over a ravine and then they just let it deteriorate until it becomes just an eyesore. So far on my journey, Zambia Parks rank at the very bottom in terms of conditions for self-drive campers.

#5. The Sacred Break Time. I understand that most people need a short break from work every so often just to get rejuvinated, and of course they need to eat every so often such as at lunch time. However, the workers here treat regular break times and lunch time as sacred. It doesn’t matter what they are doing or how much they are engaged in a job with a customer, when the lunch time bell rings (not literally) they stop working no matter what. In fact, I am writing this entry right now as I sit by myself in an auto shop in Lusaka during the lunch hour. We were working on my front-end alignment issue (once again, since I am in Lusaka for a few days I though I would give another shop a try) and all of a sudden, without warning, I found myself alone in the garage looking under the vehicle. The workers simply disappeared without notice. This is not the first time with such an experience. In the States, I very much doubt that if you were engaged with workers on a job that they would desert you without notice at their allotted break time – they would finish the job and then take their deserved break.

#6. Belief Before Facts. This is a highly religious country. The evangelicals and missionaries did their job quite well here, starting with the famous explorer/evangelical David Livingstone, who was presumably the first white European to explore the length of the Zambezi River. Everywhere where I look, around every corner, in every tiny settlement, there is a christian church of some sort – mostly 7th Day Adventists, Jehovah’s Witnesses and even a few Catholics. I have strong feelings about religion that I won’t share here, but suffice it to say that I am not a fan of imposing, coercing or simply “selling” organized religion to the ignorant – and I don’t mean innately ignorant but rather ignorant of how the world works because of lack of education – and vulnerable. I can understand why it was so successful here, because for unworldly and mostly uneducated peope, it is far easier to believe than to know. The empowerment of scientific knowledge over blind faith simply has not taken root here, and the abundant churches and religous primary and secondary schools make sure that their teachings and beliefs are fed to the children before they have the chance to know anything else.

#7. Why Aren’t You In School? When driving through the countryside you encounter school after school after school. Every little settlement has a school and the children have a unique colored uniform to distinguish their school from others. On the surface, this is great, since it appears that most (but not all) children between say the age of 5-11 are attending primary school, and a majority of the older kids are attending secondary school. What I can’t figure out is why I always see the children outside playing in the school yard, rather than in classrooms. I have paid attention to this and I swear that the kids spend most of their limited time at school NOT in the classroom. They have shortened days alll the time and days off of school way more than I would think appropriate based on our standards in the States. I ponder whether this minimal classroom schooling is why the country is lingering in the 3rd world.

#8. Burn Baby Burn. One thing I do applaud the country for is their burn policy. As I have noted in my posts, the both the public and private land managers have a very aggressive burn policy in which they try to burn every acre every year. They do so for lots of reasons, including keeping the understory open for human access and movement and for rejuvenating the grasses and forbs for the grazing animals (both domestic and wild). As a result, high severity fires and the accompanying loss of life and property are virtually unheard of here. The fires are all of low intensity and thus low severity. In the States, we are so risk averse when it comes to fire that we have allowed the fuel loads to build up over a century of fire supression so that today we have increassing frequency of high severity fires that result in human deaths and losses of property in the billions. We could certainly learn a thing or two about managing fire from the Zambians.

#9. The Business of Living. One thing I always find interesting while I am driving through a country is trying to observe how ordinary people make a living. Of course in the big cities, such as Lusaka, there is manufacturing, retail, service and high-tech industries that provide work for the masses, but in the rural areas it is another game. From what I have observed, the majority of rural livelihoods depend on mixed agriculture; in particular, the growing of maize, beef and milk, and perhaps a few tomatoes on the side. A majority of the small properties have maize fields with a small number of beef cattle and/or dairy cows. There are milk collection stations a plenty, beef markets here and there, and lots and lots of maize being collected in sacks by the roadside and then transported to large grain processing plants in the big cities. In the Luangwa Valley there was also a lot of cotton and thatch production. It appears that a large proportion of the rural people sustain a living this way, perhaps in combination with the male head of household holding a job away from home in an urban center – you see an aweful lot of mothers and children holding down the homestead. The other business that was fairly ubiquitous throughout much of the country was the manufacturing of charcoal on a small scale. Many households had bags of charcoal for sale on the roadside, often just a few bags but sometimes many dozens. Charcoal must be the primary fuel source for heating and cooking. Lastly, there are lots of small roadside produce stands, but often just a single item, perhaps a few bundles of tomatoes or oranges.

After my adventure wilderness drive through North Luangwa National Park and overnight at the delightfuul Samala Campsite, I headed north to Tanzania, but with a couple of one-night stopovers along the way to break up the trip.

My first stop was Kapisha Hot Springs roughly 3-4 hours drive from Samala, which gave me the better part of the day to enjoy the riverside campsite, lush grounds that had a “bird walk”, and of course a good soak in the soothing hot springs. Here are some photos:

Next stop, Chisimba Falls:

My next stop was Chisimba Falls National Monument located a little west of the town of Kasama. In stark contrast to Kapisha Hot Springs, which caters to tourists (i.e., mostly white westerners or affluent white Africans), this place caters to local day-visiting Zambians. A quick scan of the registration book revealed that very few tourists visit this site. The monument is not really set up for camping, but they let you camp on the grounds next to the water anyways for $15 USD, with space for perhaps 2 or 3 parties – I was the only camper. This monument was established in part for the natural beauty of the waterfallsand the geological and geomorphological processes, but also for its cultural heritage. Apparently the Bembo people from a region in the neighboring country of what is today called the Democratic Republic of the Congo (or DRC) immigrated to and settled this area in the mid-17^th century, and I guess this site has historical significance to these people. The site also contains fossil evidence of ancient inhabitants. Today, the Falls are also the source of hydro-electric power generation. Here are some photos:

My intended last stop in Zambia before crossing the border into Tanzania was going to be some place near Mbala, as shown the map below, but I decided instead to cross the border into Tanzania since nothing was striking my fancy near Mbala and I was near the border early enough in the day.

The border crossing into Tanzania was my kind of border. I spent 5 minutes on the Zambia side and another 20-30 minutes on the Tanzania side. I was the only person/vehicle at the border post making the “crossing” unfrenzied, so I guess that was in my favor. And there was no need for assistance by a “runner”, in fact there weren’t any, as the crossing was so simple and straightforward – no running back and forth between several different offices and getting several different stamps, etc., as when Nancy and I crossed into Zambia. However, I think the real key is to cross at a remote border crossing like this one instead of a major border post on the national highways where all the commercial vehicles cross. Here is a photo of the Zambian border post – nice!

I ended up staying in the first and only major town/city en route in Tanzania, Sumbawanga because I was delayed by 5 hours trying to get a sim card to work in my mobile hotspot, which was unsuccessful for some unknown reason. I didn’t leave the shop until after dark and thus found the first place to camp, which ended up being at a Lodge in the city with a parking lot for camping – yuk! The name on the GPS was “Country Lodge” so I thought it might have a bit of a natural setting, but alas, not. Worse part was that this area must be an islamic stronghold as I had to listen to call to prayer bells and then prayers broadcast over loadspeakers close by in the evening and then again at 6:00 am. I don’t know why they have to be so public about it. Anyways, I will be glad to leave here today. See you at my first Park in beautiful Tanzania, Katavi.

After leaving South Luangwa National Park I headed north up the Luangwa Valley intending to stop for a night or two at the small Luambe National Park and then spend a few nights in North Luangwa National Park. However, I had learned of a brand new “wilderness trail” called the Amatalolo Experience in North Luangwa (Amatalolo means “wilderness” in the local languange) and I was eager to experience it. Unfortunately, the few exclusive wilderness campsites along the Amatalolo Trail were only available for the next two nights and then they were booked for several days. This experience was too enticing to pass up, and the Green Dragon, well, she was urging me on for the challenge. So, I made the 11 hour drive up the east side of the Luangwa Valley, mostly outside the Parks, to get to North Luangwa National Park.

I am not going to describe the two new Parks (Luambe and North Luangwa), as they are very similar to South Luangwa in many respects, other than to say that they are very much less visited and rather poorly designed to accommodate overlanders like myself. In addition, the vegetation is more dense as you go north up the valley so the wildlife viewing is more challenging, and I observed that the wildlife were very skiddish and generally took off at the first sight of me – an indication of either infrequent encounters with humans and/or a history of intense poaching, probably both. Instead, for this post I am going to change it up a bit to keep things new and fun for you – I hope – by directing you to watch this 13 minute slide show with music of my 3-day journey up the Luangwa Valley and along the Amatololo Trail in North Luangwa National Park. This slide show puts YOU behind the wheel as we travel from South Luangwa National Park and my Track and Trails River Campsite up the eastside of the valley through mostly community lands, but in and out of South Luangwa and Luambe National Parks as well, and along the Amatololo Trail for 2 days and nights, ending at my campsite at Samala Camp just outside the northern gate of North Luangwa National Park.

Before watching the video, here are a few notes about what you are going to see:

Fist, I took all but a few of the photos actually from behind the wheel, looking straight ahead or out the side window. SO, you will be seeing what I saw as we move along the route. Also, not all the pictures are beautiful photos as I simply took a picture at irregular intervals and whenever something caught my fancy. However, I deleted many of the less appealing photos so as to not totally bore you.

On Day 1, we will pass through many small villages but I have very few pictures of this, mainly because I felt too guilty to photograph these places when there were so many locals around watching me – and they were always watching as a vehicle was apparently an exciting event for the day. We will also pass by cotton fields that look like wild patches but trust me, they are growing cotton, and you will see a heavy truck loaded with the cotton bales as proof. We have a few low water river crossings that are much more exciting than the pictures depict. I gave out quite a few pencils but only managed in my excitement to get one picture – sorry. In one place, after crossing a river there were 3 children waving and saying hello to me and NOT begging – which was a rarity – so I stopped to give them paper and pencils. When all of a sudden I was ambushed by probably 20+ kids. I have no idea where they all came from – hopefully not holes in the ground. At one point I had at least 10 sets of small hands reaching in through the open window. Lastly, the day ends with an exciting pontoon river crossing before arriving at my sublime exclusive riverside campsite called Mushiki on the Luangwa River at the start of the Amatololo Trail.

Day 2 is devoted to driving along the Amatololo Trail from my Mushika campsite along the Luangwa River floodplain and then along a major tributary river, the Lufila, eventually climbing a couple thousand feet into the mountains to my campsite at Lufila Falls. We cross numerous steep-sided gullies or ravines which I simply couldn’t adequately capture in the photos for some reason, but trust me, sometimes I felt like I was vertical. The track up the mountains also provided some rocky challenges that I didn’t capture in the photos because I was too focused on driving. This trail was aptly named, as it was truly a wilderness experience. The track is not much more than a narrow corridor cut through the vegetation and there are no camps, roads or people for many miles. It was a good thing I did this trail now because in a few years time, after the inevitable neglect on maintenance, my guess is that the trail is going to be impassable.

Day 3 takes us along the last stretch of the Amatololo Trail until we exit the Park at the Mano Gate and end at my beautiful streamside campsite at Samala.

I hope you enjoy this 3-day journey boiled down to 13 minutes. OK, let’s take a drive:

Luangwa Valley and Amatololo Wilderness Trail video (13 minutes)

Was that fun? Cheers.

After leaving Lusaka for the second time, this time with Carnet in hand, I drove east on “The Great East Highway” half way to my next destination Park. Perhaps at one time it was indeed a Great road – probably for a couple of years after construction – but now, after years of neglect, they should change the name to “The Highway From Hell”. I must have dodged 10,000 potholes and hit another 1,000. The Green Dragon was not happy with me, but there was no avoiding all the potholes without going into the ditch. I curse the Zambian transportation authority!

I stopped for the night at Luangwaa Bridge camp overlooking the Luangwe River to break up the drive and then drove on to Zambia’s most famous and popular park, South Luangwa National Park, located in east-central Zambia. South Luangwe NP (3,490 sq. mi.), established in 1972, is situated in the Luangwa Valley at the southern end of the Great African Rift Valley system, which extends roughly 2,500 miles all the way from the Red Sea down to the Pungwe River mouth in Mozambique. The Park is dominated by miombo woodlands on the higher slopes of the valley (which I did not visit) and mopane woodlands in the bottom of the valley on the drier sites, both of which I have described in previous posts. I spent all of my time in the extensive valley bottom floodplain zone, which is dominated by woodland savannahs characterized by scattered trees with grassy understory, pans small and large, abandoned channels, and oxbows or lagoons from historical meanderings of the main river channel. There are lots of pans and pools of all sizes and one can only imagine the water wonderland this floodplain must be like in the rainy season. Here are some photos of this varied landscape:

Given the varied landscape it should be no surprise that there was lots of wildlife to see on my drives. Rather than describe the highlights, I will let the lengthy composite video do the talking. Note, give the length of this video, it is for the dedicated follower and lover of African wildlife. It is a potpourri of the many different wildlife species I observed over two days in South Luangwa:

South Luangwa composite video (39 minutes)

Knowing how popular this Park is, I made reservations at a campsite called Croc Valley located just outside the Park on the banks of the Luangwa River. Note, there are NO public campsites inside the Park so unless you want to spend a fortune on a lodge inside the Park, you stay at a campsite just outside the Park. Despite the positive reviews of the Park online, I found it to be an absolute circus. The few campsites were indeed on the riverfront with a great view but they were essentially on top of each other. The site they had me in was squeezed in between two sites and I could just about reach out with my arms and touch the people, chairs, tables, etc. in the adjacent sites. There was literally NO privacy. Moreover, I later realized that the lodge was also a party scene in the evening with loud music and voices. It felt like what some state park campgrounds in the States are like, with people and kids running around and screeming. SO, I quickly abandoned that Lodge/campround and sought better accommodations. After looking at two other lodge/campgrounds, one which was fully booked and the other was a dump, I found a lodge/campground right next to Croc Valley called Track and Trail River Lodge. It too is located on the riverfront with a nice restaurant/bar/pool overlooking the river and a nice campground set back a little away from the river. To my great surprise, there was almost no one else at the lodge and the campground was empty – Eureka! My elation was a little premature as another party came in late that night. Turns out they were quite a nice couple from Cape Town and actually new my vehicle, the Green Dragon, and had even been in it in Cape Town. They live very close to the person I bought the vehicle from outside of Cape Town – small world. In any event, the campground turned out quite nice. Here’s a photo of my site under a huge shade tree:

One of the fringe benefits of staying here was that there were bushbucks walking around everywhere and they were quite tame, allowing me to photograph them, whereas they are usually quite shy and difficult to photograph. There was also a friendly hippo, Franky, that wandered around the site grazing on the lawn. I ran into Franky on the way to the reception desk once and had to backpeddle for a while so as to not encroach on his personal space – that could be a fatal mistake (see the video). On my last day there were also 3 bull elephants that came by my campsite and then wondered around the lodge grounds frightening the staff and the other few quests, but they were totally passive and nothing to worry about unless you did something stupid (see video):

OK, I’m off on an adventure to the more remote and much, much less visited North Luangwa National Park. See you there!

Photo Gallery:

Nothing to report here other than to say that I returned to Lusaka en route to Luangwa National Parks and spent 3 nights at Pioneer Camp, the same place I stayed previously and reported on, getting some R&R. The main reason for delaying in Lusaka for 3 nights instead of 1 was to wait for the delivery of my Carnet de Passage (CDF). A Carnet is essentially like a visa for the vehicle and allows you to “import” your vehicle into certain countries without paying a huge bond feeb that is something like 80-90% of the vehicle’s value – yikes! On my trip, Kenya is the only pain-in-the-you-know-what country that requires a Carnet. Unfortunately, a Carnet involves putting a substantial amount of money on deposit with South Africa Automobile Association, which I will get back (or at least most of it) when I return the vehicle back to South Africa. The problem has been the total incompetence of the person in charge of Carnets at SAAA. I have been trying to get the damn thing for 3 months and at last arranged to have it shipped to Lusaka. It arrived today, at last, and I am once again on my way with papers in hand to eventually get into Kenya.

Cheers!